touchpad event data requested - palm detection

[Peter Hutterer]

We're currently working on a number of things to improve input devices in
libinput - the future input stack for wayland developers. What we need
is data to base our assumptions on, so I'm hereby asking the list to provide
some.

If you don't have a touchpad, please disregard this email.
If you're on RHEL or a derivative, F18 or older, please disregard this
demail.

One focus at the moment is palm detection. If you have a couple of minutes
to spare, please run the following command:

  $ sudo evemu-record /dev/input/event4 > palm-data.txt

substitute "event4" with the kernel device of your touchpad, running
evemu-record without arguments will give you a list.

While evemu is running, DO NOT use the touchpad. Use your laptop normally
otherwise (you can use a mouse where needed, only the touchpad events
are recorded).
Ideally, use your keyboard because what we're looking for are events
generated when you're not actually using the touchpad. Once completed,
ctrl+c evemu-record. Again, please DO NOT use the touchpad while the
recording is active or the data will be difficult/impossible to
analyse. You can re-run evemu-record if you don't think the data set is
good enough. Once you're done please go through the following steps:

Verify that the txt file contains data:
  $ grep -q "^E:" palm-data.txt && echo "all clear" || echo "no data"
  If no data is available, please re-run evemu-record (see the F19/F20
  comment below though)

Record your kernel version and machine information:
  $ uname -r > device-info.txt
  $ cat /sys/class/dmi/id/modalias >> device-info.txt

Create a tarball of the data:
  $ tar jcf palm-data.tar.bz2 palm-data.txt device-info.txt

Please use the output of this command for the subject line of your email:
  $ echo "PALMDATA: `cat /sys/class/dmi/id/product_version`"
  This helps identify data sets so we can have good coverage.
  Emails with a non-matching subject line will be deleted automatically.

Attach the tarball and send it to 
   libinputdatacollection at gmail.com

Thanks in advance!

== Why do we need this? ==

While typing on a laptop keyboard, accidental contacts may happen on
the touchpad. This can create spurious movements or even tapping/clicking
events. To avoid it, we need software-detection for palms.

There are a lot of different touchpads out there with different capabilities
and sizes. Thus, events look different on those touchpads and we need to
figure out how to find common denominators to identify palms. The only way
to do this is to look at as many data sets as possible.

== A note on Fedora 19 and 20 ==

On Fedora 19 and Fedora 20, you will not see events on the touchpad device.
You need to restart X with the configuration snippet in place below:

$> cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-synaptics-dontgrab.conf 
Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "synaptics don't grab"
    MatchDriver "synaptics"
    Option "GrabEventDevice" "off"
EndSection

On F21+ this is the driver default (xorg-x11-drv-synaptics >= 1.8) and the
snippet is not needed.

If you're on RHEL or a derivative, F18 or older, please disregard this
email.

== A note on security ==

evemu-record collects events only from the given device and records it in a
plain-text format. If you set it to your keyboard, all keys pressed will be
visible in the order they were pressed. This can leak passwords, so DO NOT
record your keyboard device! If you set it to your touchpad as requested, no
key events are recorded. You can verify the data collected by looking at the
output file. evemu-record does not send or receive data and requires you
actively emailing the data.

If you do not want to run evemu-record as root, simply chmod the event file
for reading.

== A note on privacy  ==

Events from your touchpad cannot usually personally identify you, and
neither can the kernel version nor the DMI data. This process is opt-in, you
need to actively email the data. 

Your email can personally identify you, but we won't use the email
addresses for anything. The data you send (i.e. the tarball) will be used
for analysis and will be made publicly available to others to do analysis.
At this point, only I have access to that gmail account but I may extend
this to others involved with libinput. If you feel uncomfortable with any of
this, simply don't participate.

Cheers,
   Peter

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