****************************************************************************** Q: I have a (non Acer) notebook which is not recognized by your driver but I think it should. What information do you need? A: If it is a non-Acer laptop I would like to know, what makes you think that your laptop would work with my driver. A windows driver/utility package of the name "LaunchManager" or "EasyButton" is a good hint. If it is clear that your hardware is okay, I need the string with your model name from BIOS. Please don't ask me how to do it. To find out which functions of your laptop the driver will support, it is best, if you can tell me where to get this "LaunchManager" or "EasyButton" package. If it is a model from 2003 or newer then chances are good that it's a dritek type one. In this case try the option "force_series=6000" to at least enable the keys. ****************************************************************************** Q: Why can't I activate my wireless hardware on Acer TM 420/430/6000/8000 ...? A: On many newer laptops (Dritek type) I do not now how to do this, sorry. Someone would need to find out how windows does it. Volunteers? ****************************************************************************** Q: I know that wireless hardware is supported on my Aspire 1690/TravelMate4600, but I cannot get it to work, why? A: On these model (and similar) the wireless hardware is controlled on two different levels. One is controlled by acerhk's xxxled file, the other level is controlled by the key itself. To actually activate the hardware you need to write '1' to the xxled file and you need to press the corresponding button. Example: echo 1 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled ****************************************************************************** Q: Why do I always get 0x00 from /proc/driver/acerhk/key? A1: Check the type of your laptop if /proc/driver/acerhk/info. If it is "Dritek", you cannot read the keys from the driver. Starting from version 0.5.17 you get "n/a" out of the key file in this case. A2: If you have polling enabled (default) you will almost always read 0x00 from this file. This is because in every polling cycle it is checked for key events and if there is one, it is instantly translated and sent to the kernel input system. Starting with version 0.5.20 you get "n/a" out of the key file in this case. ****************************************************************************** Q: When I press a key, nothing happens. Why are they not working? A: Most keys won't do anything by themself. If nothing happens, that is because no programm knows what to do with the new keys. You need to assign actions to them, use the hotkey manager of your desktop to do that. If using Gnome, you find it under desktop settings - keyboard shortcuts. ****************************************************************************** Q: The driver works for my laptop, but not all of the keys are working. What can I do? A: There are some keys/key combinations which generate an ACPI event, e.g. Fn+F4 on some models or the lid button. If you have a different laptop than the one which got detected (or you used "force_series=xxx" anyway), then it is possible that the mapping acerhk uses to translate the codes from the buttons to key events is wrong. In this case, load the driver with "verbose=4" and press the buttons which do not work. Then look for messages from acerhk of the form "translated acer key code xxx to no key". Note these codes together with the button they belong to and send me this list along with the model name of your laptop. If you do not see a usable name in /proc/driver/acerhk/info please try the tools dmidecode/biosdecode/vpddecode to find this name. ****************************************************************************** Q: I press the wireless key but the hardware doesn't get activated, what's wrong? A: The driver is only on older models (non-Dritek type) able to read keypresses by itself and toggle the hardware/LED automatically (with option autowlan=1). On Dritek type models this must be done by writing the desired value to one of the wireless files in the proc filesystem. In most cases this would be /proc/drivers/acerhk/wirelessled to control wlan hardware (blueled for Bluetooth hardware): echo 1 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled But you could use a hotkey manager to do that automatically when you press the button. In this case be aware that on some models the button generates different key events according to the actual state of the wireless hardware. ****************************************************************************** Q: My keys do not work, I only get kernel messages of the form: atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xf4 on isa0060/serio0). atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e074 ' to make it known. A: Press each of the buttons and note the mentioned code for it (e074 in this example). You should get a list like this: P1 e074 P2 e075 ... If you are finished with it, look into /usr/include/linux/input.h, using your favourite text viewer/editor. Search for "KEY_STOP". You should see the following line in the file: #define KEY_STOP 128 After it many more lines with equal #defines should be visible. Look for key names which best match the names of your buttons, e.g. KEY_PROG1, KEY_WWW and so on. Note the numbers assigned to the names, for KEY_STOP this would be 128, for KEY_PROG1 148. Now you have a list with three items per entry, your button, a code from the kernel messages and a corresponding number from the file linux.h: P1 e074 148 P2 e075 149 ... For each line in this list, issue the setkeycodes command as mentioned in the kernel message: setkeycodes e074 148 setkeycodes e075 149 ... After doing that, the keys should be available for your hotkey manager. ****************************************************************************** Q: My WLAN hardware gets activated through /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled, but the LED is not working. Why not? A: Try if adding the option "led=1" to your wireless module helps. For the ipw2200 driver it works, as Didier CLERC found out: I have to load the module "ipw2200" with the option "led=1", then the wifi button blinks until a network is detected. ****************************************************************************** Q: I have an unsupported laptop, but the driver works when I force the series to a type like 610 or 2100. Only my buttons doesn't get recognized, why? A: On models of the type TM_new (like TravelMate 600, 2100 and many other, see acerhk.c, function setup_model_features for details) the buttons use different codes on different models. Therefore the driver needs to know these codes. You can get them if you load the driver with verbose=4, press the buttons and key combinations (Fn+xx) you are interested in and look for kernel messages of the form "acerhk: translated acer key code 0xnn to ...". Write down the key code for each button/key combination and send them to me so I can patch the driver. I also need your model string to make autodetection work, so include /proc/driver/acerk/info.