Why is the Dell killswitch interface turning *off* all hardware BT switches?

[Mario Limonciello]

Hi Bastien:

This information (about the ability to switch via software interface)
isn't necessarily reported by the BIOS.  I'm adding on Michael Brown. 
Michael, libsmbios can't reliably report this information can it?

Why was the hal killswitch interface mucking with a hardware switch's
settings in the first place?

Regards

Bastien Nocera wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-10-23 at 13:03 -0500, Mario Limonciello wrote:
>   
>> Hi:
>>
>> I've been trying to track down why on some machines the hardware BT
>> switch suddenly stops working periodically and then figured out what's
>> actually happening.  HAL is turning it off every time.  Well
>> unfortunately, on a lot of Dell platforms, the software switch simply
>> doesn't work.  This is a BIOS limitation on those platforms.  What
>> happens then is somehow this kill switch interface gets triggered,
>> turns off the hardware switch, and suddenly the user has no way to
>> turn bluetooth back on.  I feel the better solution is to only turn
>> off via the software switch.  If the platform ends up supporting it,
>> it will work, if not, nothing happens.
>>
>> I'm attaching a patch to adjust this behavior, but I'm open to
>> constructive criticism.
>>     
>
> How about fixing libsmbios' dellWirelessCtl to not do stupid things?
>
> Cheers
>
>   

-- 
Mario Limonciello
*Dell | Linux Engineering*
mario_limonciello at dell.com
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