Working With HAL fdi Files

You can configure input devices for the Xorg server by using the fdi files read by the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) system daemon, hald.

For example, to force the Emulate3Buttons option on mouse devices to enable pressing left and right buttons together to act as a middle button, include the following XML excerpt in the /etc/hal/fdi/policy/30user/10-x11-3button.fdi file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
		<device>
			<!--Default X.org input configuration is defined in:
	    	/etc/hal/fdi/policy/30user/10-x11-input.fdi
    	Settings here modify or override the default configuration.
    	See comment in the file above for more information.

    	To see the currently active hal X.org input configuration
    	run lshal or hal-device(1m) and search for "input.x11*" keys.

     	Hal and X must be restarted for changes here to take any effect -->

			<match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.mouse">
			<merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">on</merge>
			</match>
		</device>
</deviceinfo>

The lshal command can be used to check the available input devices recognized by HAL and see the options that are set on them. For more information, see lshal(1M), hal(5), and fdi(4) man pages.