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Diffstat (limited to 'src/SW/xf86-input-evdev/document.en.rest.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | src/SW/xf86-input-evdev/document.en.rest.txt | 58 |
1 files changed, 58 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/src/SW/xf86-input-evdev/document.en.rest.txt b/src/SW/xf86-input-evdev/document.en.rest.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1ce1be --- /dev/null +++ b/src/SW/xf86-input-evdev/document.en.rest.txt @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +========================================= + Code-remapping for ``xf86-input-evdev`` +========================================= +:CreationDate: 2009-09-15 12:49:41 +:Id: SW/xf86-input-evdev +:tags: - software + - keyboard + +The standard ``xf86-input-evdev`` driver that comes with `xorg` only +uses keycodes between 8 and 255, dropping all others. This is fine +most of the time (who ever saw a keyboard with more than 247 keys on +it?), but it causes problems when the keycodes generated are not +compact. + +For example, the Apple Aluminum Keyboard (USB ID ``05ac:0221``) +produces at least one code above 255: the "fn" key is 464. People have +found other cases, and have `reported them as a bug +<http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11227>`_. + +Since I needed my keyboard to work as I want it, I did the only +sensible thing: I `cloned the repository +<http://www.thenautilus.net/cgit/xf86-input-evdev/>`_ and patched the +code. + +My patch adds a configuration option, called ``event_key_remap``. Its +value must be a (whitespace-separated) list of "assignments" of the +format ``$evdev_code = $x11_code``; the ``$evdev_code`` can be +obtained with ``showkey -k``, the ``$x11_code`` can be found in +``/usr/share/X11/xkb/keycodes/evdev`` (or wherever your distribution +put it). + +The implementation is rather simple, creating a look-up table from the +configuration; the table is not implemented as a simple array, since +that would have meant taking 64KiB for each device (`evdev` uses 16 +bits for a key event). Instead, I allocate "pages" of 256 bytes, and +only the pages needed. This way, devices with no remapping use only +one more pointer in their structures, and devices with very few codes +to remap use only 256 bytes. + +Of course, the configuration can be set either in the ``xorg.conf`` +file, or via `HAL`. My ``/etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-x11-input.fdi`` file +contains:: + + <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + <deviceinfo version="0.2"> + <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.keyboard"> + <append key="input.x11_options.XkbOptions" type="strlist">compose:ralt</append> + <append key="input.x11_options.XkbOptions" type="strlist">altwin:meta_win</append> + </match> + <match key="input.product" string="Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard"> + <merge key="input.x11_options.XkbLayout" type="string">dakkar</merge> + <merge key="input.x11_options.XkbModel" type="string">evdev</merge> + <merge key="input.x11_options.XkbVariant" type="string">dvorak-apple-al</merge> + <merge key="input.x11_options.event_key_remap" type="string">464=118 120=210 204=211</merge> + </match> + </deviceinfo> + +(Details about my keyboard layout are `elsewhere <../my-layout/>`_. |