Wlan radio-toggle key works half-way

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

My machine (MSI Wind) has a wlan-toggle key (Fn-F11) which
enables/disables the wifi's radio (this is done apparently directly by
the BIOS so Linux isn't really told about it), and it also sends some
key event (which by default causes some "setkeycodes" kernel messages).

So the key formally works, but not ideally: when I turn the radio off,
the wifi communication is indeed interrupted, but the driver keeps on
trying to connect, wasting energy.

And when I turn the radio on, if the driver was stopped before it is not
automatically re-started.

I've added a file /etc/hal/fdi/information/msi-wind.fdi which maps the
key code to the "wlan" key, but it doesn't seem to make much difference
(other than getting rid of the harmless kernel messages).

Could anyone help me figure out how it's supposed to work and/or how to
make it work better (e.g. somehow make it that the key event causes
network-manager/wicd/ifupdown to start/stop using the interface)?


        Stefan