Re: [PATCH] Input: i8042 - disable active multiplexing by default

From: Jiri Kosina
Date: Fri Oct 10 2014 - 16:59:27 EST


On Fri, 10 Oct 2014, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:

> Active multiplexing is a nice feature as it allows several pointing devices
> (such as touchpad and external mouse) use their native protocols at the
> same time. Unfortunately many manufacturers do not implement the feature
> properly even though they advertise it. The problematic implementations are
> never fixed, since Windows by default does not use this mode, and move from
> one BIOS/model of laptop to another. When active multiplexing is broken
> turning it on usually results in touchpad, keyboard, or both unresponsive.
>
> With PS/2 usage on decline (most of PS/2 devices in use nowadays are
> internal laptop touchpads), I expect number of users who have laptops with
> working MUX implementation, docking stations with external PS/2 ports, and
> who are still using external PS/2 mice, to be rather small. Let's flip the
> default to be OFF and allow activating it through i8042.nomux=0 kernel
> option. We'll also keep DMI table where we can record known good models.

Being responsible for introducing a non-trivial portion of
i8042_dmi_nomux_table[] entries:

Acked-by: Jiri Kosina <jkosina@xxxxxxx>

If nothing else, it'd make my life easier :)

[ ... snip ... ]
> diff --git a/drivers/input/serio/i8042.c b/drivers/input/serio/i8042.c
> index f5a98af..9a97c2b 100644
> --- a/drivers/input/serio/i8042.c
> +++ b/drivers/input/serio/i8042.c
> @@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ static bool i8042_noaux;
> module_param_named(noaux, i8042_noaux, bool, 0);
> MODULE_PARM_DESC(noaux, "Do not probe or use AUX (mouse) port.");
>
> -static bool i8042_nomux;
> +static bool i8042_nomux = true;

Hmmm ... perhaps if we want to be really friendly, we should warn (and I
definitely don't mean WARN(), but rather pr_info() or something) if we
encounter that the cmdline contains 'i8042.nomux=1'.

Thanks,

--
Jiri Kosina
SUSE Labs
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