[Bluez-users] enabling/disabling in response to ThinkPad hotkey

[Ben Liblit <liblit@cs.wisc.edu>]

My ThinkPad X61 laptop has a special wireless networking hotkey, Fn+F5. 
  Traditionally this has been used to enable/disable bluetooth.  That's 
how it worked with previous ThinkPads I've owned, but on this X61, when 
I press Fn+F5, nothing happens.

The HAL daemon running on correctly detects the key press and broadcasts 
this on the system D-BUS:

     signal sender=:1.5 -> dest=(null destination)
       path=/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer;
       interface=org.freedesktop.Hal.Device;
       member=Condition
         string "ButtonPressed"
         string "wifi-power"

If I want Fn+F5 to toggle bluetooth, how should I hook that up?  I 
already know how to write a small Python script that reacts to HAL 
ButtonPressed signals.  But this script would need to run as root, since 
normal uses cannot write to /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth.  (One 
enables/disables bluetooth by echoing "enable" or "disable" into 
/proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth.)

I'm loath to create new scripts running as root.  Is that really the 
right approach here?  Or is there some other system component that 
already ought to be listening for this signal but is either buggy or not 
running?

I asked about this on the HAL mailing list, and Rui Tiago Matos replied:
> Shouldn't bluez-utils' hcid daemon handle this?  Actually, I think
> these kind of daemons should be autostarted by D-Bus when HAL
> broadcasts their signal and exit gracefully when the user turns the
> killswitch off.

Do the bluez-utils developers agree?  Is this something hcid should 
already be listening for and handling?  Should I file a bluez-utils bug 
report requesting that it do this?  Or do you consider this to be 
outside of hcid's domain of responsibility?

Please note that my concern here is not actually the radio kill switch 
that Rui Tiago Matos mentions.  That seems to work fine.  (The daemons 
keep running and do not "exit gracefully", but at least the desktop 
reacts appropriately when the radio kill switch takes bluetooth away.) 
So the question here is the Fn+F5 wifi button, not the radio kill switch.

Thanks!

-- Ben

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