Battery hotkey does nothing on Dell Inspiron 510m

[Aaron Whitehouse]

I am using a Dell Inspiron 510m with Dapper Flight 5 (fully upgraded to 26/03).

I am running through the laptop testing tests and the button with a battery picture on it does nothing (Fn+F3). I have no idea what the button is meant to do, but notice that it also is not in the 'Keyboard Shortcuts' configuration.

Let me know if there is any information that I can provide for you.

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Hello Luna, this is variously underhand at: bug #22451, bug #30457, bug #36495.

Could you confirm the keycode you get via the guide at:

  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/HotkeyResearch

[Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse)]

0x6f

[Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse)]

(from sudo showkey -u | tee -a hotkey-log.txt)

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Okay, I've added this to 'dell.hk' in my local copy:

  # Dell Laptop Latitude 110l [Malone: #30457]
setkeycodes 6f $KEY_BATTERY # Battery

[Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse)]

Will changes to the Dell Latitude settings fix things for my 510m as well? Are all Dells the same for this? Thanks for your help :).

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Aaron, did this fix the battery key issue for you, or do you still have a problem with it not working?

[Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse)]

Hi Paul,

This fixes the issue for the first time that I press the key. The first time that the hotkey is pressed I get a notification of the power left etc. as I should. If I press it again then I don't get anything occur.

According to Matthew Garrett:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=339110
"Dell hardware is stupid(tm). Pressing the key once generates a key down event.
Pressing it again generates a key repeat event. There's never a key up event.
I'm looking at fixing this in the kernel. It's not a hal or g-p-m bug."

Let's consider this fixed and I'll file another bug about Dell's hardware.

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Okay, excellent!

Can you file a new bug against 'linux-source-2.6.15' and link it to that bug across at 'bugs.gnome.org'.

Many Thanks,