no events in /dev/input/event* under X

[Andreas-C. Bernstein]

Since upgrading to Intrepid, i can't read anything from /dev/input/event* under X. For example take the mouse under event1:

sudo hexdump -Cv /dev/input/event1

works fine on a virtual terminal but not under X anymore. Its very important for us to read via the event interface since we use a lot of self made devices for our research. What changed from ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 ?

Is this a bug ? Or do i have to install additional packages ? Or do i have to reinstall ubuntu 8.04 to use the event interface ?

[Daniel d'Andrada (dandrader)]

Looks like someone found the reason for this problem in another bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hal/+bug/267682/comments/84

"It seems that the X server grabs the relevant /dev/input/eventX with ioctl(EVIOCGRAB), which means it gets exclusive access to the events"

[Andrew (hachuah)]

Hi,

Is this bug going to get fixed? Currently, this kills support for evrouter, which I need to get my usb remote working...

thx
andrew

[VinceLe (legoll)]

I tried it (hexdump'ing /dev/input/event*) on ubuntu 10.10 and it looks like the bug is not there any more...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[dino99 (9d9)]

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal/