Dell Gets An Airplane Mode Switch Driver In Linux 4.2

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Dell Gets An Airplane Mode Switch Driver In Linux 4.2

The latest major pull request for the Linux 4.2 kernel provides the x86 platform driver updates for this next major kernel release...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.2-x86-Platform-Drivers

[Sonadow]

The Dell Airplane Mode Switch driver (dell-rbtn) is an ACPI driver to allow toggling the radio controls under Linux. This device switch is sometimes called DELLABCE and DELRBTN and registers an rkfill device and receives hardware rfkill events when WiFi and Bluetooth are enabled.

How different is this from simply running

rfkill block all

and

rfkill unblock all

?

[bellamyb]

How different is this from simply running

rfkill block all

and

rfkill unblock all

?

It's different because it's a physical switch. This driver allows the switch to work, though doesn't require it be for rfkill functions.

[Nobu]

Enables hardware functionality that would otherwise be inaccessable? Think, that switch or button hidden on the side of your laptop that disables your network card, only this one disables wifi, bluetooth, and whatever other radio device your laptop may have. Always fun when it decides to disable the radios, and you can't re-enable them unless you enter the BIOS or, sometimes, only if you boot Windows.

[pali]

Michael where did you find this total nonsense??
"The Dell Airplane Mode Switch driver (dell-rbtn) is an ACPI driver to allow toggling the radio controls under Linux"
I would suggest you to read about new functionality before writing such misleading and incorrect posts on phoronix...

That Airplane Mode Switch ACPI driver just receive events from wireless hotkey or wireless switch and propagate it to userspace (either via input device or rfkill hard event). It does not allow to control state of wireless or bluetooth devices. For that functionality there is for a long time dell-laptop.ko driver.