Re: [PATCH 19/25] sony-laptop: add touchpad enable/disable control file

[Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>]

On Friday, June 03, 2011 01:33:05 PM Marco Chiappero wrote:
> Il 03/06/2011 22:23, Dmitry Torokhov ha scritto:
> > Why do we want to do this? X allows to ignore certain pointing devices
> > IIRC.
> 
> Because I believe it turns off the device, the power state is also
> stored and preserved across reboots and shutdowns. Telling X to ignore
> the input is, IMHO, a workaround if we have the hardware capability for
> that

The issue with that that we are breeding myriad of quirks that nobody
knows about and nobody ever uses. X provides standardized way of
ignoring input devices. It is also more transparent than "I once wrote
something to some sysfs file and I completely forgot about this but
now my touchpad does not work". There were quite a few bugs filed just
because users pressed key that cuts power to touchpad and stores the
state across reboots.

> (and why should we suppose that X will be used always and
> forever?).

We should not but replacement should have at least the same functionality
if not better.

-- 
Dmitry