1:39 a.m.
= Proposed System Wide Change: Retire Synaptics Driver =
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/RetireSynapticsDriver
Change owner(s):
* Peter Hutterer <peter DOT hutterer AT who-t DOT net>
Retire the xorg-x11-drv-synaptics driver and remove it from user's install.
== Detailed Description ==
xorg-x11-drv-synaptics has been the main X.Org touchpad driver for
over a decade. Since Fedora 22, it has been superseded by
xorg-x11-drv-libinput which aims to provide a better touchpad
experience.
The only way to assign X.Org drivers is via the xorg.conf.d
configuration system which is based on config file sort order. e.g.
evdev sorts as 10-evdev.conf, synaptics as 70-synaptics.conf, etc.
Whichever sorts last is assigned as driver for a device. Fedora 22 and
later shipped with libinput's config file sorting higher than all
other drivers to overwrite any previous matches.
Some users prefer the synaptics driver over libinput. This requires
the users to install the driver and then place a custom config snippet
or, more commonly, symlink to the synaptics config snippets with a
name that has a higher sort order than xorg-x11-drv-libinput.
The aim of this change is to ensure that the synaptics driver can
simply be installed when required without any further user
configuration. When installed, it should be assigned as the preferred
driver over xorg-x11-drv-libinput.
For historical reasons, a vast majority of users have the synaptics
driver installed, especially those updating from older releases.
We want to a) remove the xorg-x11-drv-synaptics driver from a user's
machine but b) make it possible to install where required.
== Scope ==
* Proposal owners:
- xorg-x11-drv-synaptics must be removed from comps (complete as of F25)
- xorg-x11-drivers must not include xorg-x11-drv-synaptics (complete as of F25)
- the X server needs to support a fallback input driver. This ensures
that when an xorg.conf snippet assigns the synaptics driver but that
driver is missing, the user still has a working touchpad. Complete as
of xorg-x11-server-1.18.4-5
- xorg-x11-drv-synaptics will get a subpackage
xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-legacy containing the actual driver
- xorg-x11-drv-libinput will obsolete/provide the current
xorg-x11-drv-synaptics version
* Other developers:
- packages that currently require xorg-x11-drv-synaptics need to
revisit and either require the new subpackage or drop the requirement
- Affected packages: mate-desktop, cinnamon-desktop
* Release engineering: Nothing required, the RE changes are complete as of F25
* Policies and guidelines: No update needed
* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
--
Jan Kuřík
Platform & Fedora Program Manager
Red Hat Czech s.r.o., Purkynova 99/71, 612 45 Brno, Czech Republic
3:08 a.m.
On 20.10.2016 08:39, Jan Kurik wrote:
= Proposed System Wide Change: Retire Synaptics Driver =
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/RetireSynapticsDriver
Change owner(s):
* Peter Hutterer <peter DOT hutterer AT who-t DOT net>
Retire the xorg-x11-drv-synaptics driver and remove it from user's install.
== Detailed Description ==
xorg-x11-drv-synaptics has been the main X.Org touchpad driver for
over a decade. Since Fedora 22, it has been superseded by
xorg-x11-drv-libinput which aims to provide a better touchpad
experience.
The only way to assign X.Org drivers is via the xorg.conf.d
configuration system which is based on config file sort order. e.g.
evdev sorts as 10-evdev.conf, synaptics as 70-synaptics.conf, etc.
Whichever sorts last is assigned as driver for a device. Fedora 22 and
later shipped with libinput's config file sorting higher than all
other drivers to overwrite any previous matches.
Some users prefer the synaptics driver over libinput. This requires
the users to install the driver and then place a custom config snippet
or, more commonly, symlink to the synaptics config snippets with a
name that has a higher sort order than xorg-x11-drv-libinput.
The aim of this change is to ensure that the synaptics driver can
simply be installed when required without any further user
configuration. When installed, it should be assigned as the preferred
driver over xorg-x11-drv-libinput.
For historical reasons, a vast majority of users have the synaptics
driver installed, especially those updating from older releases.
We want to a) remove the xorg-x11-drv-synaptics driver from a user's
machine but b) make it possible to install where required.
== Scope ==
* Proposal owners:
- xorg-x11-drv-synaptics must be removed from comps (complete as of F25)
- xorg-x11-drivers must not include xorg-x11-drv-synaptics (complete as of F25)
- the X server needs to support a fallback input driver. This ensures
that when an xorg.conf snippet assigns the synaptics driver but that
driver is missing, the user still has a working touchpad. Complete as
of xorg-x11-server-1.18.4-5
- xorg-x11-drv-synaptics will get a subpackage
xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-legacy containing the actual driver
- xorg-x11-drv-libinput will obsolete/provide the current
xorg-x11-drv-synaptics version
* Other developers:
- packages that currently require xorg-x11-drv-synaptics need to
revisit and either require the new subpackage or drop the requirement
- Affected packages: mate-desktop, cinnamon-desktop
Afaik Xfce is also affected. I
tried to switch to libinput and it did
not really work well, especially the combination of Gtk3 and Gtk2.
- Johannes
* Release engineering: Nothing required, the RE changes are complete as of F25
* Policies and guidelines: No update needed
* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
9:07 a.m.
On Thu, 20 Oct 2016 10:08:29 +0200
Johannes Lips <johannes.lips(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Afaik Xfce is also affected. I tried to switch to libinput and it did
not really work well, especially the combination of Gtk3 and Gtk2.
Can you expand on how/what didn't work here?
I've been using it here with Xfce just fine since support was added...
no particular problems here.
kevin
3:16 p.m.
On Thu, 20 Oct 2016 10:08:29 +0200
Johannes Lips <johannes.lips(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Can you expand on how/what didn't work here?
I've been using it here with Xfce just fine since support was added...
no particular problems here.
Hi Kevin,
I think I was affected by this bug, basically natural scrolling was different across the
gtk toolkits.
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11193
johannes
>
> kevin
6:17 p.m.
On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 08:16:21PM -0000, Johannes Lips wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Oct 2016 10:08:29 +0200
> Johannes Lips <johannes.lips(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Can you expand on how/what didn't work here?
>
> I've been using it here with Xfce just fine since support was added...
> no particular problems here.
Hi Kevin,
I think I was affected by this bug, basically natural scrolling was different across the
gtk toolkits.
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11193
that sounds... odd. when libinput enables natural scrolling, the scroll
events coming out of the driver are already inverted. The toolkits don't get
a say in that and it should be completely transparent anyway.
Cheers,
Peter
10:32 a.m.
On Fri, 21 Oct 2016 09:17:08 +1000
Peter Hutterer <peter.hutterer(a)who-t.net> wrote:
On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 08:16:21PM -0000, Johannes Lips wrote:
> > On Thu, 20 Oct 2016 10:08:29 +0200
> > Johannes Lips <johannes.lips(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Can you expand on how/what didn't work here?
> >
> > I've been using it here with Xfce just fine since support was
> > added... no particular problems here.
> Hi Kevin,
> I think I was affected by this bug, basically natural scrolling was
> different across the gtk toolkits.
> https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11193
that sounds... odd. when libinput enables natural scrolling, the
scroll events coming out of the driver are already inverted. The
toolkits don't get a say in that and it should be completely
transparent anyway.
Yeah, I have never seen that here.
Can you perhaps provide the information Oliver is asking for in the bug?
kevin
1:37 a.m.
On Fri, 21 Oct 2016 09:17:08 +1000
Peter Hutterer <peter.hutterer(a)who-t.net> wrote:
Yeah, I have never seen that here.
Can you perhaps provide the information Oliver is asking for in the bug?
I've
just tried libinput again and it seems to be working without any problems. Don't know
what then was the problem.
Sorry for the noise!
johannes
>
> kevin
10:24 a.m.
On Sat, 22 Oct 2016 06:37:38 -0000
"Johannes Lips" <johannes.lips(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Oct 2016 09:17:08 +1000
> Peter Hutterer <peter.hutterer(a)who-t.net> wrote:
>
>
> Yeah, I have never seen that here.
>
> Can you perhaps provide the information Oliver is asking for in the
> bug?
I've just tried libinput again and it seems to be working without any
problems. Don't know what then was the problem. Sorry for the noise!
Cool. It might have been a bug in an older version, since fixed?
In any case, thanks for testing it.
kevin
6:24 p.m.
Jan Kurik wrote:
- Affected packages: mate-desktop, cinnamon-desktop
For what it's worth, while it is not a hard runtime dependency (nor even
listed as a soft dependency in the package) because libinput is also
supported, the kcm_touchpad in plasma-desktop is much more functional with
the synaptics driver (and this is not likely to change any time soon, given
that libinput just removed most of the settings). So this change will also
affect some Plasma users, though not necessarily in a bad way (as the intent
is to make it easier to install the driver when wanted).
plasma-desktop also requires xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-devel (in particular,
the <xorg/synaptics-properties.h> header, for constant definitions) at build
time, is that package name going to change?
Kevin Kofler
8:08 p.m.
On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 01:24:22AM +0200, Kevin Kofler wrote:
Jan Kurik wrote:
> - Affected packages: mate-desktop, cinnamon-desktop
For what it's worth, while it is not a hard runtime dependency (nor even
listed as a soft dependency in the package) because libinput is also
supported, the kcm_touchpad in plasma-desktop is much more functional with
the synaptics driver (and this is not likely to change any time soon, given
that libinput just removed most of the settings). So this change will also
affect some Plasma users, though not necessarily in a bad way (as the intent
is to make it easier to install the driver when wanted).
plasma-desktop also requires xorg-x11-drv-synaptics-devel (in particular,
the <xorg/synaptics-properties.h> header, for constant definitions) at build
time, is that package name going to change?
I was planning to leave the -devel package name as-is, I don't think
renaming it provides any benefit.
Cheers,
Peter
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participants (5)
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Peter Hutterer