[Bug 1210823] Re: Convertibles: Switching between laptop, tent, and tablet modes needed

[Mario Vukelic]

The above instructions for swapping stereo channels with pulseaudio
worked out. The reversed audio sink can easily be made persistent in
/etc/pulse/default.pa (as explained in above link). Automation of stereo
channel swapping based on sensors would be neat but I didn't figure it
out yet, currently I'm using buttons to run scripts. It is also possible
to go into Gnome sound settings and choose between the regular and
swapped audio sinks.

Automation would have to take into account at least the following
configurations:

- Laptop mode:
Regular stereo (left channel on left speaker, right channel on right speaker)

- Display in a kind of flat table position, i.e., at 180 degrees to keyboard, both the display and keyboard facing upward:
Is this a thing that would be used in practice? Should probably default to regular stereo.

- Tent mode:
Swap stereo channels (left channel on right speaker, right channel on left speaker)

- Presentation mode, for want of a better word. Display and keyboard are at similar angle as tent mode i.e. > 180 degrees, but keyboard faces down, keys resting on surface. Effectively the keyboard part functions just a stand for a touchscreen. (Think touch phone or digital photo frame). In the end tent mode achieves the same effect, but e.g. Asus shows off this mode in the first image on https://www.asus.com/2-in-1-PCs/ASUS-ZenBook-Flip-UX561UD):
Regular (left channel on left speaker, right channel on right speaker)

- Tablet mode, display folded back completely:
In landscape orientation, sound follows display rotation, i.e., regular or swapped depending on screen rotation
In portrait orientation, mono sound would probably work best

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1210823

Title:
  Convertibles: Switching between laptop, tent, and tablet modes needed

Status in acpid:
  Unknown
Status in acpid package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  See

  https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/client-1305
  -convertibles-and-touch-desktop

  Convertibles (like the Lenovo Thinkpad Twist) have two modes: Laptop
  mode where the desktop is controlled with the built-in keyboard and
  the built-in touchpad (or an external mouse) and tablet mode where the
  keyboard is folded away behind the screen and the desktop is
  controlled by the touch screen only.

  In laptop mode the built-in touchpad must be active and clicking or
  tapping a text input field should not pop up an on-screen keyboard,
  whereas in tablet mode the built-in touchpad should be deactivated so
  that the turned over laptop lid lying on the touchpad does not trigger
  mouse actions and tapping input fields has to pop-up the on-screen
  keyboard.

  This can be easily done by a an ACPI-triggered script, as described on

  http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Ubuntu_12.10_on_Thinkpad_Twist#Automatic

  There are two files in /etc/acpi/events/ which assign the call of a
  script in /etc/acpi/ when the device is put into laptop mode or into
  tablet mode. The script should turn on the keyboard pop-up and turn
  off the touchpad when going into tablet mode and turn off the keyboard
  pop-up and turn on the touchpad when going into laptop mode.

  Some remarks:

  - The ACPI events mentioned on the linked site are for the Lenovo
  Thinkpad Twist, they can be different on other convertibles.

  - The script does not activate keyboard pop-up. One needs to add

  ----------
  if [ "$MODE" = "1" ]; then
      sudo -iu $user onboard &
  else
      sudo -iu $user killall onboard
  fi
  ----------

  to get this.

  - The script turns off the touch screen in laptop mode. This is not
  actually needed.

  - The script uses two functionalities which got removed in Saucy.
  First, /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs with the function
  getXconsole to find out who the user logged in on the desktop is
  ($user, the script runs as root), and second, xinput support for the
  touchpad (can also be a bug).  Perhaps one needs to use gsettings now.

  When finding a way to turn off and on the touchpad and a way to find
  the desktop user, one could easily update the script so that it works
  with Saucy. One also needs to find out the ACPI events for mode
  switching on the different models of convertibles.

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