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+Sony Notebook Control Driver (SNC) Readme
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+-----------------------------------------
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+ Copyright (C) 2004- 2005 Stelian Pop <stelian@popies.net>
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+ Copyright (C) 2007 Mattia Dongili <malattia@linux.it>
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+
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+This mini-driver drives the SNC device present in the ACPI BIOS of
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+the Sony Vaio laptops.
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+
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+It gives access to some extra laptop functionalities. In its current
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+form, this driver let the user set or query the screen brightness
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+through the backlight subsystem and remove/apply power to some devices.
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+
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+Backlight control:
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+------------------
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+If your laptop model supports it, you will find sysfs files in the
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+/sys/class/backlight/sony/
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+directory. You will be able to query and set the current screen
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+brightness:
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+ brightness get/set screen brightness (an iteger
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+ between 0 and 7)
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+ actual_brightness reading from this file will query the HW
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+ to get real brightness value
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+ max_brightness the maximum brightness value
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+
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+
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+Platform specific:
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+------------------
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+Loading the sony-laptop module will create a
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+/sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/
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+directory populated with some files.
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+
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+You then read/write integer values from/to those files by using
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+standard UNIX tools.
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+
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+The files are:
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+ brightness_default screen brightness which will be set
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+ when the laptop will be rebooted
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+ cdpower power on/off the internal CD drive
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+ audiopower power on/off the internal sound card
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+ lanpower power on/off the internal ethernet card
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+ (only in debug mode)
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+
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+Note that some files may be missing if they are not supported
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+by your particular laptop model.
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+
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+Example usage:
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+ # echo "1" > /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/brightness_default
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+sets the lowest screen brightness for the next and later reboots,
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+ # echo "8" > /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/brightness_default
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+sets the highest screen brightness for the next and later reboots,
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+ # cat /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/brightness_default
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+retrieves the value.
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+
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+ # echo "0" > /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/audiopower
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+powers off the sound card,
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+ # echo "1" > /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/audiopower
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+powers on the sound card.
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+
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+Development:
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+------------
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+
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+If you want to help with the development of this driver (and
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+you are not afraid of any side effects doing strange things with
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+your ACPI BIOS could have on your laptop), load the driver and
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+pass the option 'debug=1'.
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+
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+REPEAT: DON'T DO THIS IF YOU DON'T LIKE RISKY BUSINESS.
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+
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+In your kernel logs you will find the list of all ACPI methods
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+the SNC device has on your laptop. You can see the GCDP/GCDP methods
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+used to pwer on/off the CD drive, but there are others.
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+
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+I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THOSE METHODS DO.
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+
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+The sony-laptop driver creates, for some of those methods (the most
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+current ones found on several Vaio models), an entry under
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+/sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop, just like the 'cdpower' one.
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+You can create other entries corresponding to your own laptop methods by
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+further editing the source (see the 'sony_acpi_values' table, and add a new
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+entry to this table with your get/set method names using the
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+HANDLE_NAMES macro).
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+
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+Your mission, should you accept it, is to try finding out what
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+those entries are for, by reading/writing random values from/to those
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+files and find out what is the impact on your laptop.
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+
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+Should you find anything interesting, please report it back to me,
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+I will not disavow all knowledge of your actions :)
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+
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+Bugs/Limitations:
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+-----------------
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+
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+* This driver is not based on official documentation from Sony
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+ (because there is none), so there is no guarantee this driver
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+ will work at all, or do the right thing. Although this hasn't
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+ happened to me, this driver could do very bad things to your
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+ laptop, including permanent damage.
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+
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+* The sony-laptop and sonypi drivers do not interact at all. In the
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+ future, sonypi could use sony-laptop to do (part of) its business.
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+
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+* spicctrl, which is the userspace tool used to communicate with the
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+ sonypi driver (through /dev/sonypi) does not try to use the
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+ sony-laptop driver. In the future, spicctrl could try sonypi first,
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+ and if it isn't present, try sony-laptop instead.
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+
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Mattia Dongili