pommed doesn't work on my 4th gen MacBook Pro 15"

[gorillayue]

Hi,

I'm having the same problem. Having installed Pommed 1.6 using Synaptic Package Manager and the repository URL given above and then resetting just in case it might help, I get nothing but the normal function key responses.

Anyone got any more ideas on what to do here?

Oh, and the 1.17 release... I added the debian repo to my sources list but using Synaptic didn't bring up the 1.17 release as an option.

What's the best method for debugging a problem like this? (I'm extremely new to Ubuntu)

Cheers

I have been playing around with with for long, and seems no progress. I guess maybe we should wait for the official release of 1.16 or 1.17 to come out. For the current 1.17, by the way, mine couldn't even let me install, saying my libasound get messed up in some sort, but I did install that thing. Oh well, I mainly use ubuntu for programming and work, so I guess no hotkey, no touchpad is not the end of the world for me. But if anyone could point me to the right path on solving this problem exclusive to MBP 4th gen, it would be very appreciated.

[cyberdork33]

I have been playing around with with for long, and seems no progress. I guess maybe we should wait for the official release of 1.16 or 1.17 to come out. For the current 1.17, by the way, mine couldn't even let me install, saying my libasound get messed up in some sort, but I did install that thing. Oh well, I mainly use ubuntu for programming and work, so I guess no hotkey, no touchpad is not the end of the world for me. But if anyone could point me to the right path on solving this problem exclusive to MBP 4th gen, it would be very appreciated.

IDK what you mean by "official" but pommed 1.17 is the latest stable release...


apparently 1.17 has a dependency on a newer version of libasound that is not in the ubuntu repo.

[seaward]

Edit: Reinstalling Linux.

[seaward]

OK, cracked the sucker. Had to recompile the kernel as stated here: Bug #207127: FN Key Doesn't Work in Hardy With MacBook Pro Fourth Generation

However, my Device ID was different from the one stated in the bug report. I discovered the correct ID with lsusb, which gave a list of all my Devices. I then checked the verbose lsusb output of each Apple device until I found the one corresponding to my keyboard and altered the hid-quirks.c file accordingly.

For the record, my keyboard was 0231, not 0230 as stated in the bug report.

It is also interesting to note that xev doesn't respond to the FN key being pressed even though it works fine for normal usage.

[cyberdork33]

OK, cracked the sucker. Had to recompile the kernel as stated here: Bug #207127: FN Key Doesn't Work in Hardy With MacBook Pro Fourth Generation

However, my Device ID was different from the one stated in the bug report. I discovered the correct ID with lsusb, which gave a list of all my Devices. I then checked the verbose lsusb output of each Apple device until I found the one corresponding to my keyboard and altered the hid-quirks.c file accordingly.

For the record, my keyboard was 0231, not 0230 as stated in the bug report.

It is also interesting to note that xev doesn't respond to the FN key being pressed even though it works fine for normal usage.

Fn shouldn't have an output unless utilized along with another key. For example, Fn+F1 would have a different value than F1.

Please post your findings to that bug report if you haven't already.

[seaward]

Fn shouldn't have an output unless utilized along with another key. For example, Fn+F1 would have a different value than F1.

Aha, well that explains that then.

I am experiencing further odd behaviour since patching the kernel.

1. Muting sound stops brightness controls from working until reboot. Restarting Pommed daemon doesn't correct this.
2. UI skin for the Volume pop-up is different to the one used for Brightness.

EDIT:

Fixing number 2 is accomplished by going to System->Preferences->Keyboard Shortcuts and disabling the built-in Gnome volume controls.
Fixing number 1 is a little more complicated. Upon booting into Ubuntu, open a terminal and issue the following commands:

sudo killall -1 pommed
sudo pommed -f > /dev/null &
exit

Then run gpomme from Applications->Accessories->pommed GTK client.

This solution is definitely not ideal, as it needs to be performed every time the user boots into Ubuntu.

[jtslau]

Got pommed working on my Macbook Pro (4,1) Penryn, Hardy

First open and append the options file.

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

Add the following at the end of the file, so that the Apple Device ID is finally added back in.

options usbhid quirks=0x05ac:0x0230:0x00000800,0x05ac:0x0231:0x00024800,0x05ac:0x0232:0x00000800

Save and restart

Afterwards, add the following to /etc/apt/sources.list so that pommed 1.16 can be used:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mactel-support/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/mactel-support/ubuntu hardy main

exit and on the console, update apt and install/update pommed (and optionally gpomme):

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install pommed gpomme

This worked for me, hopefully it will work for you too. Note that this is only reiterating what everyone has contributed on this thread (and some other ones as well) Thanks.

[cyberdork33]

Afterwards, add the following to /etc/apt/sources.list so that pommed 1.16 can be used

Note, that I will likely be attempting to create some packages for pommed 1.18 which adds support for additional keyboards very soon.

[Jp81]

Got pommed working on my Macbook Pro (4,1) Penryn, Hardy

First open and append the options file.

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

Add the following at the end of the file, so that the Apple Device ID is finally added back in.

options usbhid quirks=0x05ac:0x0230:0x00000800,0x05ac:0x0231:0x00024800,0x05ac:0x0232:0x00000800

----

This fixed my keyboard problems, but I am still unable to start pommed. When I attempt to run pommed (v. 1.16), I get following error:

$ sudo pommed -d
Found 0 devices
E: No suitable event devices found

Edit. I got pommed working (had to use evdev as keyboard driver), but I still can't adjust screen brightness and keyboard backlight.

[seaward]

Hey jp, a good place to start debugging problems is to open a terminal window and kill the pommed daemon like so:

sudo killall -1 pommed

Then restart pommed in the foreground with debugging messages enabled by running

sudo pommed -d

Have a check through the output and see if there are any obvious problems being reported. Also, try pressing your various function keys while pommed is outputting to the terminal window and note any odd errors etc.

I actually have to run pommed in the foreground with logging enabled (sudo pommed -f) in order to get it to work properly.