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Switching From Evdev/Synaptics Drivers To Libinput On X.Org

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  • Switching From Evdev/Synaptics Drivers To Libinput On X.Org

    Phoronix: Switching From Evdev/Synaptics Drivers To Libinput On X.Org

    With Fedora 22 switching to libinput as its X.Org input driver and others beginning to look at utilizing xf86-input-libinput that uses a shared input library with Wayland, there's some details end-users and developers need to know about the migration...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Interesting. I don't see libinput in xorg-drivers on Gentoo, at least. I wonder why.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by GreatEmerald View Post
      Interesting. I don't see libinput in xorg-drivers on Gentoo, at least. I wonder why.
      +1

      I wanted to try it
      ## VGA ##
      AMD: X1950XTX, HD3870, HD5870
      Intel: GMA45, HD3000 (Core i5 2500K)

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      • #4
        Originally posted by GreatEmerald View Post
        Interesting. I don't see libinput in xorg-drivers on Gentoo, at least. I wonder why.
        Code:
        $ emerge -ptv libinput
        
        These are the packages that would be merged, in reverse order:
        
        Calculating dependencies... done!
        [ebuild  N    ~] dev-libs/libinput-0.7.0:0/5  USE="{-test}" 430 KiB
        [ebuild  N    ~]  dev-libs/libevdev-1.3  USE="-static-libs" ABI_X86="(64) -32 (-x32)" 384 KiB
        
        Total: 2 packages (2 new), Size of downloads: 814 KiB
        
        The following keyword changes are necessary to proceed:
         (see "package.accept_keywords" in the portage(5) man page for more details)
        # required by dev-libs/libinput-0.7.0
        # required by libinput (argument)
        =dev-libs/libevdev-1.3 ~amd64
        # required by libinput (argument)
        =dev-libs/libinput-0.7.0 ~amd64
        
         * IMPORTANT: 11 news items need reading for repository 'gentoo'.
         * Use eselect news to read news items.
        Looks like it's there for me, just in a slightly different spot than where you expected it. I hate to venture here, because of the anticipated discussion side-effects, but I thought libinput was going to be dependent on systemd-logind. I don't see that, at least in this version. Nor do I see anything about it in the linked libinput pages.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by phred14 View Post
          [CODE]$
          Looks like it's there for me, just in a slightly different spot than where you expected it. I hate to venture here, because of the anticipated discussion side-effects, but I thought libinput was going to be dependent on systemd-logind. I don't see that, at least in this version. Nor do I see anything about it in the linked libinput pages.
          Maybe I'm wrong but it should not be a problem as long the xserver is running as root. You probably need logind to run xorg with user privilege (with or without libinput). I suppose the same is true for wayland. To run the wayland based windowmanager with user privilege probably requires logind or something similar.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by phred14 View Post
            Looks like it's there for me, just in a slightly different spot than where you expected it.
            No, that shows something different. Of course libinput itself exists, but that doesn't mean it's used by anything. In fact, it pulls in evdev. Shouldn't it conflict with it, instead? Or perhaps with xf86-input-evdev.

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            • #7
              libevdev and libinput are (as their name implies) libraries. The former provides access to the kernel evdev subsystem, the latter provides (quoting the libinput website) "device detection, device handling, input device event processing and abstraction [...]". Then you have the X driver - xf86-input-libinput. It uses both of these libraries.

              It seems Gentoo has the libraries, but not the X driver. Arch is in the same position currently, it only has the libraries; xf86-input-libinput is in AUR though.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Akka View Post
                Maybe I'm wrong but it should not be a problem as long the xserver is running as root. You probably need logind to run xorg with user privilege (with or without libinput). I suppose the same is true for wayland. To run the wayland based windowmanager with user privilege probably requires logind or something similar.
                In which case I would have expected to see a systemd USE flag to control that behavior.

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                • #9
                  evdev works, so it has to be replaced.

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                  • #10
                    Interesting... I think this would be a very good decision, sharing input drivers/libraries across display servers, be it Xorg, Wayland, Mir or anything else is an excellent idea, it can at least prevent duplication of effort, and having a unified input driver library between all of them will mean developers from all parties will be contributing to the common source for it. This would be great.

                    Especially if they can just throw it all in there, (not just evdev and synaptics, but also things like drawing tablets and joysticks and controllers of all kinds).
                    Last edited by rabcor; 19 January 2015, 04:43 PM.

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