Thank you very much for your clear answers. Now my touchpad works although I didn't change anything but I have recompiled HAL (with dell USE flag) and the drivers.
In the early stage, not knowing precisely what filename to use I have used the file name "99-x11-synaptics.fdi". It is still so but I will change it while tuning its configuration. My touchpad wasn't responding. And I realize now that it wasn't even recognized at all (not in list : xinput list). I have a DELL computer but I didn't have the "dell" USE flag for HAL so I activated it and recompiled HAL. I did recompile xf86-input-synaptics and xf86-input-evdev just in case. I have restarted the HAL daemon but it wasn't working better. I have rebooted my computer and the touchpad is now running fine. And now I have this new entry in the xinput list : "AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" id=3 [XExtensionPointer] I just can guess that HAL could not recognize the touchpad by itself and it needed new (fresh recompiled) driver support and a reloading of the kernel (== reboot). I really am in the fog but I can walk on it. Thank you very much for your enlightment. :) Red. On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 11:54:34AM -0400, Mike Edenfield wrote: > On 5/26/2009 5:58 AM, Redouane Boumghar wrote: > >> First of all where can I find information about the file names of FDI ? >> NUMBER-NAME-NAME.fdi >> >> Where are the specification of the nomenclature ? >> I have found different names possible : >> 11-x11-synaptics.fdi >> 99-x11-synaptics.fdi > > >> Why the donkey would it be 99 or 11 ? > > Since (as I see below) you've added "hal" to your USE flags for the > xf86-input-synaptics driver, you should already have the synaptics HAL data > installed -- the post-ebuild messages would tell you where those are. > Currently, the stock HAL rules are installed into > > /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/11-x11-synaptics.fdi > > > The reason it's number 11 is because the synaptics Xorg driver exposes > itself to HAL in a way that also looks like a mouse, so it matches all on > the HAL rules for standard pointer device behavior. The synaptics rules > need to override the normal rules, which are in the file > 10-x11-pointer.fdi, so the synaptics rules go into 11-x11-synaptics.fdi and > get loaded second. > > The file named 99- is most likely a suggestion from someone for a local > customization to the policy, since it will be loaded after everything else. > Since the synaptics rules are included in the base HAL policy now, there's > no need for the 99- file. > > >> The thing is that I don't know how to match my touchpad with the >> fdi policy or that I have another unknown problem. > > You should not have to do anything to get your touchpad recognized by HAL > as a synaptics device, since you already have the HAL policy file locally. > You can use lshal(1) to ask HAL what devices it found, for example: > > lshal | grep -9 input.x11_driver > > You should see a result which includes: > > input.x11_driver = 'synaptics' > > If you back up a few lines you will see the info.capabilities set, which > should include items like "input", "input.mouse", and input.touchpad. > > The default settings are in the FDI file in /usr/share, which will also > show you how to override any of those settings. Basically, anything that > used to be an xorg.conf option can be set using an > "input.x11_options.OPTIONNAME" key. For example, to turn on SHMConfig so > you can use the synaptics utilities: > > <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> > <deviceinfo version="0.2"> > <device> > <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad"> > <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge> > </match> > </device> > </deviceinfo> > > Put this in an FDI file inside your /etc/hal/fdi/policy folder, such as > > /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/11-x11-synaptics.fdi >
