Re: compaq internet keys

[Peter Cordes <peter@llama.nslug.ns.ca>]

On Mon, Mar 26, 2001 at 01:35:33PM -0800, Alan Chen wrote:
> Well, there was no joy on /proc/stat.  None of the interrupts
> responded to "zone" keypresses, no interrupts on the "rocker" switch
> on my keypad either. I'm thinking that something needs to be enabled
> first.  Back to plan A, look at kernel code. :)

 Feel free to look at the kernel code, but I suspect it won't get you
anywhere.  The keyboard uses interrupts, not polled IO, so if your actions
don't generate interrupts, then no part of the kernel is getting notified of
them.

 I guess it's possible that these keys just set some kind of state that the
kernel has to poll to see keypresses, but that would be really stupid.  It
would work so much better just to send a keycode.  OTOH, some of your keys
might just send stuff to some power-management hardware, but if you're
talking about "internet" keys, then that's probably not it.

 Since the keys don't seem to do anything normally, I would guess that the
extra keys have to be enabled by the kernel somehow.  The kernel can set
some stuff on the keyboard (e.g. the numlock/etc. lights), so I guess it's
possible that the kernel has to set the hardware to use these keys before
they do anything.  (still seems lame, I don't know why they would design the
hardware like that.)

 Happy hacking,

-- 
#define X(x,y) x##y
Peter Cordes ;  e-mail: X(peter@llama.nslug. , ns.ca)

"The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish the hours!
 Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack
 my day so wretchedly into small pieces!" -- Plautus, 200 BCE