"fake" X11 input driver?

[Paul Fox]

i wrote:
 > i wrote:
 >  > the xorg.conf file on the XO has no "traditional" stanzas for
 >  > pointer and keyboard.  this means there's no place to put options
 >  > for things like "ctrl:nocaps" or "emulate3buttons".
...
 > i've now found part of this (no emulate3buttons) already filed as
 >     http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/5898
 > so i see that it's been brought up before.
 > 
 > (the other part (ctrl:nocaps), btw, isn't obsoleted by the
 > inspired control key placement on the XO keyboard.  it's an
 > issue with external usb keyboards.)

just fyi, since i brought it up (and because when i search with
problems i know i hate finding questions without answers) -- i've
gotten the ctrl:nocaps to work in a somewhat crude fashion.  it
turns out this is a somewhat popular topic, since the evdev
config options changed just recently, and it wasn't well
documented -- turns out it's the buzz of the distro forums.  the
trick is to add the external keyboard explicitly as an input
device (in the fullness of time i think the idea is that
udev-created symlinks will help here), and assign it the
ctrl:nocaps option.

so, commenting out the reference to the "fake" InputDevice and
adding this:

    Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "external_kbd"
        Driver      "evdev"
        Option "CoreKeyboard"
        Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
        Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Itron_Powerful_Receiver-event-kbd"
        Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
    EndSection

seems to do the trick -- the usb keyboard no longer has a capslock
key, and the built-in keyboard still works normally.  obviously there
needs to be more to this, since what i've done requires knowing
the specific model name reported by the keyboard.  but i confess
i'm having trouble picturing the general solution.

(i played with trying to find a similar solution to "emulate3buttons", but
wan't successful.)

paul
=---------------------
 paul fox, pgf at foxharp.boston.ma.us (arlington, ma, where it's 31.3 degrees)