Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] platform/x86: dell-wmi: add new dmi keys to bios_to_linux_keycode

Pali Rohár
2020-06-12T14:14:15Z

On Wednesday 10 June 2020 12:35:09 Mario.Limonciello@dell.com wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: platform-driver-x86-owner@vger.kernel.org <platform-driver-x86-
> > owner@vger.kernel.org> On Behalf Of Pali Rohár
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2020 4:45 AM
> > To: Limonciello, Mario
> > Cc: rdunlap@infradead.org; y.linux@paritcher.com; linux-
> > kernel@vger.kernel.org; platform-driver-x86@vger.kernel.org;
> > mjg59@srcf.ucam.org
> > Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] platform/x86: dell-wmi: add new dmi keys to
> > bios_to_linux_keycode
> >
> >
> > [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> >
> > On Tuesday 09 June 2020 19:49:18 Mario.Limonciello@dell.com wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Looking at the last two lines... and for me it looks like that 0x00FF
> > > > and 0xFFFF are just "placeholders" or special values for unknown /
> > > > custom / unsupported / reserved / special / ... codes.
> > > >
> > > > It is really suspicious why first 38 values are defined, then there is
> > > > gap, then one value 255 and then huge gap to 65535.
> > > >
> > > > Mario, this looks like some mapping table between internal Dell BIOS
> > key
> > > > code and standard Linux key code. Are you able to get access to some
> > > > documentation which contains explanation of those Dell key numbers?
> > > > It could really help us to understand these gaps and what is correct
> > > > interpretation of these numbers.
> > > >
> > >
> > > The codes are actually 4 bytes in the table, but in practice nothing
> > above the
> > > first two bytes is used.
> > >
> > > Those two called out are special though, here are their meanings:
> > >
> > > 0x00FF is user programmable function
> > > 0xFFFF is no function
> > >
> > > For the purpose of memory consumption I think it's reasonable to ignore
> > the
> > > upper 2 bytes and special case these two.
> >
> > Thank you for information!
> >
> > So 0x00FF is "user programmable" button. Do I understand it correctly
> > that Dell/BIOS does not explicitly provide meaning for these buttons,
> > they do not have fixed functionality and therefore user should configure
> > them as he want?
>
> Correct
>
> >
> > And what does mean "no function"? I do not know what should I imagine if
> > I receive key press marked as "no function".
>
> It means no action is expected to occur, should behave like a no-op. I think
> discarding it makes fine sense.

Thank you! This was missing bit of information.

Just I'm curious, why firmware sends "no-op" event which we could ignore? :D

I can imagine that those events / scan codes may contain some
information which we can use...

> >
> > > > E.g. I remember that pressing Fn+Q or Fn+W on some Dell Latitude
> > > > generates code 255, which could prove my thesis about "special codes"
> > > > (which are probably not found in e.g. Windows or Linux mapping tables).
> > > >
> > > > > > };
> > > > > >
> > > > > > /*
> > > > > > @@ -503,10 +504,7 @@ static void handle_dmi_entry(const struct
> > > > dmi_header *dm, void *opaque)
> > > > > > &table->keymap[i];
> > > > > >
> > > > > > /* Uninitialized entries are 0 aka KEY_RESERVED. */
> > > > > > - u16 keycode = (bios_entry->keycode <
> > > > > > - ARRAY_SIZE(bios_to_linux_keycode)) ?
> > > > > > - bios_to_linux_keycode[bios_entry->keycode] :
> > > > > > - KEY_RESERVED;
> > > > > > + u16 keycode = bios_to_linux_keycode[bios_entry->keycode];
> > > > > >
> > > > > > /*
> > > > > > * Log if we find an entry in the DMI table that we don't
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Something like:
> > > > >
> > > > > u16 keycode;
> > > > >
> > > > > keycode = bios_entry->keycode == 0xffff ? KEY_UNKNOWN :
> > > > > (bios_entry->keycode <
> > > > > ARRAY_SIZE(bios_to_linux_keycode)) ?
> > > > > bios_to_linux_keycode[bios_entry->keycode] :
> > > > > KEY_RESERVED;
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Also please fix this:
> > > > > (no To-header on input) <>
> > > >
> > > > Hint: specifying git send-email with '--to' argument instead of '--cc'
> > > > should help.
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > ~Randy
> > > > >