XI2 progress in F14! Any further hint on usage?

Gianluca Cecchi gianluca.cecchi at gmail.com
Fri Jan 21 11:50:18 UTC 2011


Hello,
from test plan section inside features page of Fedora 12:
"Verify that the cursors work independently. If both master devices
are used in two different applications, they should work independently
and simultaneously.
If both devices are used in the same application, some restrictions apply. "
The above is the test plan to verify multiple input devices work with
legacy applications.
To develop new XI2-capable applications, please see the XI2 man pages
and the example programs below in #Documentation.
"
And in User experience section:
"XI2 has no effect on the traditional desktop interface. Only
applications that make use of the new APIs gain benefits.
Users who explicitly create additional master devices (e.g. using the
xinput tool) may be able to use their traditional desktop in a
multi-user fashion to a limited extent.
"

And indeed it worked like this at F12 time... but without being able
to do much practically.
No other particular references in F13,F14 features pages...
Now just installed F14 to see if any progress.
The independent pointer functionality is here again, and I would like
to do a "simple" test where :
- I have my laptop monitor and an external monitor connected.
- I use my trackpad and laptop keyboard to manage a window inside laptop monitor
- Another user manage another window in external monitor, after
connecting additional 1 usb mouse and 1 usb keyboard
(ideal would be to have one user working in laptop monitor area with
its input devices; another using external monitor area with the
external input devices)

$ xinput create-master zenmouse
$ xinput reattach 20 16 --> external usb mouse
$ xinput reattach 11 17 --\ external mac keyboard
$ xinput reattach 21 17 --/

So after reattaching these two input devices to the newly create
master named "zenmouse":

[gcecchi ~]$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Broadcom Corp                           	id=10	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad              	id=14	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                               	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                            	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Broadcom Corp                           	id=9	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Laptop Integrated Webcam                	id=12	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=13	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                        	id=15	[slave  keyboard (3)]
⎡ zenmouse pointer                        	id=16	[master pointer  (17)]
⎜   ↳ zenmouse XTEST pointer                  	id=18	[slave  pointer  (16)]
⎜   ↳ USB Optical Mouse                       	id=20	[slave  pointer  (16)]
⎣ zenmouse keyboard                       	id=17	[master keyboard (16)]
    ↳ zenmouse XTEST keyboard                 	id=19	[slave  keyboard (17)]
    ↳ Mitsumi Electric Apple Extended USB Keyboard	id=11	[slave  keyboard (17)]
    ↳ Mitsumi Electric Apple Extended USB Keyboard	id=21	[slave  keyboard (17)]

I noticed this:
- click with zenmouse pointer on the top window title bar (external
monitor) to make it active: I can use the corresponding keyboard
and at the same time
- click with touchpad on the bottom window title bar (laptop monitor)
to make it active: I can use the laptop keyboard in this window, while
I'm using the other one
cool!

Some unwanted behaviours, just in these first tests:
- unable to move at the same time the two windows (one in laptop
monitor, the other on external one), each one with one different
pointer
- strange things when input areas intersects....

Questions:
- Can I force one pair of keyboard+mouse to be able to move only
inside a subregion of my display and the other one in another region
(without intersection)
In particular one pair confined inside the external monitor and the
other one inside the laptop monitor?

BTW: at this time I have configured the two monitors as one big
(1280x800+1280x1024 one above the other) using Nvida TwinView
fucntionality, but I can change it if necessary for better XI2/MPX
configuration....

Is there any additional non-default configuration in gnome (2.32 in my
case) and/or metacity to enhance XI2/MPX experience?
Any additional fedora docs?

Thanks for any (multi)-input....
Gianluca


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