GTK+, disabled XKB a.k.a. why keymaps/ModeSwitch don't work well in GPE or XFCE

GTK+, disabled XKB a.k.a. why keymaps/ModeSwitch don't work well in GPE or XFCE

[Stanislav Brabec]

Hallo.

We just spent some time by debugging of an annoying bug - broken
Mode_Switch key in GPE and XFCE.

Surprisingly, the problem affects only GTK+ applications and it is
caused by --disable-xkb configure options in OE gtk+ recipes(*).

It
- made impossible to upgrade to the new version of kdrive on Zaurus
- now makes impossible to upgrade to Xorg on Zaurus
- causes keyboard breakage on Always Innovating Touch Book.
  http://bugzilla.alwaysinnovating.com/show_bug.cgi?id=41

So there is a question: Why XKB is disabled in OE GTK+? Does it have any
reason or it is a relict from the ancient age of kdrive based
systems(**)? If it is true, I propose a patch to remove --disable-xkb
not only from gtk+, but also all xorg-app and xorg-lib, or at least move
this option to distribution configuration.

Distributions that want to stay with XKB disabled probably want to use
xserver-kdrive <= 1.3.0.0. (Well, maybe newer kdrives can disable xkb as
well, but it caused strange problems on device with keyboard (keyboard
map required more tries before its loading succeeded, broken Mode_Switch
etc.).)

(*) Yes, it seems that there is either a bug while XKB-incapable GTK+
runs on XKB-capable X server, or there is a problem of combination of
XKB capable and incapable libraries, but it should not affect the
decision.

(**) If there is a demand, it is still possible to create gtk
+-xkb-less_*.bb recipes and build both variants.


________________________________________________________________________
Stanislav Brabec
http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/zaurus

Re: GTK+, disabled XKB a.k.a. why keymaps/ModeSwitch don't work well in GPE or XFCE

[Koen Kooi]

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On 13-01-10 00:01, Stanislav Brabec wrote:
> Hallo.
> 
> We just spent some time by debugging of an annoying bug - broken
> Mode_Switch key in GPE and XFCE.
> 
> Surprisingly, the problem affects only GTK+ applications and it is
> caused by --disable-xkb configure options in OE gtk+ recipes(*).
> 
> It
> - made impossible to upgrade to the new version of kdrive on Zaurus
> - now makes impossible to upgrade to Xorg on Zaurus
> - causes keyboard breakage on Always Innovating Touch Book.
>   http://bugzilla.alwaysinnovating.com/show_bug.cgi?id=41
> 
> So there is a question: Why XKB is disabled in OE GTK+? Does it have any
> reason or it is a relict from the ancient age of kdrive based
> systems(**)? If it is true, I propose a patch to remove --disable-xkb
> not only from gtk+, but also all xorg-app and xorg-lib,

I vote for this option.

> or at least move
> this option to distribution configuration.

I think we can put that burden on xkb haters (if they exist).

regards,

Koen
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Re: GTK+, disabled XKB a.k.a. why keymaps/ModeSwitch don't work well in GPE or XFCE

[Phil Blundell]

On Wed, 2010-01-13 at 00:01 +0100, Stanislav Brabec wrote:
> So there is a question: Why XKB is disabled in OE GTK+? Does it have any
> reason or it is a relict from the ancient age of kdrive based
> systems(**)? If it is true, I propose a patch to remove --disable-xkb
> not only from gtk+, but also all xorg-app and xorg-lib, or at least move
> this option to distribution configuration.

It probably is just a relic for the most part.  I think the original
reason for turning it off was that the majority of the platforms which
the contemporary distros were targetting at that time had (a) no
keyboards, or only rudimentary ones; and (b) very little flash space, so
the few kilobytes that could be saved by leaving out XKB support were
significant.

So, yes, making XKB support be a DISTRO_FEATURE sounds like a fine idea
to me.

p.