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authorStelian Pop <stelian@popies.net>2007-01-13 23:04:31 +0100
committerLen Brown <len.brown@intel.com>2007-02-13 03:04:22 -0500
commit7f09c432bed80cecfba634933ddc06735e64da00 (patch)
tree9c0640829aa5d72b74f0197942ecebf3814ea83e /Documentation
parent62d0cfcb27cf755cebdc93ca95dabc83608007cd (diff)
sony_acpi: SNC device support for Sony Vaios
From: Bjorn Helgaas <bjorn.helgaas@hp.com> Even though the devices claimed by sony_acpi.c can not be hot-plugged, the driver registration infrastructure allows the .add() and .remove() methods to be called at any time while the driver is registered. So remove __init and __exit from them. From: Matthew Garrett <mjg59@srcf.ucam.org> [UBUNTU:acpi/sony] Add FN hotkey support Source URL of Patch: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/bcollins/ubuntu-dapper.git;a=commitdiff;h=7a9b49cba4919e8506604629db03add8e0b85767 Signed-off-by: Ben Collins <bcollins@ubuntu.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Mattia Dongili <malattia@linux.it> Signed-off-by: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com>
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+ACPI Sony Notebook Control Driver (SNC) Readme
+----------------------------------------------
+ Copyright (C) 2004- 2005 Stelian Pop <stelian@popies.net>
+
+This mini-driver drives the ACPI SNC device present in the
+ACPI BIOS of the Sony Vaio laptops.
+
+It gives access to some extra laptop functionalities. In
+its current form, this driver is mainly useful for controlling the
+screen brightness, but it may do more in the future.
+
+You should probably start by trying the sonypi driver, and try
+sony_acpi only if sonypi doesn't work for you.
+
+Usage:
+------
+
+Loading the sony_acpi module will create a /proc/acpi/sony/
+directory populated with a couple of files.
+
+You then read/write integer values from/to those files by using
+standard UNIX tools.
+
+The files are:
+ brightness current screen brightness
+ brightness_default screen brightness which will be set
+ when the laptop will be rebooted
+ cdpower power on/off the internal CD drive
+
+Note that some files may be missing if they are not supported
+by your particular laptop model.
+
+Example usage:
+ # echo "1" > /proc/acpi/sony/brightness
+sets the lowest screen brightness,
+ # echo "8" > /proc/acpi/sony/brightness
+sets the highest screen brightness,
+ # cat /proc/acpi/sony/brightness
+retrieves the current screen brightness.
+
+Development:
+------------
+
+If you want to help with the development of this driver (and
+you are not afraid of any side effects doing strange things with
+your ACPI BIOS could have on your laptop), load the driver and
+pass the option 'debug=1'.
+
+REPEAT: DON'T DO THIS IF YOU DON'T LIKE RISKY BUSINESS.
+
+In your kernel logs you will find the list of all ACPI methods
+the SNC device has on your laptop. You can see the GBRT/SBRT methods
+used to get/set the brightness, but there are others.
+
+I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THOSE METHODS DO.
+
+The sony_acpi driver creates, for some of those methods (the most
+current ones found on several Vaio models), an entry under
+/proc/acpi/sony/, just like the 'brightness' one. You can create
+other entries corresponding to your own laptop methods by further
+editing the source (see the 'sony_acpi_values' table, and add a new
+structure to this table with your get/set method names).
+
+Your mission, should you accept it, is to try finding out what
+those entries are for, by reading/writing random values from/to those
+files and find out what is the impact on your laptop.
+
+Should you find anything interesting, please report it back to me,
+I will not disavow all knowledge of your actions :)
+
+Bugs/Limitations:
+-----------------
+
+* This driver is not based on official documentation from Sony
+ (because there is none), so there is no guarantee this driver
+ will work at all, or do the right thing. Although this hasn't
+ happened to me, this driver could do very bad things to your
+ laptop, including permanent damage.
+
+* The sony_acpi and sonypi drivers do not interact at all. In the
+ future, sonypi could use sony_acpi to do (part of) its business.
+
+* spicctrl, which is the userspace tool used to communicate with the
+ sonypi driver (through /dev/sonypi) does not try to use the
+ sony_acpi driver. In the future, spicctrl could try sonypi first,
+ and if it isn't present, try sony_acpi instead.
+