Re: [PATCH 2/3] Support enable Acer Launch Manager mode

[Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 09:55:57AM +0200, Corentin Chary wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 9:19 AM, Carlos Corbacho
> <carlos@strangeworlds.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Monday 18 October 2010 03:32:22 Joey Lee wrote:
> >> So, we choice remove rfkill-input then put the logic in x86/platform
> >> driver?
> >> A simple question:
> >> Userland policy daemon or kernel module, which one we want to put the
> >> wifi hotkey behavior implementation?
> >
> > Pass. I really have no opinion on the above, as long as we pick something and
> > stick with it (i.e. not-another-rfkill-rewrite).
> >
> >> > We don't have Launch Manager for Linux, and quite frankly, I hope we
> >> > never see it - relying on random, vendor specific applications to drive
> >> > this kind of functionality is just asking for trouble.
> >>
> >> Acer BIOS team provide the function to OS for disable the EC hehavior,
> >> it's available on window, why we hide it on Linux?
> >
> > As an aside, just because Windows does something is not a good reason to do it
> > or expose on on Linux if it doesn't make any sense.
> >
> >> Either userland daemon or kernel module who want to implement the wifi
> >> hotkey behavior, it need enable the launch-manager mode to disable the
> >> default EC behavior on wifi hotkey.
> >
> > When did Acer laptops start doing this then? The behaviour they always did in
> > the past was that pressing the wireless/ bluetooth/ 3G button sent out a
> > scancode, and is was then the job of something else to catch that (be it
> > rfkill-input or friends) and for that something else to then toggle the state.
> >
> > Do the current batch of laptops then just 'magically' toggle the state without
> > needing rfkill-input?
> >
> > (And do you actually have contact with someone on the Acer BIOS team? Because
> > I've never managed to get through to anyone at Acer, so would be interested to
> > know).
> >
> >> If don't want provide the launch-manager mode parameter to userland, can
> >> we just direct enable it?
> >
> > Well, my point is more that we should figure out what we want, and then stick
> > with that. I don't want to add a pointless module paramater that all of three
> > people are ever going to use, and then have to support it working both ways.
> >
> > -Carlos
> 
> asus-laptop laptop also has that kind of parameter, but mainly because
> the behavior of the toggle key is quite random across models. So we
> need to set it sometimes.

Why sometimes?

> 
> Anyway, I think it's a good thing to have the choice between "handled by
> hardware/BIOS" and "handled by kernel/userspace", as long as the default choice
> is coherent and always works correctly.

No, I disagree. Why would you want to have this choice and have to
maintain it if we already have mechanisms to do it either in kernel or
in userspace.
> 
> Most of users will want the key to just toggle wlan/bluetooth. But some of them
> will be happy if they can configure the behavior of the key (cycle, only toggle
> WLAN, etc...)

Right. And as of today by default kernel will do simple toggle but there
is an option for userspace component. Why do we want to bing BIOS into
the picture?

-- 
Dmitry