I8KUTILS FOR LINUX - VERSION 1.12
=================================

This package contains a kernel driver and user-space programs for accessing
the SMM BIOS of Dell Inspiron and Latitude laptops. The SMM BIOS is used on
many recent laptops to implement APM functionalities and to access custom
hardware, for example cooling fans and volume buttons.

The kernel driver and the utilities included in the package can report the
following information about the hardware:

    * BIOS version

    * serial number

    * CPU temperature

    * fan status

    * fan rotation speed (only on some models)

    * ac power status

    * volume buttons status (not the multimedia buttons)

The package include also the following utilities:

    * i8kctl	 - interface to the kernel driver

    * i8kmon	 - temperature monitor with automatic or manual fan control

    * i8kbuttons - monitors volume buttons and runs user-defined commands

The i8kctl can be used to manually control the fan speed, like my old i8kfan
utility, but that program is now obsoleted by the new i8kmon program which
can continuously monitor the CPU temperature and control automatically the
fans. The automatic fan control feature of i8kmon does essentially the same
job of the BIOS. The only difference is that my program works.

The latest version of the i8kutils package, including the latest i8k kernel
driver, can be downloaded from:

    http://www.debian.org/~dz/i8k/

The driver works only with kernel 2.4.x. There will not be a porting on older
kernels.


LICENCE
=======

This software is released under the terms of the GNU General Public
Licence.

   Copyright (C) 2001 Massimo Dal Zotto <dz@debian.org>

   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
   (at your option) any later version.
   
   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
   GNU General Public License for more details.
   
   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
   along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
   Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

On Debian GNU/Linux systems, the complete text of the GNU General
Public License can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL'.


THE KERNEL DRIVER
=================

Since version 2.4.14-pre8 of the kernel the i8k SMM driver is included in
the core kernel distribution. The driver source included in this package is
needed only if you want to compile the module for an older kernel version
or if you need a more recent version then the one in the Linux kernel.

The driver has been reported to work on the following hardware:

    Inspiron 8000 (BIOS A17)
    Inspiron 8100 (BIOS A04)
    Inspiron 4000 (BIOS A10), no fan speed
    Inspiron 4000 (BIOS A18)
    Inspiron 4100
    Inspiron 3800 (BIOS A14), no fan speed
    Latitude C600 (BIOS A17)
    Latitude C800 (BIOS A17)
    Latitude CPiA (BIOS A14), no fan speed
    Latitude CPx J750GT (BIOS A13), no fan speed

but will probably work on any recent Dell laptop. Note that on some models
or BIOS versions the fan speed is not available. On some BIOS also the BIOS
version is not available from SMM but the driver is able to obtain it using
another method.

The driver seems not working on the following models:

    Inspiron 2500 (BIOS A10)
    Inspiron 3200
    Inspiron 5000e (BIOS A06)
    Inspiron 7000
    Inspiron 7500

On loading the module checks for the presence of an Dell Inspiron or Latitude
laptop and refuses to load if running on an unknown system. You can however
force loading of the driver, for testing it on unknown hardware, by passing
the "force=1" option to insmod:

    insmod i8k.o force=1

Note that force loading of the module on unknown hardware could crash your
system and will anyway 'taint' the kernel. The force option is provided
only for testing purposes or for loading on systems where the BIOS version
can't be read from the SMM BIOS.

The information provided by the kernel driver can be accessed by simply
reading the /proc/i8k file. For example:

    $ cat /proc/i8k
    1.0 A17 2J59L02 52 2 1 8040 6420 1 2

The fields read from /proc/18k are:

    1.0 A17 2J59L02 52 2 1 8040 6420 1 2
    |   |   |       |  | | |    |    | |
    |   |   |       |  | | |    |    | +------- 10. buttons status
    |   |   |       |  | | |    |    +--------- 9.  ac status
    |   |   |       |  | | |    +-------------- 8.  right fan rpm
    |   |   |       |  | | +------------------- 7.  left fan rpm
    |   |   |       |  | +--------------------- 6.  right fan status
    |   |   |       |  +----------------------- 5.  left fan status
    |   |   |       +-------------------------- 4.  CPU temperature (Celsius)
    |   |   +---------------------------------- 3.  serial number
    |   +-------------------------------------- 2.  BIOS version
    +------------------------------------------ 1.  /proc/i8k format version

For performance reasons the /proc/i8k doesn't report by default the ac status
since this SMM call takes a long time to execute and is not really needed.
If you want to see the ac status in /proc/i8k you must explictitly enable
this option by passing the "power_status=1" parameter to insmod. If ac status
is not available -1 is printed instead.

The driver provides also an ioctl interface which can be used to obtain the
same information and to control the fan status. The ioctl interface can be
accessed from C programs or from shell using the i8kctl utility. See the
source file i8kctl.c for more information on how to use the ioctl interface.

Version 1.12 of the driver adds a new 'restricted' option. If the module
is loaded with restricted=1 fan control will be allowed only to processes
with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability set or processes run as root. In that
case normal users will be able to read temperature and fan status but
not to control the fan. If your notebook is shared with other users and
you don't trust them you may want to use this option.


TROUBLESHOOTING
===============

If you have problems loading the kernel module or have succesfully tested
it on different hardware please let me know your results. Don't forget to
include the following information:

    laptop model
    BIOS version
    driver version
    i8kmon version
    kernel config file
    kernel messages while loading the driver
    output of "cat /proc/i8k"
    output of the "smm-test" script included with the sources

Before reporting bugs be sure to be using the latest kernel module, the one
included in the latest i8kutils package, and the latest BIOS available for
your laptop. Old versions of the driver don't work correctly and old BIOS
versios don't support all the SMM functions used by the driver.


THE I8KCTL UTILITY
==================

The i8kctl utility provides a command-line interface to the i8k kernel driver.
When invoked without arguments the program reports the same information which
can be read from the /proc/i8k file.

The program can take an optional argument which can be used to select only one
of the items and to control the fan status. If invoked as i8kfan the program
behaves like my old i8kfan utility.


THE I8KMON APPLET
=================

The i8kmon program can be used to monitor the CPU temperature and control
automatically the fans accordingly to user-defined temperature thresholds.
The program can be run as daemon or as an applet which can be embedded in
the Gnome panel (No, I don't use KDE). The program requires Tcl/Tk (>= 8.0).

The program has builtin defaults and temperature thresholds but users can
specify their own settings in configuration files /etc/i8kmon and ~/.i8kmon.
The daemon defines 4 states with different fan speeds ({0 0}, {1 0}, {1 1},
{2 2}) and for each state are defined the temperature thresholds which cause
the switching to a higher or lower state. Furthermore each state can have
different thresholds for operation on ac power or battery. 
For example the following configuration:

    set config(0) {{0 0}  -1  60  -1  65}
    set config(1) {{1 0}  50  70  55  75}
    set config(2) {{1 1}  60  80  65  85}
    set config(3) {{2 2}  70 128  75 128}

defines state 0 with both fans off, high threshold of 60 degrees (65 on
battery) and low threshold -1, which is actually never reached since 0 is the
lowest state. When the high threshold is reached the program switches to state
1 (left low, right off) which has a high threshold of 70 degrees and a low
threshold of 48 degrees. If the temperature drops below 48 the program will 
switch back to state 0, if it rises above 70 it will enter state 2, and so on.
For better operation the temperature ranges should be overlapping with an
hysteresis of at least 10 degree, i.e. 1={50 70},2={60 80} is better than
1={50 70},2={70 80}. It must be rembered that the low threshold of state 0
must be -1 and the high threshold of state 3 must be 128.

If your laptop has only one fan you should specify a '-' instead of the fan
speed of the missing fan, for example:

    set config(2) {{1 -}  60  80  65  85}

NOTE: it has been reported that on some Linux distributions i8kmon exits
with an error like this:

    can't find package Tk
        while executing
    "package require Tk"

This is not a bug in i8kmon. It means that Tcl/Tk files are not installed
correctly on your system and the Tk library can't be dynamically loaded
from Tcl. In this case you can run i8kmon with the command:

    wish /usr/bin/i8kmon -- [options...]

You should also report the bug to the maintainer of the Tcl/Tk packages
included in your Linux distribution. A quick fix for the problem could
also be adding the following line to /usr/lib/tk8.3/pkgIndex.tcl:

    package ifneeded Tk 8.3 [list load "/usr/lib/libtk8.3.so.1" Tk]

This works on Debian and maybe on other Linux distributions.


THE I8KBUTTONS DAEMON
=====================

The i8kbuttons daemon monitors the status of the two volume buttons of the
Inspiron or the corresponding Fn-keys. When a volume button press is
detected the daemon runs a corresponding command specified in the command-
line options. By specifying the proper commnds it is thus possible to control
the volume of the sound mixer or run any other command, for example switch
to vt1 if X freezes.

On some models the volume buttons are not present and only the Fn-keys are
available (Fn-PageUp = Volume Up, Fn-PageDn = Volume Down, Fn-End = Mute).

It should be noted that although the program has default commands for the
various buttons there isn't a standard command shipped with any Linux
distributions which can be used to change the volume incrementally and to
implement the Mute/Restore function. The default commands are just examples
and must be overriden with your specific commands using the command-line
options.


THE I8000 MULTIMEDIA BUTTONS
============================

The Inspiron 8000 has also four "multimedia" buttons (Start, Stop, Rew and
Fwd) which are not controlled by the SMM BIOS and are directly usable under X
or the console. To map the buttons under console you should use the programs
included in package console-tools. To use the mm buttons under X use the xev
program to see the scancodes and map them to the appropriate keysyms.
For example on my I8000 I have mapped:

    keycode 129 = F31
    keycode 130 = F32
    keycode 131 = F33
    keycode 132 = F34

and I have configured sawfish to execute 'run-shell-command "xmms --play"'
when F31 is pressed. If you have the sawfish-xmms package installed you can
use instead the sawfish command 'xmms-play' which is faster. Similar commands
are available for the Stop, Rew and Fwd functions.

On a Debian (>=woody) system it is possible to set up a system-wide Xmodmap
which is loaded automatically for all users when the X server is started.
All you have to do is to create a file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/40custom_xmodmap
like this:

    # Load system-wide Xmodmap
    if [ -x /usr/bin/X11/xmodmap ]; then
      if [ -f $SYSMODMAP ]; then
        xmodmap $SYSMODMAP
      fi
    fi
    
    # Load user .Xmodmap
    if [ -x /usr/bin/X11/xmodmap ]; then
      if grep -qs ^allow-user-modmap $OPTIONFILE; then
        if [ -f $USRMODMAP ]; then
          xmodmap $USRMODMAP
        fi
      fi
    fi

and a system-wide /etc/X11/Xmodmap with the following lines:

    ! Multimedia buttons on Inspiron 8000, used by sawfish to control xmms
    keycode 129 = F31
    keycode 130 = F32
    keycode 131 = F33
    keycode 132 = F34

or let each user create his own ~/.Xmodmap like the above file if you prefer
per-user customization. See the Xsession man page for more information.

Another way to use the buttons without modifying the X keymap is to use the
`hotkeys' package. In this case you have to add the following lines to its
configuration file:

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    <CONFIG model="Dell Inspirion 8100 Notebook">
      <Play      keycode="129"/>
      <Stop      keycode="130"/>
      <PrevTrack keycode="131"/>
      <NextTrack keycode="132"/>
    </CONFIG>

Personally I prefer to use sawfish-xmms because it seems faster and doesn't
require an additional daemon, but if you are using a different window-manager
you may want to try hotkeys.


COMPILATION
===========

To compile the programs type "make". To install "make install", as root.

To compile the kernel module, if it is not already included in the kernel,
type "make module". By default the module compiles without symbol versions
and can thus be loaded on any 2.4.x kernel with "insmod -f i8k.o".
If you want a versioned module uncomment the MODVERSIONS line in Makefile
or make the module with "make modversion". You can load and unload the module
with "make insmod" and "make rmmod".

If you are using kernel 2.4.14 or later you can have the module compiled
automatically with the kernel by enabling the following option in the kernel
configuration:

    CONFIG_I8K=m

You can also include the i8k code directly in the kernel but I don't recommend
it because it makes debugging more difficult.


BIOS BUGS
=========

Yes, the BIOS has many bugs. I have found the following in I8K BIOS A17:

1) CPU temperature bug

Sometimes the BIOS reports a temperature of 153 (0x99) degrees, which is
clearly out of scale. It seems that it happens when the BIOS is changing
the fan speed.

# while true; do ./smm 10a3; done | grep ' 0'
...
eax=0000004b ebx=00004c80 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
eax=0000004c ebx=00004c80 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
eax=00000099 ebx=00003a80 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
eax=0000004c ebx=00005243 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
...
eax=00000051 ebx=00005243 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
eax=00000052 ebx=00005243 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
eax=00000099 ebx=00003a80 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
eax=00000052 ebx=00005746 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
...

2) Fan speed bug with stuck fan

If for some reason a fan is stuck the BIOS reports a speed of 1920rpm instead
of 0 as it should be. In the same condition it sometimes reports also a speed
of 7200rpm, but this seems much more infrequent.

# ./smm 1a3 200
eax=000001a3 ebx=00000200 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000
eax=00000000 ebx=00000200 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
# ./smm a3 0
eax=000000a3 ebx=00000000 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000
eax=00000002 ebx=00000000 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
# ./smm 2a3 0
eax=000002a3 ebx=00000000 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000
eax=00000040 ebx=00000000 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=00000000 edi=00000000 0
        ^^^^
	1920rpm instead of 0


CONTRIBUTORS
============

Contributors are listed here, in alphabetical order.

    Pablo Bianucci <pbian@physics.utexas.edu>

	support for /proc/acpi

    Jonathan Buzzard <jonathan@buzzard.org.uk>

	basic information on the SMM BIOS and the Toshiba SMM driver.
	Asm code for calling the SMM BIOS on the I8K. Without his help
	this work wouldn't have been possible.

    Stephane Jourdois <stephane@tuxfinder.org>

	patches for correctly interpreting buttons status in the i8k driver

    Marcel J.E. Mol <marcel@mesa.nl>

	patches for the --repeat option in the i8kbuttons util

    Gianni Tedesco <gianni@ecsc.co.uk>

	patch to restrict fan contol to SYS_ADMIN capability

    David Woodhouse <dwmw2@redhat.com>

	for suggesting how to avoid the zombies in i8kbuttons

and many others who tested the driver on their hardware and sent me reports.

Other Dell laptop utilities are available at the follwing URLs:

    http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/		(windows)
    http://www.geocities.com/fanonbsd/		(FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD)

No credits to DELL Computer who has always refused to give support on Linux
or provide any useful information on the I8K buttons and their buggy BIOS.


-- 
Massimo Dal Zotto <dz@debian.org>