Thinkpad edge sound and brightness keys stopped working
Hi Slackers,
Something strange happened to my system recently. I am running a newish install of Slackware 13.37 on a thinkpad edge, kernel version 3.0.42. The problem is that the extra keys along the top edge of the keyboard which control volume, screen brightness, etc. worked from the start, but then suddenly stopped working. They are keys that double as F1-F12 (by default you need to use the "fn" key to get them to function as F1-F12) and those are still working. The strange thing is that "xev" as well as "showkey" give no response whatsoever anymore when those keys are pressed. This seems to have happened after I loaded KDE as my wm (I normally use fluxbox but wanted to see how KDE ran). Or at least that was when I first noticed it, so that may or may not be the cause. I've googled quite a bit on this issue, and looked around at think-wiki as well as here for clues, but have not come up with much. I have read this thread, which mentions reflashing the BIOS, which is something I've never done and seems a bit risky, especially since I wiped out all traces of windows from this machine as soon as I got it so the original BIOS update capabilities are gone. I checked out the BIOS settings and reset them to defaults in case some program or other may have changed the settings. Nada. This is not a hugely important issue, but it was nice to be able to dim the screen and also to adjust volume with those keys. In case it is useful here is the output of "lsmod" and "lspci": Code:
[1153][george@here:~]$ lsmod Code:
[1155][george@here:~]$ lspci Any help would be appreciated! Please note: even though I've been using Slackware since version 9.0, and have messed around a bit with new kernels and such, I am not an IT person, so go easy on me. ;) -g |
That's weird.
First try downloading a few different images from different distros. See if any other distros get those keys working. I'd try Mint and Mepis first. They're pretty good supporting hardware. If something else works better with your hardware, I'd suggest switching. If nothing else gets it working, there is a hardware malfunction. |
Thanks for the response. I hesitate to install another distro since I know and love slackware so much! Perhaps a live CD distro may help diagnose the issue at least, and if it solves the problem I'll consider using it instead of slackware. Those keys were all working from the get go though, and only suddenly stopped working.
Another detail I did not mention. In the BIOS setup you can change the default behavior of those keys. The default settings are that pressing the key alone, say the "mute/F1" key, mutes the sound and to get F1, you need to do Fn+key. You can change the default so that F1 is the result of pressing the key alone and "mute" requires Fn+key. I did that and the F1 worked when pressed alone, while the Fn+key did nothing. Now, back to default settings, it's the opposite: Fn+key registers as F1, while pressing the key alone does nothing. That leads me to think it is not a hardware problem, or not just a hardware problem. -g |
Not sure if I understood correctly - problem appeared when you used KDE in place of fluxbox, but does it go away if you reverse this change?
I have a Thinkpad Edge which has Slackware 13.37 and KDE (4.6.5) and those keys seem to work just fine. IIRC the screen brightness keys (Fn-F7 and Fn-F8) have always worked right out of the box and I have assumed that they are hard-wired to the LCD display. The volume and mute keys required a bit of encouragement for which I used Xmodmap with an .Xmodmap file containing lines like Quote:
If however you see no events with xev when you press these keys you seem to have a more fundamental problem. I think I changed my BIOS settings so that the keys return normal Function Key (F1-F12) codes unless the Fn key is also depressed when they generate the hardware-control codes. |
bogzab,
the problem is that everything worked just fine out of the box and then suddenly stopped working for no apparent reason. I get no response whatsoever in xev, no key codes at all, matter what wm I use. It's as if the keys do not exist. The connection to KDE may be circumstantial. Even when I exit xwindows altogether and go to the command line nothing happens when I press those keys while running "showkey," which is the cli equivalent of xev. with BIOS defaults: Fn+key gives me the keycodes for the F1-F12 keys just fine key alone: nothing switching the BIOS settings as you mention reverses things: key alone gives me the keycodes for F1-F12 just fine Fn+key: nothing This is why I suspect it is firmware related not software or hardware related. If I didn't need this laptop on a regular basis I'd wade into the murky waters of reflashing the BIOS to see if it fixes things, but I'd really rather not if I can avoid it. -g |
Can you boot with a live CD distro - one that uses another kernel ?
If it's just the same, I guess you go back to the BIOS flashing option. |
Hi bogzab,
I was worried that you'd say that! Just yesterday I compiled a fresh kernel (3.4.14) and it did not help the issue when I booted into it. But I can try another distro too. I am wondering now whether this problem can be due to the thinkpad_acpi driver which, as I understand it controls the extra buttons on thinkpads. It does seem odd that the BIOS could be affected by something that happened while I was running Linux. Then again, that level of computer operations is one of which I can claim almost complete ignorance. I appreciate your help on this, but will honestly probably not try flashing the BIOS until I have a long period of time where I am not dependent on having a functioning computer. -g |
New kernel does not help - perhaps going back to an older one (stock huge kernel distributed with Slack 13.37?) might help?
|
It is worth a try, although other issues, like a flaky wireless card driver, I ran into on the stock kernel were the reason for the upgrade in the first place. Perhaps I'll try upgrading to Slackware 14.0, which if I remember correctly has an older kernel than the one I upgraded to, but a later one than 13.37. I still don't get what might have happened to muck things up. Maybe it's because I bought a cheapo laptop. I have always had good results in the past with thinkpads as they seem to do well with slackware.
-g |
Well, suddenly things are fixed! And it is apparently KDE related.
Here's the story: another, I thought, unrelated issue I was having was with seemingly random crashes while using KDE apps in xfce or fluxbox, like Kile. I'd be working away when suddenly xorg would crash and I would get dropped down to the cli with a message about a segfault. Very frustrating. So after poking around here looking to fix THAT problem after giving up on the hotkey issue, I upgraded to newer versions of libdrm and mesa from /testing and lo and behold, those daggone volume keys are working again. Haven't gotten KDE apps to crash again, but we'll see on that. Does this make any sense to anyone who knows what's going on under the hood? -g |
Yes, it might make sense. One glitch can cause multiple problems. If a package that is a dependancy for several different things is corrupt, you'll have multiple issues.
You can also look into scanning your hard drive and fixing bad sectors. Many updates are bug fixes. |
md, thanks for the response. That does make sense.
Unfortunately, the problem has now reappeared. Things worked well last night, but then on rebooting the system this morning, those keys are unresponsive once again.... No response at all in xev or showkey either. -g |
Quote:
It's been stable for months now and everything seems pretty happy. Suspend will still crap out on me and the wireless occasionally stops working.. I've been put off lenovos for a while I think.. Good luck :) |
D1ver,
I didn't realize that you had the same xorg crashing issues as well. Did you start another thread on that? Maybe I read it last night without making the connection. Anyway, I'm back to square one on the hotkey question, although now that I have upgraded libdrm and mesa KDE apps no longer cause xorg to crash -- so far at least, knock on wood! But those elusive hotkeys remain a mystery, as they are no longer responsive after working for a little bit last night. I wonder if upgrading to slack 14 might help. Otherwise I've downloaded a couple of live OS options -- Mint and Slax to see what they do. I'll report back. Though I also now wonder whether this whole thing might be related to the thinkpad_acpi driver which controls the hotkeys, right? cheers! -g |
D1ver,
Just came across this thread at a Lenovo forum. Don't know if you've seen it. Seems like it might remain a problem that Lenovo still has not fixed given that the last post in that thread was from March of this year. Perhaps we should ask for our money back. -g |
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