On Thu, 2007-05-31 at 13:53 +0100, Bastien Nocera wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-05-31 at 13:36 +0100, Richard Hughes wrote:
> > Attached patch adds a kernel thread to do polling on Toshiba hardware.
> > 
> > Toshiba hardware is a little oddball, and does not provide ACPI events
> > on some key presses, typically Fn hotkey buttons. The key interface is
> > now polled, and events now matched to a list of toshiba specific
> > scancodes, and are squirted to userspace using the INPUT subsystem.
> > 
> > This means that toshiba laptops buttons "just work" without any
> > userspace daemon (using uinput) such as fnfx or bodges such as using a
> > userspace hal addon. Doing the polling in kernel is more efficient, and
> > makes stuff just work out of the box. You can assign the keys using
> > standard X keymaps, or using tools such as gnome-keybinding-properties.
> > 
> > This is similar to other patches sent for the thinkpad_acpi driver, and
> > is part of the "Unf*ck my keyboard" initiative to make multimedia keys
> > just work.
> > 
> > Changes from the first patch involve switching to a workqueue for the
> > polling, not breaking the spaces in "hotkeys_via_input" and also masking
> > out the fn key button up.
> 
> A couple of things:
> - use a switch statement in toshiba_deliver_button_event(), would look a
> bit cleaner.

Agree, done.

> - make the magic number #defines

Agree, done.

> - not sure if it's possible, but you should disable the workqueue
> altogether if nothing has the input device opened.

Do we get an event when the [input]->users value changes? If not, we
could do 1Hz (users > 0) checking when the input device is unclaimed,
and then switch to 4Hz polling when the input device is open.

> Hopefully we'll find a way to receive an interrupt, or some kind of
> event when the keys are pressed in the future, and completely avoid the
> polling. In the meantime, it should be minimised.

Nope, impossible AFAICS. The hardware is just broken. Windows XP has an
toshiba supplied daemon that polls, so I think we have to just bite the
bullet.

New patch attached.

Richard.