README¶
This package provides 2 things :
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- asus-laptop.o or asus-laptop.ko (for 2.6.X kernel), a kernel module to handle
hotkey events, LEDs, Backlight, etc...
- asus_acpid, a user-level daemon, based on acpid, to handle events generated
by the kernel module. This daemon is only provided as an example, you can use
any tool you want, as all events reported by the driver are inserted in the
/proc/acpi/event queue. So, if you want, you can use the regular acpid. The
advantage of this daemon is that it can be launched by any user, and so,
interact directly with the X session opened by this user. You may then be
able to launch X programs with this daemon, whereas with the classical ACPI
daemon, this is not possible easily.
Table of contents :
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1. Requirements
2. Compilation
2.1 Kernel module
2.2 asus_acpid daemon
3. Installation
3.1 Kernel module
3.2 asus_acpid
4. Usage
4.1 Kernel module
4.1.1 Display switching
4.1.2 LED display
4.2 asus_acpid daemon
5. Kernel support
6. Unsupported models
7. Patches, Errors, Questions:
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1. Requirements
Kernel 2.4.X or 2.6.X sources, configured for you computer, with ACPI support.
You also need CONFIG_LEDS_CLASS and CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_CLASS_DEVICE.
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2. Compilation
For the impatient, simply type make in the top level directory of the
package, everything should be compiled fine. If it's not the case, read on.
2.1 Kernel module
Go to the driver directory : cd driver
If your kernel tree is not in /lib/modules/<kernel_version_you_use>/build,
you will have to edit the Makefile to change the line s
KDIR := /lib/modules/$(KVER)/build
to reflect the path to your kernel tree :
KDIR = </absolute_path_to_your_kernel_tree/>
You can also create a link from /lib/modules/<kernel_version_you_use>/build
to your kernel source tree.
You can edit the Makefile if you wish to change the linker (ld by default)
and the compiler (gcc by default), or any option defined there ...
Type make, you are done.
To use the backlight and LEDs, you need to activate
$ make menuconfig
Device Drivers -->
Graphics support --->
[*] Backlight & LCD device support --->
--- Backlight & LCD device support
<*> Lowlevel Backlight controls
LED devices --->
[*] LED Support
<*> LED Class Support
2.2 asus_acpid daemon
Go to the asus_acpid directory
Edit the Makefile if you wish to change the default install directories
(/usr/local/bin and /usr/local/share/man/man8).
Type make, you are done.
You can compile both the daemon and the kernel module by typing make in the
top directory.
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3. Installation
For the impatient, simply type "make install" in the top level directory of
the package. The kernel module will be installed in
/lib/modules/2.X.XX/kernel/drivers/misc, and the daemon in /usr/local/bin. If
it doesn't work, read on.
3.1 Kernel module
Go to the driver directory : cd driver
Type "make install", you are done, module is in
/lib/modules/2.X.XX/kernel/drivers/misc. If the path is wrong, edit the
Makefile and correct it.
3.2 asus_acpid
Go to the asus_acpid directory
Edit the Makefile if you wish to change the default install directories
(/usr/local/bin and /usr/local/share/man/man8).
Type "make install", you are done.
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4. Usage
4.1 Kernel module
Try "modprobe asus_acpi". Check your dmesg (simply type dmesg). You should
see some lines like this :
Asus Laptop Extras version 0.40
L2D model detected.
If it is not the output you have on your laptop, send it (and the laptop's
DSDT) to me.
That's all, now, all the events generated by the hotkeys of your laptop
should be reported in your /proc/acpi/event entry. You can check it, if you
are root, by doing a "cat /proc/acpi/event" and pressing those hotkeys, you
should see them appear. You won't be able to open /proc/acpi/event if it is
already opened by another program, so check if you haven't a daemon running
(like acpid), before reporting a bug :)
You can modify LEDs be echoing values to /sys/class/leds/asus:*/brightness :
echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/asus:mail/brightness
will switch the mail LED on ...
You can as well know if they are on/off by reading their content and use
kernel triggers like ide-disk or heartbeat.
You can get informations on the version of your DSDT table by reading the
/sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/infos entry. If you have a question or a
bug report to do, please include the output of this entry.
You can control lcd backlight power and brightness with
/sys/class/backlight/asus-laptop/. Brightness Values are between 0 and 15.
You can turn the internal Bluetooth adapter on/off with the bluetooth entry
(only on models with Bluetooth). This usually controls the associated LED.
Same for Wlan adapter.
4.1.1 Display switching
Note: the display switching code is currently considered EXPERIMENTAL.
Switching works for the following models:
L3800C
A2500H
L5800C
M5200N
W1000N (albeit with some glitches)
M6700R
A6JC
F3J
Switching doesn't work for the following:
M3700N
L2X00D (locks the laptop under certain conditions)
To switch the displays, echo values from 0 to 15 to
/sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/display. The significance of those values
is as follows:
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Bin | Val | DVI | TV | CRT | LCD |
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 0000 + 0 + + + + +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 0001 + 1 + + + + X +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 0010 + 2 + + + X + +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 0011 + 3 + + + X + X +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 0100 + 4 + + X + + +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 0101 + 5 + + X + + X +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 0110 + 6 + + X + X + +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 0111 + 7 + + X + X + X +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 1000 + 8 + X + + + +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 1001 + 9 + X + + + X +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 1010 + 10 + X + + X + +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 1011 + 11 + X + + X + X +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 1100 + 12 + X + X + + +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 1101 + 13 + X + X + + X +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 1110 + 14 + X + X + X + +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
+ 1111 + 15 + X + X + X + X +
+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
In most cases, the appropriate displays must be plugged in for the above
combinations to work. TV-Out may need to be initialized at boot time.
Debugging:
1) Check whether the Fn+F8 key:
a) does not lock the laptop (try disabling CONFIG_X86_UP_APIC or boot with
noapic / nolapic if it does)
b) generates events (0x6n, where n is the value corresponding to the
configuration above)
c) actually works
Record the disp value at every configuration.
2) Echo values from 0 to 15 to /sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/display.
Record its value, note any change. If nothing changes, try a broader range,
up to 65535.
3) Send ANY output (both positive and negative reports are needed, unless your
machine is already listed above) to the acpi4asus-user mailing list.
Note: on some machines (e.g. L3C), after the module has been loaded, only 0x6n
events are generated and no actual switching occurs. In such a case, a line
like:
echo $((10#$arg-60)) > /sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/display
will usually do the trick ($arg is the 0000006n-like event passed to acpid).
Note: there is currently no reliable way to read display status on xxN
(Centrino) models.
4.1.2 LED display
Some models like the W1N have a LED display that can be used to display
several informations.
LED display works for the following models:
W1000N
W1J
To control the LED display, use the following :
echo 0x0T000DDD > /sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/
where T control the 3 letters display, and DDD the 3 digits display,
according to the tables below.
DDD (digits)
000 to 999 = display digits
AAA = ---
BBB to FFF = turn-off
T (type)
0 = off
1 = dvd
2 = vcd
3 = mp3
4 = cd
5 = tv
6 = cpu
7 = vol
For example "echo 0x01000001 >/sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/ledd"
would display "DVD001".
4.2 asus_acpid daemon
Now, you have to get a program than can handle events reported by the kernel
module. The ACPID daemon is perfect for this, it is certainly packaged for
your distribution, so I suggest you install it. Then you have two solutions:
handle the events generated by hotkeys directly in the acpid configuration
files (generally situated in /etc/acpid/), or with an alternate daemon. As I
mentioned earlier, the advantage of the alternate daemon is that is can be
launched by a non privileged user and interact directly with the environment
of this user, that is you can bind one of your hotkeys to an Xterm if you
wish, what is impossible with the acpid daemon without making dirty hacks...
So, now that you are convinced the alternate daemon is better, we are going
to install it :
1) first create a directory .asus_acpi in your home directory
2) copy everything in samples/ to that directory (cp -r samples/*
~/.asus_acpi)
3) launch asus_acpid (asus_acpid)
4) press hotkeys, enjoy
Check the man page of asus_acpid (man asus_acpid) to know of to change the
configuration.
If you have a "connection refused" message when you try to launch asus_acpid,
it means you must set a correct path to the socket open by acpid. For this
check the config file of your acpid daemon. when you know the path to this
socket, just launch the asus_acpid with "-e /path_to_socket" option.
You can also check if the events are generated by using the small perl
program included in the asus_acpid directory.
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5. Kernel Support
Starting with kernel 2.4.22 and 2.6.X, the driver is included in the vanilla
source tree. You can still compile the driver outside the kernel tree if you
like it this way.
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6. Unsupported models
These models will never be supported by this module, as they use a completely
different mechanism to handle LEDs and extra stuff (meaning we have no clue
how it works):
- ASUS A1300 (A1B), A1370D
- ASUS L7300G
- ASUS L8400
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7. Patches, Errors, Questions:
Please, include the output of /sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/info and
/proc/acpi/dsdt (binary file format is just fine) if you can.
acpi4asus-user@lists.sourceforge.net
http://sourceforge.net/projects/acpi4asus