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1 | rfkill - RF switch subsystem support | ||
2 | ==================================== | ||
3 | |||
4 | 1 Implementation details | ||
5 | 2 Driver support | ||
6 | 3 Userspace support | ||
7 | |||
8 | =============================================================================== | ||
9 | 1: Implementation details | ||
10 | |||
11 | The rfkill switch subsystem offers support for keys often found on laptops | ||
12 | to enable wireless devices like WiFi and Bluetooth. | ||
13 | |||
14 | This is done by providing the user 3 possibilities: | ||
15 | 1 - The rfkill system handles all events; userspace is not aware of events. | ||
16 | 2 - The rfkill system handles all events; userspace is informed about the events. | ||
17 | 3 - The rfkill system does not handle events; userspace handles all events. | ||
18 | |||
19 | The buttons to enable and disable the wireless radios are important in | ||
20 | situations where the user is for example using his laptop on a location where | ||
21 | wireless radios _must_ be disabled (e.g. airplanes). | ||
22 | Because of this requirement, userspace support for the keys should not be | ||
23 | made mandatory. Because userspace might want to perform some additional smarter | ||
24 | tasks when the key is pressed, rfkill still provides userspace the possibility | ||
25 | to take over the task to handle the key events. | ||
26 | |||
27 | The system inside the kernel has been split into 2 separate sections: | ||
28 | 1 - RFKILL | ||
29 | 2 - RFKILL_INPUT | ||
30 | |||
31 | The first option enables rfkill support and will make sure userspace will | ||
32 | be notified of any events through the input device. It also creates several | ||
33 | sysfs entries which can be used by userspace. See section "Userspace support". | ||
34 | |||
35 | The second option provides an rfkill input handler. This handler will | ||
36 | listen to all rfkill key events and will toggle the radio accordingly. | ||
37 | With this option enabled userspace could either do nothing or simply | ||
38 | perform monitoring tasks. | ||
39 | |||
40 | ==================================== | ||
41 | 2: Driver support | ||
42 | |||
43 | To build a driver with rfkill subsystem support, the driver should | ||
44 | depend on the Kconfig symbol RFKILL; it should _not_ depend on | ||
45 | RKFILL_INPUT. | ||
46 | |||
47 | Unless key events trigger an interrupt to which the driver listens, polling | ||
48 | will be required to determine the key state changes. For this the input | ||
49 | layer providers the input-polldev handler. | ||
50 | |||
51 | A driver should implement a few steps to correctly make use of the | ||
52 | rfkill subsystem. First for non-polling drivers: | ||
53 | |||
54 | - rfkill_allocate() | ||
55 | - input_allocate_device() | ||
56 | - rfkill_register() | ||
57 | - input_register_device() | ||
58 | |||
59 | For polling drivers: | ||
60 | |||
61 | - rfkill_allocate() | ||
62 | - input_allocate_polled_device() | ||
63 | - rfkill_register() | ||
64 | - input_register_polled_device() | ||
65 | |||
66 | When a key event has been detected, the correct event should be | ||
67 | sent over the input device which has been registered by the driver. | ||
68 | |||
69 | ==================================== | ||
70 | 3: Userspace support | ||
71 | |||
72 | For each key an input device will be created which will send out the correct | ||
73 | key event when the rfkill key has been pressed. | ||
74 | |||
75 | The following sysfs entries will be created: | ||
76 | |||
77 | name: Name assigned by driver to this key (interface or driver name). | ||
78 | type: Name of the key type ("wlan", "bluetooth", etc). | ||
79 | state: Current state of the key. 1: On, 0: Off. | ||
80 | claim: 1: Userspace handles events, 0: Kernel handles events | ||
81 | |||
82 | Both the "state" and "claim" entries are also writable. For the "state" entry | ||
83 | this means that when 1 or 0 is written all radios, not yet in the requested | ||
84 | state, will be will be toggled accordingly. | ||
85 | For the "claim" entry writing 1 to it means that the kernel no longer handles | ||
86 | key events even though RFKILL_INPUT input was enabled. When "claim" has been | ||
87 | set to 0, userspace should make sure that it listens for the input events or | ||
88 | check the sysfs "state" entry regularly to correctly perform the required | ||
89 | tasks when the rkfill key is pressed. | ||