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#1 2011-11-21 21:03:35

djg1971
Member
Registered: 2008-09-11
Posts: 185

lenovo t61 sound problems

some time ago the big gnome upgrade hit the fan, as has been discussed ad nauseum.

i use arch-64 on a lenovo t61 with gdm and openbox.  mostly i was unaffected by the gnome "upgrade," except that things like the gnome panel, which i did use, no longer worked, and various niceties (like volume control via the dedicated silver buttons on the laptop) stopped working.  i expected some of these issues, but also that they would somehow be fixed after a while...

it is getting to be a while, and while i don't really care about the gnome panel so much (still doesn't work for crap), the control over the sound level (and mute capability) was actually very handy, and i really miss it.

does anyone have a similar system on which they've managed to get these buttons working again?  if so please tell me how you manage it.  i poked around a few times but did not figure out a hack.

please do not suggest that i use gnome3 and scrap openbox.  while this may make the buttons work again, i like openbox and to me almost every other wm pretty much sucks.

sorry, meant to include this from messages.log:

[root@... log]# tail messages.log
Nov 21 16:51:13 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/volumedown / VOLDN
Nov 21 16:51:13 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/volumedown / VOLDN
Nov 21 16:51:13 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/volumedown / VOLDN
Nov 21 16:51:14 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/volumeup / VOLUP
Nov 21 16:51:14 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/volumeup / VOLUP
Nov 21 16:51:14 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/volumedown / VOLDN
Nov 21 16:51:15 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/volumedown / VOLDN
Nov 21 16:51:15 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/mute / MUTE
Nov 21 16:51:15 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/mute / MUTE
Nov 21 16:51:16 localhost logger: ACPI group/action undefined: button/mute / MUTE

i'm guessing i should know how to fix the problem given these messages, but (sigh) i don't.

also, the wiki on thinkpads seems to be way out of date or something.  I followed those instructions a long time ago; they did use to work, but no longer.

Last edited by djg1971 (2011-11-21 21:40:46)

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#2 2011-11-23 15:07:05

phubai
Member
Registered: 2011-01-28
Posts: 6

Re: lenovo t61 sound problems

Well, I know you visited the Thinkwiki, but it's unclear if you tried any of the suggested remedies:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Thinkpad-acpi

It would appear that this may merit some investigation. As well as this:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_ge … ys_to_work

I would start there at least rather than give up you desktop manager of choice. I'm not currently using openbox, so I can't add much more than that, and a good-luck!

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#3 2011-11-28 16:01:55

djg1971
Member
Registered: 2008-09-11
Posts: 185

Re: lenovo t61 sound problems

well, it's actually pretty unclear what to try on my system.

0) everything used to work.
1) acpid and hal are started on boot via rc.conf, as always.
2) the thinkpad_acpi module shows up via lsmod. 
3) pushing the vol up/down/mute buttons is clearly doing something, in the sense that the machine senses state changes and logs things to various files.  to me, the available messages are not helpful enough for me to even find the problem adequately, let alone fix it.

upshot:  these buttons just don't work anymore, and that state has persisted long enough now that i have doubts they will work again.  there are a bazillion files in several directories associated with the thinkpad_acpi module.  none of the resources i have found say anything helpful to me, like "type this in this file," etc. 

from the log entries i posted above it seems that when the buttons are pushed, that action generates a state change which is passed from peter to paul and so on.  the content of the information passed used to make sense to peter and paul; now at least one of them doesn't understand anymore and punts.  i view it as a hopeless and possibly dangerous activity to start changing map characters in various files unless you know precisely what you are doing, and in this case i cannot get any confidence about that from any resouces i have yet seen.

more confusing than something like this breaking though is why many people don't seem to have observed the same problem.  there are a nonnegligible number of arch-64 users out there who run gdm + openbox on a lenovo t61...

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#4 2011-11-29 19:40:42

Riptawr
Member
Registered: 2011-09-14
Posts: 18

Re: lenovo t61 sound problems

Ok, i have the same issue on my desktop with Logitech Media Keyboard - volume keys, since the update. I'm using XFCE with Slim, and everything (the media keys) used to work, so i don't think it is linked with your thinkpad at all. Sadly i'm new to arch and i have no idea how to define that action, neither did i find a solution yet. Keep u updated.

@Mods: maybe put this into the kernel&hardware section?

Last edited by Riptawr (2011-11-29 19:42:22)

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