asus-nb-wmi: wifi & brightness keys does not work on asus x200la laptop

[Michael Tokarev]

Hello.

It looks like asus-nb-wmi (or asus-wmi) does not handle some
(acpi?) keys on some recent asus laptops. In particular, on
my x200la laptop, the mentioned keys does absolutely nothing
(neither showkeys nor xev shows them). Also, wifi led is
always off.

Reportedly the same prob exists on another (but similar) series,
x200ma (which is basically the same but is built on celeron/atom
processor).

How can I help in debugging/implementing this support?

Thanks,

/mjt

[Michael Tokarev]

Post by Michael Tokarev
It looks like asus-nb-wmi (or asus-wmi) does not handle some
(acpi?) keys on some recent asus laptops. In particular, on
my x200la laptop, the mentioned keys does absolutely nothing
(neither showkeys nor xev shows them). Also, wifi led is
always off.
Reportedly the same prob exists on another (but similar) series,
x200ma (which is basically the same but is built on celeron/atom
processor).
How can I help in debugging/implementing this support?

Some additional info I forgot to include.

Kernel is 3.16.

There's no messages in dmesg about unknown keycodes when hitting these
buttons (pr_info("Unknown key...") in asus-wmi.c).

Thanks,

/mjt

[Michael Tokarev]

Post by Michael Tokarev
Hello.
It looks like asus-nb-wmi (or asus-wmi) does not handle some
(acpi?) keys on some recent asus laptops. In particular, on
my x200la laptop, the mentioned keys does absolutely nothing
(neither showkeys nor xev shows them). Also, wifi led is
always off.
Reportedly the same prob exists on another (but similar) series,
x200ma (which is basically the same but is built on celeron/atom
processor).
How can I help in debugging/implementing this support?

Anyone know this stuff, maybe some hints about where to start?
I wrote this email almost 3 weeks ago, and so far there was no
single reply... Does anyone actually maintain this module?

Thanks,

/mjt

[Michael Tokarev]

Post by Michael Tokarev

Post by Michael Tokarev
Hello.
It looks like asus-nb-wmi (or asus-wmi) does not handle some
(acpi?) keys on some recent asus laptops. In particular, on
my x200la laptop, the mentioned keys does absolutely nothing
(neither showkeys nor xev shows them). Also, wifi led is
always off.
Reportedly the same prob exists on another (but similar) series,
x200ma (which is basically the same but is built on celeron/atom
processor).
How can I help in debugging/implementing this support?

Anyone know this stuff, maybe some hints about where to start?
I wrote this email almost 3 weeks ago, and so far there was no
single reply... Does anyone actually maintain this module?

[]

Post by Michael Tokarev
Well, I guess if you don't see anything in the output of asus-nb-wmi, the keys are unlikely to be handled by this module.
- http://lwn.net/Articles/391230/
- http://lwn.net/Articles/367630/
Reading the DSDT you may understand what is happening to your brighntess events.

Thank you for the warm words, Corentin ;)

This prompted me to pefrorm some research, and I also found this (which is quite old
already and I should have seen it before but apparently I didn't):

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=171563&start=20#p883644

(this is a similar model but with different cpu). Their solution was to boot
with acpi_osi= (empty string) -- with that, all 4 keys (brightness up/down,
screen on/off and wifi key) works.

I don't know what it really means, and if linux should work around this somehow
by its own, but at least it looks like no new driver should be written.

Also I don't know if there's anything else which breaks this way.

What does this acpi_osi= (empty) does, anyway?

Thanks,

/mjt

[Michael Tokarev]

On 10/20/2014 08:21 PM, Michael Tokarev wrote:
[]

Post by Michael Tokarev
This prompted me to pefrorm some research, and I also found this (which is quite old
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=171563&start=20#p883644
(this is a similar model but with different cpu). Their solution was to boot
with acpi_osi= (empty string) -- with that, all 4 keys (brightness up/down,
screen on/off and wifi key) works.

..but wifi LED doesn't work still.

Thanks,

/mjt