[BUG] laptop keyboard

[BUG] laptop keyboard

[Warren Turkal]

I am not subscribed. Please cc on replies.

I have a Gateway 600 series notebook. I have been using and testing the 
developmental kernel for some time now. I have just noticed that my 
keyboard''s "fn" key combinations stop working upon booting 2.5.65. They 
worked as recently as 2.5.63 and I could not get 2.5.64 to compile cleanly. 
These key combinations are supposed to make various things happen on my 
laptop. I believe that they are controlled by the bios, as I can see results 
of some while on the bios load screen.

Fn-F1 - Labeled "Help"; don't know what it does
Fn-F2 - Labeled "Status"; used to show battery status in upper left
Fn-F3 - Labeled "LCD/CRT"; switch montior output among built in LCD, back
        monitor port, and both
Fn-F4 - Labeled "Standby"; used to function as the ACPI standby button
Fn-F9 - Labeled "Pad Lock"; think num lock; strangely, this one still
        work in 2.5.65
Fn-F10 - Labeled "Scroll Lock"
Fn-F11 - Labeled "Pause"
Fn-F12 - Labeled "Break"

I have tested that the Fn-F2 combination works in bios and grub and continues 
to work until the 2.5.65 kernel is loaded.

I think this is a regression in the keyboard handling for the 2.5.65 kernel.

Like I said before, all of the Fn combinations work in 2.5.63. If anyone has a 
patch from 2.5.63 to something after 2.5.64 that compiles, I would be happy 
to try it. I setup a bitkeeper clone of Linus's latest, so if someone could 
give me some bitkeeper magic to export diffs from 2.5.63 to 2.5.64 in a 
relavant directory (probably drivers/input/keyboard) maybe I could look to 
see what changed, although I don't know if I am skilled enough to find errors 
in the code.

Thanks, Warren Turkal
-- 
Treasurer, GOLUM, Inc.
http://www.golum.org

[BUG] laptop keyboard, more info

[Warren Turkal]

I am not subscribed. Please cc on reply. Thanks.

A terrible description of this bug is included below.

I have successfully narrowed the revisions that could have introduced this 
bug. I managed to build a 1.889.289.3 bk revision kernel. This appears to be 
the minimum revision which fixes the build bug I experienced in 2.5.64. The 
bug exists in this kernel, meaning that the bug was introduces somewhere 
between the 2.5.63 (1.889.1.133 bk revision) kernel and the 1.889.289.3 bk 
revision kernel. These revisions cover about 1 week of time. I am trying to 
build some in between revisions to see if I can narrow even more. Does anyone 
know of any craziness that went in between 2.5.63 and 2.5.64 that would have 
broken the way my computer reads these keys?

Thanks, Warren Turkal

On Sunday 23 March 2003 08:36 pm, Warren Turkal wrote:
> I am not subscribed. Please cc on replies.
>
> I have a Gateway 600 series notebook. I have been using and testing the
> developmental kernel for some time now. I have just noticed that my
> keyboard''s "fn" key combinations stop working upon booting 2.5.65. They
> worked as recently as 2.5.63 and I could not get 2.5.64 to compile cleanly.
> These key combinations are supposed to make various things happen on my
> laptop. I believe that they are controlled by the bios, as I can see
> results of some while on the bios load screen.
>
> Fn-F1 - Labeled "Help"; don't know what it does
> Fn-F2 - Labeled "Status"; used to show battery status in upper left
> Fn-F3 - Labeled "LCD/CRT"; switch montior output among built in LCD, back
>         monitor port, and both
> Fn-F4 - Labeled "Standby"; used to function as the ACPI standby button
> Fn-F9 - Labeled "Pad Lock"; think num lock; strangely, this one still
>         work in 2.5.65
> Fn-F10 - Labeled "Scroll Lock"
> Fn-F11 - Labeled "Pause"
> Fn-F12 - Labeled "Break"
>
> I have tested that the Fn-F2 combination works in bios and grub and
> continues to work until the 2.5.65 kernel is loaded.
>
> I think this is a regression in the keyboard handling for the 2.5.65
> kernel.
>
> Like I said before, all of the Fn combinations work in 2.5.63. If anyone
> has a patch from 2.5.63 to something after 2.5.64 that compiles, I would be
> happy to try it. I setup a bitkeeper clone of Linus's latest, so if someone
> could give me some bitkeeper magic to export diffs from 2.5.63 to 2.5.64 in
> a relavant directory (probably drivers/input/keyboard) maybe I could look
> to see what changed, although I don't know if I am skilled enough to find
> errors in the code.
>

Re: [BUG] laptop keyboard, even more info

[Arne Koewing]

Warren Turkal <wturkal@cbu.edu> writes:

> On Sunday 23 March 2003 08:36 pm, Warren Turkal wrote:
>> I am not subscribed. Please cc on replies.
>>
>> I have a Gateway 600 series notebook. I have been using and testing the
>> developmental kernel for some time now. I have just noticed that my
>> keyboard''s "fn" key combinations stop working upon booting 2.5.65. They
>> worked as recently as 2.5.63 and I could not get 2.5.64 to compile cleanly.
>> These key combinations are supposed to make various things happen on my
>> laptop. I believe that they are controlled by the bios, as I can see
>> results of some while on the bios load screen.
>>
...
>>
>> I have tested that the Fn-F2 combination works in bios and grub and
>> continues to work until the 2.5.65 kernel is loaded.
>>
>> I think this is a regression in the keyboard handling for the 2.5.65
>> kernel.
...

I don't think this is caused by the input-layer. Linux is not passing
Fn-X keypresses to your BIOS. If you've enabled ACPI that ought to be
the reason for this.
 
Arne
 

Re: [BUG] laptop keyboard, even more info

[Felipe Alfaro Solana]

On Fri, 2003-03-28 at 10:05, Arne Koewing wrote:
> >> I have tested that the Fn-F2 combination works in bios and grub and
> >> continues to work until the 2.5.65 kernel is loaded.
> >>
> >> I think this is a regression in the keyboard handling for the 2.5.65
> >> kernel....
> 
> I don't think this is caused by the input-layer. Linux is not passing
> Fn-X keypresses to your BIOS. If you've enabled ACPI that ought to be
> the reason for this.

Also, XFree86 4.3.0 seems to inhibit Fn key combinations on some
scenarios. On my laptop, I can't use Fn+F3 to switch between LCD and CRT
while running X.

________________________________________________________________________
        Felipe Alfaro Solana
   Linux Registered User #287198
http://counter.li.org

Re: [BUG] laptop keyboard, even more info

[Warren Turkal]

On Friday 28 March 2003 01:36 pm, Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-03-28 at 10:05, Arne Koewing wrote:
> > >> I have tested that the Fn-F2 combination works in bios and grub and
> > >> continues to work until the 2.5.65 kernel is loaded.
> > >>
> > >> I think this is a regression in the keyboard handling for the 2.5.65
> > >> kernel....
> >
> > I don't think this is caused by the input-layer. Linux is not passing
> > Fn-X keypresses to your BIOS. If you've enabled ACPI that ought to be
> > the reason for this.
>
> Also, XFree86 4.3.0 seems to inhibit Fn key combinations on some
> scenarios. On my laptop, I can't use Fn+F3 to switch between LCD and CRT
> while running X.

Fn key gets killed before X. Also, it works fine in X when I am in 2.5.63.

Warren
-- 
Treasurer, GOLUM, Inc.
http://www.golum.org

Re: [BUG] laptop keyboard, even more info

[Felipe Alfaro Solana]

On Fri, 2003-03-28 at 08:04, Warren Turkal wrote:
> 2.5.66 still exhibits this bug. It is very strange because I even tried to 
> compile a 2.5.66 kernel without at keyboard support and it still kill the Fn 
> key functionality, meaning that I cannot make presentations on my laptop 
> because I cannot switch the video output to the back of the laptop as I was 
> able to before.

Are you running XFree86 4.3.0?

________________________________________________________________________
        Felipe Alfaro Solana
   Linux Registered User #287198
http://counter.li.org

Re: [BUG] laptop keyboard, tracked to ACPI

[Warren Turkal]

Please CC me if you reply to the list as I am not on the list.

Andy Grover, ACPI Maintainer, I am CCing you directly as I think this is your 
bug at this point. When I compile a kernel without ACPI, the bug does not 
show its face. When I compile with ACPI in modules and load none of the 
modules, the bug still happens. I think that the bug exists in the base ACPI 
support code as a result. The bug is described below. I have not tried the 
latest linus bk patches. This current round of tests was performed on 2.5.66. 
2.5.63 is the last version of the kernel that does not have this bug.

Thanks, Warren

On Friday 28 March 2003 01:28 am, Felix Seeger wrote:
> Hi,
>
> First: I am not a developer and I don't know much about the kernel. ;)
>
> But here is a guess:
> Do you have ACPI enabled ?

> Am Friday 28 March 2003 08:04 schrieb Warren Turkal:
> > On Sunday 23 March 2003 08:36 pm, Warren Turkal wrote:
> > > I am not subscribed. Please cc on replies.
> > >
> > > I have a Gateway 600 series notebook. I have been using and testing the
> > > developmental kernel for some time now. I have just noticed that my
> > > keyboard''s "fn" key combinations stop working upon booting 2.5.65.
> > > They worked as recently as 2.5.63 and I could not get 2.5.64 to compile
> > > cleanly. These key combinations are supposed to make various things
> > > happen on my laptop. I believe that they are controlled by the bios, as
> > > I can see results of some while on the bios load screen.
> > >
> > > Fn-F1 - Labeled "Help"; don't know what it does
> > > Fn-F2 - Labeled "Status"; used to show battery status in upper left
> > > Fn-F3 - Labeled "LCD/CRT"; switch montior output among built in LCD,
> > > back monitor port, and both
> > > Fn-F4 - Labeled "Standby"; used to function as the ACPI standby button
> > > Fn-F9 - Labeled "Pad Lock"; think num lock; strangely, this one still
> > >         work in 2.5.65
> > > Fn-F10 - Labeled "Scroll Lock"
> > > Fn-F11 - Labeled "Pause"
> > > Fn-F12 - Labeled "Break"
> > >
> > > I have tested that the Fn-F2 combination works in bios and grub and
> > > continues to work until the 2.5.65 kernel is loaded.
> > >
> > > I think this is a regression in the keyboard handling for the 2.5.65
> > > kernel.
> > >
> > > Like I said before, all of the Fn combinations work in 2.5.63. If
> > > anyone has a patch from 2.5.63 to something after 2.5.64 that compiles,
> > > I would be happy to try it. I setup a bitkeeper clone of Linus's
> > > latest, so if someone could give me some bitkeeper magic to export
> > > diffs from 2.5.63 to 2.5.64 in a relavant directory (probably
> > > drivers/input/keyboard) maybe I could look to see what changed,
> > > although I don't know if I am skilled enough to find errors in the
> > > code.
> >
> > I am not subscribed. Please cc me on reply. Thanks.
> >
> > 2.5.66 still exhibits this bug. It is very strange because I even tried
> > to compile a 2.5.66 kernel without at keyboard support and it still kill
> > the Fn key functionality, meaning that I cannot make presentations on my
> > laptop because I cannot switch the video output to the back of the laptop
> > as I was able to before.
> >
> > This bug was introduced somewhere between 2.5.63 and 2.5.64. Was there
> > any work done on keyboard handling or interrupts or anything that could
> > have affected my Fn key between 2.5.63 and 2.5.64? Is there someone that
> > I should contact directly about this that is maintaining the interrupt
> > handling on X86 or whatever is causing this. I am unable to narrow down
> > the bug with the help of BK as I have not been able to find a way to find
> > and isolate the patch that caused this. Even after talking to Larry McVoy
> > about this, he suggests that I need to know what file changed and caused
> > this to narrow it down with BK. BK, apparently, can randomly change the
> > revision numbers in a way that I cannot rely on them to be constant as I
> > was under the impression in my last email. Please, someone help me. BK is
> > not easy to use for QA AFAICT.
> >
> > If anyone knows anything about this, I am begging for some help in
> > finding this bug. I have also CCed the input driver maintainer, although
> > I do not believe that this bug is in the input layer. Please CC me if you
> > reply to the list.
> >
> > Sincerely, Warren Turkal

-- 
Treasurer, GOLUM, Inc.
http://www.golum.org

Re: [BUG] laptop keyboard, even more info

[wturkal]

----- Original Message Follows -----
> On Fri, 2003-03-28 at 08:04, Warren Turkal wrote:
> > 2.5.66 still exhibits this bug. It is very strange
> > because I even tried to  compile a 2.5.66 kernel without
> > at keyboard support and it still kill the Fn  key
> functionality, meaning that I cannot make presentations on
> > my laptop  because I cannot switch the video output to
> > the back of the laptop as I was  able to before.
> 
> Are you running XFree86 4.3.0?
> 
Yes, but the bug manifests very shortly after starting the
kernel. I am 99% sure that it happens before init is even
started.
For a split second after the kernel starts, I am still able
to use
the Fn key. Then, all the sudden, I cannot. I am running
Debian
Sid, and I notice the modules loading about when this bug
manifests
itself. Even if I make my modules not load, the bug still
manifests
itself.

Thanks, Warren