[ltp] thinkpad-acpi release 0.16-20070916 uploaded to ibm-acpi.sf.net

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

I have released version 0.16-20070916 of thinkpad-acpi through the
sourceforge.net release system.

Patches are available for 2.6.20, 2.6.21, 2.6.22 and 2.6.23-rc at:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=117042&package_id=230205

git users can get it directly from tags in:
git://repo.or.cz/linux-2.6/linux-acpi-2.6/ibm-acpi-2.6.git


This release comes with the NVRAM polling work, finally!  It needs some
heavy testing if it is to have *any* remote chance of making it to 2.6.24.
Otherwise, I will schedule it for 2.6.25.

It is a major pity that, for unknown reasons, upstream did not send the
merge request for any ACPI work yet, as there are some very important
patches for thinkpad-acpi that are needed on 2.6.23-rc.  Thus, I have added
a 2.6.23 branch as well (I usually do this only after a kernel is released).

NVRAM hotkey polling just works (err... it is supposed to, anyway).  Load
the driver, and when it decides some polling is needed, it activates a
kernel thread to do so.  It is fully configurable (you can activate it just
for testing some of the keys, for example, or deactivate it for keys you
don't care about).  The documentation has more details.  Autodetection
requires non-buggy firmware that doesn't report crap in the ACPI DSDT tables
(HKEY.MHKA method).

The default polling frequency is 4Hz.  If that is too low, please report
back.

Users of the T4x series, X31, X4x and R52 (maybe R51 as well) do not need
NVRAM polling, if they are using an up-to-date BIOS.  I won't guarantee
anything for the *60 and *61 series, please report back if any of them start
reporting more keys when you force NVRAM polling as described below:

To use NVRAM polling for every key that is available from NVRAM, do this:
echo 0x00fb8000 > /sys/bus/platform/devices/thinkpad_acpi/hotkey_source_mask

Remember that keys which are mapped to KEY_RESERVED will not generate events
over input devices, and that the volume, thinklight and brightness keys are
set to KEY_RESERVED by default on most machines.  So you need to either
remap them, or check for events through the ACPI subsystem (using
acpi_listen, for example).

HAL and distributions are *NOT* to mess with hotkey_source_mask.  If we need
any model quirks there, tell me and I will add them in-driver.  Local admins
are free to do whatever they want, of course.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh