Re: ir-core and default IR maps

["jonsmirl@gmail.com" <jonsmirl@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 1:01 AM, Dmitry Torokhov
<dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 06, 2010 at 06:08:57PM -0400, jonsmirl@gmail.com wrote:
>> I thought about this some more and I think the default maps should
>> stay in the drivers. The maps are marked __init so they don't take any
>> room after they are loaded. This is an important piece and plug and
>> play and we should keep it. Only the keymaps for default remote
>> controls that ship with the specific hardware should be included in
>> the driver. All other keymaps are in user space.
>>
>
> Plug and play does not have to be implemented in kernel and udev is
> perfectly capable doing it in userspace for us. Embedded products that
> absolutely not want to ship udev and want to limit themselves to a
> single vendor-supplied remote will have to adjust their startup scripts
> to load the proper keymap.

I agree that it doesn't have to be implemented in the kernel. This is
an ease of use decision, not a requirement.

For user space support either the end user has to be aware that after
he buys the MSMCE he also has to install a user space package to make
it work, or the distros always have to install the package.

For the kernel side I only see a maintenance issue. All of the keycode
support is marked _init and vaporizes after boot so there is no
run-time impact.

Another solution could be for the distros to add a distro specific
default udev action that installs the package if the user starts using
IR. This has to be distro specific since they all install things
differently. What we need is a hardware triggered package install
mechanism paralleling what happens with loadmodule. On windows it pops
up and says - search for a driver - we don't have that on any Linux
distribution I've used.

If we don't have something like this the user plugs the new device in
and it doesn't work. Then they have to Google until they figure out
they need to load user space drivers for their specific distro.

>
> Keymap in the kernel are needed for devices that are required to boot
> (keyboards) - and even then it might be only basic keymap, not the full
> multimedia goodness with 300+ distinct keys. I am not accepting any new
> mappings for AT keyboard driver and I believe both I and Jiri would like
> to delete bunch of HID sub-drivers that only do key remapping.
>
> Attempting to keep keymaps in several places will likely cause them to
> diverge, makes user confused where changes should be applied and who is
> the authoritative source is, that is why it makes sense to remove them
> from the kernel.
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> Dmitry
>



-- 
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl@gmail.com