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Sony Programmable I/O Control Device Driver Readme
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- Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Stelian Pop <stelian@popies.net>
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- Copyright (C) 2001-2002 Alcôve <www.alcove.com>
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- Copyright (C) 2001 Michael Ashley <m.ashley@unsw.edu.au>
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- Copyright (C) 2001 Junichi Morita <jun1m@mars.dti.ne.jp>
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- Copyright (C) 2000 Takaya Kinjo <t-kinjo@tc4.so-net.ne.jp>
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- Copyright (C) 2000 Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org>
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This driver enables access to the Sony Programmable I/O Control Device which
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can be found in many Sony Vaio laptops. Some newer Sony laptops (seems to be
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limited to new FX series laptops, at least the FX501 and the FX702) lack a
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sonypi device and are not supported at all by this driver.
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It will give access (through a user space utility) to some events those laptops
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generate, like:
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- jogdial events (the small wheel on the side of Vaios)
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- capture button events (only on Vaio Picturebook series)
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- Fn keys
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- bluetooth button (only on C1VR model)
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- programmable keys, back, help, zoom, thumbphrase buttons, etc.
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(when available)
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Those events (see linux/sonypi.h) can be polled using the character device node
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/dev/sonypi (major 10, minor auto allocated or specified as a option).
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A simple daemon which translates the jogdial movements into mouse wheel events
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can be downloaded at: <http://popies.net/sonypi/>
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Another option to intercept the events is to get them directly through the
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input layer.
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This driver supports also some ioctl commands for setting the LCD screen
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brightness and querying the batteries charge information (some more
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commands may be added in the future).
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This driver can also be used to set the camera controls on Picturebook series
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(brightness, contrast etc), and is used by the video4linux driver for the
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Motion Eye camera.
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Please note that this driver was created by reverse engineering the Windows
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driver and the ACPI BIOS, because Sony doesn't agree to release any programming
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specs for its laptops. If someone convinces them to do so, drop me a note.
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Driver options:
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---------------
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Several options can be passed to the sonypi driver using the standard
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module argument syntax (<param>=<value> when passing the option to the
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module or sonypi.<param>=<value> on the kernel boot line when sonypi is
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statically linked into the kernel). Those options are:
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=============== =======================================================
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minor: minor number of the misc device /dev/sonypi,
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default is -1 (automatic allocation, see /proc/misc
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or kernel logs)
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camera: if you have a PictureBook series Vaio (with the
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integrated MotionEye camera), set this parameter to 1
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in order to let the driver access to the camera
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fnkeyinit: on some Vaios (C1VE, C1VR etc), the Fn key events don't
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get enabled unless you set this parameter to 1.
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Do not use this option unless it's actually necessary,
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some Vaio models don't deal well with this option.
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This option is available only if the kernel is
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compiled without ACPI support (since it conflicts
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with it and it shouldn't be required anyway if
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ACPI is already enabled).
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verbose: set to 1 to print unknown events received from the
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sonypi device.
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set to 2 to print all events received from the
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sonypi device.
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compat: uses some compatibility code for enabling the sonypi
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events. If the driver worked for you in the past
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(prior to version 1.5) and does not work anymore,
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add this option and report to the author.
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mask: event mask telling the driver what events will be
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reported to the user. This parameter is required for
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some Vaio models where the hardware reuses values
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used in other Vaio models (like the FX series who does
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not have a jogdial but reuses the jogdial events for
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programmable keys events). The default event mask is
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set to 0xffffffff, meaning that all possible events
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will be tried. You can use the following bits to
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construct your own event mask (from
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drivers/char/sonypi.h)::
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SONYPI_JOGGER_MASK 0x0001
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SONYPI_CAPTURE_MASK 0x0002
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SONYPI_FNKEY_MASK 0x0004
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SONYPI_BLUETOOTH_MASK 0x0008
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SONYPI_PKEY_MASK 0x0010
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SONYPI_BACK_MASK 0x0020
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SONYPI_HELP_MASK 0x0040
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SONYPI_LID_MASK 0x0080
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SONYPI_ZOOM_MASK 0x0100
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SONYPI_THUMBPHRASE_MASK 0x0200
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SONYPI_MEYE_MASK 0x0400
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SONYPI_MEMORYSTICK_MASK 0x0800
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SONYPI_BATTERY_MASK 0x1000
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SONYPI_WIRELESS_MASK 0x2000
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useinput: if set (which is the default) two input devices are
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created, one which interprets the jogdial events as
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mouse events, the other one which acts like a
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keyboard reporting the pressing of the special keys.
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=============== =======================================================
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Module use:
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-----------
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In order to automatically load the sonypi module on use, you can put those
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lines a configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d/::
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alias char-major-10-250 sonypi
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options sonypi minor=250
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This supposes the use of minor 250 for the sonypi device::
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# mknod /dev/sonypi c 10 250
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Bugs:
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-----
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- several users reported that this driver disables the BIOS-managed
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Fn-keys which put the laptop in sleeping state, or switch the
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external monitor on/off. There is no workaround yet, since this
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driver disables all APM management for those keys, by enabling the
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ACPI management (and the ACPI core stuff is not complete yet). If
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you have one of those laptops with working Fn keys and want to
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continue to use them, don't use this driver.
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- some users reported that the laptop speed is lower (dhrystone
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tested) when using the driver with the fnkeyinit parameter. I cannot
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reproduce it on my laptop and not all users have this problem.
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This happens because the fnkeyinit parameter enables the ACPI
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mode (but without additional ACPI control, like processor
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speed handling etc). Use ACPI instead of APM if it works on your
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laptop.
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- sonypi lacks the ability to distinguish between certain key
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events on some models.
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- some models with the nvidia card (geforce go 6200 tc) uses a
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different way to adjust the backlighting of the screen. There
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is a userspace utility to adjust the brightness on those models,
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which can be downloaded from
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https://www.acc.umu.se/~erikw/program/smartdimmer-0.1.tar.bz2
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- since all development was done by reverse engineering, there is
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*absolutely no guarantee* that this driver will not crash your
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laptop. Permanently.
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