Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) in Ubuntu 8.10

November 14th, 2008 Jason Posted in Computing, Linux 2 Comments »

So I’ve been complaining about the mouse speed in Ubuntu and that the GUI doesn’t have enough controls to tweak it the way that I would want it. Joe sent me to a blog he did back in 2007 for tweaking the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to get the mouse working just right. Well, I’m sorry to say, but it’s not 2007 anymore.

The newest version of Ubuntu (8.10) has done away with configurations in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf for inputs and hardware. This is a move done directly at the freedesktop.org facilities to introduce the Hardware Abstraction Layer or HAL. HAL is a daemon which runs at startup and configures all of your hardware. It is configurable by the user with some “simple” XML tags in /etc/hal/fdi/policy/<filename>.

You can find all of your information by running:

# lshal | less

So this is what I put in there:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”ISO-8859-1″?>
<deviceinfo version=”0.2″>
<device>
<match key=”info.category” string=”input”>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.MinSpeed” type=”string”>0.5</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.MaxSpeed” type=”string”>3</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.AccelFactor” type=”string”>0.05</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll” type=”string”>1</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll” type=”string”>1</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.TapButton1″ type=”string”>0</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.TapButton2″ type=”string”>3</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.TapButton3″ type=”string”>2</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.FingerLow” type=”string”>10</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.FingerHigh” type=”string”>20</merge>
<merge key=”input.x11_options.PressureMotionMinZ” type=”string”>10</merge>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

Reading the Ubuntu documentation on HAL for input devices gives you the idea.

Editing your /etc/x11/xorg.conf file still works, just don’t be surprised when one day it doesn’t.

NOTE: For all you apple users who want to change your driver to “synaptics” DON’T you will completely botch your keyboard. Still looking for a way out of this… yes, USB keyboards don’t work either.

Single User mode for the win.. at yaboot:

boot> Linux single
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UMPCs and stopping the Vista phenomenon

January 21st, 2008 Jason Posted in Computing, Linux, Windows 1 Comment »

Thanks to CES, Intel finally explains the difference between a Mobile Internet Device (MID) and a Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC). Here are the highlights:

UMPC

  • Business-class device for enterprise users
  • Runs a “heavy” OS like Vista
  • Optimized for office-use applications like Excel, Word, etc.

MID

  • Consumer-class lifestyle device
  • Runs a ‘lightweight” OS with quick startup like Linux
  • Optimized for things like media playback and web surfing
  • In 2009 (or so) Moorestown-based devices will be classed as MIDs only

So the question then comes up, why does one need a “heavy” os, like vista, to run a business class UMPC? Read the rest of this entry »

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