Re: [gdm-list] multiple at-spi starting commands

[Francesco Fumanti <francesco fumanti gmx net>]

Hi Brian,


> I'd think there should just be on at-spi-registryd per-user.  You
> would need to test and see if there are problems with starting more
> than one instance of it.

I realize that this question would have been more appropriate in the 
accessibility mailing list.

I just tried it and it seems trying to start another instance does not work.


> > I have been told that the automatic start of at-spi-registryd in 
> > ubuntu has probably been disabled on purpose because of 
> > incompatibilities with certain hardware.
>
> This seems badly broken to me.  What incompatibilities?  Are there
> bugs filed about these issues?  I assume that Ubuntu doesn't disable
> starting at-spi-registryd in the user's session.  If it works okay
> in the session, how does hardware issues create problems for GDM
> only?

In Ubuntu there is an option in the Assistive Technology Preferences 
to start at-spi. Enabling/disabling it requires a logout followed by 
a login. Trying to start at-spi in the ubuntu gnome session from the 
terminal does not work; it complains about xevie missing.

I don't know whether at-spi is enabled by default.


The person who told me that was not sure; he talked about wacom 
devices. I did not insist further...


> > So I will add a gesture to start at-spi. Will I have to make sure 
> > that the command to start at-spi is only given once? Or will 
> > subsequent commands to start at-spi remain without effect, once 
> > at-spi is running?
>
> Starting it via a gesture is less usable and probably prone to error.
> I'd recommend working to fix the incompaitibiles with certain hardware
> issues.  As a temporary workaround so you can focus on your more
> interesting task of integrating onscreen, it's okay.  But it seems a
> little odd to expect an end user to know they need to start a
> daemon by hand before they can run AT programs.

Yes, I fully agree that it is odd to have a user first start at-spi 
manualy. First I made the gesture to start mousetweaks also start 
at-spi; but later I decided to give at-spi its own gesture, because 
in any case, all this gesture features will require the user to read 
documentation. So there is no problem to let the user know that he 
has to start at-spi before starting mousetweaks. (Hence my original 
idea about gdmgreeter; the intention was to make the user see what is 
available without having him read documentation).

In another email, you suggested that using the same gesture to start 
stop an application during gdmlogin should be done by the gesture 
software in gdm itself instead of scripts. This also sounds very 
sensible. I don't know whether I will be able to do it; I will look 
later at it... For now, I will propose the version with the scripts 
that is nearly ready.


Finally, you are also right that fixing the incompatibilities instead 
of disabling at-spi alltogether would be the better way. 
Unfortunately, I don't really know what is going on about this...


Francesco