[Packard-Bell EasyNote] asus_laptop problem: wifi

Hi Simon,

I also need some other information that seems not with apport, please attach them.

* DMI
Please attach the output of "cat /sys/class/dmi/id/modalias"

* DSDT
Please attach DSDT.dsl which can be made with following commands
$ sudo cp /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT ./DSDT.bin
$ sudo iasl -d ./DSDT.bin

for DSDT, please use acpidump. It will give me more information.

$ sudo acpidump > acpidump.dat

Then attach the acpidump.dat

Thanks a lot.

I have detected another asus_laptop bug concerning numlock. This laptop has a keypad on the right like on this picture:

http://www.abcelectronique.com/comparateur/informatique/ordinateur/ordinateur_portable/photos/easynote_mx66_005_packard_bell.jpg

I will describe only the behaviour of one key - 1 / End. The others work the same way.

When asus_laptop is blacklisted (correct behaviour):
 - numlock off:
    1 -> End
    shift + 1 -> Select till End
 - numlock on:
    1 -> 1
    shift + 1 -> Select till End

When asus_laptop is not blacklisted:
 - numlock off:
    1 -> End
    shift + 1 -> 1 (!)
 - numlock on:
    1 -> 1
    shift + 1 -> Select till End

It's a pesky bug making it difficult to select things. Often accidentally rewriting text with numbers.

Hi Simon,

I go through the DSDT you post. It looks a normal asus laptop one and nothing interesting me so far.

Will keep digging.

Could you look into /sys/devices/platform/asus_laptop and cat those files there (Ex: display,wlan,bluetooth) please.

Thanks a lot.

Hi Ike,

here are the cats:

> cat bluetooth
1

> cat display
1

> cat infos
Asus Laptop Support 0.42
Model reference : T12J
SFUN value : 0x8f7
DSDT length : 29842
DSDT checksum : 187
DSDT revision : 1
OEM id : T1200
OEM table id : T1200205
OEM revision : 0x205
ASL comp vendor id : INTL
ASL comp revision : 0x2002026

> cat modalias
platform:asus_laptop

> cat uevent
DRIVER=asus_laptop
MODALIAS=platform:asus_laptop

> cat wlan
1

Let me know if you need any other files from the subdirectories.

Thank you!

Hi Simon,

Sorry for replying late. I read the DSDT and asus-laptop. looks like the WLED method is the rfkill switch.

Since you have blacklist the asus-laptop. Can you try to insert it by

# sudo insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/drivers/platform/x86/asus-laptop wlan_status=0

and see if the wifi will be blocked or not.

Thanks a lot.

Hi Ike,

I have tried to insert it but the path is incorrect. I located asus-laptop but still an error occurs:

$ sudo insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/asus-laptop.ko wlan_status=0
insmod: error inserting '/lib/modules/2.6.32-24-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/asus-laptop.ko': -1 Unknown symbol in module

Thanks,
Simon

Hi Simon,

Sorry, I forget to tell you about the dependency.

Please use the following command before insmod.

$ sudo modprobe led-class

oh, BTW

After insmod, please tell me if wifi is ok or not, and please cat "/sys/devices/platform/asus_laptop/wlan". I need the value to know the status of WLAN.

Thanks for your great help.

Hi Ike,

I am still getting the same error. Are there any other dependencies? I am attaching the result of

$ modprobe -l

Thanks,
Simon

Hi Simon,

The dependency information is at /lib/modules/`uname -r`/modules.dep

you can find the dependency by

# grep asus-laptop /lib/modules/`uname -r`/modules.dep

For Lucid kernel (2.6.32 based), depends on led-class
For Maverick kernel (2.6.35 based), depends on led-class and sparse-keymap

If something still goes wrong when insmod, you can use dmesg to find out which symbol missed
For example:

# sudo insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/asus-laptop.ko
insmod: error inserting '/lib/modules/2.6.35-15-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/asus-laptop.ko': -1 Unknown symbol in module
# dmesg | tail -5
[ 1810.825553] asus_laptop: Unknown symbol sparse_keymap_free (err 0)
[ 1810.826257] asus_laptop: Unknown symbol led_classdev_unregister (err 0)
[ 1810.827612] asus_laptop: Unknown symbol sparse_keymap_report_event (err 0)
[ 1810.827809] asus_laptop: Unknown symbol sparse_keymap_setup (err 0)
[ 1810.828457] asus_laptop: Unknown symbol led_classdev_register (err 0)

and dmesg tells me three sparse_keymap functions and two led_class functions missing.

When you have the unknown symbol in dmesg, you can find where to have the symbol by reading modules.symbols

# grep led_classdev_register /lib/modules/`uname -r`/modules.symbols
alias symbol:led_classdev_register led_class

Hi Ike,

the problem is in the parameter...

$ dmesg | tail -2
[ 70.452041] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 332.156298] asus_laptop: Unknown parameter `wlan_status'

Thanks,
Simon

Ouch, sorry, that's my fault. the parameter is added when .34 kernel and I check asus-laptop.c with mainline kernel.

I will find out how to force asus-laptop not to set wlan status.

Hi Simon,

I made a dkms package with asus-laptop.c from lucid but remove forcing wifi on when init. Could you install it and reboot to see if the wifi works fine or not? Thanks a lot.

Hi Ike,

I have installed the package and rebooted keeping asus_laptop blacklisted. The wifi works and the '/sys/devices/platform/asus_laptop_test/wlan' is set to 1.

Simon

Thanks Simon,

I only remove two lines from asus-laptop.c. Looks like what I guess is correct. I think the other function of asus-laptop works for you (ex: hotkeys). Please keep blacklist asus-laptop and using the dkms package. I will ask maintainer of asus-laptop if he has similar report and how to deal with it.

Links for upstream talks,

http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/9/9/32
http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/9/9/34

Hi Simon,

I am afraid that currently no good solutions for fix this situation because removing those two line will let wifi of some other laptops down.

Are you ok with the dkms package attached for lucid? In future releases (Ex: Maverick) you can append "options asus_laptop wlan_status=-1" in /etc/modprobe.d

I will help Corentin Chary to maintain the wiki and hope that we can have a list for those methods.

I set the status of this bug to "Wont Fix" since this is a real bug but unfortunately we have no good solutions. If the problem is solved, I will set the status to "Fix Released".

Hi Ike,

thank you for your efforts. I guess it will have to do it.

Just an observation as an external... Why does a Packard-Bell laptop need an Asus driver (why not pb-laptop)? Is PB EasyNote based on Asus? Should I make an extensive test of all buttons, leds, etc. and report it to somebody (e.g. the developer of asus-laptop) to see how do they differ?

Simon

Hi Simon,

I guess its because the same company or team to design the BIOS for Packard-Bell and Asus laptops. asus-laptop.ko will bind on an ACPI device whose HID is "ATK0100" or "ATK0101". You may find the string in the DSDT.dsl you posted. As I know, if a laptop has the ATK0100 in its DSDT and the behavior of the device is very similar.

I do not have an Asus laptop but have a Lenovo SL400 laptops. I tried to enable the hotkey an year ago. Corentin Chary saw the DSDT and was surprised its looks like an Asus DSDT. Only few lines added and the hotkey works.

For those extra functions for your laptop, you may try them and if some of them are no function, please file another bug and ping me on IRC. I will see what I can do.

If you are interested in writing an ACPI driver, you may start from the article Matthew Garrett wrote, its at http://lwn.net/Articles/367630/