What is hp-wmi and why do I need it?

The hp-wmi kernel module is what Magick uses to monitor the state of the swivel hinge switch. Without it Magick won't work. It in turn depends on wmi, an extension to ACPI that exposes parts of the ACPI firmware and is available for some BIOS's.

To verify that hp-wmi is auto-loading enter "lsmod" (without the quotes) in a terminal. In Jaunty, Karmic, Lucid, and Maverick you should see 'hp-wmi' or 'hp_wmi'. If 'hp-wmi' is not present you'll need to add it to the 'modules' file in "/etc/modules" on a separate line at the bottom of the list and reboot.

The hp-wmi was patched for us by Matthew Garrett (the module maintainer) to separate out the swivel hinge signal from the docking event. It creates a new event called 'tablet' as opposed to 'dock'. The patch has been included in the hp-wmi kernel module since kernel 2.6.31.