handbook - [5.4.2 Configuring X11] - suggesting an improvement

[Dan]

Hi :-)

Thank you for the fast feedback. So in your tests hal did not actually 
parse the new/modified fdi file(s) ? Or some hardware, that was 
previously working, stopped ?

Here, hal needed a restart together with the X-Window System (maybe one 
should also state this in the doc). I was pretty sure that starting a 
script at boot time or restarting it later when the system was already 
running would not lead to differences in behaviour (reading config files I mean). 

BTW, I am not aware of the FreeBSD policies in this respect but, you 
already know, one of the critics made to some well-known software is 
that it leads to too many (unnecessary) reboots. I think it would not be bad here to underline that a reboot is needed just in the worst case. 
And what if a new FreeBSD user, who is reading the guide, has to test 
several fdi files because she/he is not able to write a working one at 
first (how many reboots...) ?  (But It's also true that she/he also 
would be unnecessarily worried if hal would not read the config files 
when the script restarts -...isnt there any log??)

But, definitely, all this is just my own opinion. 

ciao,
daniele



________________________________
De : Marc Fonvieille <blackend at freebsd.org>
À : daniele <meslists at yahoo.fr>
Cc : freebsd-doc at freebsd.org
Envoyé le : Ven 5 Février 2010, 19 h 39 min 25 s
Objet : Re: handbook - [5.4.2 Configuring X11] - suggesting an improvement

On Fri, Feb 05, 2010 at 11:58:08AM +0100, daniele wrote:
> >
> > >/
> > />/  I was reading the section 5.4.2 of the handbook. In the 2nd and 3rd Notes,
> > />/  after the fdi file code, one reads
> > />/
> > />/  "You will have to reboot your machine to force *hald* to read this file."
> > />/
> > />/  I think this is not the most efficient solution to let hald read again the
> > />/  file.
> > />/
> > />/  Restarting just the hal start script  wouldn't be enough ?
> > /
> > Not always:
> >
> > http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=595146+0+archive/2009/freebsd-doc/20091101.freebsd-doc
> >    
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for answering. That seems a bit "strange". The specifically 
> reported "problems" in the end are a mouse not working after the restart 
> but the author did not specify the number of machines he made the test 
> on and if other problems occur. It would be interesting to know a bit 
> more about this (I mean if it happens frequently and if other problems 
> occur). I changed the keyboard layout 1-2 times but got no problems here 
> restarting the script.
>

I think the problem is not the number of machines tested but the fact it
just did not work for some users/hardware.  This is a problem since
people may think the issue is coming from their fdi script when it's
just the hald daemon unable to reread a file.  The proposed solution
works for everyone.

Maybe we can rewrite the part with a mention of rc.d HAL restart and
then with a note telling "if it does not work , you will have to reboot
your box... blahblah".

-- 
Marc