I am a newbie Linux user currently running Redhat 8.0 (using the KDE environment). I have bought a new USB device (a keyboard with a touchpad on it) for a project I am doing.

When I plug the USB keyboard in, Redhat's automatic hardware detection agent recognizes it right away and the device (keyboard and touchpad) works immediately with no problems. This is normally a situation people only dream of!

My problem is that I have written a program that should communicate directly with the device but will now run into possible contention for the device because Redhat's agent seems to have automatically/dynamically made the device available to X (e.g. so that it can move the cursor and/or accept keyboard input). There are no modifications made to the XF86Config file which leads me to believe the device has been available dynamically.

Is there a way to keep the device available, but to disable other processes/programs (such as X) from reading from it so that my program is able to communicate with it contention-free?

Thanks for any help.

Ted

Are you absolutely sure no changes were made to your XF86Config file ? Check your /etc/X11 dir to be sure...there could be several versions of the file present.

I have checked the directory as you have mentioned but I can only see 1 XF86Config file. In that file, there are only 2 InputDevices configured, one called "Mouse0" and one called "Keyboard0". I believe these are the ones corresponding to my original mouse and keyboard [not the new USB device I have attached].

Okay,

So if I understand you correctly you have two keyboards and two mice plugged in ? Are they all USB devices ?
And could you please list the input devices lines from your XF86Config file ?
It always helps to be specific...

I apologize for not providing more details in my earlier postings. Here they are:

I installed Redhat 8 with a PS/2 Logitech Keyboard and a USB Microsoft Mouse attached. Redhat automatically configured these for me during the install.

My new hardware device that I would like to install is an IBM UltraNav USB Keyboard (it is a normal keyboard with a Trackpoint device and a Touchpad device built-in to it). There is only 1 USB cable that connects it to a PC (even though there are technically three devices on this piece of hardware).

I repeat the relevant sections in my XF86Config file below:

-----------------------------------------------

Section "Server Layout"
Identifier "Anaconda Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
#
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice0"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection
--------------------------------------------------------------

This information was obtained from the XF86Config file in the /etc/X11 directory. I am not aware of any other existing config file in this directory.

Running the "dmesg" command displays potentially useful information about how the system recognized the new devices. Here is the relevant output from running this command:

----------------------------------------------------------------
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/1, assigned device number 2
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 3, frame# 564
input0: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Microsoft Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical] on
usb1:2.0
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.18, 14 May 2002 on ide0(3,5), internal journal
Adding Swap: 1566328k swap-space (priority -1)
hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/2, assigned device number 3
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 4 ports detected
hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/2/3, assigned device number 4
input1: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Lite-On Tech IBM USB Keyboard with UltraNav]
on usb1:4.0
input2: USB HID v1.10 Pointer [Lite-On Tech IBM USB Keyboard with UltraNav] on
usb1:4.1
hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/2/4, assigned device number 5
input3: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint]
on usb1:5.0
input4: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint]
on usb1:5.1
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I guess the main question that needs answering is where X is being told to read from these new devices, given that it is not in the XF86Config file. I am still fairly new to Linux so I am not sure where to begin looking.


Thanks again for your help.

-Ted-

Does anyone else have any ideas? I think I just need to find out where X has found out about this device then tell X to ignore it.

-t

does you keyboard works when alone without other keyboard and mouse if so when you plugged it out kudzu removed the entry for it from the xfconfig file remove kudzu and congiure it by hand

I unplugged the original keyboard and mouse, and booted up the computer only with the new Keyboard I bought.

The keyboard (along with the integrated Trackpoint and Touchpad) all work. My XF86Config file has also not changed. It still has the original InputDevice lines in it (not commented out).

I want the system to recognize the existence of my device, I just do NOT want it to automatically give X the details of it so it can read from it. It is this that I need to find out: how and where do I tell X not to read from this device?!!! (It shouldn't anyways because it is not in the XF86Config file!)

Thanks again to anyone who can help.

if both devices use the same interface then you cant do anything its like having two ps/2 mouses. both will work with the same configuration.