Brightness patch for FW4x models

Thanks to Olivier Grégoire for supplying DSDT.aml for FW4 model. I have updated quick brightness guide post with new patch links, take a look.

Written by egaistek

July 20, 2009 at 23:22

Posted in Vaio

Tagged with brightness, DSDT, jaunty, patch, ubuntu

31 Responses

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I have Sony Vaio FW490 customized with: XBrite-fullhd, ati 4650 1GB. When I try to apply this patch I recieve a message saying “Could not select the right patch for you, does it FW model?” Any help Thank you?

Princepal

July 20, 2009 at 23:54

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- Could you run this command sudo dmidecode --type system and show the output.
  
  egaistek
  
  July 21, 2009 at 00:00
  
  Reply
  - Thank You very much, your patched worked. can adjust the brightness. But I still cannot use “fn” shortcut.
    
    Princepal
    
    July 21, 2009 at 00:30
- I forgot to add that I have Kubuntu 9.04 64bit.
  
  Princepal
  
  July 21, 2009 at 00:00
  
  Reply
  - # dmidecode 2.9
    SMBIOS 2.4 present.
    
    Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
    System Information
    Manufacturer: Sony Corporation
    Product Name: VGNFW490J
    Version: A222EN3J
    Serial Number: 9690209-3109822
    UUID: 48135480-59C3-11DE-8A09-001DBAF1745C
    Wake-up Type: Power Switch
    SKU Number: N/A
    Family: N/A
    
    Handle 0x000F, DMI type 32, 20 bytes
    System Boot Information
    Status: No errors detected
    
    Princepal
    
    July 21, 2009 at 00:02
  - Try this: http://veretenenko.ru/anton/vaio/sony-vaio-fw-series-brightness-patch-jaunty.tar.bz2
    
    egaistek
    
    July 21, 2009 at 00:11
Yep, Kubuntu have problems with Fn keys. Keys are working, but kde does not catch it, dunno why. You can try to configure keyboard shortcuts.

egaistek

July 21, 2009 at 00:34

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- Thanks for the help. I will look around.
  
  Princepal
  
  July 21, 2009 at 01:32
  
  Reply
- I installed ubuntu gnome version and applied this brightness patch. I still don’t have fn, S1, or AV mode shortcut working. I can use fn+f2 to mute but nothing else. One more weird thing al+f2 does not work either. Any help would be very appreciated.
  
  Princepal
  
  July 22, 2009 at 23:34
  
  Reply
  - I meant alt+f2 shortcut doesn’t work either.
    
    Princepal
    
    July 22, 2009 at 23:35
  - That’s strange, Alt+F2 should work in gnome. About Fn:
    try to load sony-laptop module in debug mode.
    sudo modprobe -r sony_laptop.
    Even Fn+F2 should stop working after this command.
    Then sudo modprobe sony-laptop debug=1, this will load sony-laptop in debug mode.
    
    Then push Fn+F5 and run dmesg | tail, you should see something like this:
    
    sony-laptop: sony_acpi_notify, event: 0x10 sony-laptop: sony_acpi_notify, event: 0x3b
    
    If you see this, then keys are recognized and working.
    
    For S1 and AV buttons, you should map them in keyboard shortcuts preferences.
    
    Did you run Ubuntu Jaunty release or some new alpha?
    Oh and you better try this all from live cd.
    egaistek
    
    July 22, 2009 at 23:59
  - prince@Ubuntu:~$ dmesg | tail
    [ 7015.511040] sony-laptop: method: name: SNFC, args 1
    [ 7015.511044] sony-laptop: method: name: SNFD, args 1
    [ 7015.511047] sony-laptop: method: name: SNFE, args 1
    [ 7015.511051] sony-laptop: method: name: SNFF, args 1
    [ 7015.511055] sony-laptop: method: name: SNAV, args 0
    [ 7015.511058] sony-laptop: method: name: SNGN, args 1
    [ 7015.511068] sony-laptop: Invoking _INI
    [ 7015.525913] input: Sony Vaio Keys as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/device:01/SNY5001:00/input/input13
    [ 7015.556736] input: Sony Vaio Jogdial as /devices/virtual/input/input14
    [ 7015.592682] sony-laptop: brightness ignored, must be controlled by ACPI video driver
    
    I have Ubuntu Jaunty. I try to setup S1 & AV Mode keys but whenever I try to set em as shortcut nothing happens, they are not recognize.
    
    Princepal
    
    July 23, 2009 at 01:32
  - What’s your kernel version? uname -a.
    
    Try this command dmesg | grep -i sony, do you see this in the output?
    
    sony-laptop: detected Sony Vaio FW Series
    
    If not, seems you have unpatched module, don’t know why.
    ….
    Ah, got it, It’s all because you have Product Name: VGNFW490J string and module can not detect your model and does not enable fn keys.
    Other laptops have Product Name: VGN-FW490J string. Have you patched bios or something?
    egaistek
    
    July 23, 2009 at 01:41
  - prince@Ubuntu:~$ uname -a
    Linux Ubuntu 2.6.28-13-generic #45-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 30 22:12:12 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
    
    My bad I should have told you that I applied the “VT-x/VMX Virtualization patch for Sony Vaio FW” that on this website.
    
    Princepal
    
    July 23, 2009 at 04:00
  - I have vmx patch applied too, but product name is intact. I guess we should check if another people with FW4 have such product name without “-“.
    
    egaistek
    
    July 23, 2009 at 16:01
  - I don’t if this is any help but on bottom of my laptop the sticker says VGN-FW490.
    
    Princepal
    
    July 24, 2009 at 00:00
  - I applied the Original.ROM and I get the same output.
    Here is the output:
    
    dmidecode 2.9
    SMBIOS 2.4 present.
    
    Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
    System Information
    Manufacturer: Sony Corporation
    Product Name: VGNFW490J
    Version: A222EN3J
    Serial Number: 9690209-3109822
    UUID: 48135480-59C3-11DE-8A09-001DBAF1745C
    Wake-up Type: Power Switch
    SKU Number: N/A
    Family: N/A
    
    Handle 0x000F, DMI type 32, 20 bytes
    System Boot Information
    Status: No errors detected
    
    Princepal
    
    July 24, 2009 at 03:25
If you have ati 34xx card you could try this: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/attachment.cgi?id=19281&action=edit
(no DSDT hacking needed, works for me on FW21E )

liDEL

July 25, 2009 at 15:16

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- Yea, this is nice too )
  P.S. Do not double comment.
  
  egaistek
  
  July 25, 2009 at 23:35
  
  Reply
  - I switched to Windows but thank you very much for all the help.
    
    Princepal
    
    July 26, 2009 at 04:14
Mine also does not have the “-” in the product name when running dmidecode…

# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.4 present.

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
Manufacturer: Sony Corporation
Product Name: VGNFW490JEB
Version: R5729815
Serial Number: 27501258-3106208
UUID: 68D65A80-55EC-11DE-8557-001DBAF06575
Wake-up Type: Power Switch
SKU Number: N/A
Family: N/A

Handle 0x000F, DMI type 32, 20 bytes
System Boot Information
Status: No errors detected

Jeff

July 29, 2009 at 03:47

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- I think the reason might be that we have newer models. I just bought mine on 14th July.
  
  Princepal
  
  July 29, 2009 at 04:22
  
  Reply
  - Yea, I guess so. I can make a new patch for sony-laptop module. I dunno if this useful for kernels >= 2.6.30, people say it can not override DSDT, and without DSDT this patch does not matter.
    
    egaistek
    
    July 29, 2009 at 05:06
  - I’m running 64-bit Ubuntu Jaunty on my VGNFW490JEB, currently with kernel 2.6.28-14. One thing I have noticed is that if I go to the Power Management Preferences I can set the brightness to any level I want whether plugged in or on battery. My settings there are maintained across reboots. So is the purpose of the patch just to enable the kernel to recognize the Fn key combos? Because the Fn+F2 already works for muting, even though my dmesg output doesn’t show that it detected my Vaio FW (due to the missing “-“).
    
    Jeff
    
    July 30, 2009 at 22:53
  - Jeff, yea sony-laptop patch just for keys and DSDT patch for brightness.
    
    egaistek
    
    July 31, 2009 at 03:29
  - Well, I went ahead and made a quick change to the sony-laptop module code and recompiled to test everything, and my brightness keys are now working. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens after the 2.6.30 kernel comes out. Thanks for the helpful website!
    
    Jeff
    
    August 14, 2009 at 03:36
Thanks! This patch worked great for my vaio fw41!

Albert

August 16, 2009 at 15:17

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It Works just fine in my vaio Fw41 too.
You are super!
Thanks you!

dande

August 29, 2009 at 05:07

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Hey Egaistek,

Thanks for the patches. I used them on a VGNFW490J but my brightness keys are still not working.

Here is what dmesg outputs:

abner@abner-vgn-fw:~/Desktop$ dmesg | grep -i sony-laptop
[ 11.151008] sony-laptop: Sony Notebook Control Driver v0.6.
[ 11.212729] sony-laptop: brightness ignored, must be controlled by ACPI video driver
abner@abner-vgn-fw:~/Desktop$ dmesg | grep -i dsdt
[ 0.000000] ACPI: DSDT BDF06010, 82EB (r1 Sony VAIO 20090422 INTL 20051117)
[ 0.015917] ACPI: Checking initramfs for custom DSDT
[ 0.835192] ACPI: Found DSDT in DSDT.aml.
[ 0.835201] ACPI: Override [DSDT- VAIO], this is unsafe: tainting kernel
[ 0.835209] ACPI: Table DSDT replaced by host OS
[ 0.835216] ACPI: DSDT 00000000, 7AB1 (r1 Sony VAIO 20090422 INTL 20081204)
[ 0.835225] ACPI: DSDT override uses original SSDTs unless “acpi_no_auto_ssdt”
[ 1.017506] ACPI: EC: Look up EC in DSDT

I’d appreciate any help you could provide. Thanks.

Abner

September 2, 2009 at 04:39

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I have got a SONY VGN-FW41 european… and I installed UBUNTU 9_04 and FN+F5(brightness keys dont work)… but I have updated* it(System->Administration->Update Manager) and the brightness key works fine…

And the full HD(1920×1080) screen works enabling the System->Administration->Hardware Drivers… 😉

*After many updated itens 😉

I loved UBUNTU… Windows Vista Sux!

Im Brazillian… and sorry for my pour english… 😉

azazell

October 10, 2010 at 00:59

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I have a VAIO VGN-FW460J, and for me it doesn’t work. Iḿ using ubuntu 10.10, kernel: 2.6.35-22-generic.
The output of the script is this:

Parsing completed
Disassembly completed, written to “DSDT.dsl”
Patching DSDT.dsl with dsdt-ati-fix-fw4x.patch
patching file DSDT.dsl
Fixing _T_0 errors in DSDT.dsl
Compiling patched DSDT

Intel ACPI Component Architecture
ASL Optimizing Compiler version 20090521 [Jun 30 2009]
Copyright (C) 2000 – 2009 Intel Corporation
Supports ACPI Specification Revision 3.0a

DSDT.dsl 8311: Method (SNF5, 1, NotSerialized)
Warning 1087 – ^ Not all control paths return a value (SNF5)

DSDT.dsl 8348: Method (SNF7, 1, NotSerialized)
Warning 1087 – ^ Not all control paths return a value (SNF7)

DSDT.dsl 8552: Method (SNFE, 1, NotSerialized)
Warning 1087 – ^ Not all control paths return a value (SNFE)

ASL Input: DSDT.dsl – 8806 lines, 289820 bytes, 3889 keywords
AML Output: DSDT.aml – 31409 bytes, 1044 named objects, 2845 executable opcodes

Compilation complete. 0 Errors, 3 Warnings, 0 Remarks, 1097 Optimizations
Compilation successfull, updating initramfs
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
Not updating initrd symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled
(2.6.35-22.35 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Not updating image symbolic links since we are being updated/reinstalled
(2.6.35-22.35 was configured last, according to dpkg)
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 2.6.35-22-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
* dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 2.6.35-22-generic
* fglrx (8.780)… [ OK ]
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 2.6.35-22-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/nvidia-common 2.6.35-22-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/pm-utils 2.6.35-22-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/update-notifier 2.6.35-22-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 2.6.35-22-generic /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
Generating grub.cfg …
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda2
done
DSDT patch applied, you should reboot your system now

What about that 3 warnings??

How could I test to see if the keys are being recognize by the system??

Thanks alot

carlos

October 24, 2010 at 21:28

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