From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932420AbVLJOtb (ORCPT ); Sat, 10 Dec 2005 09:49:31 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932427AbVLJOtb (ORCPT ); Sat, 10 Dec 2005 09:49:31 -0500 Received: from smtp105.sbc.mail.re2.yahoo.com ([68.142.229.100]:21914 "HELO smtp105.sbc.mail.re2.yahoo.com") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S932420AbVLJOtb (ORCPT ); Sat, 10 Dec 2005 09:49:31 -0500 From: Dmitry Torokhov To: Nico Schottelius , LKML Subject: Re: Device files for keyboard(s)? Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 09:49:28 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.9 References: <20051210085752.GF15679@schottelius.org> In-Reply-To: <20051210085752.GF15679@schottelius.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200512100949.29185.dtor_core@ameritech.net> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Saturday 10 December 2005 03:57, Nico Schottelius wrote: > Hello dear Kernel-Developers, > > I've the problem that I've connected two keyboards > (one via usb and one via ps/2) to my machine and I want to have > different keyboard layout on it. > > While I was trying to find out what would be the best way to do that, > I was somehow surprised that keyboards are not presented via > a device file to userspace. > They are. You need to use event input interface. All input devices can be accessed via /dev/input/eventX device nodes. > My questions are: > > - Is there a reason not to have devices for keyboards? > - If I would implement it into a recent kernel, would it have any chance > getting into mainline? > > I know this would have some consequences for user space, at least those: > > - x11 (x.org/xfree) would have to modify their input device section for Linux > for keyboards > - loadkeys would have to be patched so one could specify which keyboard > to change the layout for > - kde/gnome would have to be changed in the manner that they support more > than one keyboard > > Nico > > P.S.: Please cc me. > -- Dmitry