Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Marcus Woletz]

Hello all,

since a few weeks I try to use hotplug so that
the WLAN interface is brought up when it is
activated via the hardware key.

The notebook is a Samsung X20 with
Intel ipw2200 wireless chip set.

The hotplug system seems to recognize the
activation of the interface via the hardware key
because an event is generated which calls the
firmware agent, which then loads the firmware.
But even when switching all debug mechanisms on
it seems to be only that one and only firmware event
thatb is generated. When switching the interface off via
the notebook key, it seems that no event is
generated at all (no additional info in /var/log/messages
or /events).

Because it is a bit difficult to get a general
knowledge of the hotplug system your help is
appreciated:

how can I achieve that an event is generated
(beyond the one that is generated to load the
firmware) when switching on and off the WLAN
interface?

In conclusion which agent must I supply
(filename and directory) to achieve that it
is called when switching the WLAN on/off?

Where can I get more Information to really understand
the interaction between hardware, hotplug, HAL, dbus and udev?
I've some basic knowledge about the different systems,
but none about their interaction and the files that
participate (agents etc.)

The documentation I've found unfortunately has not
answered my questions.

Many thank in advance!

bye
Marcus



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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Greg KH]

On Thu, Oct 06, 2005 at 12:22:20AM +0200, Marcus Woletz wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> since a few weeks I try to use hotplug so that
> the WLAN interface is brought up when it is
> activated via the hardware key.

What is the "hardware key"?  And how is it detected by Linux?

thanks,

greg k-h


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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Marcus Woletz]

Hi Greg,

Thank you very much for your answer

(and sorry for the inconvenience with the PM.
I was too stupid to send the answer to the list.
I hope it goes now to the right place and right
thread ;-)

Greg KH wrote:
[...]
 > What is the "hardware key"?  And how is it detected by Linux?

The Button in the notebook case that turns on and off
the WLAN interface. In the Samsung X20 it seems that the
button turns the interface on and off without interaction
with the OS.
I really don't know how the button is detected by Linux
(if I knew that I wouldn't waste your time here ;-)

It must be any mechanism in Linux so that hotplug can
generate an event to load the firmware when the WLAN interface
is switched on the first time.
Now I want use this mechanism to generate "on" and "off"
events to do an ifup/ifdown.
Because I don't know how the kernel generates events and sends
it to the hotplug dispatcher and because it seems that really no
events are generated beside the "firmware load" event when
switching on/off the interface I need your help.

 >
 > thanks,
 >
 > greg k-h
 >


bye
Marcus




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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Greg KH]

On Fri, Oct 07, 2005 at 06:05:38PM +0200, Marcus Woletz wrote:
> Hi Greg,
> 
> Thank you very much for your answer
> 
> (and sorry for the inconvenience with the PM.
> I was too stupid to send the answer to the list.
> I hope it goes now to the right place and right
> thread ;-)
> 
> Greg KH wrote:
> [...]
> > What is the "hardware key"?  And how is it detected by Linux?
> 
> The Button in the notebook case that turns on and off
> the WLAN interface. In the Samsung X20 it seems that the
> button turns the interface on and off without interaction
> with the OS.

Then there's no way that Linux can generate an event based on it.  Most
likely it's just a hardware switch to the network device, my laptop has
the same thing.

So, sorry, I don't think this is going to work for you, unless you
figure out some way for Linux to see the button.

greg k-h


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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Dmitry Torokhov]

On 10/7/05, Greg KH <greg@kroah.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 07, 2005 at 06:05:38PM +0200, Marcus Woletz wrote:
> > Hi Greg,
> >
> > Thank you very much for your answer
> >
> > (and sorry for the inconvenience with the PM.
> > I was too stupid to send the answer to the list.
> > I hope it goes now to the right place and right
> > thread ;-)
> >
> > Greg KH wrote:
> > [...]
> > > What is the "hardware key"?  And how is it detected by Linux?
> >
> > The Button in the notebook case that turns on and off
> > the WLAN interface. In the Samsung X20 it seems that the
> > button turns the interface on and off without interaction
> > with the OS.
>
> Then there's no way that Linux can generate an event based on it.  Most
> likely it's just a hardware switch to the network device, my laptop has
> the same thing.
>
> So, sorry, I don't think this is going to work for you, unless you
> figure out some way for Linux to see the button.
>

It might be accessible through ACPI with a vendor-specific module.
Have you asked on acpi list? Although I don't recall seeing any
samsung-specific modules...

--
Dmitry


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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Kay Sievers]

On Fri, Oct 07, 2005 at 09:40:30AM -0700, Greg KH wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 07, 2005 at 06:05:38PM +0200, Marcus Woletz wrote:
> > Hi Greg,
> > 
> > Thank you very much for your answer
> > 
> > (and sorry for the inconvenience with the PM.
> > I was too stupid to send the answer to the list.
> > I hope it goes now to the right place and right
> > thread ;-)
> > 
> > Greg KH wrote:
> > [...]
> > > What is the "hardware key"?  And how is it detected by Linux?
> > 
> > The Button in the notebook case that turns on and off
> > the WLAN interface. In the Samsung X20 it seems that the
> > button turns the interface on and off without interaction
> > with the OS.
> 
> Then there's no way that Linux can generate an event based on it.  Most
> likely it's just a hardware switch to the network device, my laptop has
> the same thing.
> 
> So, sorry, I don't think this is going to work for you, unless you
> figure out some way for Linux to see the button.

Marcus, you may find something here:
  http://rfswitch.sourceforge.net/

Kay


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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Marcus Woletz]

Hi Greg,

Greg KH schrieb:
[...]
>>The Button in the notebook case that turns on and off
>>the WLAN interface. In the Samsung X20 it seems that the
>>button turns the interface on and off without interaction
>>with the OS.
> 
> 
> Then there's no way that Linux can generate an event based on it.  Most
> likely it's just a hardware switch to the network device, my laptop has
> the same thing.

But the hotplug system is definitly calling the hotplug firmware agent
when the WLAN interface is turned on the first time. And there are some
firmware events generated. So I think that the hotplug system sees that
the interface is switched on. The only problem is that these events are
generated only one time and there's no event when switching off WLAN.

> 
> So, sorry, I don't think this is going to work for you, unless you
> figure out some way for Linux to see the button.
> 
> greg k-h
> 

I don't give up so fast :-)

bye
Marcus



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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Marcus Woletz]

Hi Dmitry,

Dmitry Torokhov schrieb:
[...]
> It might be accessible through ACPI with a vendor-specific module.
> Have you asked on acpi list? Although I don't recall seeing any
> samsung-specific modules...

OK, if this is really the only way to the job: I think it shouldn't
be a very complicated task to get the state of the button. So I'll
try to write a small app to do the task. I will look at Samsung if
there's some documentation.

> 
> --
> Dmitry
> 

Thanks for your help.

bye
Marcus






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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Marcus Woletz]

Dear Kay,

Kay Sievers wrote:

[...]


> Marcus, you may find something here:
>   http://rfswitch.sourceforge.net/
> 
> Kay
> 

thank you for this hint. I had a short
look on the site. It seems that rfswitch
only privides a mechanism to switch the
WLAN hardware on and off with the software
implemented switch. I need the opposite way :-/
But eventually I just can find the information
to do the task on the mentioned site.

bye

Marcus




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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Johannes Berg]

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On Fri, 2005-10-07 at 09:40 -0700, Greg KH wrote:

> Then there's no way that Linux can generate an event based on it.  Most
> likely it's just a hardware switch to the network device, my laptop has
> the same thing.

The Compaq laptops with Broadcom 430x wireless chipset have a switch as
well, the state of this switch can be checked when the chipset is
enabled (yeah, we're reverse engineering it).

Most likely, something similar happens with this chipset -- but then you
already need a driver that can do that loaded, so ...

johannes

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Re: Notebook Hardware Key for Wireless LAN

[Sergey Vlasov]

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On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 19:31:47 +0200 Marcus Woletz wrote:

> Greg KH schrieb:
> [...]
> >>The Button in the notebook case that turns on and off
> >>the WLAN interface. In the Samsung X20 it seems that the
> >>button turns the interface on and off without interaction
> >>with the OS.
> > 
> > Then there's no way that Linux can generate an event based on it.  Most
> > likely it's just a hardware switch to the network device, my laptop has
> > the same thing.
> 
> But the hotplug system is definitly calling the hotplug firmware agent
> when the WLAN interface is turned on the first time. And there are some
> firmware events generated. So I think that the hotplug system sees that
> the interface is switched on. The only problem is that these events are
> generated only one time and there's no event when switching off WLAN.

For ipw2200 you can try to poll the "rf_kill" attribute in sysfs:

	/* 0 - RF kill not enabled
	   1 - SW based RF kill active (sysfs)
	   2 - HW based RF kill active
	   3 - Both HW and SW baed RF kill active */

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