Messages in this thread |  | | | Date | Fri, 27 Feb 2004 12:45:12 +0100 | | From | Bernhard Gruber <> | | Subject | /dev/psaux-Interface |
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Hi there,
Story: As Windows2000 was just so unstable and slow I decided to use Linux on my Thinkpad 570E. Installation of gentoo was no problem (even if it took quite long) and I first installed a 2.4.25-kernel. Everything worked fine there and I could use the trackpoint utilities from Till Straumann to set the features of the trackpoint. The only problem was, that ACPI (and APM) did not function properly and so I couldn't get the current state of the battery (which is quite a large problem for a laptop). So I tried the 2.6.3-kernel. Apart from minor problems which could be solved rather quickly I got all devices up and running including battery monitoring. However, the trackpoint utility did not work anymore and so the special features like press-to-select and HARDWARE sensitivity setup do not work until today.
Problem: As I've read so far, the approach in 2.6.x-kernel was to remove user-space-drivers as much as possible and one of the consequences was that the /dev/psaux-Device does not exist as in 2.4.x-kernels. However, there are some special devices (not only the trackpoint but also touchscreens for example) which had drivers for 2.4.x-kernels using the /dev/psaux-interface and most people who programmed those drivers either don't have the time or don't use/own those devices anymore. Furthermore, writing kernel device drivers requires more skill and they are harder to debug. So there's no real hope that they will ever be ported...
Suggestion: I would suggest using a /dev/psaux-compatibility option which gives back the old interface so that these drivers work. This is only meant as a user-selectable option and I don't think that the new input system should be changed apart from that! There is already an existing approach to a kernel patch which can be found here http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee/fun/psaux/ It can be integrated easily into the kernel but it seems like there are still bugs in there. I'm in contact with the author because the trackpoint utilities creates a segmentation fault when writing to the device but we could not figure out a solution yet (its strange that his touchscreen device functions without any problems). We are sure that it would not be a huge problem to solve it for you guys out there, so if anyone wants to help us please contact b-gruber[at]gmx.de and Ill send you a more detailed error report.
PS: Sorry if my english sounds a little bit bumpy sometimes but I dont speak english natively. I would appreciate if you could cc all answers to my Email-adress as I haven't subscribed to this mailing-list!
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