Arch Linux

Kilroo

Member

Registered: 2007-11-27

Posts: 6

Nostromo Speedpad driver: PKGBUILD questions

All right, I'm working on a PKGBUILD for the Nostromo Speedpad Linux driver.

This is not a very complicated thing to install. It requires fltk, and it uses your standard configure-make-make install method. My PKGBUILD works already. Unfortunately that is not all there is to it.

These are the points on which I would like some advice, as I would kind of like to submit this to AUR, and it's the first one I've done at all unless you count modifying the AUR Swiftweasel/Swiftdove PKGBUILDs for my own architecture, which I don't.

1. The Ubuntu forum thread from which I got most of my information on the driver recommends modprobing evdev and unplugging the device prior to installation. I have no idea whether the former is necessary. The latter doesn't seem to matter for me. What should I do about this? I suppose I could modprobe evdev in my build() function, but I have no idea whether I should. Telling the user that it is recommended that they unplug the device while installing, but that it may not be necessary, seems like the sort of thing it sounds like would go in a .install file.

2. The driver won't run without a configuration file. Or to put it another way, nostromo_config must be run and a file saved (blank is fine) before nostromo_daemon will work. This, I'm almost certain should be explained by a .install file. Is that correct?

3. This is the trickiest bit, I think. In order to work correctly (actually, at all) nostromo_daemon requires certain permissions. One way of dealing with this, which is recommended against by the author, is to run it as root. Another, which seems to be the most commonly used in the Ubuntu threads, is to chmod /dev/input/event* to 666 before running the daemon each time. The author's advice is to use a udev rule. The one he recommended was

KERNEL=="event*", SYSFS{product}="Nostromo SpeedPad2", NAME="input/%k", MODE="0660", GROUP="games"

The one I use is currently

KERNEL=="event*", SYSFS{idVendor}=="050d", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0815", MODE="0660", GROUP="games"

I don't know enough about udev rules to know which is better, if either. I -think- that both of these will work only for the n52 speedpad, while the driver theoretically supports (I think) the n50 as well. I'm also fairly certain that neither of these will help if the user does not have a group "games" configured of which he is a member. For these reasons, among others, I am inclined to think that it would be better to have the .install file notify the user that such a udev rule is needed rather than trying to foist one on them somehow. Advice on this matter would be appreciated.

4. I just realized I need to test something. When the daemon is run, it puts an icon in the notification area that allows easy access to the configuration tool and to turning the daemon off. I'm not sure whether when I have it set as a daemon in my rc.conf it doesn't work at all, or just doesn't display the notification area icon because it loads before there's a notification area. I'll have to check on that.