From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Dmitry Torokhov Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/1]: input: add support for VirtualBox touchscreen emulation to the Lifebook driver Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:02:06 -0800 Message-ID: <20100224100206.GA5598@core.coreip.homeip.net> References: <1266923615.3602.85.camel@michael-laptop> <20100223175852.GA11301@core.coreip.homeip.net> <1266958533.3602.128.camel@michael-laptop> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Return-path: Received: from mail-yw0-f197.google.com ([209.85.211.197]:45897 "EHLO mail-yw0-f197.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756187Ab0BXKCN (ORCPT ); Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:02:13 -0500 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1266958533.3602.128.camel@michael-laptop> Sender: linux-input-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-input@vger.kernel.org To: Michael Thayer Cc: linux-input@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 09:55:33PM +0100, Michael Thayer wrote: > Hello Dmitry, >=20 > Thanks for your comments! >=20 > Le mardi 23 f=E9vrier 2010 =E0 09:58 -0800, Dmitry Torokhov a =E9crit= : > > On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 12:13:35PM +0100, Michael Thayer wrote: > > > This patch adds support for VirtualBox touchscreen emulation to t= he Lifebook > > > input driver. > [snip] > > I am wondering if it is a good idea to piggy-back on Lifebook. The > > devices are sufficiently different with Lifebook really having 2 > > separate devices (touchscreen and either regular external mouse or = a > > touchpad) and VirtualBox having asingle device that looks like a po= inter > > (not a touchscreen since pointer moves constantly, not while "touch= ing") > > with absolute coordinates reporting. > I'm not sure, if we ended up doing a completely new device, how diffe= rent it > would end up being. Emulating a touchscreen or a tablet makes sense = for us as > these are both something known, which will work with existing systems= without > too much tweaking (I could imagine us adding Solaris support at a lat= er point, > and it would be nice to see "little" OSes picking up support independ= ently). But the virtual mouse is not a touchscreen or a tablet, it behaves differently. >=20 > The two devices also make sense for us on the one hand because xf86-i= nput-evdev > currently only understands absolute devices without mouse buttons Hmm, I scanned through it and I did not see anything specifically removing mouse buttons from absolute devices there... Is it still valid for the recent version of evdev driver? > (yes I know, > we could send them patches too if we had too, but we would rather not= patch the > whole world :) ) and on the other because it makes it easy for us to = switch > between absolute and relative event reporting, which is a big plus. Why is this a big plus? Also, can't evdev handle devices reporting both relative and absolute events? > Of course, > as you point out, we have the unused touch bit, but the device works = nicely > sending co-ordinates without "touching", and having at least nominal = touch > functionality is rather a prerequisite for emulating a touch screen. You are relying on the fact that currently userspace components rely on drivers not sending coordinates data without touch; as soon as userspac= e (evdev) starts validating it and ignoring coordinate events without ABS_PRESSURE or BTN_TOUCH you'll be toast. >=20 > > I think it would be better if we had separate protocol module for t= hat. > > [snip] > Separate module as in separate driver, or changes to the actual (PS/2= extension) > protocol? If the second, then what did you have in mind? =46irst, create a separate protocol handler (module similar to lifebook.c), allocate protocol number, something like PSMOUSE_VBPS, and plumb it into psmouse-base.c in the same fashion othe protocol handlers do it. > One protocol change > I could think of, other than the thing with the buttons, would be a m= agic knock > rather than DMI matching, as that would let others piggy-back on us. = Not a big > advantage for us of course, but it might be one for you. I'd rather you stick with DMI, piggybackers can simply add their DMI strings. The reason I do not want to have magic knock is that it may disturb real hardware probing which is already quite fragile. >=20 > > This issue should be fixed in the recent kernels. > Ah, I failed to see that (I was working against the Ubuntu Lucid kern= el > after checking that there were no more recent changes to lifebook.c). > Is the fix in psmouse-base.c? >=20 Among others. --=20 Dmitry -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-input" = in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html