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Where can I pose a hardware question relation to the Linux kernel or drivers?

Asked by Gary Kline

In 1999 I wrote a key-click add-on for the FreeBSD kernel. A disk crash lost what code I was working on, and I didn't rewrite my drop-in code. Now I am used FreeBSD as my domain server and Ubuntu as my desktop. During my career I have only written two or three drivers. Having a click-driver would benefit at least several thousands of users. Nutshell---and I _cannot_ find this from Google--where can I ask about looking at writing a keyboard driver that gives soft audio feedback?

My last driver hacking was in the late 1980's or early 90's, so I am rusty!

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mycae (mycae) said : 		#1

There is a book "writing linux device drivers', but its old. Also the "Linux Kernel Hackers Guide".. also old.

However, what you are suggesting seems to be something that would be very difficult to implement at the kernel level anyway, as you would need to be able to hook into both alsa, and the system's keyboard driver at the same time.

Linux audio can only be described as "bloody complicated", and moreso in recent years thanks to the continual re-invention of the audio subsystem (JACK, Pulseaudio, and friends). So I would probably try to see if you can look at writing an X hook for the keyboard. I would start by looking at http://code.google.com/p/key-mon/ ; which does keyboard hooking to display an on-screen keyboard. You could probably modify that to emit a "click" instead of an image.

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Gary Kline (kline) said : 		#2

Egads! (or OMG))

Considering that my first tty driver took arounf 9 weeks, I am used to complex hacking. My limitation is that my forte is C. Still, your point is well taken. The 1999 FBSD kybd code was a hack, but legitimate and I did something like what you are suggesting. With every key, I sounded the BEL. (*As a first try! and yes, it did drive me batty, so I left it; then the drive crashed... )

There is a reason behind this idea. I only watch the keyboard when I type. I bought a "clicky" keyboard to compensate for my disabilities--the BSD kernel/driver hacker[s] didn't agree with my ideas, and really, the Berkeley distros are not very desktop orientated. Several months back I got in touch with the OLPC group. Their laptop has a membrane keyboard that requires consistant pressure to activate a key and they were interested in having the keystrikes issue an audio feedback. Turns out that several million children could benefit from this.

Just for full disclosure... .
.

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h sr f (hsdhse33) said : 		#3

13.10 (Saucy) is now beyond feature freeze so that is all about solving insects!
2. Packaging 3.10 for the gnome3-group ppa's, this typically involves porting patches and many others. To this point we most effective have the core stuff up, masses of other packages to be carried out here https://careerstracking.com/

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