Re: [gentoo-dev] xfree, synaptics, and kernel 2.6.x

[Eric Sammer <eric@ineoconcepts.com>]

Donnie Berkholz wrote:
> There's no requirement to recompile xfree unless you _need_ a feature of
> the newer synaptics driver. Yes it is nice to have the latest version,
> but there's no purpose unless you require a fix in it. 

The feature I need is for it to work with 2.6.0-test8 which .13 doesn't. 
I wasn't sure if .14 did, but I'm building it now to test.

> I'm glad you can appreciate my counterargument.

Always. It's silly to debate (or argue, or whatever) and not listen. 
That's like fighting with a goldfish - fun, but it never gets you anywhere.

> There is nearly zero maintenance cost within the xfree ebuild for the
> synaptics driver (simply change the driver version and go), and similar
> holds true for the ebuild. I expect any extra maintenance caused between
> 13 October (when I committed synaptics) and whenever 4.3.99.15 is
> released to be negligible.

What I meant by easier to maintain is simply remembering to bump the 
version number in the SYNDRV="xx" line (or whatever the variable is called).

>>There is also the fact that xfree 4.3.99.* is still 
>>masked so I didn't think releasing a new version of the ebuild would be 
>>a big deal as it is uber-unstable.
> 
> In actuality, it is not uber-unstable. I've been running 4.3.99.x for a
> fair while and have yet to encounter a crash that is 4.3.99.x-specific.
> It's masked by virtue of being a development series.

I didn't mean unstable as in code, but in name. I was assuming that many 
gentoo-ers (at least the ones that frequent freenode's #gentoo) do not 
unmask hard-masked items like the .99 series of xfree86.

>>It's rather subjective, and as someone who has to use the combination in 
>>question (xfree 4.3.99.x, synaptics, and the 2.6 kernel series (due to 
>>an IGP320M chipset)), it would be easier to have the xfree ebuild use 
>>the synaptics ebuild rather than pull it in itself. 
> 
> You don't need to use 2.6 for IGP chipsets. See the 2.4 patches:
> http://bugs.xfree86.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314

The 2.4 patches never worked on this laptop, so in fact, I do.
(HP 4420, ATI Radeon Mobility, AMD 2200M)

>>It's not that big of 
>>a deal, really. I can do it and just use it in PORTAGE_OVERLAY if it's 
>>not something that gentoo is interested in.
> 
> This isn't Gentoo, this is me. You're welcome to grab the 4.3.99.14-r1
> ebuild from my overlay if you choose [1], but I don't consider it
> appropriate for committing. Emerge it with `INPUT_DEVICES="synaptics"
> emerge xfree` or preferably set INPUT_DEVICES in make.conf. 
> 
> 1. http://dev.gentoo.org/~spyderous/overlay/

By "gentoo" I meant the maintainer of the ebuild and by maintainer of 
the ebuild, I meant you. Sorry for the confusion.

Not a big deal either way. Thanks, in any event.

-- 
Eric Sammer
eric@ineoconcepts.com
http://www.ineoconcepts.com


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