Ubuntu
linux package

wmi-acer not working (not even creating its folder in /sys)

Bug #215706 reported by Pietro Battiston
2
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: linux-source-2.6.24

As seen in bug 190677 (https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/190677), acer_acpi module, now named wmi-acer, have been backported to Hardy's 2.6.24 kernel.

Indeed, on my (updated 5 minutes ago) Hardy the command "lsmod | grep acer" does return:
   wmi_acer 11076 0

But... my wireless doesn't work. No LED enlightened, no results when scanning.

In the old acer_acpi, to turn on/off wireless I play with some files in /proc/acpi/acer, while in the new wmi-acer I should (see http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.acpi.devel/28276) be playing with some files in /sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi. Instead, none of the 2 folders exists on my system.

The problem MAY be related to the fact that, thought I do need this module to enable wireless (and I used it for the past 2 years), my laptop IS NOT an acer: it is a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo 1650G (with a 64 bit Hardy running on it).

My wireless card (but I don't think this is important) has a BCM4318 chipset, and so it runs with b43 module.

Notice that if I install an old acer_acpi package (forcing its dependencies on kernel, since no Hardy version was released), wireless works smoothly.

In the moment acer_acpi (from the acer_acpi package) gets modprobed, dmesg says:
   [ 473.956315] acer_acpi: Acer Laptop ACPI Extras version 0.11.1
   [ 473.956335] acer_acpi: Detected Acer AMW0 version 2 interface
   [ 473.960600] Registered led device: acer_acpi:mail
   [ 475.343238] b43-phy0: Radio hardware status changed to ENABLED

And then, "lsmod | grep acer" returns:
   acer_acpi 21720 0
   led_class 7176 2 acer_acpi,b43
   wmi_acer 11076 1 acer_acpi

I can do more testing, just let me know /what/ to test.

Revision history for this message
Pietro Battiston (toobaz) wrote :

A quick fix: my laptop is a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo A1650G. You can see it here: http://code.google.com/p/aceracpi/wiki/SupportedHardware

Revision history for this message
Pietro Battiston (toobaz) wrote :

I installed development Intrepid, and there (apparently introduced in addition to standard kernel) is acer_acpi.

Since this bug covers only the point of view of an ex-acer_acpi user, and since the problems I face with acer_acpi in intrepid are treated in another bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/248635), I consider this as "fix released", even if it seems to deny what was said in https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/190677.

Notice that the reported symptoms regarding wmi_acer (/sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi doesn't exist at all) are still here, but if acer_acpi has been explicitly imported, I imagine this is a know problem and it was faced this way by kernel maintainers. So it is probable that each user needing disabled wmi_acer features will just find the same old acer_acpi providing them (notice for example that solution suggested in http://www.slacky.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=212284 doesn't apply - or, better, is already applied - in the case of the Ubuntu Kernel, which config file reports "CONFIG_ACER_WMI=m").

Changed in linux:
status: New → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Pietro Battiston (toobaz) wrote :

for future reference: notice that with 2.6.27-1-generic acer_wmi works perfectly, all needed folders and files are created work

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