Fujitsu T4220

I've just installed Slackware 12.1 on a new Fujitsu T4220 and most is
working.

One exception is the brightness controls, which are controlled by FN-F6/F7
key presses and are handled by drivers. The 2.6.24.5-smp kernel video
drivers in the acpi module don't handle this correctly and this seems to
be the case with all distributions. Documentation in the /usr/src/linux
seems to indicate this feature should work using video-extension module
routines. I've echoed to the /proc/acpi/video/GFX0/LCD/brightness file as
suggested and it takes the input but doesn't change the brightness.

Another stranger thing is the inboard speaker behavior. When external
headphones are plugged in, both speakers and headphones function. In the
shipped M$ XP (gee, I hate saying this), the speakers cut off when
headphones are plugged in, so this must be handled by the OS system's sound
routines. I'm using ALSA. Any work-around for this? I've even considered
taking the thing apart and clipping or switching the speaker leads for
certain applications!

Lastly, the IWL4965 wireless chip, even though recognized, will not function
properly, even after downloading the supposedly latest-for-this-kernel fixes
from Intel. Some distributions have successfully used this chip. This is of
less importance since I have a wireless PCMCIA card which works beautifully.

I realize that most of these issues deal with the way Fujitsu handled the
architecture of this computer, making it very software dependent, but wonder
if anyone has any thoughts or experience in any of these. I've not found on
the net anyone who has written of experiences installing Slackware on this
computer.

....Edwin
--
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"Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes
turned skyward, for there you have been, there you long to
return."-da Vinci http://bellsouthpwp2.net/e/d/edwinljohnson

On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:20:28 +0000, Edwin Johnson wrote:

> I've just installed Slackware 12.1 on a new Fujitsu T4220 and most is
> working.

I wonder what would happen if you installed 12.2? It may be quicker than
fiddling some things to work and then discovering that they are all
working in the newer version with newer kernel etc. It's what I'd try
first.

> Another stranger thing is the inboard speaker behavior. When external
> headphones are plugged in, both speakers and headphones function. In the
> shipped M$ XP (gee, I hate saying this), the speakers cut off when
> headphones are plugged in, so this must be handled by the OS system's
> sound routines. I'm using ALSA. Any work-around for this?

I'm guessing this is using snd-hda-intel, but if not then similar
comments will apply. With many laptops you need to have the module
loaded with the right options, for example many Acer laptops need to have
a line like

option snd-hda-intel 3stack-6ch

in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

or to have

modprobe snd-hda-intel 3stack-6ch

in /etc/modprobe.conf

(depending on the startup config that you are using - I haven't installed
12.2 yet so can't say anything about the .conf setup, but it's probably
still the latter).

The actual option sets taken by a particular alsa driver are listed in
excruciating detail on the alsa documentation wiki.

When you pick the right combination, the headphone jack autosensing will
begin to work. No need for hardware modifications.