Upgrade to mod X breaks laptop backlight switch & 'fn' keys

[madams]

On my HP/Compaq nc6000 laptop (Centrino, Radeon 9600 agp), upon upgrading from xorg-x11-6.8.2-r8 (monolithic) to modular x11-base/xorg-x11-7.0 using the procedure at http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/x/x11/modular-x-howto.xml

Two problems/symptoms occurred:

1) the laptop lid switch no longer turns off the LCD backlight when you close it.

2) the 'fn' key is no longer recognized, this is the key used in combination with the 'f' keys (f1,f2,f3, etc) to increase/decrease screen brightness, switch video modes, etc. ( I mainly use to increase and decrease screen brightness)


Additional data points:

1) The problem only exhibits itself when you start xorg-7.0, if you only boot to a linux single user session (i.e. command line), the keys work as normal. As soon as you start X though the 'fn' keys stops working and will not work until you reboot (i.e. if you just drop out of X to a command line, the 'fn' key and lid switch still doesn't work)

2) downgrading back to xorg-6.8.2 restores the capability back to normal, I performed the upgrade a second time making sure I didn't 'fat finger' something, got exactly the same results.

3) using 'xev' or 'xkeycaps' shows no keycodes coming across for the 'fn' key (under either xorg 6.8.2 or 7.0), so it doesn't seem to be a keycode or keyboard option problem in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf. (tried turning 'bioshotekeys' on and off)

4) The xorg config is pretty vanilla, I have tried using 'kbd' and 'keyboard' drivers in my xorg.conf files, played around with a whole variety of 'input options' for the keyboard, with no luck under 7.0, so for now I am staying at 6.8.2 by masking xorg7.0 (and higher).

5) I have a Sager laptop/portable desktop (P4, Radeon 9600 agp) that I performed the same upgrade on, no problems there, the 'fn' keys and lid switch works just fine.

6) Window Managers - same problem under enlightenment-0.16.8.1 and kde-3.5.2

7) Kernel 2.6.16-suspend2-r8 on both (also exhibits same problem under 2.6.16-r13 as well)


It seesm as though somehow xorg-7 is masking these keys from the bios.


Can post log files and other data as requested..

ADVthanksANCE

Mike Adams
www.ScienceLogic.com

[madams]

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[madams]

bump
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This post is worth exactly $0.02

/Always remember to 'pillage' before you 'plunder'/