X.Org Server Lands X Input 2.4 Touchpad Gestures

[phoronix]

Phoronix: X.Org Server Lands X Input 2.4 Touchpad Gestures

While there are no signs of X.Org Server 1.21 shipping anytime soon, being merged today to the Git code-base is bumping X Input to version 2.4 with the introduction of touchpad gestures...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=X-Input-2.4-Touchpad-Gestures

[lucrus]

Do we really need X.Org Server 1.21 release after all? Couldn't distros just pick up the most recent git tree and package that?

[StarterX4]

Do we really need X.Org Server 1.21 release after all? Couldn't distros just pick up the most recent git tree and package that?

Do we really need X.Org Server after all? Coudn't everyone just focus on the Wayland and it's development?

Plasma 5.22 Beta is finally usable on Wayland, and so i already switched.

[leech]

Do we really need X.Org Server after all? Coudn't everyone just focus on the Wayland and it's development?

Plasma 5.22 Beta is finally usable on Wayland, and so i already switched.

Wayland itself is still missing some rather valuable features. Not to mention XWayland doesn't work on some native games. (I ran into at least issues with Shadow of the Tomb Raider)

[Leprechaunius]

Why are people even bothering adding features to the master branch of Xorg considering there won't be any release in the next decade?
Is there a distro that builds their own xorg packages from the master branch?

[DominoTree]

Why are people even bothering adding features to the master branch of Xorg considering there won't be any release in the next decade?
Is there a distro that builds their own xorg packages from the master branch?

This is part of some pretty heavy libinput development to improve Linux touchpad support and the choice was made to port gesture support into xorg rather than only have Wayland compatibility considering its overall limited adoption. Whether another release happens is certainly another question, however.

More info:

https://bill.harding.blog/2021/02/11/linux-touchpad-like-a-mac-update-firefox-gesture-support-goes-live/

https://github.com/gitclear/libinput

[Chugworth]

I wonder when they'll ever add the high-resolution scrollwheel support. That was added to the kernel quite some time ago, but still not implemented on the desktop.

[pranav]

high-resolution scrollwheel

Is that even a thing?! What does it do? Except scrolling...

[Snaipersky]

Thankfully I exclusively use the trackpoint on my laptop, or I'd be tempted to rebase my hand-merged xserver build.
Lots of handy unmerged stuff sitting in the xserver repo. I keep hearing "no one wants to step up," but honestly it seems to just need a solid week of merge/rebase and trying to contact people who submitted old PRs. I know the modesetting TearFree merge and the GLAMOR optimizations gave me a measurable benefit.

[intelfx]

Is that even a thing?! What does it do? Except scrolling...

Pixel-precise scrolling, like you get with touchpads (as opposed to line-based scrolling like you get with classic mice with clicky scrollwheels).

It's funny: the software support is there (it works for touchpads, after all), the hardware support is there (like on my Logitech MX Master mouse), the kernel support is there... but it doesn't work.