[ANNOUNCE] xf86-video-ati 6.7.196

[Peter Clifton]

On Mon, 2007-11-12 at 02:13 -0500, Alex Deucher wrote:
> On Nov 12, 2007 2:03 AM, Halim Issa <yallaone at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Monday 12 November 2007 02:51:20 Alex Deucher wrote:
> > > Another RC release.
> > >
> > > fixes/new features:
> > > - cursor related hangs
> > > - LVDS fixes
> > > - support for new DDC type
> > > - bios/dock/lvds hw state fixes
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Thanks much for this release - it fixes the "garbled output" problem when
> > switching virtual screens or closing the laptop lid from relese 6.7.195.
> >
> > However, now the laptop lid button is no longer "active", so the display does
> > not turn off when the laptop lid is closed. Easily worked around by exiting X
> > before closing the lid, but still.
> 
> The bios shouldn't be messing with the chip behind the driver's back.
> Hook up a script to acpi lid events and have it execute:
> xset dpms force off

That is no good, as any mouse jitter (or external keyboard use) will
wake the screen. It happens frequently on my HP Laptop.

I use xrandr --output LVDS --off

I haven't hooked this up to the lid switch. The BIOS emits "video
button" type events when you shut the lid on this machine, so it might
need a short timer to ensure the call to shut the display off happens
after that.

I wonder actually.. could we use the equivalent of the above xrandr call
inside the driver to shut the display off when appropriate? I appreciate
in some cases, closing the lid means you just want to power down the
back-light and LVDS panel. In others (with external monitor and perhaps
TV hooked up), you might want the LVDS output completely dissociated
from the crtc.

I do know that the BIOS in this laptop (Don't buy HP), is really buggy
with respect to lid settings, and non-obedience of the finer-grained
_DOS control. (Its either ON in bios fiddles behind your back mode / OFF
_completely_, where it de-programs the GPIO interrupts used to monitor
the switch.

(A DSDT hack fixed the above, but not the "fiddles behind your back when
plugging / unplugging AC. That's in SMI code, and I've not got far
enough into trying to dump the BIOS update to fix that yet).

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)