Description of problem: Kernel 2.6.35 in F14 has disabled CONFIG_ACPI_PROC_EVENT. I have a Sony Vaio CW laptop, which relies on the sony_laptop kernel module to catch acpi hotkey events. Thus, in Fedora 14, pressing Fn+F5 (brightness down) is not recognized at all, and pressing Fn+F6 is recognized as a generic button, having no effect on brightness. I use the nvidia_bl driver, and oBacklight to control the brightness. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): kernel-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.x86_64 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Start acpi_listen 2. Press the brightness up key (Fn+F5) 3. Press the brightness down key (Fn+F6) Actual results: Brightness down registers no event. Brightness up gives "button/fnf6 FNF6 00000080 00000000" Expected results: Fn+F5 should give- sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010 Fn+F6 should give- sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011 Additional info: I realize that CONFIG_ACPI_PROC_EVENT is deprecated, but this causes a major loss of functionality for all Sony laptops relying on it. I am quite sure this problem affects other Sony laptops too, not only Vaio CW. I request that CONFIG_ACPI_PROC_EVENT is enabled, at least until an alternative is found.
Brightness events should be generating KEY_BRIGHTNESSUP and KEY_BRIGHTNESSDOWN - is that not happening?
No, they are not generating those events (can't see in xev). On enabling CONFIG_ACPI_PROC_EVENT (by recompiling the kernel), at least acpi_listen generates correct output. But xev never shows KEY_BRIGHTNESSUP or KEY_BRIGHTNESSDOWN, in either case.
You won't see them in xev if you have a power manager that's taken a grab. Can you install evtest and run it against the Sony Vaio keys device and see whether they appear there?
evtest does show that key events are caught. I had a talk with the maintainer of this module (Mattia Dongili). He told that the problem may be occurring because X protocol can't handle keys with scancodes > 255 (http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11227). Is there any way I can key scancode 470 and 471 to KEY_BRIGHTNESSDOWN and KEY_BRIGHTNESSUP respectively? I am attaching the output of evtest (event8 is the Sony Vaio Keys event handler).
Created attachment 457467 [details] evtest output
Ah, in that case we just need to fix up the keymap. I'll look into that, thanks!
Hello.. Any updates on this? Will this be fixed for Fedora 14? Thanks.
Bump
I can confirm that brightness control keys work for me on the Fedora 15 alpha release.