Re: Dell laptops

On Thu, Jul 13, 2006 at 06:49:16AM -0500, Eric Anderson wrote:
> >I don't know how to contact Dell in order to get that fixed.
> 
> I might be able to help you get in contact with someone, or maybe get 
> the right information to the right people.  I don't completely 
> understand everything above, so you'll have to explain to me (or to 
> them) what needs fixing..

Suppose you wrote something like that under C:

void
f1(void)
{
	unsigned int local0;

	local0 = smi(0x96, 0);

	if (local0 & FLAG_1)
		do_something();

	if (local0 & FLAG_2) {
		/* local0 will change here */
		local0 = smi(0x62, 0);
		...
	}

	/*
	 *local0 could possibly be changed by the above if() statement
	 */
	if (local0 & FLAG_3) {
		...
	}

}

Is that clarify what I have in mind?

> 
> >Second, there is a method called \SMI(), taking 2 arguments and
> >returning a value.  This method will actually trigger a SMI handler
> >in order to perform almost all power management stuff, as for
> >example getting fan status, controlling fan speed, controlling
> >docking and so on.  There is a specific kernel module under linux
> >called i8k, that can be found here :
> >http://people.debian.org/~dz/i8k/
> >Even though I think this driver could have possibly "funny" effect
> >if ACPI is enabled under Linux (it will actually share the same
> >IO with the SMI() method, and that must be serialized for obvious
> >reason), looking onto that driver we learn for example that
> >SMI(0x25, 0) will likely return the FN key status for almost
> >all Dell Laptop.
> >
> >Therefore it should be somewhat easy to write a simple ACPI
> >driver for Dell laptops, at least for FN key (if those still
> >don't work).
> >
> >ATM I don't have time for writing such support.
> 
> Would this driver be akin to the asus, fujitsu, and ibm drivers that exist?

Something like that, though I don't know exactly what feature provides
those drivers.

-- 
Bruno Ducrot

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