RE: Dell docking station & Dell Embedded Controller & PS/2 devices
From: Mario.Limonciello
Date: Mon May 07 2018 - 16:18:59 EST
> > > So I guess you could write a platform driver that would install i8042
> > > filter on Dell laptops/portables, monitor keyboard data stream and kick
> > > of rescans on serio ports. The problem is filter gets "serio" so you do
> > > not really know whether ACK is spurious or not. And I would really
> > > prefer keeping this crap out of atkbd proper... And all of this is racy
> > > as hell. What happens if we get keyboard reconnected as we reinitialize
> > > it?
> >
> > If it's done as a platform driver I would suspect it's possible to tell whether
> > a dock is connected to at least give you some heuristic here to have a better
> > guess whether it's spurious.
>
> Apparently checking for docking station is not enough. There are also
> Dell Legacy Extenders (or how it is called) which exports internal PS/2,
> Parallel and Serial Ports. It is also connecting to bottom of laptop.
> But currently I do not have them for testing.
>
> > Pali on your system that supports this dock, check and see how many
> > System Enclosure SMBIOS tables (structure type 03) are present.
>
> Do you mean DMI type 3 structure? Here is something from dmidecode:
>
> Handle 0x0003, DMI type 3, 22 bytes
> Chassis Information
> Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
> Type: Laptop
> Lock: Not Present
> Version: Not Specified
> Serial Number: --REMOVED--
> Asset Tag: Not Specified
> Boot-up State: Safe
> Power Supply State: Safe
> Thermal State: Safe
> Security Status: None
> OEM Information: 0x00000000
> Height: Unspecified
> Number Of Power Cords: 1
> Contained Elements: 0
> SKU Number: To be filled by O.E.M.
>
> But probably you mean something different?
Plug in your dock before you boot up and see if you have a second structure like
that type produced.
If not, then I guess this isn't a reliable way to find the dock
on that system and I'll have to see if there is another.