Working FN keys for Vaio FS*

[Toufik]

This is intended for the VAIO VGN-FS... only (i.e. not FE nor C nor N, etc !)

Tested with Hardy but should also work with Gusty
No idea for Feisty and older: try at your own risk!! (it shouldn't harm but...)


If you have a Vaio FS* you'll probably discover that none of the FN keys are working out of the box. This is a bug in the sony-laptop driver Bug #29987 and Bug #119672. It seems that the FS series is handled in a different way than the other series (N, FE,...)

Historically, the driver was called sony_acpi. The driver has then evolved to sonypi and now to sony-laptop. Each version being better, except for the FS

Long time ago, someone wrote a little daemon to tweak sony_acpi in order to get the fnkey working. This daemon is called fsfn. But now sony_acpi is deprecated so you have to install it over the brand new sony-laptop. This was a quite annoying operation that has to be done after each kernel update...

So, I modify fsfn to work with sony-laptop instead of sony_acpi in order to avoid this annoying procedure of installation. So, basically, all you have to do now is to download this package:

Download:
http://www.fyma.ucl.ac.be/files/fsfn_2.1-1_i386.deb

Open it via firefox or nautilus with gdebi, or for the terminal fan, type:
$ sudo dpkg -i fsfn_2.1-1_i386.deb

It will install the daemon and the man page and write an init script to launch it at each boot-up. And... it should work immediately: try FN-F5 for instance

If you want an OSD for each FN keys:
Go to the Ubuntu Menu > System > Preferences > Sessions > Startup Programs
Click "Add"
Name --> Fsfn OSD
Command --> fsfn -o
Comment --> Sooo Nice!

Then logout and login again


Note: if you want to parametrise the deamon, there is a configuration file: /etc/fsfn.conf
$ gksudo gedit /etc/fsfn.conf

The syntax is explained here:
$ man 5 fsfn

Please report working and non working laptop and Ubuntu version!

Toufik

NB:
* Tested with Vaio VGN-FS 315B and hardy beta
* As this is the first version, please report any problem
* Dependencies may not be completed so tell me if it is the case

Removing
If you want to remove this daemon:

$ sudo apt-get remove --purge fsfn

Sources are here:
http://www.fyma.ucl.ac.be/files/fsfn-2.0-1.tar.gz
configuration and init.d files are to be found in the debian directory.

What if it doesn't work...
Please report the following informations:
*

$ uname -r

*

$ lshal | grep system.hardware

*

$lsmod | grep sony

you should get

sony_laptop

*

$ ls /sys/class/backlight/sony

you should get (at least):

brightness  actual_brightness

*

$ ls /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/

you should get (at least):

brightness_default  fnkey

* If you have all of this, and it still doesn't work prepare this command in a terminal but don't press enter yet!

$ cat /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/fnkey

Now press a fn key and just after press enter! You should get a number. The number should be different for each fn key

[Tripmonkey_uk]

Cheers Toufik, nearly 4.30 in the morn here, so I'm off to sleep and I'll give a full test tom.
p.s this post was jst to draw some attention to the thread and to subscribe to the replies

[Tripmonkey_uk]

Tested on VGN-FS215E and the latest Beta version of Hardy Heron.

Package installs fine,
Volume keys work,
Brightness keys work,
Mute key works.

On screen display seems a little funky and shows 2 bars instead of just one for some reason?



Not tested the screen change key yet,
Sleep key doesn't work (should be easy to set up),
Magnifier key doesn't work, mapped to anything yet?
Neither of the S keys are mapped to anything yet either I don't think?

I'm going to have a mess about with the config file now and see if we can make use of all the keys, plus find out which is the best sound server to set it up for.

Thanks again Toufik

[Toufik]

The double bar OSD is because you have twice "fsfn -o" in the your "Startup Programs" (Go to the Ubuntu Menu > System > Preferences > Sessions > Startup Programs). I know because I had the same issue

The conf file is quite basic. We can surely make something better. Default behaviour
* FN-F2, F3, F4 are Mute, Vol Down and Vol up of the "Front Volume" of the HDA intel card (have a look in Alsa Mixer)
* FN-F5 and F6 are Brightness Down and Up.
* FN-F7 is not assigned (Switch Display). You can assign i810rotate (from the i810switch package). That should work but I'd like to test it before shipping it
* FN-F10 is not assigned (Zoom). I don't know which kind of program could be assigned here...
* FN-F12 is not assigned (Hibernate or Suspend). We should try /etc/acpi/sleepbtn.sh or /etc/acpi/hibernatebtn.sh
* S1 and S2 are not assigned but you can easily do it in the conf file

Remember that fsfn is a temporary and dirty fix

[Tripmonkey_uk]

Good call on the double startup Toufik. God knows how I ended up with two in there?

/etc/acpi/sleepbtn.sh works fine for FN+F12 too. I take it only shell scripts can be executed from the configuration file?

I was just reading up on the i810switch package a couple of days ago. I think someone got it working with that before, but I can't remember who it was

As we don't know when a native version will be included in Ubuntu, I think it could be a good idea to treat this as a decent fix and put a little more work into it Toufik. It certainly won't do any harm

[geetarista]

Thank you so much for this! I've just gone without the FN keys for quite some time now since they stopped working.

Now everything works perfectly! Sysinfo:

Sony Vaio VGN-FS980
Ubuntu Hardy Heron RC

Thanks again!!

[Tripmonkey_uk]

Originally Posted by Toufik * FN-F10 is not assigned (Zoom). I don't know which kind of program could be assigned here...

I was thinking about using that to toggle the desktop effects on and off. This would help save power when running on battery. Either that or using it for the Compiz zoom shortcut when desktop effects are already on. It kinda makes sense with the picture on the key (adding visual enhancements)

I tried setting the F10 key like this..

F10_CMD=/usr/local/bin/compiz-switch

..after installing Compiz Switch of course, but it doesn't seem to work

Any ideas?

[Amorget]

Any chance this will work on the AR series laptop?

[traxtar3]

I would like to try this on a VGN-NR*** laptop but i am running 64-bit version of Gusty. Any chance you have a 64bit version of the deb built up?

Thanks in advance

[Tripmonkey_uk]

Originally Posted by Amorget Any chance this will work on the AR series laptop?

Originally Posted by traxtar3 I would like to try this on a VGN-NR*** laptop but i am running 64-bit version of Gusty. Any chance you have a 64bit version of the deb built up? Thanks in advance

I'm not too sure if either of them models handle the FN keys the same as the FS series do. You guys ever try using this tutorial before? I can't make any promises but it might work, or it could at least give you a better understanding of the problem.

I'd try the .deb file first though as that is easier to remove if it doesn't work