"Setting old previous keyboard state failed" error on Dell E7270

"Setting old previous keyboard state failed" error on Dell E7270

[Takashi Iwai]

Hi,

I noticed that a new machine I got yesterday, Dell Latitude E7270,
always shows the error at boot time:
	dell_laptop: Setting old previous keyboard state failed

 From what I read from the code, it seems non-fatal.  But is it a way
to "fix" it?

Or shouldn't we simply lower the printk level?


thanks,

Takashi

Re: "Setting old previous keyboard state failed" error on Dell E7270

[Pali Rohár]

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On Thursday 17 November 2016 12:27:33 Takashi Iwai wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I noticed that a new machine I got yesterday, Dell Latitude E7270,
> always shows the error at boot time:
> 	dell_laptop: Setting old previous keyboard state failed
> 
>  From what I read from the code, it seems non-fatal.  But is it a way
> to "fix" it?
> 
> Or shouldn't we simply lower the printk level?
> 
> 
> thanks,
> 
> Takashi

Hi! Month ago I got private email about same problem reported by user. 
Looks like that Dell changed SMBIOS interface for keyboards and have not 
notified about it... User wrote that will do some research and write 
info to mailing list.

So in this case it is not non-fatal warning, but warning which telling 
us: "you are doing some operation which we do not know what is doing 
now...".

Masking this warning is not a good idea. There are only two good 
options:

1) Fix the code so it will work with that changed SMBIOS interface

2) Disable that code on problematic machines.

Anyway, keyboard backlight control in kernel is implemented from program 
smbios-keyboard-ctl provided and supported by Dell. I do not see any 
update to that program in upstream git repository.

http://github.com/dell/libsmbios/blob/master/src/bin/smbios-keyboard-ctl

So there are two options what could happen:

1) smbios-keyboard-ctl is working and kernel code not -- in this case 
bug in kernel, please provide debug logs from both smbios-keyboard-ctl 
and kernel and I could try to look at it

2) smbios-keyboard-ctl is not working too -- in this case please report 
bug to that libsmbios project and Dell needs to fix it

-- 
Pali Rohár
pali.rohar@gmail.com

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Re: "Setting old previous keyboard state failed" error on Dell E7270

[Takashi Iwai]

On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 13:19:16 +0100,
Pali Rohár wrote:
> 
> On Thursday 17 November 2016 12:27:33 Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I noticed that a new machine I got yesterday, Dell Latitude E7270,
> > always shows the error at boot time:
> > 	dell_laptop: Setting old previous keyboard state failed
> > 
> >  From what I read from the code, it seems non-fatal.  But is it a way
> > to "fix" it?
> > 
> > Or shouldn't we simply lower the printk level?
> > 
> > 
> > thanks,
> > 
> > Takashi
> 
> Hi! Month ago I got private email about same problem reported by user. 
> Looks like that Dell changed SMBIOS interface for keyboards and have not 
> notified about it... User wrote that will do some research and write 
> info to mailing list.
> 
> So in this case it is not non-fatal warning, but warning which telling 
> us: "you are doing some operation which we do not know what is doing 
> now...".
> 
> Masking this warning is not a good idea. There are only two good 
> options:
> 
> 1) Fix the code so it will work with that changed SMBIOS interface
> 
> 2) Disable that code on problematic machines.
> 
> Anyway, keyboard backlight control in kernel is implemented from program 
> smbios-keyboard-ctl provided and supported by Dell. I do not see any 
> update to that program in upstream git repository.
> 
> http://github.com/dell/libsmbios/blob/master/src/bin/smbios-keyboard-ctl

I'll give it a try shortly later.

> So there are two options what could happen:
> 
> 1) smbios-keyboard-ctl is working and kernel code not -- in this case 
> bug in kernel, please provide debug logs from both smbios-keyboard-ctl 
> and kernel and I could try to look at it
> 
> 2) smbios-keyboard-ctl is not working too -- in this case please report 
> bug to that libsmbios project and Dell needs to fix it

OK.


thanks,

Takashi

Re: "Setting old previous keyboard state failed" error on Dell E7270

[Takashi Iwai]

On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 14:21:23 +0100,
Takashi Iwai wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 13:19:16 +0100,
> Pali Rohár wrote:
> > 
> > On Thursday 17 November 2016 12:27:33 Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > I noticed that a new machine I got yesterday, Dell Latitude E7270,
> > > always shows the error at boot time:
> > > 	dell_laptop: Setting old previous keyboard state failed
> > > 
> > >  From what I read from the code, it seems non-fatal.  But is it a way
> > > to "fix" it?
> > > 
> > > Or shouldn't we simply lower the printk level?
> > > 
> > > 
> > > thanks,
> > > 
> > > Takashi
> > 
> > Hi! Month ago I got private email about same problem reported by user. 
> > Looks like that Dell changed SMBIOS interface for keyboards and have not 
> > notified about it... User wrote that will do some research and write 
> > info to mailing list.
> > 
> > So in this case it is not non-fatal warning, but warning which telling 
> > us: "you are doing some operation which we do not know what is doing 
> > now...".
> > 
> > Masking this warning is not a good idea. There are only two good 
> > options:
> > 
> > 1) Fix the code so it will work with that changed SMBIOS interface
> > 
> > 2) Disable that code on problematic machines.
> > 
> > Anyway, keyboard backlight control in kernel is implemented from program 
> > smbios-keyboard-ctl provided and supported by Dell. I do not see any 
> > update to that program in upstream git repository.
> > 
> > http://github.com/dell/libsmbios/blob/master/src/bin/smbios-keyboard-ctl
> 
> I'll give it a try shortly later.

Tried the latest git version now, and it didn't work.
At setting the mode via smbios-keyboard-ctl --set-mode, it always
return an error like:

  Set Trigger Failed. Failed to write config
	 Error Return Code : cbRES1: 0x-2 cbRES2: 0xA000000 cbRES3: 0x0 

The error code is same no matter which mode is to set.

> > So there are two options what could happen:
> > 
> > 1) smbios-keyboard-ctl is working and kernel code not -- in this case 
> > bug in kernel, please provide debug logs from both smbios-keyboard-ctl 
> > and kernel and I could try to look at it
> > 
> > 2) smbios-keyboard-ctl is not working too -- in this case please report 
> > bug to that libsmbios project and Dell needs to fix it

So the latter case.
I'm going to ping smbios maintainer.


thanks,

Takashi

Re: "Setting old previous keyboard state failed" error on Dell E7270

[Pali Rohár]

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On Thursday 17 November 2016 15:13:59 Takashi Iwai wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 14:21:23 +0100,
> 
> Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 13:19:16 +0100,
> > 
> > Pali Rohár wrote:
> > > Anyway, keyboard backlight control in kernel is implemented from
> > > program smbios-keyboard-ctl provided and supported by Dell. I do
> > > not see any update to that program in upstream git repository.
> > > 
> > > http://github.com/dell/libsmbios/blob/master/src/bin/smbios-keybo
> > > ard-ctl
> > 
> > I'll give it a try shortly later.
> 
> Tried the latest git version now, and it didn't work.
> At setting the mode via smbios-keyboard-ctl --set-mode, it always
> return an error like:
> 
>   Set Trigger Failed. Failed to write config
> 	 Error Return Code : cbRES1: 0x-2 cbRES2: 0xA000000 cbRES3: 0x0
> 
> The error code is same no matter which mode is to set.
...
> > > 2) smbios-keyboard-ctl is not working too -- in this case please
> > > report bug to that libsmbios project and Dell needs to fix it
> 
> So the latter case.
> I'm going to ping smbios maintainer.

Ok. Ideally also open public bug report on github tracker so other 
people can find some information about it...

-- 
Pali Rohár
pali.rohar@gmail.com

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Re: "Setting old previous keyboard state failed" error on Dell E7270

[Takashi Iwai]

On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 15:20:25 +0100,
Pali Rohár wrote:
> 
> On Thursday 17 November 2016 15:13:59 Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 14:21:23 +0100,
> > 
> > Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > > On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 13:19:16 +0100,
> > > 
> > > Pali Rohár wrote:
> > > > Anyway, keyboard backlight control in kernel is implemented from
> > > > program smbios-keyboard-ctl provided and supported by Dell. I do
> > > > not see any update to that program in upstream git repository.
> > > > 
> > > > http://github.com/dell/libsmbios/blob/master/src/bin/smbios-keybo
> > > > ard-ctl
> > > 
> > > I'll give it a try shortly later.
> > 
> > Tried the latest git version now, and it didn't work.
> > At setting the mode via smbios-keyboard-ctl --set-mode, it always
> > return an error like:
> > 
> >   Set Trigger Failed. Failed to write config
> > 	 Error Return Code : cbRES1: 0x-2 cbRES2: 0xA000000 cbRES3: 0x0
> > 
> > The error code is same no matter which mode is to set.
> ...
> > > > 2) smbios-keyboard-ctl is not working too -- in this case please
> > > > report bug to that libsmbios project and Dell needs to fix it
> > 
> > So the latter case.
> > I'm going to ping smbios maintainer.
> 
> Ok. Ideally also open public bug report on github tracker so other 
> people can find some information about it...

FYI, I found one there and now put my comment:
   https://github.com/dell/libsmbios/issues/3


Takashi