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diff --git a/Documentation/laptops/acer-wmi.txt b/Documentation/laptops/acer-wmi.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b3a6b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/laptops/acer-wmi.txt @@ -0,0 +1,180 @@ +Acer Laptop WMI Extras Driver +http://code.google.com/p/aceracpi +Version 0.2 +18th August 2008 + +Copyright 2007-2008 Carlos Corbacho <carlos@strangeworlds.co.uk> + +acer-wmi is a driver to allow you to control various parts of your Acer laptop +hardware under Linux which are exposed via ACPI-WMI. + +This driver completely replaces the old out-of-tree acer_acpi, which I am +currently maintaining for bug fixes only on pre-2.6.25 kernels. All development +work is now focused solely on acer-wmi. + +Disclaimer +********** + +Acer and Wistron have provided nothing towards the development acer_acpi or +acer-wmi. All information we have has been through the efforts of the developers +and the users to discover as much as possible about the hardware. + +As such, I do warn that this could break your hardware - this is extremely +unlikely of course, but please bear this in mind. + +Background +********** + +acer-wmi is derived from acer_acpi, originally developed by Mark +Smith in 2005, then taken over by Carlos Corbacho in 2007, in order to activate +the wireless LAN card under a 64-bit version of Linux, as acerhk[1] (the +previous solution to the problem) relied on making 32 bit BIOS calls which are +not possible in kernel space from a 64 bit OS. + +[1] acerhk: http://www.cakey.de/acerhk/ + +Supported Hardware +****************** + +Please see the website for the current list of known working hardare: + +http://code.google.com/p/aceracpi/wiki/SupportedHardware + +If your laptop is not listed, or listed as unknown, and works with acer-wmi, +please contact me with a copy of the DSDT. + +If your Acer laptop doesn't work with acer-wmi, I would also like to see the +DSDT. + +To send me the DSDT, as root/sudo: + +cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT > dsdt + +And send me the resulting 'dsdt' file. + +Usage +***** + +On Acer laptops, acer-wmi should already be autoloaded based on DMI matching. +For non-Acer laptops, until WMI based autoloading support is added, you will +need to manually load acer-wmi. + +acer-wmi creates /sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi, and fills it with various +files whose usage is detailed below, which enables you to control some of the +following (varies between models): + +* the wireless LAN card radio +* inbuilt Bluetooth adapter +* inbuilt 3G card +* mail LED of your laptop +* brightness of the LCD panel + +Wireless +******** + +With regards to wireless, all acer-wmi does is enable the radio on the card. It +is not responsible for the wireless LED - once the radio is enabled, this is +down to the wireless driver for your card. So the behaviour of the wireless LED, +once you enable the radio, will depend on your hardware and driver combination. + +e.g. With the BCM4318 on the Acer Aspire 5020 series: + +ndiswrapper: Light blinks on when transmitting +b43: Solid light, blinks off when transmitting + +Wireless radio control is unconditionally enabled - all Acer laptops that support +acer-wmi come with built-in wireless. However, should you feel so inclined to +ever wish to remove the card, or swap it out at some point, please get in touch +with me, as we may well be able to gain some data on wireless card detection. + +The wireless radio is exposed through rfkill. + +Bluetooth +********* + +For bluetooth, this is an internal USB dongle, so once enabled, you will get +a USB device connection event, and a new USB device appears. When you disable +bluetooth, you get the reverse - a USB device disconnect event, followed by the +device disappearing again. + +Bluetooth is autodetected by acer-wmi, so if you do not have a bluetooth module +installed in your laptop, this file won't exist (please be aware that it is +quite common for Acer not to fit bluetooth to their laptops - so just because +you have a bluetooth button on the laptop, doesn't mean that bluetooth is +installed). + +For the adventurously minded - if you want to buy an internal bluetooth +module off the internet that is compatible with your laptop and fit it, then +it will work just fine with acer-wmi. + +Bluetooth is exposed through rfkill. + +3G +** + +3G is currently not autodetected, so the 'threeg' file is always created under +sysfs. So far, no-one in possession of an Acer laptop with 3G built-in appears to +have tried Linux, or reported back, so we don't have any information on this. + +If you have an Acer laptop that does have a 3G card in, please contact me so we +can properly detect these, and find out a bit more about them. + +To read the status of the 3G card (0=off, 1=on): +cat /sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi/threeg + +To enable the 3G card: +echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi/threeg + +To disable the 3G card: +echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi/threeg + +To set the state of the 3G card when loading acer-wmi, pass: +threeg=X (where X is 0 or 1) + +Mail LED +******** + +This can be found in most older Acer laptops supported by acer-wmi, and many +newer ones - it is built into the 'mail' button, and blinks when active. + +On newer (WMID) laptops though, we have no way of detecting the mail LED. If +your laptop identifies itself in dmesg as a WMID model, then please try loading +acer_acpi with: + +force_series=2490 + +This will use a known alternative method of reading/ writing the mail LED. If +it works, please report back to me with the DMI data from your laptop so this +can be added to acer-wmi. + +The LED is exposed through the LED subsystem, and can be found in: + +/sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi/leds/acer-wmi::mail/ + +The mail LED is autodetected, so if you don't have one, the LED device won't +be registered. + +Backlight +********* + +The backlight brightness control is available on all acer-wmi supported +hardware. The maximum brightness level is usually 15, but on some newer laptops +it's 10 (this is again autodetected). + +The backlight is exposed through the backlight subsystem, and can be found in: + +/sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi/backlight/acer-wmi/ + +Credits +******* + +Olaf Tauber, who did the real hard work when he developed acerhk +http://www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~tauber/acerhk +All the authors of laptop ACPI modules in the kernel, whose work +was an inspiration in the early days of acer_acpi +Mathieu Segaud, who solved the problem with having to modprobe the driver +twice in acer_acpi 0.2. +Jim Ramsay, who added support for the WMID interface +Mark Smith, who started the original acer_acpi + +And the many people who have used both acer_acpi and acer-wmi. |
