Re: 2.6.36/2.6.37: broken compatibility with userspace input-utils ?

Mark Lord
2011-01-25T05:16:05Z

On 11-01-25 12:07 AM, Mark Lord wrote:
> On 11-01-25 12:04 AM, Mark Lord wrote:
..
>> The EVIOCGKEYCODE ioctl is supposed to return KEY_RESERVED for unmapped
>> (but value) keycodes, and only return -EINVAL when the keycode itself
>> is out of range.
>>
>> That's how it worked in all kernels prior to 2.6.36,
>> and now it is broken. It now returns -EINVAL for any unmapped keycode,
>> even though keycodes higher than that still have mappings.

Actually, what changed could be something different:
it's possible that this bug was always there,
and older kernels had a more complete default keymap
for the remote than that in 2.6.36+, thereby never
triggering the bug. But I don't know that, and my best
efforts to-date to locate any of this in the kernel
have been futile. Oh well. :)

>> This is a bug, a regression, and breaks userspace.
>> I haven't identified *where* in the kernel the breakage happened,
>> though.. that code confuses me. :)
>
> Note that this device DOES have "flat scancode space",
> and the kernel is now incorrectly signalling an error (-EINVAL)
> in response to a perfectly valid query of a VALID (and mappable)
> keycode on the remote control
>
> The code really is a valid button, it just doesn't have a default mapping
> set by the kernel (I can set a mapping for that code from userspace and it works).
>
> This is a BUG. Returning -EINVAL here is entirely wrong.