ACPI_TOSHIBA(4)

📦 version 15.1, in freebsd 14.5, freebsd 15.1, nixpkgs unstable

💻 ACPI_TOSHIBA(4) — the acpi_toshiba man page, but make it make sense

okay so bestie, this is acpi_toshiba from the Kernel Interfaces Manual, and no cap it's lowkey one of the cutest little drivers in the whole kernel because it literally just... talks to your Toshiba's hardware for you 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

acpi_toshiba — the Toshiba HCI interface, aka the thing that lets you poke at your laptop's hardware switches 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

so there's two ways to get this vibe going, and you gotta pick one:

Option A — bake it right into the kernel. drop this line in your kernel configuration file:

device acpi_toshiba

Option B — be a module girlie 💖 load it at boot time as a module and just add this line to loader.conf(5):

acpi_toshiba_load="YES"

both are valid, both are iconic, choose your fighter ✨

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so HCI stands for Hardware Control Interface — that's Toshiba's own thang, and the way that… it's somewhat uniform across their models (emphasis on somewhat, bestie, it's giving "close enough" 😭).

the acpi_toshiba driver lets you manipulate all that HCI-controlled hardware using a bunch of sysctl(8) variables. that's it. that's the whole job. iconic honestly 👑

🦋 SYSCTL VARIABLES 🦋

here's the roster of sysctls currently implemented — every single one, no skips:

  • hw.acpi.toshiba.force_fan — forces active cooling on (1) or off (0), and it does not care what the current temperature is. temperature? never heard of her 💀 it just does what you say.
  • hw.acpi.toshiba.video_output — sets the active display, and you pick it with a bitwise OR of these bad boys:
    • 0 — no display
    • 1 — LCD
    • 2 — CRT
    • 4 — TV-Out
ngl, only some systems support video switching through this hardware-specific driver — the Libretto L5 is the example they give. for generic video output support, use the acpi_video(4) driver instead, bestie 🫶
  • hw.acpi.toshiba.lcd_brightness — makes the LCD backlight brighter or dimmer. reminder that higher values are brighter ⭐ (yes it's the opposite of cpu_speed below, don't come for me)
  • hw.acpi.toshiba.lcd_backlight — turns the LCD backlight on and off. that's it. on. off. main character energy 💅
  • hw.acpi.toshiba.cpu_speed — sets the CPU speed to the speed you specify. this gives you functionality similar to the hw.acpi.cpu.throttle_state variable. and heads up: higher sysctl values mean lower CPU speeds 🙈 so it's the upside-down one, iykyk

and the defaults for all of these can be set in sysctl.conf(5), which gets parsed at boot-time. so you can set your vibe and forget it 🌈

🧚 LOADER TUNABLES 🧚

the hw.acpi.toshiba.enable_fn_keys tunable enables or disables the function keys on the keyboard. and good news — function keys are enabled by default ✨

you can flip this behaviour at the loader(8) prompt, or in loader.conf(5). either way, slay.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

acpi(4), acpi_video(4), loader.conf(5), sysctl.conf(5), sysctl(8)

go read them, they're all part of the friend group 💜

👑 HISTORY 👑

the acpi_toshiba driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.1. a legend from day one, fr fr.

🍓 AUTHORS 🍓

the acpi_toshiba driver was written by Hiroyuki Aizu <aizu@navi.org> 🎀

and this manual page was written by Philip Paeps <philip@FreeBSD.org> 🦋

thank you both for your service, we literally would not have this page without you 💖

okay that's the whole thing bestie, you're now fully certified in Toshiba HCI vibes ✨ this page came to you from Debian, dated February 8, 2010, and it lives in section 4 of the ACPI_TOSHIBA(4) manual — mwah, go forth and toggle your backlight 💅🎀

📦 where this page comes from