On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 2:20 PM, Alan Mackenzie <a...@muc.de> wrote: > Hi, Gentoo! > > I've just got a sparkling new installation of Gentoo on my new PC. It > only took me ~5 hours, mainly because I'd already configured the kernel > in a trial run. :-) > > However, I'm now trying to get X up and running. "The X Server > Configuration HOWTO", section 3. "Configuring Xorg" says: > > "Hal comes with many premade device rules, also called policies. > These policy files are available in /usr/....../policy. Just find a > few that suit your needs most closely and copy them to /etc/...." > > "For example, to get a basic working keyboard/mouse combination, you > could copy the following files... > /usr/.........../10-input-policy.fdi > /usr/.........../10-x11-input.fdi" > > . Am I the only person that finds this semantic gibberish? Is there > any explanation somewhere of what a "policy" aka "device rule" is? What > is the semantic significance of a "device rule"? What does it mean, to > "rule a device", or what sort of restrictions are being placed on this > device? > > Given that one might desire a "basic working keyboard/mouse > combination", what is the chain of reasoning that ends up selecting the > file called "10-input-policy.fdi" from all the other ones? > > This file is an inpenetrable stanza of uncommented XML. Are its verbs > documented somewhere? What do "<match ...>" and "<append ....>" mean, > for example? > > Can this new-style fragmented XML configuration do anything that a good > old-fashioned, human-readable and compact xorg.conf can't? If so, what? > What am I missing here? > > Please, somebody, tell me all this HAL stuff is straightforwardly > explained in an easily accessible Gentoo document, so that I can hang my > head in shame and apologise for the noise! ;-) > > -- > Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany). > >
You are not the only person who finds that decipherable. I don't understand it and actually I don't even use them unless they are already where they need to be. hald runs default in rc-update and things just work. I've done two new AMD64 installations this week and things seem to be working fine so far. I'm using evdev in make.config for X mouse and keyboard. HTH, Mark
