[gpm]Touchpads

[Peter Berg Larsen]

On Thu, 14 Mar 2002, Nico Schottelius wrote:

> Alessandro Rubini wrote:
> 
> > > I would suggest that every driver have an additional functioncall
> > > that reset that device to normal state (if it has one), which is
> > > called when gpm stops.
> >
> > That's a good idea. 

> I first thought this would be a great idea, too.
> Now I think we should not do that.
> Think of the following:
> I run gpm with synps2 exit and reboot to windows.
> Windows will work fine with synps2, too.
> Getting back to Linux gpm's ps2 nor X will run anymore.
> Why ? Because other programs didn't do the homework
> we want to do now.
> The problem is, we cannot think the device is initialized and reseted
> fine by programs before.
> So I think the better solution is a reset in the initialization
> (like it is done right now).

First of all a reboot will reset the touchpad to relative mode (ps2) so
rebooting from or to windows will not change matter (if I read STIG page
17 correct 1)). Secondly it seems that we are not talking about the same
thing here. Reseting the touchpad at startup will not change anything, as
the initialization (to absolute mode) is the same no matter which state
the touchpad is in. What matter is that when gpm quits the touchpad is
still in absolute mode, which would break any mousereading program that is
not touchpad aware.


1) STIG: Synaptics Touchpad Interface Guide.

Peter
--
E-Mail:       pebl@math.ku.dk 
Real name:    Peter Berg Larsen 
Where:        Department of Computer Science, Copenhagen Uni., Denmark