KDE reports DISPLAY CHANGED: LCD OFF periodically under Fedora Core 4

Problem

KDE reports DISPLAY CHANGED: LCD OFF periodically

Affected Model

LT-580 and LT-600

Affected OS

Fedora Core 4

Solution

KDE includes a special key notifier, kmilo, to access special function keys found on modern laptops. Unfortunately this tool is incompatible on some of the ASUS laptop models. To disable kmilo, do the followings:

  1. Go to the KDE Main Menu
  2. Select Control Center
  3. Select KDE Components
  4. Select Service Manager
  5. Uncheck Kmilo
  6. Click on Apply button

Afterward, restart the X Server by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backplace. Note: Since kmilo is enabled by default, these steps must be performed again after reinstalling the operating system. In addition, kmilo setting does not apply to all user accounts. When creating a new user account, kmilo has to be disabled again.

To access the special key on the LT580 and LT-600, use the ASUS acpi module which is preinstalled and preconfigured at the factory. If the operating system has been reinstalled, the ASUS acpi module must be reinstalled manually. Installation and configuration guides for the ASUS acpi module is provided on the LT580 and LT-600 system documentations.

Note: Since the ASUS acpi module requires ASL 2.6.12-6 kernel, do not install or upgrade the kernel when running online update via Red Hat Network or yum. By default, Red Hat Network will exclude the kernel packages. When using yum, the kernel packages can be excluded as following: 

# yum  --exclude=*kernel*  update

In general, it is best to use ASL kernels because they are highly customized and optimized for ASL platforms.