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+Sony Programmable I/O Control Device Driver Readme
+--------------------------------------------------
+ Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Stelian Pop <stelian@popies.net>
+ Copyright (C) 2001-2002 AlcĂ´ve <www.alcove.com>
+ Copyright (C) 2001 Michael Ashley <m.ashley@unsw.edu.au>
+ Copyright (C) 2001 Junichi Morita <jun1m@mars.dti.ne.jp>
+ Copyright (C) 2000 Takaya Kinjo <t-kinjo@tc4.so-net.ne.jp>
+ Copyright (C) 2000 Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org>
+
+This driver enables access to the Sony Programmable I/O Control Device which
+can be found in many Sony Vaio laptops. Some newer Sony laptops (seems to be
+limited to new FX series laptops, at least the FX501 and the FX702) lack a
+sonypi device and are not supported at all by this driver.
+
+It will give access (through a user space utility) to some events those laptops
+generate, like:
+ - jogdial events (the small wheel on the side of Vaios)
+ - capture button events (only on Vaio Picturebook series)
+ - Fn keys
+ - bluetooth button (only on C1VR model)
+ - programmable keys, back, help, zoom, thumbphrase buttons, etc.
+ (when available)
+
+Those events (see linux/sonypi.h) can be polled using the character device node
+/dev/sonypi (major 10, minor auto allocated or specified as a option).
+A simple daemon which translates the jogdial movements into mouse wheel events
+can be downloaded at: <http://popies.net/sonypi/>
+
+Another option to intercept the events is to get them directly through the
+input layer.
+
+This driver supports also some ioctl commands for setting the LCD screen
+brightness and querying the batteries charge information (some more
+commands may be added in the future).
+
+This driver can also be used to set the camera controls on Picturebook series
+(brightness, contrast etc), and is used by the video4linux driver for the
+Motion Eye camera.
+
+Please note that this driver was created by reverse engineering the Windows
+driver and the ACPI BIOS, because Sony doesn't agree to release any programming
+specs for its laptops. If someone convinces them to do so, drop me a note.
+
+Driver options:
+---------------
+
+Several options can be passed to the sonypi driver using the standard
+module argument syntax (<param>=<value> when passing the option to the
+module or sonypi.<param>=<value> on the kernel boot line when sonypi is
+statically linked into the kernel). Those options are:
+
+ minor: minor number of the misc device /dev/sonypi,
+ default is -1 (automatic allocation, see /proc/misc
+ or kernel logs)
+
+ camera: if you have a PictureBook series Vaio (with the
+ integrated MotionEye camera), set this parameter to 1
+ in order to let the driver access to the camera
+
+ fnkeyinit: on some Vaios (C1VE, C1VR etc), the Fn key events don't
+ get enabled unless you set this parameter to 1.
+ Do not use this option unless it's actually necessary,
+ some Vaio models don't deal well with this option.
+ This option is available only if the kernel is
+ compiled without ACPI support (since it conflicts
+ with it and it shouldn't be required anyway if
+ ACPI is already enabled).
+
+ verbose: set to 1 to print unknown events received from the
+ sonypi device.
+ set to 2 to print all events received from the
+ sonypi device.
+
+ compat: uses some compatibility code for enabling the sonypi
+ events. If the driver worked for you in the past
+ (prior to version 1.5) and does not work anymore,
+ add this option and report to the author.
+
+ mask: event mask telling the driver what events will be
+ reported to the user. This parameter is required for
+ some Vaio models where the hardware reuses values
+ used in other Vaio models (like the FX series who does
+ not have a jogdial but reuses the jogdial events for
+ programmable keys events). The default event mask is
+ set to 0xffffffff, meaning that all possible events
+ will be tried. You can use the following bits to
+ construct your own event mask (from
+ drivers/char/sonypi.h):
+ SONYPI_JOGGER_MASK 0x0001
+ SONYPI_CAPTURE_MASK 0x0002
+ SONYPI_FNKEY_MASK 0x0004
+ SONYPI_BLUETOOTH_MASK 0x0008
+ SONYPI_PKEY_MASK 0x0010
+ SONYPI_BACK_MASK 0x0020
+ SONYPI_HELP_MASK 0x0040
+ SONYPI_LID_MASK 0x0080
+ SONYPI_ZOOM_MASK 0x0100
+ SONYPI_THUMBPHRASE_MASK 0x0200
+ SONYPI_MEYE_MASK 0x0400
+ SONYPI_MEMORYSTICK_MASK 0x0800
+ SONYPI_BATTERY_MASK 0x1000
+ SONYPI_WIRELESS_MASK 0x2000
+
+ useinput: if set (which is the default) two input devices are
+ created, one which interprets the jogdial events as
+ mouse events, the other one which acts like a
+ keyboard reporting the pressing of the special keys.
+
+Module use:
+-----------
+
+In order to automatically load the sonypi module on use, you can put those
+lines a configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d/:
+
+ alias char-major-10-250 sonypi
+ options sonypi minor=250
+
+This supposes the use of minor 250 for the sonypi device:
+
+ # mknod /dev/sonypi c 10 250
+
+Bugs:
+-----
+
+ - several users reported that this driver disables the BIOS-managed
+ Fn-keys which put the laptop in sleeping state, or switch the
+ external monitor on/off. There is no workaround yet, since this
+ driver disables all APM management for those keys, by enabling the
+ ACPI management (and the ACPI core stuff is not complete yet). If
+ you have one of those laptops with working Fn keys and want to
+ continue to use them, don't use this driver.
+
+ - some users reported that the laptop speed is lower (dhrystone
+ tested) when using the driver with the fnkeyinit parameter. I cannot
+ reproduce it on my laptop and not all users have this problem.
+ This happens because the fnkeyinit parameter enables the ACPI
+ mode (but without additional ACPI control, like processor
+ speed handling etc). Use ACPI instead of APM if it works on your
+ laptop.
+
+ - sonypi lacks the ability to distinguish between certain key
+ events on some models.
+
+ - some models with the nvidia card (geforce go 6200 tc) uses a
+ different way to adjust the backlighting of the screen. There
+ is a userspace utility to adjust the brightness on those models,
+ which can be downloaded from
+ http://www.acc.umu.se/~erikw/program/smartdimmer-0.1.tar.bz2
+
+ - since all development was done by reverse engineering, there is
+ _absolutely no guarantee_ that this driver will not crash your
+ laptop. Permanently.