Re: [PATCH] Input: i8042 - disable active multiplexing by default

From: Dmitry Torokhov
Date: Fri Oct 10 2014 - 17:02:40 EST


On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 10:59:19PM +0200, Jiri Kosina wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Oct 2014, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
>
> > Active multiplexing is a nice feature as it allows several pointing devices
> > (such as touchpad and external mouse) use their native protocols at the
> > same time. Unfortunately many manufacturers do not implement the feature
> > properly even though they advertise it. The problematic implementations are
> > never fixed, since Windows by default does not use this mode, and move from
> > one BIOS/model of laptop to another. When active multiplexing is broken
> > turning it on usually results in touchpad, keyboard, or both unresponsive.
> >
> > With PS/2 usage on decline (most of PS/2 devices in use nowadays are
> > internal laptop touchpads), I expect number of users who have laptops with
> > working MUX implementation, docking stations with external PS/2 ports, and
> > who are still using external PS/2 mice, to be rather small. Let's flip the
> > default to be OFF and allow activating it through i8042.nomux=0 kernel
> > option. We'll also keep DMI table where we can record known good models.
>
> Being responsible for introducing a non-trivial portion of
> i8042_dmi_nomux_table[] entries:
>
> Acked-by: Jiri Kosina <jkosina@xxxxxxx>
>
> If nothing else, it'd make my life easier :)
>
> [ ... snip ... ]
> > diff --git a/drivers/input/serio/i8042.c b/drivers/input/serio/i8042.c
> > index f5a98af..9a97c2b 100644
> > --- a/drivers/input/serio/i8042.c
> > +++ b/drivers/input/serio/i8042.c
> > @@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ static bool i8042_noaux;
> > module_param_named(noaux, i8042_noaux, bool, 0);
> > MODULE_PARM_DESC(noaux, "Do not probe or use AUX (mouse) port.");
> >
> > -static bool i8042_nomux;
> > +static bool i8042_nomux = true;
>
> Hmmm ... perhaps if we want to be really friendly, we should warn (and I
> definitely don't mean WARN(), but rather pr_info() or something) if we
> encounter that the cmdline contains 'i8042.nomux=1'.

Warn about what? That they do not need this option anymore? They might
if they downgrade the kernel. I would not bother...

Thanks.

--
Dmitry
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