Arch Linux

DerBaer

Member

Registered: 2012-10-28

Posts: 5

acpi_listen only for some keys

Hello,

i'm trying to control screen brightness on my Compaq Presario CQ61 but until now, I couln't succeed (It worked long ago, so I think it's not an "unsupported Hardware" issue)
Though, manually writing numbers into /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness works.

I already tried many solutions I found, but nothing helped. Then I found acpi_listen. But it only works for some of my Fn keys:
button/sleep
cd/*
button/mute
button/volume*
For the others however, it doesn't show any output (help, www, lock, ... and Brightness)
I still don't know how this ACPI stuff works exactly, but not recognising some keys looks like a problem to me. Any suggestions what could be the problem?
Are these keys "dead" as long as acpi doesn't see them, or are there other possiblities the use them without acpi (until now, no solution for brightness changes worked)

Can it be a problem, that I don't use the newest graphics drivers? (mesa 10.2.8-1, nouveau-dri-10.2.8-1, xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.11-1). I can't upgrade them due to some software not working than.

Thanks for helping

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,659

Re: acpi_listen only for some keys

I don't generally use acpi for back light brightness.  Are you sure the keys are really dead?  Have you seen this article? Do scankeys or xev not see them?

If the keys are not really dead, then tell us a bit more about your installation and we can figure out how to bind them to tools that will control the brightness.  For instance, are you using a console only, or are you using Xorg?  You stated that writing to the sys file system works, so we just need to figure out the glue.

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DerBaer

Member

Registered: 2012-10-28

Posts: 5

Re: acpi_listen only for some keys

I tried
xev: same problem
showkey --scancodes: same problem
BUT
showkey --keycodes: gives me 465 for BrightnessUp, BrightnessDown and some other keys (but lock e.g. has something like 99)
For me, this doesn't make sense at all...

My Installation: Arch with Openbox. Everything except the graphic drivers mentioned above is up to date.

Linux FooBar 3.17.2-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Oct 30 20:49:39 CET 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux

For me it would be totally ok to use another way of controlling the brightness. E.g. something like

  <keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessUp">
    <action name="Execute">
		<command>echo 3 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness</command>
    </action>
  </keybind>

But I failed with this as well