[needs-packaging] expresskeys

http://revu.ubuntuwire.com/details.py?package=expresskeys

I received an email from Mats Johannesson stating that expresskeys won't work on hardy. I verified that so I'm putting this on hold until the issue is resolved.

For those that want further explanations, here's what he's saying :

[...]
expresskeys will _not_ work on that release (from what I've
experienced), and linux-wacom very poorly at that!

The reason is that ubuntu switched from Xlib to XCB

Or have things changed recently (my test is two months old)?

Here's part of a discussion with Ping Cheng - the linux-wacom dev:

**Quote**

From: Mats Johannesson <email address hidden>
To: Ping Cheng <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Some errors with latest linuxwacom
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:08:08 +0100

On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:30:14 +0100 Mats Johannesson wrote:
> > On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:09:03 +0100 Mats Johannesson wrote:

> > xdevice_list = XListInputDevices(display, &nr_devices);
> >
> > for(i = 0; i < nr_devices; i++) {
> > if (xdevice_list[i].use == IsXExtensionDevice) {
> > len = strlen(xdevice_list[i].name);
> >
> > This loops through all 8 devices found on my machine (with the tablet
> > plugged in) and nothing in .use identifies itself as a
> > IsXExtensionDevice.
> >
> > How are we supposed to do this nowadays? The X people are breaking a
> > MIGHTY lot of code out there when this fails...

Jeez, the blame seems to lie with the XCB people and with Ubuntu for
chucking out Xlib in favour of XCB.

One and a half _years_ ago one can read this:

[Xcb] XInput supported?
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xcb/2006-July/001778.html

No, it is not (neither is Xkb), but they would like it to be...

Ok, in December 2007 an NSA guy implemented Xinput and SElinux, but
disabled by default! Whether they have hit upstream yet I don't know:

[Xcb] [PATCH] proto: experimental Xi and SELinux extensions
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xcb/2007-December/003119.html

And here he states that ListInputDevices can't be implemented as is:
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xcb/2007-December/003166.html

Build patch - disabled:
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xcb/2007-December/003120.html

This is just crazy stuff. Will there be distributions out there
_without_ a working XInput support soon?!

/Baffled Mats

From: Mats Johannesson <email address hidden>
To: "Ping Cheng" <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: Some errors with latest linuxwacom
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:22:47 +0100

On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:06:19 -0800 Ping Cheng wrote:
> > Hi Mats,
> >
> > Glad to know that you are still watching us :) .

Seems I can't let it go!

> > Yes, Xserver 1.4 has
> > changed a lot of stuff for extended Input devices. I think it will
> > take some time to make everything (or at least most of the things)
> > work right. That's why I didn't spend too much time on supporting
> > it. I don't want to waste my time on a moving target. Let's give
> > them a bit more time to settle their internal issues before we jump
> > on. What do you think?

One problem is that no one really is in charge of the problem... Core X
people? XCB people? Ubuntu people? Debian people? But I guess you're
right. There are certain le...

Ok. As per http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4965973 there is a fix for Hardy.

First, the Intuos3 works out of the box for me. The strip works, the express buttons work flawlessly as buttons detected under xev.

That said, expresskeys adds very helpful attaching of the buttons to key presses and as such, are easily modifiable via xmodmap.

A one line change of src-expresskeys/get_device.c on line 462:

if (xdevice_list[i].use == IsXExtensionDevice) {

changes to:

if (xdevice_list[i].use == IsXExtensionDevice ||
xdevice_list[i].use == IsXExtensionPointer) {

I have created a branch and a project for this package with the patch applied. Someone out there with Debian-fu should be able to branch and create the proper bits to make it a PPA compatible series. Once we get this up, we will have an auto-compiled package available.

https://launchpad.net/expresskeys

subdomain not listed
change status to invalid