Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 06:49:16 -0500 From: Eric Anderson <anderson@centtech.com> To: Bruno Ducrot <ducrot@poupinou.org> Cc: Daniel Eischen <deischen@freebsd.org>, freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Dell laptops Message-ID: <44B6333C.5090303@centtech.com> In-Reply-To: <20060713094816.GI17014@poupinou.org> References: <20060711.104708.1159134898.imp@bsdimp.com> <Pine.GSO.4.64.0607111252150.24473@sea.ntplx.net> <200607111338.01412.mistry.7@osu.edu> <44B3EDA6.8050608@centtech.com> <20060713094816.GI17014@poupinou.org>
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On 07/13/06 04:48, Bruno Ducrot wrote: > Hi Eric, > > On Tue, Jul 11, 2006 at 01:27:50PM -0500, Eric Anderson wrote: >> On 07/11/06 12:37, Anish Mistry wrote: >>> On Tuesday 11 July 2006 13:10, Daniel Eischen wrote: >>>> On Tue, 11 Jul 2006, M. Warner Losh wrote: >>>>> Greetings, >>>>> >>>>> What are the current problems, if any, on current Dell laptops >>>>> have with FreeBSD? >>>> Yeah, thanks for asking! My Inspiron E1405 came with an Intel >>>> 3945 A/B/G mini-PCI wireless that isn't supported (OpenBSD has >>>> a seemingly actively maintained wpi driver for this card, and >>>> I have an experimental FreeBSD driver from damien that I haven't >>>> yet been able to get to work). I've ordered an Atheros-based >>>> mini-PCI in the meantime, and can lend out the 3945 to anyone >>>> willing to work on it. >>>> >>>> Also, the Fn (the blue key) can't be used to suspend, control >>>> volume, switch CRT/LCD, etc, and most importantly enable the >>>> radio on the wireless card (Fn + F2). Even if the wpi driver >>>> works, it's worthless if I can't enable the radio. >>> It might simply need an acpi function keys driver for your system. >>> Would you post an "acpidump -dt" from your system? >>> >> >> I have a bunch of info on the D820 posted here: >> >> http://www.googlebit.com/freebsd/200607110621/ > > It has been useful for me. Thanks. > > First, this information confirm one bug present in all Dell laptops > I'm aware of (including but not limited to D600, D610, inspiron 6000) > The bug is ACPI related, and concern how a particular event is > handled. To be short, the ASL contain this method (example for > the D820): > > Method (SMIE, 0, NotSerialized) > { > Store (SMI (0x96, 0x00), Local0) > If (And (Local0, 0x01)) > { > Notify (\_TZ.THM, 0x80) > } > > Notify (\_SB.PCI0.VID, 0x81) > Notify (\_SB.PCI0.AGP.VID, 0x81) > } > > If (And (Local0, 0x02)) > { > Store (SMI (0x6D, 0x00), Local0) <--- BUG. Local0 will > change in > that case!!! > ... > ... > } > > If (And (Local0, 0x04)) <--- We may not have the correct value for > Local0 in that case... > { > Notify (\_SB.BAT0, 0x81) > Notify (\_SB.BAT1, 0x81) > } > > If (And (Local0, 0x08)) > { > Notify (\_PR.CPU0, 0x80) > Notify (\_PR.CPU1, 0x80) > } > > If (And (Local0, 0x10)) > { > ... > ... > } > ... > > This method possibly can change in the middle the value of Local0 > and in that case the other If() statements are broken. > > This method is called in order to handle an SCI interrupt, specifically > by \GPE._L19() (it will call in fact NEVT() which may call NEVT()). > > I don't know how to contact Dell in order to get that fixed. I might be able to help you get in contact with someone, or maybe get the right information to the right people. I don't completely understand everything above, so you'll have to explain to me (or to them) what needs fixing.. > Second, there is a method called \SMI(), taking 2 arguments and > returning a value. This method will actually trigger a SMI handler > in order to perform almost all power management stuff, as for > example getting fan status, controlling fan speed, controlling > docking and so on. There is a specific kernel module under linux > called i8k, that can be found here : > http://people.debian.org/~dz/i8k/ > Even though I think this driver could have possibly "funny" effect > if ACPI is enabled under Linux (it will actually share the same > IO with the SMI() method, and that must be serialized for obvious > reason), looking onto that driver we learn for example that > SMI(0x25, 0) will likely return the FN key status for almost > all Dell Laptop. > > Therefore it should be somewhat easy to write a simple ACPI > driver for Dell laptops, at least for FN key (if those still > don't work). > > ATM I don't have time for writing such support. Would this driver be akin to the asus, fujitsu, and ibm drivers that exist? Thanks for looking at this! Eric -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric Anderson Sr. Systems Administrator Centaur Technology Anything that works is better than anything that doesn't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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