[ltp] Re: RFC: removal of video output switching from thinkpad-acpi

[Elias Oltmanns]

Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh-N3TV7GIv+o9fyO9Q7EP/yw@public.gmane.org> wrote:
[...]
> The questions I need answered:
>
> I am inclined to NOT port any of the thinkpad-acpi video output switching
> interfaces to sysfs, which means they will be gone if/when /proc/acpi dies.
> IMHO, it looks like we better work on userspace utilities to deal with it,
> or move it to kernel framebuffer drivers.

Probably, I'm happy with userspace tools provided they work from the
console and don't rely on the framebuffer. Please don't just move it to
the framebuffer because I never got s2ram / resume working
satisfactorily with either of vesafb or intelfb.

>
> Also, I am considering removing the entire thing from thinkpad-acpi
>one year
> from now, regardless of the fate of /proc/acpi.
>
> Would the removal of this functionality impact your use of your thinkpad?
> Which model of thinkpad? How well does the video output stuff work on
> console mode? and under X.org 7.2 or 7.3?

I'm not an X user which is why I need to have this functionality
accessible from the console. On my X40 ibm-acpi / thinkpad-acpi managed
to do video switching fairly well or even perfectly well depending on
the kernel version. Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly which
behaviour I've observed at which kernel version. On 2.6.23.14 I can
switch video ports by means of /proc/acpi/ibm/video. For some reason,
however, pressing Fn-F7 just results in a log message

kernel: video bus notify

without actually performing a video switch. This is with Fn-F7 being
masked (in fact I'm using the hot key mask 0x00000100).

Regards,

Elias