Re: [ACPI-sppt] Special keys and ACPI

On Fri, Jul 04, 2003 at 03:30:52PM -0400, Heberto del Rio wrote:
> Hi, I am new on this list. I have a Gateway 600XL (Solo?), probably what is 
> most important is the BIOS: BIOSPhoenix 4.06, laptop running
> SuSE 8.2 and something curious happens: if I enable apm (on the boot
> command line, disable acpi) I have all of my special functions working
> perfectly, Fn+F2 gives me the status of the battery (in both modes, text
> and graphics) Fn+F3 switches from LCD to CRT and visceversa (in both modes,
> text and graphics) and some other Fn+ key combinations, but if I enable
> acpi none of these key combinations works. Something strange is the fact 
> that one of the combinations of keys Fn+F9 is the Pad Lock which works 
> independently of the power management. Is there any particular reason for 
> this behavior? Any suggestions?
> 

If you think that apm is not broken for your laptop, especially
apm idle call, battery monitoring, suspension, etc. you should
then stick to apm.  Of course, you can try acpi, but only if you
are some personal interrest for (like developpement, or helping
to improve acpi support under linux).

Next, to answer your question, all the fn-key will likely generate
another type of interrupt (SCI, instead of SMI), so that they are
handled differently (SMI will be the BIOS, SCI will be the OS).

In case of SCI (or if you prefer, acpi), those interrupts will
be handled by the OS in 2 possibly manner.  A 'fixed' one (like
sleep button) may be handled independantly of the firmware.
It's up to the OS to handled them.  For others (like some Fn-keys),
a defined firmware function will be called.  These firmware function
is written in a indendant CPU language, called AML.

Cheers,

-- 
Ducrot Bruno

--  Which is worse:  ignorance or apathy?
--  Don't know.  Don't care.


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