Difference between evdev and mousedev?

texton · 06-17-2012, 04:33 AM

Hi guys..

I have a hard time understanding the difference between the different input event drivers?

To me it seems that the use of evdev and mousedev (for example) is precisely the same in my input device driver?

I have found some examples where mousedev supposedly should be used, but in the driver-init method nothing is indicating this?

Can someone please explain it to me?

Didier Spaier · 06-18-2012, 05:50 PM

In mousedev.c it's written:

Code:

 * Input driver to ExplorerPS/2 device driver module.

in evdev.c it's written:

Code:

 * Event char devices, giving access to raw input device events.

In short, instead of moused, evdev is a generic driver.

evdev is also the name of an Xorg driver, let's quote "man evdev":

Code:

evdev  is an Xorg input driver for Linux´s generic event devices.  It therefore supports all input devices that
       the kernel knows about, including most mice, keyboards, tablets and touchscreens.  evdev is the default  driver
       on the major Linux distributions.

       The  evdev driver can serve as both a pointer and a keyboard input device. Multiple input devices are supported
       by multiple instances of this driver, with one InputDevice section of your xorg.conf for each input device that
       will use this driver.