Re: [PATCH] macintosh: move mac_hid driver to input/mouse.

[Michal SuchÃnek]

On Sun, 28 May 2017 10:55:40 -0700
Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Sun, May 28, 2017 at 11:47:58AM +0200, Michal Suchanek wrote:
> > On Tue, 9 May 2017 17:43:27 -0700
> > Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >   
> > > Hi Michal,
> > > 
> > > On Tue, May 09, 2017 at 09:14:18PM +0200, Michal Suchanek wrote:  
> > > > There is nothing mac-specific about this driver. Non-mac
> > > > hardware with suboptimal built-in pointer devices exists.
> > > > 
> > > > This makes it possible to use this emulation not only on x86
> > > > and ppc notebooks but also on arm and mips.    
> > > 
> > > I'd rather we did not promote from drivers/macintosh to other
> > > platforms, but rather removed it. The same functionality can be
> > > done from userspace.  
> > 
> > What is the status of this?  
> 
> The same as in above paragraph.
> 
> > 
> > Do you reply to every patch to drivers/input that is not the the
> > core infrastructure that you would rather drop the driver because
> > it can be done is in userspace?
> > 
> > It sure can be done. Remove everything but the bus drivers and
> > uinput from drivers/input and the rest can be done in userspace.
> > 
> > The question is who does it?
> > 
> > Are you saying that you will implement the userspace equivalent?  
> 
> No, I spend my time mostly with the kernel.
> 
> > 
> > If not then please do your job as maintainer and accept trivial
> > patches for perfectly working drivers we have now.  
> 
> I am doing my job as a maintainer right now. The driver might have
> been beneficial 15 years ago, when we did not have better options,
> but I would rather not continue expanding it's use.
> 
> The main problem with the driver is that the functionality it is not
> easily discoverable by end users. And once you plumb it through
> userspace to present users with options you might as well handle it
> all in userspace.
> 
> > 
> > If you want to move drivers/input into userspace I am not against it
> > but I am not willing to do that for you either.  
> 
> Then we are at impasse.
> 
> >   
> > > 
> > > What hardware do you believe would benefit from this and why?  
> > 
> > Any touchpad hardware where you cannot press two buttons at once to
> > emulate the third button due to hardware design. And any touchpad
> > hardware on which some of the buttons are broken when it comes to
> > it.
> > 
> > It is built into a notebook and works fine for moving the cursor but
> > due to lack of usable buttons you still need a mouse to use the
> > notebook.  
> 
> Have you tried simply redefining keymap of your keyboard to emit
> BTN_RIGHT/BTN_MIDDLE? Both atkbd and HID keyboards support keymap
> updates from userspace/udev/hwdb and if there is a driver that does
> not support it I will take patches fixing that.

Indeed, they do support it. Such keymap update just does not work as
mouse button regardless of sending the BTN_* event. At least not in X11.

So what is next?

Thanks

Michal