Most recent kernel where this bug did not occur:2.6.15 Distribution:Debian/Sid Hardware Environment: Dell Inspiron 8500 0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge (rev 04) 0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04) 0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03) 0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83) 0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03) 0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03) 0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03) 0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 Lf [FireGL 9000] (rev 01) 0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01) 0000:02:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4510 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 02) 0000:02:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCI4510 IEEE-1394 Controller 0000:02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02) model name : Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 2.00GHz Software Environment: Debian/Sid Latest KDE Problem Description: the i8k plugin to the kde deamon tools keeps displaying the volume onscreen display. this is caused by i8k.c, which i loaded as module with --force, to controll the fan of the notebook (my has only one, while older models had a left and a right one) Older hardware allso had volume keys accessed via this interface, mine has keys accessible through usual key events. if i try to increase the volume with i.e. alsa-mixer, it gets decreased to zero by the kde applet. disabling it solves this issue. my conclusion: the kernel doesn't behave in a proper way.
Created attachment 6975 [details] this adds a parameter, disabling the keys. a patch to drivers/char/i8k.c i used the inverse mask to have the boolean param give me either 0xFFFFF if no param given, or a mask removing the keys in binary & operation if specified. I hope it works properly this way, my testresults were positive.
Dmitry, is this likely to be an input big or an ALSA bug? Wilfried, you say that the bug is in 2.6.15, but that 2.6.15 was the "Most recent kernel where this bug did not occur". Please clarify.
nope, it's not alsa, it's char/i8k.c. i usually don't use kde, so i got this just to know as i tried it with the actual system. i think this bug was allways there, but i just didn't notice. the driver reports key pressing, though there aren't any.
sorry didn't see the not. the file states that it's from dz@debian.org, but bugzilla doesn't know him.
Its not really inputnor ALSA but I will try to take care if it. Instead of module parameter though I would prefer fixing DMI tables and disable key reporting that way. Wilfried, would you mind sending me (dtor_core@ameritech.net) output of 'dmidecode' utility.
Created attachment 6976 [details] the output of dmi decode as requested, here's the output of the utility.
Hm, we already have this signature in DMI tables. Does it say "i8k: unable to get SMM Dell signature" when you try to load the module?
yep, it does say so. but it can regulate the fan though. as stated above, i load it with --force. the keys on my 8500 aren't accessed through this interface, they produce usual key events. [17200964.796000] i8k: unable to get SMM BIOS version [17200964.796000] Dell laptop SMM driver v1.14 21/02/2005 Massimo Dal Zotto (dz@debian.org) this is the reason why i thought an extra parameter should be the right way to solve this case...
A DMI entry or similar would be more logical.
ok, adding that goes beyound my actual scope of kernel hacking. if it works automagically, that indeed would be cooler. one shouldn't need that --force then either, right?
Indeed, --force would be unnecessary then.
I am not sure about pure DMI solution... We already have DMI entry convering inspiron 8500 there. Unfortunately DELL also changed BIOS interface. And it looks like 8500 has CPU and GPU temperature sensors swapped...
Likely, in addition to "Product Name:", the Dell's will have a "Version" field there that could be used for determining the per-model differences. Wilfried, can you provide us with the output of 'dmidecode' on your machine?
allready did. see the second atachment...
Thanks. Sorry, I only was reading the emails and not the bugzilla webpage. Version: "Not Specified" in the DMI spec isn't really useful for matching. On the other hand, the system name is "Inspiron 8500". The table could probably be extended to match specifically for the "8500" and change options based on that.
Any updates on this problem? Thanks.
root@jordy:~# modprobe i8k [ 1724.813160] i8k: unable to get SMM BIOS version [ 1724.816494] Dell laptop SMM driver v1.14 21/02/2005 Massimo Dal Zotto (dz@debian.org) root@jordy:~# cat /proc/version Linux version 2.6.20 As this should be the prerequisite as vojtech stated (being able to load it without --force) i think no. I've turned of the kde functionality and allmost forgotten what i did way up then, plus i don't use kde usually... I think the last time i wiped my kde config the behaviour reapiered... (some months ago.
I don't see any updates to i8k in the tree. Dmitry, Voitech - what's the next step, can DMI/BIOS mutations be handled in any sane way?