Re: THINKPAD_ACPI_INPUT_ENABLED seems regressive

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@hmh.eng.br>]

Cc's added.

On Wed, 01 Aug 2007, Hugh Dickins wrote:
> When updating this IBM ThinkPad T43p from 2.6.22 to 2.6.23-rc1
> using make oldconfig, the text and default Y of
> 
> config THINKPAD_ACPI_INPUT_ENABLED
> 	bool "Enable input layer support by default"
> 	depends on THINKPAD_ACPI
> 	default y
> 	---help---
> 	  Enables hot key handling over the input layer by default.  If unset,
> 	  the driver does not enable any hot key handling by default, and also
> 	  starts up with a mostly empty keymap.
> 
> 	  If you are not sure, say Y here.  Say N to retain the deprecated
> 	  behavior of ibm-acpi, and thinkpad-acpi for kernels up to 2.6.21.
> 
> made it sound like a good thing, so I configured it Y.  But its only
> effect seems to be to disable the key I use most, Fn+F4 to suspend to
> RAM.  It also disables Fn+F3 to blank the screen, though I don't use
> that one; but does not disable the brightness and ThinkLight keys,
> presumably because they just get mapped to KEY_RESERVED.

Actually, it doesn't disable the keys, but it routes them differently, so it
will work well only if you have very up-to-date HAL, etc.

Richard, Matthew, would the HAL crowd be unhappy if I switch that default?

Distros with new enough userland would be expected to compile the kernel
with THINKPAD_ACPI_INPUT_ENABLED, though.

> I get along fine now with THINKPAD_ACPI_INPUT_ENABLED disabled; but
> suggest that its text is misleading, and default Y questionable.
> Or perhaps there's a bug, and I can help try patches.

No bug in he code.  The help text should clearly be improved, and the
default could be switched to N.  I will send in a patch, after I get a few
comments.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh