[Debian-eeepc-devel] Bug#666946: Bug#666946: eeepc-acpi-scripts: Please use xinput instead of synclient to handle touchpad

[Ben Armstrong]

On 02/04/12 04:27 PM, recoverym4n at gmail.com wrote:
> At least when using ASUS x101h eeepc, synclient doesn't actually do anything
> as it fails with:
>
> $ synclient -l
> Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?

Could you also please provide any kernel messages relating to your device?

> At the same time, it looks like that using xinput is actually the way of
> handling input devices in current stable xserver-xorg, and using it allows
> toggling touchpad and camera of x101h.

Interesting ...

> Patch attached to this bug report works for me, but obviously introduces an
> extra dependency to eeepc-acpi-scripts.

First of all, thanks for your patch. However, I question whether 
eeepc-acpi-scripts should manage stuff directly manipulating the desktop 
or not. First, there is the technical problem of how to set DISPLAY and 
XAUTHORITY, which has not always been reliable in the past, and second, 
there is the design issue of separation of concerns. To me, the latter 
is the stronger argument against solving this whole class of problems 
this way. In a modern desktop environment, the settings are managed for 
the desktop by the WM, acting on key input events and making the 
appropriate setting changes as needed. In this scenario, it is the job 
of eeepc-acpi-scripts to ensure that all hardware-specific codes are 
massaged and sent on as appropriate input events (via acpi_fakekey, if 
needed) and that is all. Indeed, if the kernel driver is doing its job, 
the appropriate keycode should already be sent, so eeepc-acpi-scripts 
has nothing to do. Ultimately, we should be able to dispense with this 
package entirely, except possibly for highly hardware-specific and not 
particular to the desktop things (like S.H.E. handling).

The counter-argument is "well, I don't run GNOME and therefore my WM or 
desktop environment doesn't handle this". Well, in that case I would say 
you should file a bug on your WM to have it do the right thing.

Ben