From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1PYMqy-0000a7-3p for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:03:59 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 9C191E06A1 for ; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:03:55 +0000 (UTC) Received: from basement.kutulu.org (187.250.102.97.cfl.res.rr.com [97.102.250.187]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6D731E060D for ; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 17:47:58 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (basement.kutulu.org [127.0.0.1]) by basement.kutulu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5A5EC7D801E for ; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:48:00 -0500 (EST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at kutulu.org Received: from basement.kutulu.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (basement.kutulu.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id bmglViH7thsf for ; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:48:00 -0500 (EST) Received: from [192.168.69.51] (platypus.kutulu.org [192.168.69.51]) by basement.kutulu.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id F09127D801B for ; Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:47:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] xorg-server From: Mike Edenfield To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <201012291301.35032.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> References: <20101227175826.1bbafaef@karnak.local> <1293614817.424549@rumba> <201012291301.35032.michaelkintzios@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Organization: KutuluWare Software Services Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:40:18 -0500 Message-ID: <1293730818.28544.10.camel@platypus> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.32.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: 6eeeede4-0f03-49c3-a9c8-95acb265c205 X-Archives-Hash: d802e7d76232de683744a4e38ca75be5 On Wed, 2010-12-29 at 13:01 +0000, Mick wrote: > Personally, I can't see why all these additional config files and locations > are required, rather than a single /etc/X11/xorg.conf. I have found all these > back and forth changes to fdi's, xorg.conf.d and what have you, unnecessary > and annoyingly time wasting. > > Of course I might have missed something simple in all this kerfuffle, so > please chime in if there is a better way around this. If all you are worried about is making your touchpad work in X, and you're willing to pull it up in a text editor every time you need to make a change, then no, you didn't really miss anything. The purpose of xorg.conf.d is to allow packages/utilities/etc to drop in changes to your X config seamlessly, as in, without the user being required to take any specific action. For example, the synaptics input driver drops a 50-synaptics.conf file into your xorg.conf.d that includes a simple "this is a touchpad" configuration, which would take effect just by restarting X. The purpose of udev is to configure all of the hardware on your system, not just for X. It's how GNOME/KDE/whatever is able to automount your USB key when it shows up, and knows that /dev/sr0 is a dvd-rom drive, etc. Just as with HAL, using udev to configure X-specific options is probably overkill. In theory, other GUI systems besides X could just as easily read the x11 options from udev and use them. Since there isn't really any such alternative, the practical benefits of udev over a monolithic xorg.conf file mostly vanish. --Mike