Documentation/laptops/sonypi.txt

   1 Sony Programmable I/O Control Device Driver Readme
   2 --------------------------------------------------
   3         Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Stelian Pop <stelian@popies.net>
   4         Copyright (C) 2001-2002 Alcôve <www.alcove.com>
   5         Copyright (C) 2001 Michael Ashley <m.ashley@unsw.edu.au>
   6         Copyright (C) 2001 Junichi Morita <jun1m@mars.dti.ne.jp>
   7         Copyright (C) 2000 Takaya Kinjo <t-kinjo@tc4.so-net.ne.jp>
   8         Copyright (C) 2000 Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org>
   9
  10 This driver enables access to the Sony Programmable I/O Control Device which
  11 can be found in many Sony Vaio laptops. Some newer Sony laptops (seems to be
  12 limited to new FX series laptops, at least the FX501 and the FX702) lack a
  13 sonypi device and are not supported at all by this driver.
  14
  15 It will give access (through a user space utility) to some events those laptops
  16 generate, like:
  17         - jogdial events (the small wheel on the side of Vaios)
  18         - capture button events (only on Vaio Picturebook series)
  19         - Fn keys
  20         - bluetooth button (only on C1VR model)
  21         - programmable keys, back, help, zoom, thumbphrase buttons, etc.
  22           (when available)
  23
  24 Those events (see linux/sonypi.h) can be polled using the character device node
  25 /dev/sonypi (major 10, minor auto allocated or specified as a option).
  26 A simple daemon which translates the jogdial movements into mouse wheel events
  27 can be downloaded at: <http://popies.net/sonypi/>
  28
  29 Another option to intercept the events is to get them directly through the
  30 input layer.
  31
  32 This driver supports also some ioctl commands for setting the LCD screen
  33 brightness and querying the batteries charge information (some more
  34 commands may be added in the future).
  35
  36 This driver can also be used to set the camera controls on Picturebook series
  37 (brightness, contrast etc), and is used by the video4linux driver for the
  38 Motion Eye camera.
  39
  40 Please note that this driver was created by reverse engineering the Windows
  41 driver and the ACPI BIOS, because Sony doesn't agree to release any programming
  42 specs for its laptops. If someone convinces them to do so, drop me a note.
  43
  44 Driver options:
  45 ---------------
  46
  47 Several options can be passed to the sonypi driver using the standard
  48 module argument syntax (<param>=<value> when passing the option to the
  49 module or sonypi.<param>=<value> on the kernel boot line when sonypi is
  50 statically linked into the kernel). Those options are:
  51
  52         minor:          minor number of the misc device /dev/sonypi,
  53                         default is -1 (automatic allocation, see /proc/misc
  54                         or kernel logs)
  55
  56         camera:         if you have a PictureBook series Vaio (with the
  57                         integrated MotionEye camera), set this parameter to 1
  58                         in order to let the driver access to the camera
  59
  60         fnkeyinit:      on some Vaios (C1VE, C1VR etc), the Fn key events don't
  61                         get enabled unless you set this parameter to 1.
  62                         Do not use this option unless it's actually necessary,
  63                         some Vaio models don't deal well with this option.
  64                         This option is available only if the kernel is
  65                         compiled without ACPI support (since it conflicts
  66                         with it and it shouldn't be required anyway if
  67                         ACPI is already enabled).
  68
  69         verbose:        set to 1 to print unknown events received from the
  70                         sonypi device.
  71                         set to 2 to print all events received from the
  72                         sonypi device.
  73
  74         compat:         uses some compatibility code for enabling the sonypi
  75                         events. If the driver worked for you in the past
  76                         (prior to version 1.5) and does not work anymore,
  77                         add this option and report to the author.
  78
  79         mask:           event mask telling the driver what events will be
  80                         reported to the user. This parameter is required for
  81                         some Vaio models where the hardware reuses values
  82                         used in other Vaio models (like the FX series who does
  83                         not have a jogdial but reuses the jogdial events for
  84                         programmable keys events). The default event mask is
  85                         set to 0xffffffff, meaning that all possible events
  86                         will be tried. You can use the following bits to
  87                         construct your own event mask (from
  88                         drivers/char/sonypi.h):
  89                                 SONYPI_JOGGER_MASK              0x0001
  90                                 SONYPI_CAPTURE_MASK             0x0002
  91                                 SONYPI_FNKEY_MASK               0x0004
  92                                 SONYPI_BLUETOOTH_MASK           0x0008
  93                                 SONYPI_PKEY_MASK                0x0010
  94                                 SONYPI_BACK_MASK                0x0020
  95                                 SONYPI_HELP_MASK                0x0040
  96                                 SONYPI_LID_MASK                 0x0080
  97                                 SONYPI_ZOOM_MASK                0x0100
  98                                 SONYPI_THUMBPHRASE_MASK         0x0200
  99                                 SONYPI_MEYE_MASK                0x0400
 100                                 SONYPI_MEMORYSTICK_MASK         0x0800
 101                                 SONYPI_BATTERY_MASK             0x1000
 102                                 SONYPI_WIRELESS_MASK            0x2000
 103
 104         useinput:       if set (which is the default) two input devices are
 105                         created, one which interprets the jogdial events as
 106                         mouse events, the other one which acts like a
 107                         keyboard reporting the pressing of the special keys.
 108
 109 Module use:
 110 -----------
 111
 112 In order to automatically load the sonypi module on use, you can put those
 113 lines a configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d/:
 114
 115         alias char-major-10-250 sonypi
 116         options sonypi minor=250
 117
 118 This supposes the use of minor 250 for the sonypi device:
 119
 120         # mknod /dev/sonypi c 10 250
 121
 122 Bugs:
 123 -----
 124
 125         - several users reported that this driver disables the BIOS-managed
 126           Fn-keys which put the laptop in sleeping state, or switch the
 127           external monitor on/off. There is no workaround yet, since this
 128           driver disables all APM management for those keys, by enabling the
 129           ACPI management (and the ACPI core stuff is not complete yet). If
 130           you have one of those laptops with working Fn keys and want to
 131           continue to use them, don't use this driver.
 132
 133         - some users reported that the laptop speed is lower (dhrystone
 134           tested) when using the driver with the fnkeyinit parameter. I cannot
 135           reproduce it on my laptop and not all users have this problem.
 136           This happens because the fnkeyinit parameter enables the ACPI
 137           mode (but without additional ACPI control, like processor
 138           speed handling etc). Use ACPI instead of APM if it works on your
 139           laptop.
 140
 141         - sonypi lacks the ability to distinguish between certain key
 142           events on some models.
 143
 144         - some models with the nvidia card (geforce go 6200 tc) uses a
 145           different way to adjust the backlighting of the screen. There
 146           is a userspace utility to adjust the brightness on those models,
 147           which can be downloaded from
 148           http://www.acc.umu.se/~erikw/program/smartdimmer-0.1.tar.bz2
 149
 150         - since all development was done by reverse engineering, there is
 151           _absolutely no guarantee_ that this driver will not crash your
 152           laptop. Permanently.