Bug 148279 – Upgrade to mod X breaks laptop backlight switch & 'fn'

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED NEEDINFO

[Description Mike Adams 2006-09-19 21:01:14 UTC]

First occurance Jul 31, 2006..

On my HP/Compaq nc6000 laptop (Centrino, Radeon 9600 agp), upon upgrading from xorg-x11-6.8.2-r8 (monolithic) to modular x11-base/xorg-x11-7.0 using the procedure at http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/x/x11/modular-x-howto.xml

Two problems/symptoms occurred:

1) the laptop lid switch no longer turns off the LCD backlight when you close it.

2) the blue 'fn' key is no longer recognized, this is the key used in combination with the 'f' keys (f1,f2,f3, etc) to increase/decrease screen brightness, switch video modes, etc. ( I mainly use to increase and decrease screen brightness)

[UPDATE] the 'fn' + 'numlock key combination does work.  so problem does not seem to be soley related to the 'fn' key.   

Additional data points:

1) The problem only exhibits itself when you start xorg-7.0, if you only boot to a linux single user session (i.e. command line), the keys work as normal. As soon as you start X (startx) though the 'fn' keys and lid switch stop working and will not work until you reboot (i.e. if you just drop out of X to a command line, the 'fn' key and lid switch still doesn't work)

2) downgrading back to xorg-6.8.2 restores the capability back to normal, I performed the upgrade a second time making sure I didn't 'fat finger' something, got exactly the same results.  

[UPDATE] repeated this process 4-5 weeks later to see if problem may have been resolved in any subsequent updates.  Still exhibiting exactly the same symptoms.

3) using 'xev' or 'xkeycaps' shows no keycodes coming across for the 'fn' key (under either xorg 6.8.2 or 7.0), so it doesn't seem to be a keycode or keyboard option problem in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf. (tried turning 'bioshotekeys' on and off)  [UPDATE]  I am begining to suspect it does have something to do with the kbd configs, but have been unable to resolve it by trying other keyboard configs, also tried generating a clean xorg.conf file using xorgcfg to no avail.

4) The xorg config is pretty vanilla, I have tried using 'kbd' and 'keyboard' drivers in my xorg.conf files, played around with a whole variety of 'input options' for the keyboard, with no luck under 7.0, so for now I am staying at 6.8.2-r8 by masking xorg7.0 (and higher).

5) I have a Sager laptop/portable desktop (P4, Radeon 9600 agp) that I performed the same upgrade on, no problems there, the 'fn' keys and lid switch works just fine.

6) Window Managers - same problem under enlightenment-0.16.8.1 and kde-3.5.2

7) Kernel 2.6.16-suspend2-r8 on both (also exhibits same problem under 2.6.16-r13 as well)


It seesm as though somehow xorg-7 is masking these 'fn' keys and lid switch from the bios.



Can post log files and other data as requested..


[begin emerge --info ]
Portage 2.1.1 (default-linux/x86/2006.0, gcc-3.4.6, glibc-2.4-r3, 2.6.16-suspend2-r8 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.16-suspend2-r8 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1400MHz
Gentoo Base System version 1.12.5
Last Sync: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 02:50:01 +0000
app-admin/eselect-compiler: [Not Present]
dev-java/java-config: 1.2.11-r1
dev-lang/python:     2.4.3-r1
dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5
dev-util/ccache:     [Not Present]
dev-util/confcache:  [Not Present]
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.17
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r7
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2
sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1-r3
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.13-r3
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.22
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.17-r1
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-m -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.4/env /usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-m -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig distlocks metadata-transfer sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/gentoo http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo/"
LINGUAS=""
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude='/distfiles' --exclude='/local' --exclude='/packages'"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 X aac alsa apache2 apm arts berkdb bitmap-fonts bluetooth cdparanoia cdr cli crypt cups dlloader dri dvd dvdr dvdread eds elibc_glibc emboss encode esd foomaticdb fortran gd gdbm gif gnome gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 imlib input_devices_evdev input_devices_keyboard input_devices_mouse input_devices_synaptics ipv6 isdnlog jpeg kde kernel_linux libg++ libwww mad mikmod mmx motif mp3 mpeg mysql ncurses nls nptl nptlonly ogg opengl oss pam pcmcia pcre perl png pppd python qt3 qt4 quicktime readline reflection sdl seamonkey session spell spl ssl tcpd truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev usb userland_GNU video_cards_fbdev video_cards_radeon video_cards_vesa vorbis wifi win32codecs xine xinerama xml xmms xorg xv yahoo zlib"
Unset:  CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY





ADVthanksANCE

Mike Adams
www.ScienceLogic.com

[Comment 1 Donnie Berkholz (RETIRED) 2006-09-20 06:48:57 UTC]

Please attach /etc/X11/xorg.conf, /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the output of the following commands and reopen.

setxkbmap -print
setxkbmap -layout latin
emerge portage-utils && qlist -I -v xkeyboard-config

[Comment 2 Mike Adams 2006-09-20 08:42:35 UTC]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Please attach /etc/X11/xorg.conf, /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the output of the
> following commands and reopen.
> 
> setxkbmap -print
> setxkbmap -layout latin
> emerge portage-utils && qlist -I -v xkeyboard-config
> 

do you want that for xorg-6.8.2 that is working correclty or for the xorg-7.0 config?   I am currently running at xorg-6.8.2.  no problem to re-upgrade and provide the data for 7.0 if that is what you need.  will be a few hours before I can get it down. just let me know.. thx. MLA

[Comment 3 Donnie Berkholz (RETIRED) 2006-09-20 09:04:10 UTC]

For 7.0 -- working configurations are not interesting, because there's nothing to fix. =)

[Comment 4 Mike Adams 2006-09-20 11:05:32 UTC]

Created attachment 97564 [details]
Xorg.0.log as requested

[Comment 5 Mike Adams 2006-09-20 11:06:28 UTC]

Created attachment 97565 [details]
/etc/X11/xorg.conf as requested

[Comment 6 Mike Adams 2006-09-20 11:21:42 UTC]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Created an attachment (id=97565) [edit]
> /etc/X11/xorg.conf as requested
> 

# setxkbmap -print
xkb_keymap {
        xkb_keycodes  { include "xfree86+aliases(qwerty)"       };
        xkb_types     { include "complete"      };
        xkb_compat    { include "complete"      };
        xkb_symbols   { include "pc(pc105)+us"  };
        xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)"     };
};


~~~~~~~~~
# qlist -I -v xkeyboard-config
x11-misc/xkeyboard-config-0.8

~~~~~~~~~

No change in status of symptoms. 

Thanks much for the help.. 

MLA

[Comment 7 Mike Adams 2006-11-06 09:15:14 UTC]

Any news on this problem??

Thanks

MLA


(In reply to comment #6)
> (In reply to comment #5)
> > Created an attachment (id=97565) [edit]
> > /etc/X11/xorg.conf as requested
> > 
> 
> # setxkbmap -print
> xkb_keymap {
>         xkb_keycodes  { include "xfree86+aliases(qwerty)"       };
>         xkb_types     { include "complete"      };
>         xkb_compat    { include "complete"      };
>         xkb_symbols   { include "pc(pc105)+us"  };
>         xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)"     };
> };
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~
> # qlist -I -v xkeyboard-config
> x11-misc/xkeyboard-config-0.8
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~
> 
> No change in status of symptoms. 
> 
> Thanks much for the help.. 
> 
> MLA
> 

[Comment 8 Joshua Baergen (RETIRED) 2006-11-06 19:10:49 UTC]

Any change with X7.1?

[Comment 9 Mike Adams 2006-11-07 10:20:37 UTC]

Negative..  same results..  let me know if you need any more diagnostic data..

thx..

MLA

(In reply to comment #8)
> Any change with X7.1?
> 

[Comment 10 Joshua Baergen (RETIRED) 2006-12-30 09:23:06 UTC]

(In reply to comment #9)
> Negative..  same results..  let me know if you need any more diagnostic data..

Yeah, one more thing.  Give the 7.2 pre-release stuff a try.  I've been using it for a bit and it's pretty stable.

You'll have to unmask mesa-progs, mesa and xorg-server.

Re-open the bug once you've tried this.  If the issue still persists, it's time to move this upstream.