hybrid-graphics-linux team mailing list archive

[Tommaso Falchi Delitala <volalto86@xxxxxxxxx>]

I know many laptops have soft-keys (my previous acer used to have one too),
but they simply didn't cause anything at all if proper drivers were not
installed (i.e. Linux or Win without drivers).

This case is different. Here the button "works" regardless of drivers.

Maybe the problem is not the button itself but it's deeper in the BIOS. A
different behaviour of the radeon driver when P led is on or OFF is a fact
and I can't find a reason behind it. Maybe an ACPI expert could help.

Tommaso

2011/7/4 Albert Vilella <avilella@xxxxxxxxx>

> I think it's relatively common practice to have "extra" buttons *only*
> mapped as soft-keys. In the Microsoft Windows world, they want to have
> a clean behaviour between optimus compliant Windows versions and
> pre-optimus versions, and having it hard-wired would create problems.
>
> That said, it would be great to have an easy way to create a
> powersave/performance keyboard shortcut in
> bumblebee/acpi_call/vga-switcheroo.
>
> On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 2:30 PM, Tommaso Falchi Delitala
> <volalto86@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hello everybody,
> >
> > Acer TimelineX laptops (3820TG, 4820TG) have a button labelled P
> > (Powersave?) and a blu led showing whether P(owersave) mode is enabled.
> >
> > Does any of you know what the P (Powersave?) button actually does. It
> seems
> > to me that it could have a role in VGA switching (Intel/ATI).
> >
> > This is my experience.
> >
> > Windows:
> >
> > the button switches between high-performance and power-save profiles,
> thus
> > automatically switching video cards (Intel/ATI). Led is OFF when in
> > Performance mode, ON when in Powersave. When the A/C power is diconnected
> > the led automatically turns on and the laptop switches to Intel graphics
> and
> > Powersave profile. Same behaviour can be triggered manually by clicking
> the
> > P button at any moment.
> >
> > Linux:
> >
> > If laptop is started on AC power everything works as expected
> (intel/radeon
> > drivers + vgaswitcheroo). P led is always off (no matters which card is
> > used).
> >
> > Clicking P button:
> >
> > - if Xorg is running --> button does nothing apart from showing a
> "keyboard:
> > can't emulate rawmode for keycode 240" message
> >
> > - if Xorg is not running --> screen brightness suddently decreases and
> this
> > message is printed:
> >
> > "ACPI Error: Current brightness invalid (20110316/video-377)
> >
> > ACPI: Failed to switch the brightness
> >
> > ACPI Warning: _BQC returned an invalid level (20110316/video-473)"
> >
> > If laptop is started on batteries, P led lights up as soon as Linux boots
> > and the kernel panics during UDEV start-up ( "BUG: unable to handle
> kernel
> > paging request at ffffc90409681ffc" @ evergreen_cp_resume [radeon], see
> full
> > dmesg log attached). This error can be prevented by clicking the P button
> > before UDEV starts (thus turning off P led).
> >
> > Is this P button more then just a soft-key? It seems that it could be
> > triggering something at BIOS level.
> >
> > Do you think this issue has anything to do with vgaswitcheroo or is it
> > related to acer-wmi/radeon modules?
> >
> > Best Regards,
> >
> > Tommaso
> >
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