HOW TO: Set up the HP TX2z and Dell XT & XT2 (N-trig digitizer) in Ubuntu

[Favux]

We'd very much appreciate that.

I found your post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ct#post9785839 along with Rafi's reply.

What we had determined is the 'EV_SW = 5' and 'SW_TABLET_MODE = 1' for both the HP's and the Dell's as per /usr/include/linux/input.h from what Rafi was saying.

That still doesn't explain why evtest and xxd don't seem to be working on /dev/input/dell-wmi. That's what has us stumped.

[Ayuthia]

I'm about 50 pages out of date on this thread, looked back a bit and can't figure out if you folks are talking about the XT or XT2 at this point.

If it is the XT2, I wouldn't trust the dell-wmi driver source provided by Mr. Rubin. My own investigation of it with my own XT2 showed that the 'opcodes' (sorry, idk the right term off the top of my head) don't match up correctly, and I had to modify the driver source accordingly. It is posted elsewhere in this thread. (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...95#post9780095)

I'm reading the thread now from that point, so apologies if this is a non-sequitur, just wanted to throw that out there, since at the time I posted that, interest was mostly in the HP laptops and the XT.

We are currently trying to figure out the Dell WMI driver. It is supposed to cover both the XT and XT2 laptops. The current dell-wmi.c source that we are using is coming from the kernel. As far as I know, you have been the only one that has reported this discrepancy. However, we now have two more that is not reporting any events for only the swivel switch. It would be helpful to know which BIOS version you are using so that we can compare with others. It might help us see if that is the issue or not.

Ubuntiac, did the swivel hinge work in prior versions? I am asking you only because I know that you have been using Linux for a while now.

enneract, did you have problems with other items being recognized from the wmi (such as brightness) before you made your fixes?

[Ayuthia]

wildschweini and ubuntiac, can you check dmesg to see if any messages show up for unknown key codes after you rotate the lid? They should show up at the end of the list if you rotate the lid before you call dmesg from the Terminal.

[enneract]

We are currently trying to figure out the Dell WMI driver. It is supposed to cover both the XT and XT2 laptops. The current dell-wmi.c source that we are using is coming from the kernel. As far as I know, you have been the only one that has reported this discrepancy. However, we now have two more that is not reporting any events for only the swivel switch. It would be helpful to know which BIOS version you are using so that we can compare with others. It might help us see if that is the issue or not.

Ubuntiac, did the swivel hinge work in prior versions? I am asking you only because I know that you have been using Linux for a while now.

enneract, did you have problems with other items being recognized from the wmi (such as brightness) before you made your fixes?

I don't recall very well what other WMI keys were not recognized, but going by the differences in sources, it looks like I had to modify SW_TABLET_MODE (0, 1), KEY_PROG1, KEY_BATTERY, KEY_WLAN, KEY_DISPLAYTOGGLE, KEY_PROG2.

I don't actually have ubuntu installed right now (upgraded to SSD, havent reinstalled), but I'm planning on playing around with it tonight.

As for BIOS rev, I'm using the latest, which is at least A09, but may be A10.

[Ubuntiac]

I'm using an XT with bios A03 (yes, you read that right). Current bios on Dell seems to be A09. I'd love to update it, but I don't have windows and installing a BIOS under freedos seems... risky.

Dmesg doesn't report any unknown keys when swiveling the hinge.

@Ayuthia - I've never seen it do anything before, but then the day I got it I installed stock Kubuntu and have never tried installing / modifying anything to get it to work before this.

[Ayuthia]

Ubuntiac and wildschweini -
If you want to try out enneract's version, you can try the original version here.

Another option is to try the dkms version that I am supplying here. You will need to download the file from here and do the following:

tar -xvjf dell-wmi-20101214.tar.bz2
sudo cp -a dell-wmi-20101214 /usr/src/
sudo dkms add -m dell-wmi -v 20101214
sudo dkms build -m dell-wmi -v 20101214
sudo dkms install -m dell-wmi -v 20101214

Once you restart, it should use the newer version. If you want to remove it:

sudo dkms remove -m dell-wmi -v 20101214 --all

and it should remove the kernel module and the original version should work again after restarting.

Once you restart you can then try using:

sudo xxd -g1 /dev/input/dell-wmi

and rotate the lid to see if the code appears.

[wildschweini]

hello again! i'm very busy, so that will be the only reply for today.
At first:

wildschweini and ubuntiac, can you check dmesg to see if any messages show up for unknown key codes after you rotate the lid? They should show up at the end of the list if you rotate the lid before you call dmesg from the Terminal.

Here's the output of dmesg after rotating the lid

$ dmesg
(...)
[ 1421.776170] dell-wmi: Unknown key e047 pressed

Second:

Ubuntiac and wildschweini -
If you want to try out enneract's version, you can try the original version here.

Another option is to try the dkms version that I am supplying here. You will need to download the file from here and do the following:

i tested Ayuthia's dkms version and got output (!) EVERY time i rotated the lid to tablet (but not when rotating back to laptop):

$ sudo xxd -g1 /dev/input/dell-wmi 
0000000: ce bc 07 4d 00 00 00 00 c5 01 0d 00 00 00 00 00  ...M............
0000010: 01 00 46 00 01 00 00 00 ce bc 07 4d 00 00 00 00  ..F........M....
0000020: cd 01 0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
0000030: ce bc 07 4d 00 00 00 00 da 01 0d 00 00 00 00 00  ...M............
0000040: 01 00 46 00 00 00 00 00 ce bc 07 4d 00 00 00 00  ..F........M....
0000050: dc 01 0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
0000060: e1 bc 07 4d 00 00 00 00 e3 ab 07 00 00 00 00 00  ...M............
0000070: 01 00 46 00 01 00 00 00 e1 bc 07 4d 00 00 00 00  ..F........M....
0000080: eb ab 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
0000090: e1 bc 07 4d 00 00 00 00 f7 ab 07 00 00 00 00 00  ...M............
00000a0: 01 00 46 00 00 00 00 00 e1 bc 07 4d 00 00 00 00  ..F........M....
00000b0: fa ab 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

the first six lines appeared after the first rotation to tablet, the second six lines appeared after a second rotation to tablet.

finally the dmesg after three rotations to tablet:

$ dmesg
[  117.758228] dell wmi got code d0
[  121.908418] dell wmi got code d0
[  121.908423] dell-wmi: Unknown key e047 pressed
[  128.844123] psmouse.c: Mouse at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost synchronization, throwing 1 bytes away.
[  136.408564] dell wmi got code d0
[  139.006715] dell wmi got code d0
[  139.006721] dell-wmi: Unknown key e047 pressed
[  143.412590] psmouse.c: Mouse at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost synchronization, throwing 1 bytes away.
[  350.440152] CE: hpet increased min_delta_ns to 7500 nsec
[  839.374109] dell wmi got code d0
[  841.674284] dell wmi got code d0
[  841.674289] dell-wmi: Unknown key e047 pressed

is it that what you expected, Ayuthia? have a nice day, hard and well working guys!

[Ayuthia]

hello again! i'm very busy, so that will be the only reply for today.
At first:



Here's the output of dmesg after rotating the lid

$ dmesg
(...)
[ 1421.776170] dell-wmi: Unknown key e047 pressed

EDIT: I just now figured out what you are showing.

Ok. So the Maverick kernel module is showing that e047 is pressed. That means that the swivel is there. We might be able to make some changes to Maverick's source to make the swivel report correctly.

The second part of your message does show something that is helpful also:

0000010: 01 00 46 00 01
0000040: 01 00 46 00 00

That looks like something is being toggled. It also shows that enneract's version is reporting the information down to the event but only half of it is making it there.

I will have to check the code and see what we can do for them. Hopefully we can make one of them work.

[Ayuthia]

Apparently I was a little bit slow in reading the code earlier. I just found that Rafi's changes were not in the current kernel source. However, the values that wildschweini shows looks like it matches up with Rafi's code. So what we can do is the use this dkms version.

After you download this package, do the following:

tar -xvjf dell-wmi-20101214-rafi.tar.bz2
cp -a dell-wmi-20101214-rafi /usr/src/

If you installed the dell-wmi-20101214 version earlier you will need to do (otherwise skip this step):

sudo dkms remove -m dell-wmi -v 20101214

Then continue with the following:

sudo dkms add -m dell-wmi -v 20101214-rafi
sudo dkms build -m dell-wmi -v 20101214-rafi
sudo dkms install -m dell-wmi -v 20101214-rafi

When you restart, it should now report the swivel again. Like last time, you should be able to see the information through:

sudo xxd -g1 /dev/input/dell-wmi

For those of you wondering why we are using dkms for this, dkms will recompile the kernel module every time for you when there is a kernel change. Most likely this change will not be made into Maverick's kernel so this will help you from having to remember.

EDIT:
At this point, it looks like we are only seeing the e047 code. Hopefully we will get the e046 code for the laptop mode also. If not, we will only rotate when switching to tablet mode.

[Ubuntiac]

I didn't see any change in output at all when using the non-rafi version of dell-wmi. When I followed the instructions in the previous post, I get the following error:

user@neo:/usr/src/dell-wmi-20101214-rafi$ sudo dkms build -m dell-wmi -v 20101214-rafi

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel.  Skipping...                                                                                                                       

Building module:
cleaning build area....
make KERNELRELEASE=2.6.37-9-generic -C /lib/modules/2.6.37-9-generic/build M=/var/lib/dkms/dell-wmi/20101214/build....(bad exit status: 2)

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 2.6.37-9-generic (i686)
Consult the make.log in the build directory
/var/lib/dkms/dell-wmi/20101214-rafi/build/ for more information.
0
0
ERROR: binary package for dell-wmi: 20101214-rafi not found

The previous step worked fine. The make log shows:

DKMS make.log for dell-wmi-20101214-rafi for kernel 2.6.37-9-generic (i686)
Tue Dec 14 15:47:40 EST 2010
make: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.37-9-generic'
scripts/Makefile.build:44: /var/lib/dkms/dell-wmi/20101214/build/Makefile: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `/var/lib/dkms/dell-wmi/20101214/build/Makefile'.  Stop.
make: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/dell-wmi/20101214/build] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.37-9-generic'