[ltp] thinkpad-acpi release 0.23-20091227 uploaded to ibm-acpi.sf.net

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Sun, 27 Dec 2009, Pedro Ribeiro wrote:
> I compiled into 2.6.32.2, but it doesn't appear to do anything.
> It says on dmesg:
> [   11.758907] thinkpad_acpi: Console audio control enabled, mode:
> monitor (read only)

Then it has installed a read-only ALSA mixer which can be used by userspace
for OSD.

> I didn't get the purpose of this driver, is it to control sound volume
> on a virtual terminal?

No, the purpose of the volume subdriver (thinkpad-acpi does a LOT more than
just this) is to provide OSD, something people have been pestering me about
it for a long time.

But you need something that can do OSD in userspace, which I bet doesn't
really exist (but gnome mixer might come close).

You can also use it to give userspace the power to screw with your mute and
volume control behind your back, of course.  Or for some good, creative use
(I bet someone, somewhere, thought of a good use for it).  To do that, give
the module the "volume_control=1" parameter.

There's documentation in Documentation/laptop/thinkpad-acpi.txt which will
tell you the other functions of the driver.

-- 
  "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