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Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -07001Sony Programmable I/O Control Device Driver Readme
2--------------------------------------------------
3 Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Stelian Pop <stelian@popies.net>
4 Copyright (C) 2001-2002 AlcĂ´ve <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
10This driver enables access to the Sony Programmable I/O Control Device which
11can be found in many Sony Vaio laptops. Some newer Sony laptops (seems to be
12limited to new FX series laptops, at least the FX501 and the FX702) lack a
13sonypi device and are not supported at all by this driver.
14
15It will give access (through a user space utility) to some events those laptops
16generate, 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
24Those 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).
26A simple daemon which translates the jogdial movements into mouse wheel events
27can be downloaded at: <http://popies.net/sonypi/>
28
29Another option to intercept the events is to get them directly through the
30input layer.
31
32This driver supports also some ioctl commands for setting the LCD screen
33brightness and querying the batteries charge information (some more
34commands may be added in the future).
35
36This 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
38Motion Eye camera.
39
40Please note that this driver was created by reverse engineering the Windows
41driver and the ACPI BIOS, because Sony doesn't agree to release any programming
42specs for its laptops. If someone convinces them to do so, drop me a note.
43
44Driver options:
45---------------
46
47Several options can be passed to the sonypi driver using the standard
48module argument syntax (<param>=<value> when passing the option to the
49module or sonypi.<param>=<value> on the kernel boot line when sonypi is
50statically 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
Erik Walingd2052c12005-09-06 15:17:02 -0700102 SONYPI_WIRELESS_MASK 0x2000
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700103
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
109Module use:
110-----------
111
112In order to automatically load the sonypi module on use, you can put those
113lines in your /etc/modprobe.conf file:
114
115 alias char-major-10-250 sonypi
116 options sonypi minor=250
117
118This supposes the use of minor 250 for the sonypi device:
119
120 # mknod /dev/sonypi c 10 250
121
122Bugs:
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
Erik Walingd2052c12005-09-06 15:17:02 -0700141 - 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
Linus Torvalds1da177e2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700150 - since all development was done by reverse engineering, there is
151 _absolutely no guarantee_ that this driver will not crash your
152 laptop. Permanently.