APS(4)

📦
version 11.0 · 2 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable

✨ APS(4) ✨

okay bestie, this is the manual page for aps — the ThinkPad Active Protection System accelerometer driver, from the Kernel Interfaces Manual. yes it's giving hardware-nerd energy and yes I'm obsessed 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

aps — ThinkPad Active Protection System accelerometer 🎀

⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

aps0 at isa? port 0x1600

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So the aps driver provides support for several sensors found in some ThinkPad laptops. lowkey iconic of it 🫶

The sensors currently exposed via the envsys(4) interface are:

  • x-acceleration — units: integer — X-axis acceleration
  • y-acceleration — units: integer — Y-axis acceleration
  • x-variable — units: integer — Weighted X acceleration?
  • y-variable — units: integer — Weighted Y acceleration?
  • temperature 1 — units: degC — Unknown temperature
  • temperature 2 — units: degC — Unknown temperature
  • keyboard active — units: boolean — Keyboard activity
  • mouse active — units: boolean — Mouse activity
  • lid open — units: boolean — Lid state

(and yeah, those question marks on the weighted accelerations are literally in the original — nobody knows for sure and honestly? relatable 😭)

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

envsys(4), hpacel(4), thinkpad(4), envstat(8)

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

The aps driver first appeared in OpenBSD 3.8 and was then ported to NetBSD 5.0. glow-up behavior ✨

👑 AUTHORS 👑

The aps driver was written by Jonathan Gray <jsg@openbsd.org>.

💀 CAVEATS 💀

okay so there are a few issues and we gotta be honest about them, no cap:

  • The aps driver does not maintain state and subsequently does not take evasive action when it thinks the hard drive is in danger. Possible actions would include spinning down the hard drive in case excessive tremor is detected by the sensors. (so like, it senses the fall but does not save the drive — tragic, I know 💀)
  • The Y axis on X40 and possibly other models seems to be inverted. It is unknown how to distinguish between different versions of the accelerometer to compensate for this in the driver at this time. 🙈
  • The sensor values are refreshed every 0.5 seconds. Because no protection measures are taken, this is unnecessary and may have a negative effect on battery life. not great, not terrible 🔥
  • As IBM provides no documentation, it is not known what all the available sensors are used for. (mystery sensors, main character energy fr fr)

Dept. of cute sign-offs 💌: this page comes from the Debian source, version/date <italic>July 13, 2011</italic>, and it's filed under APS(4). slay, go read your sensors bestie 💅🎀

📦 where this page comes from