questions vanity lights

Hi,

the latest add-on to control the XPS vanity lights is
highly
appreciated. Just a couple questions:

1. The tools will run just for root. What has to be done to
use them as
user, too? How do I make the dcdbas driver to load
automatically? I
guess I have to make an entry to modprobe.conf for a certain
device. But
what has to be entered exactly?

2. Is there a plan to wrap this into a nice API for easy
integration
into applications? Something like:
  CVanityLights::setFanColor(color)
  CVanityLights::setLidColor(color)
  CVanityLights::setSpeakerColor(color)
  CVanityLights::setToutchPad(on|off)
  CVanityLights::setBrightness(level)
  CVanityLights::saveToBios()
  ...

3. "dellLEDCtl -i" tells me that my touch LED info
is not supoorted (XPS
M1710) Zone 4 is reported to be ruby, which is correct.
However I can
not switch it off by 'dellLEDCtrl -z4 0'. What do I have to
do to give
you some debug info?


Thanks

Oliver
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On Tue, Mar 20, 2007 at 11:59:11AM +0100, Oliver Eichler
wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> the latest add-on to control the XPS vanity lights is
highly
> appreciated. Just a couple questions:
> 
> 1. The tools will run just for root. What has to be
done to use them as
> user, too? How do I make the dcdbas driver to load
automatically? I
> guess I have to make an entry to modprobe.conf for a
certain device. But
> what has to be entered exactly?

You have to have root access to access dcdbas. Unless you
make the binary
setUid, this is not a limitation I can fix. I have not
audited any of the code
to ensure safety for setUid operation, though.

Autoloading the driver: I'm not sure. Most distributions
have a file you can
put the names of modules you want autoloaded at boot time.


> 2. Is there a plan to wrap this into a nice API for
easy integration
> into applications? Something like:
>   CVanityLights::setFanColor(color)
>   CVanityLights::setLidColor(color)
>   CVanityLights::setSpeakerColor(color)
>   CVanityLights::setToutchPad(on|off)
>   CVanityLights::setBrightness(level)
>   CVanityLights::saveToBios()
>   ...

I would be happy to entertain a patch for this. All the code
is in
dellLEDCtl.cpp and could easily be converted into library
functions and placed
into the public API.

> 
> 3. "dellLEDCtl -i" tells me that my touch LED
info is not supoorted (XPS
> M1710) Zone 4 is reported to be ruby, which is correct.
However I can
> not switch it off by 'dellLEDCtrl -z4 0'. What do I
have to do to give
> you some debug info?

This I dont know. All of the relevant docs are in the code.
Ed might have some
idea. I dont have a platform to test this on, so I am
relying on community
contributions to keep this one going. Patches accepted.

--
Michael
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On Tue, Mar 20, 2007 at 01:16:47PM -0500, Michael E Brown
wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 20, 2007 at 11:59:11AM +0100, Oliver
Eichler wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > the latest add-on to control the XPS vanity lights
is highly
> > appreciated. Just a couple questions:
> > 
> > 1. The tools will run just for root. What has to
be done to use them as
> > user, too? How do I make the dcdbas driver to load
automatically? I
> > guess I have to make an entry to modprobe.conf for
a certain device. But
> > what has to be entered exactly?
> 
> You have to have root access to access dcdbas. Unless
you make the binary
> setUid, this is not a limitation I can fix. I have not
audited any of the code
> to ensure safety for setUid operation, though.
> 
> Autoloading the driver: I'm not sure. Most
distributions have a file you can
> put the names of modules you want autoloaded at boot
time.

For fedora 6+ (possibly earlier):

cat >> /etc/rc.modules <<-EOF
 modprobe dcdbas
EOF
chmod +x /etc/rc.modules


I'm sure others can mention how other distros work. 

--
Michael
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Hi Michael,

> 
> You have to have root access to access dcdbas. Unless
you make the binary
> setUid, this is not a limitation I can fix. I have not
audited any of the code
> to ensure safety for setUid operation, though.
> 

My knowledge about Linux drivers is somewhat mediocre and
antique, but
doesn't dcdbas listen on a device node in '/dev'? And
wouldn't the
correct access rights for this node fix the problem?

> Autoloading the driver: I'm not sure. Most
distributions have a file you can
> put the names of modules you want autoloaded at boot
time.

Normally you could assign a driver to a certain device node
in
modprobe.conf.

> This I dont know. All of the relevant docs are in the
code. Ed might have some
> idea. I dont have a platform to test this on, so I am
relying on community
> contributions to keep this one going. Patches
accepted.

Ok, let's see. Is there any chance to hurt the laptop while
playing with
it's BIOS?


Oliver

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Hi Michael,

I tried to solve this little access rights mess by
programming a small
DBus service. I am not a specialist on system software, nor
DBus or
anything related. Thus I used the Qt wrapper to spare me the
details. I
also made a small GUI to change color and intensity of the
vanity lights.

It's more or less a feasibility study than anything ready to
release.
Tell me if you want to take it into your package and I will
clean up and
GPL the file headers.

Did you ever thought about writing a DBus service for the
complete
libsmbios API? It would increase the usability of your work
significantly.

regards

Oliver




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