Re: [PATCH] Add a quirk for the Dell XPS 13 (2015) when in PS/2 mode.

On Tuesday 24 February 2015 00:31:52 Mario Limonciello wrote:

On 02/22/2015 10:55 AM, Pali Rohár wrote:

quoted

Thank you for information!

Sure, no problem.

quoted

Mario, do you know if it is possible to "switch" keyboard
into mode under which Fn key will send scancode (like Ctrl
or Alt) when presses, so it could be possible to use any
Fn+key combination for keyboard shortcuts? Because now
Fn+F* send one scancode (e.g. suspend key) and other
combination of Fn+something does not work...

Sorry, this is not possible with today's BIOS and EC as I am
aware. I'll inquire about this for the future though.

For older dell models (some old inspirions and maybe also 
latitude) it was possible to use undocumented DELLDIAG interface 
(which enter into SMM mode and call some functions) to enable 
that "RAW" mode.

Now when you are discussing with us, do you have some information 
or can you comment (if it is not secret) that DELLDIAG SMM 
interface?

In linux kernel we have for it driver (provides info about 
temperature, fan speed, power management, hotkeys, ...), but it 
use undocumented interface (and sometimes it has problems):

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/char/i8k.c

quoted

Dmitry, should not Linux follow this Windows input
behaviour? For year we have seen people complaining about
non working keyboard on Dell laptops under Linux (when user
Windows it worked)...

This is a bit surprising to me.  Completely non-working?  Or
similar problem to what's getting fixed in the BIOS update we
discussed above?

Nothing new. It is that problem with repeating keys which is 
fixed by last version of BIOS.

I saw one E6440 model with preinstalled Ubuntu 12.04.2 and 
distributed with A08 BIOS (which had that problem). And this was 
very very annoying! You could imagine it, you buy new Latitude 
(business class pro notebook), you started it and on preinstalled 
OS, keyboard is not usable. Updating to A10 fixed it.

quoted

Now that BIOS/EC problem is fixed for some dell laptops
(probably new versions of BIOSes for other modules will be
released too), but it is really bad to see *new* laptop
(with broken BIOS) that does not work under Linux (and work
under Windows)...

Yes, if you're aware of any models that are not fixed by the
BIOS update this month, I would be interested to know.  A
majority of our hardware does undergo testing with Linux
during development, so usually these types of things are
caught.  Once we declare a BIOS stable it's a much lengthier
process to issue future fixes however.

In this forum thread people reported that "repeating keys" 
problem for more models: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19593360?pi239031352=19

And it looks like (from what I'm reading) last version A10 of 
E6440 BIOS broke USB3.0 support.

-- 
Pali Rohár
pali.rohar@gmail.com