HAL, Xserver And How It Works
Introduction
I’ve been getting more and more into HAL, Xserver. Everyone knows by now I own a A205-S5825. On a Laptop FN is used to get the extra functionality out of the F keys. Not all F keys work out of the box. For instance the F9 is used to toggle the touch pad on and off under Windows. This same F9 key doesn’t do anything under my Kubuntu installation.
HAL stands for Hardware Abstraction Layer. The Abstraction Layer provides a layer between hardware and software and is meant to “hide” differences between hardware for the Operation System (OS).
In Kubuntu 8.10 this works though a .fdi file in versions before 8.10 there was a xorg.conf file. There was kind of a shock that went through the Linux community when it was announced that Xserver would go without the trusted xorg.conf file.
I believe how ever that the fdi files will allow for much more flexibility. As I read up on how to create and manage the fdi files I am learning more and more. I will keep it up untill I know how to get the f-keys that I want working to work.
More about this subject in later posts.
Tags: HAL, Kubuntu, laptop, linux, xserver
