Re: MOUSE_PS2_VMMOUSE and input/mice

[Lauri Kasanen <cand@gmx.com>]

On Sat, 16 Jan 2016 11:38:08 -0800
Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com> wrote:

> > > I do not think you are doing your users any favors by limiting them to
> > > PS/2 emulation. For desktops, unless they only use basic mice mousedev
> > > emulation does not work well for neither touchpads, nor tablets, nor
> > > touchscreens.  And for appliances you do not need mouse at all. Maybe if
> > > you targeting kiosks with limited UI it will work for a bit. I wonder
> > > how long Xorg will be keeping lights on for mouse_drv.
> > > 
> > > I am tempted to deprecate mousedev and maybe joydev as well. They were
> > > supposed to fill the gap between then current applications and kernel,
> > > but that was 10+ years ago.
> > 
> > It's a choice we leave up to the users. The majority uses normal
> > desktops with normal mice, touch screens and tablets tend to be a
> > rarity in our userbase. So we can serve the majority without the bloat
> > of Xorg, but those who need it can install it.
> 
> So people who do not need Xorg do not need the mouse either, right? I am
> still confused who your target user base is.

By default we ship Xvesa, as mentioned. It's a different X
server, very much smaller. It works with practically every graphics
card, and support for normal mice is quite enough for the majority.

> > That's why I was asking for a runtime way - the default should work,
> > but so should VMWare's nicer mouse integration when Xorg is installed.
> > That concern was resolved with the statement the older support is not
> > being considered for removal. The original issue will be solved by
> > disabling VMMOUSE in our kernel.
> 
> I guess you can disable this (bit then you need to carry Xorg vmmouse
> driver), but then you'll still have to pay the piper once Xorg drops
> root support and X vmmouse driver will not be able to access the
> hypervisor port.

I believe Wayland will have become mainstream before that happens ;)

- Lauri