paul@eye.com (Paul B. Booth) (04/08/91)
Hi-
The title says it; is there a reasonable way to get the hp X server to
recognize a non hp-hil device as an input device? Specifically, I've got a
Spaceball with an rs-232 interface lying around that might make a neat
"mouse" if only it could talk to the server. Any ideas?
--
Paul B. Booth (paul@eye.com) (...!hplabs!hpfcla!eye!paul)
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3D/EYE, Inc., 2359 N. Triphammer Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850 voice: (607)257-1381
fax: (607)257-7335jeff@dsndata.uucp (Jeff Minnig) (04/10/91)
In article <1991Apr08.162946.11128@eye.com> paul@eye.com (Paul B. Booth) writes: > > The title says it; is there a reasonable way to get the hp X server to > recognize a non hp-hil device as an input device? Specifically, I've got a > Spaceball with an rs-232 interface lying around that might make a neat > "mouse" if only it could talk to the server. Any ideas? > Me too.... We have a bunch of hatachi digitizer tablets that are 9600 RS232 based that we need to support under 'X'... -jeff- -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I said it, not the people I work for. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeff Minnig | (402) 476-8278 Design Data | 1033 'O' St. Suite 324 | {hpfcla,sparky,unocss}!dsndata!jeff Lincoln NE 68508 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Home is where your keyboard is. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
gms@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (George Sachs) (04/11/91)
It can be done, but it's not trivial. The hp X server can be configured, via the /usr/lib/X11/X*devices file, to use an alternate path for its input devices instead of /dev/hil*. This allows you to specify a path, such as "/tmp/hil" to which you can link ptys. You then write a program that reads input from the input device, in this case the Spaceball, reformats it into something the X server will understand (HIL device format), and writes it to the pty. The X server thinks it's getting input from an HIL device, so it's happy. Since the Spaceball reports 6 axes of motion, your program will have to ignore 4 of them. Since the X protocol does not provide any way to send configuration commands to input devices, your program will have to do that as well. George Sachs gms@cv.hp.com