Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
On 30 Jan 2009, at 07:52, Alexander Leidinger wrote: Quoting Ed Schouten e...@80386.nl (from Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:36:06 +0100): * Alexander Leidinger alexan...@leidinger.net wrote: So you want that either - a daemon running as root is written which listens to user requests to set the backlight via sysctl or - a SUID root program is written that sets the backlight via sysctl instead of - a character device with appropriate filesystem permissions which allows to not go the SUID root or daemon running as root way ? Yes. The primary reason is that it is more consistent with the rest of the operating system. powerd also uses sysctl's instead of a character device, for example. Powerd does not interact with the user, it is doing automatic power management. A backlight on the other hand needs to be adjustable by the user. Normally I would expect some keys on the keyboard to handle this, so there should be no need to have some userland stuff, but as I don't know about how Apple is doing this, I assume there's some valid reason to handle it from userland. But then there needs to be some easy way to let an user handle it, even if you are on the console. A separate daemon or a SUID root program to control the backlight sounds like overkill to me. Well, easy: only let the operator group change the sysctl and add your appropriate user accounts to the operator group. No daemon is needed. This is what I thought about when doing the Intel backlight driver, but I never actually did it. Regards, -- Rui Paulo PGP.sig Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
On 30 Jan 2009, at 07:52, Alexander Leidinger wrote: Quoting Ed Schouten e...@80386.nl (from Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:36:06 +0100): * Alexander Leidinger alexan...@leidinger.net wrote: So you want that either - a daemon running as root is written which listens to user requests to set the backlight via sysctl or - a SUID root program is written that sets the backlight via sysctl instead of - a character device with appropriate filesystem permissions which allows to not go the SUID root or daemon running as root way ? Yes. The primary reason is that it is more consistent with the rest of the operating system. powerd also uses sysctl's instead of a character device, for example. Powerd does not interact with the user, it is doing automatic power management. A backlight on the other hand needs to be adjustable by the user. Normally I would expect some keys on the keyboard to handle this, so there should be no need to have some userland stuff, but as I don't know about how Apple is doing this, I assume there's some valid reason to handle it from userland. But then there needs to be some easy way to let an user handle it, even if you are on the console. A separate daemon or a SUID root program to control the backlight sounds like overkill to me. Well, easy: only let the operator group change the sysctl and add your appropriate user accounts to the operator group. No daemon is needed. This is what I thought about when doing the Intel backlight driver, but I never actually did it. Regards, -- Rui Paulo PGP.sig Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
* Alexander Leidinger alexan...@leidinger.net wrote: The ideal solution would be to integrate it into vidcontrol, calling some kind of ioctl on the TTY/consolectl, but syscons is too brainless to know anything about hardware specific features. Here we are back to what was proposed instead of sysctl. I have to admin that I'm confused now about what you propose as a good solution. Well, I wouldn't like it if we create character devices, just to let it implement a single ioctl() (/dev/backlight, for example). There is only 1 parameter that's adjustable, namely the backlight intensity. A sysctl is a good place to store such things. In my opinion we should only use character devices for devices that have the semantics of a file descriptor, namely to read/write data to it, perform select(), etc. Saying sysctl is bad, because it doesn't allow any permissions should be considered to be a defect of sysctl, not an advantage of devfs. The reason why I prefer consolectl, is because it already exists and allows related graphics parameters to be configured. -- Ed Schouten e...@80386.nl WWW: http://80386.nl/ pgpHpmCQvy4nL.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
Ed Schouten wrote: * Alexander Leidinger alexan...@leidinger.net wrote: The ideal solution would be to integrate it into vidcontrol, calling some kind of ioctl on the TTY/consolectl, but syscons is too brainless to know anything about hardware specific features. Here we are back to what was proposed instead of sysctl. I have to admin that I'm confused now about what you propose as a good solution. Well, I wouldn't like it if we create character devices, just to let it implement a single ioctl() (/dev/backlight, for example). There is only 1 parameter that's adjustable, namely the backlight intensity. A sysctl is a good place to store such things. I don't know you could flash morse code in response to a write. In my opinion we should only use character devices for devices that have the semantics of a file descriptor, namely to read/write data to it, perform select(), etc. Saying sysctl is bad, because it doesn't allow any permissions should be considered to be a defect of sysctl, not an advantage of devfs. The reason why I prefer consolectl, is because it already exists and allows related graphics parameters to be configured. ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
Quoting Ed Schouten e...@80386.nl (from Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:36:06 +0100): * Alexander Leidinger alexan...@leidinger.net wrote: So you want that either - a daemon running as root is written which listens to user requests to set the backlight via sysctl or - a SUID root program is written that sets the backlight via sysctl instead of - a character device with appropriate filesystem permissions which allows to not go the SUID root or daemon running as root way ? Yes. The primary reason is that it is more consistent with the rest of the operating system. powerd also uses sysctl's instead of a character device, for example. Powerd does not interact with the user, it is doing automatic power management. A backlight on the other hand needs to be adjustable by the user. Normally I would expect some keys on the keyboard to handle this, so there should be no need to have some userland stuff, but as I don't know about how Apple is doing this, I assume there's some valid reason to handle it from userland. But then there needs to be some easy way to let an user handle it, even if you are on the console. A separate daemon or a SUID root program to control the backlight sounds like overkill to me. The ideal solution would be to integrate it into vidcontrol, calling some kind of ioctl on the TTY/consolectl, but syscons is too brainless to know anything about hardware specific features. Here we are back to what was proposed instead of sysctl. I have to admin that I'm confused now about what you propose as a good solution. Bye, Alexander. -- If I had any humility I would be perfect. -- Ted Turner http://www.Leidinger.netAlexander @ Leidinger.net: PGP ID = B0063FE7 http://www.FreeBSD.org netchild @ FreeBSD.org : PGP ID = 72077137 ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
* Alexander Leidinger alexan...@leidinger.net wrote: So you want that either - a daemon running as root is written which listens to user requests to set the backlight via sysctl or - a SUID root program is written that sets the backlight via sysctl instead of - a character device with appropriate filesystem permissions which allows to not go the SUID root or daemon running as root way ? Yes. The primary reason is that it is more consistent with the rest of the operating system. powerd also uses sysctl's instead of a character device, for example. The ideal solution would be to integrate it into vidcontrol, calling some kind of ioctl on the TTY/consolectl, but syscons is too brainless to know anything about hardware specific features. -- Ed Schouten e...@80386.nl WWW: http://80386.nl/ pgpMgbBaYMZZ3.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
Quoting Ed Schouten e...@80386.nl (from Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:43:09 +0100): * Daniel Lannstrom o...@trekdanne.se wrote: I'm asking which method will be the best to interface the driver with userland applications? You might want to make it a character device driver. And write a small userland control program. Sysctl isn't really made for this kind of functionality. No. sysctl is good for doing stuff like this. An even better approach So you want that either - a daemon running as root is written which listens to user requests to set the backlight via sysctl or - a SUID root program is written that sets the backlight via sysctl instead of - a character device with appropriate filesystem permissions which allows to not go the SUID root or daemon running as root way ? Bye, Alexander. -- E.T. GO HOME!!! (And take your Smurfs with you.) http://www.Leidinger.netAlexander @ Leidinger.net: PGP ID = B0063FE7 http://www.FreeBSD.org netchild @ FreeBSD.org : PGP ID = 72077137 ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
* Daniel Lannstrom o...@trekdanne.se wrote: I'm asking which method will be the best to interface the driver with userland applications? You might want to make it a character device driver. And write a small userland control program. Sysctl isn't really made for this kind of functionality. No. sysctl is good for doing stuff like this. An even better approach would be to integrate it to the X11 driver, but I guess it will be cold day in hell when this happens. -- Ed Schouten e...@80386.nl WWW: http://80386.nl/ pgp27BNLrmNeG.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
On 28 Jan 2009, at 13:43, Ed Schouten wrote: * Daniel Lannstrom o...@trekdanne.se wrote: I'm asking which method will be the best to interface the driver with userland applications? You might want to make it a character device driver. And write a small userland control program. Sysctl isn't really made for this kind of functionality. No. sysctl is good for doing stuff like this. An even better approach would be to integrate it to the X11 driver, but I guess it will be cold day in hell when this happens. Not really. The xorg intel driver is already able to deal with this. I don't know about NVIDIA. -- Rui Paulo ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
On 28 Jan 2009, at 13:43, Ed Schouten wrote: * Daniel Lannstrom o...@trekdanne.se wrote: I'm asking which method will be the best to interface the driver with userland applications? You might want to make it a character device driver. And write a small userland control program. Sysctl isn't really made for this kind of functionality. No. sysctl is good for doing stuff like this. An even better approach would be to integrate it to the X11 driver, but I guess it will be cold day in hell when this happens. Not really. The xorg intel driver is already able to deal with this. I don't know about NVIDIA. -- Rui Paulo ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
On Wed, 2009-01-28 at 14:29 +, Rui Paulo wrote: On 28 Jan 2009, at 13:43, Ed Schouten wrote: * Daniel Lannstrom o...@trekdanne.se wrote: I'm asking which method will be the best to interface the driver with userland applications? You might want to make it a character device driver. And write a small userland control program. Sysctl isn't really made for this kind of functionality. No. sysctl is good for doing stuff like this. An even better approach would be to integrate it to the X11 driver, but I guess it will be cold day in hell when this happens. Not really. The xorg intel driver is already able to deal with this. I don't know about NVIDIA. The intel ddx driver doesn't really deal with it. On linux the drm has code that interfaces with acpi to deal with backlight management. For us, afaik we handle it in acpi_video. I've not tried to port that part of the drm code. I'm not certain where the best place for this function to live is really, but for Nvidia's proprietary driver, the only option is a seperate kernel driver. robert. -- Rui Paulo ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
* Rui Paulo rpa...@freebsd.org wrote: Not really. The xorg intel driver is already able to deal with this. I don't know about NVIDIA. Yes, but that's what I mean. It will be a cold day in hell when nv supports this. As far as I can tell, it's just a pile of obfuscated C code. -- Ed Schouten e...@80386.nl WWW: http://80386.nl/ pgpfCdduX2rYB.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
Le Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:33:28 +0100, Ed Schouten e...@80386.nl : Not really. The xorg intel driver is already able to deal with this. I don't know about NVIDIA. Yes, but that's what I mean. It will be a cold day in hell when nv supports this. As far as I can tell, it's just a pile of obfuscated C code. Anyway the backlight is very very high even in the console, I don't want to use X for this, i will not be able to set it at boot-time. Thanks for your replies, i will use both sysctl and a character device. Regards. ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
Hello, I've made a small driver to set the backlight level on Apple MacBook Pro, for the models based on the Nvida video card (model 3,1 and 3,2). (if it works on other models please tell me) At the moment this is a quick and dirty hack, but you don't need to wear a pair of sunglasses anymore! Module (FreeBSD 7.1): http://user.lamaiziere.net/patrick/ambnb-270109.tar.gz The driver does not check if the hardware is a suitable Macbook Pro (TODO!), so use with care. You can check the model of your Mac with dmidecode: Handle 0x0011, DMI type 1, 27 bytes System Information Manufacturer: Apple Inc. Product Name: MacBookPro3,1 Version: 1.0 There is a sysctl hw.ambnb.level to set the level of the backlight (0 = level = 15). I don't have the time for the moment, but i will try to improve it a bit. I'm asking which method will be the best to interface the driver with userland applications? Regards. ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
I'm asking which method will be the best to interface the driver with userland applications? You might want to make it a character device driver. And write a small userland control program. Sysctl isn't really made for this kind of functionality. ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Mackbook pro nvidia based video backlight
On 27 Jan 2009, at 15:00, Daniel Lannstrom wrote: I'm asking which method will be the best to interface the driver with userland applications? You might want to make it a character device driver. And write a small userland control program. Sysctl isn't really made for this kind of functionality. Why not? Sysctl seems perfect to handle this. -- Rui Paulo ___ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-hackers-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
