FN keys in Hardy Heron nearly sorted :)
Posted by Trip on April 19, 2008
Toufik has just posted a .deb file on the Ubuntu Forum that should get the FN keys on your FS laptop working again but is in need of some testers.
After some testing myself the .deb file installed hassle free through Gdebi with a double click and the volume, brightness and mute buttons work. Not perfectly mind you as not all the buttons are configured by default yet, but easily good enough to use.
If your running the Beta version of Hardy then please head over to the forum, do some testing and leave some feedback. I’m not too sure if this will work on Gutsy or not but there’s a good chance that it will 
Files installed by the .deb package..
usr/local/bin/fsfn – The fsfn main program file.
usr/local/share/man/man1/fsfn.1 – Manual on how to use the software.
usr/local/share/man/man5/fsfn.5 – Manual on how to use the software.
etc/init.d/fsfn – This is the script that starts and stops the daemon.
etc/fsfn.conf – The configuration file that you can edit to change your keys.
Nothing too dramatic here, but he’s done a great job of packaging it all up for us and it’s got to be the easiest way ever to get your FN keys working.
Thanks Toufik 
FN Key Tutorial (Part 1).. « Ubuntu-FS said
[...] Posted by Trip on March 6, 2007 ****WARNING: this will only work for releases up to Feisty. For Gutsy release and later check here!**** [...]
FN Key Tutorial (Part 2).. « Ubuntu-FS said
[...] Posted by Trip on March 8, 2007 ****WARNING: this will only work for releases up to Feisty. For Gutsy release and later check here!**** [...]
FN Key Tutorial (Part 3).. « Ubuntu-FS said
[...] **** WARNING: This will only work for releases up to Feisty. For Gutsy release and later check here! (only for FS model laptops). If you don’t have an FS model laptop, you can try this tutorial [...]
Ali said
I have vaio fs690P with UBUNTU 9.10 and installed fsfn on it. At first it worked. Yet, when some time passes, as if there is some program over writing it, it stops working. I have to restart fsfn and the cycle goes again.
Below are my configurations. They look decent as there is a response for every command.
Please help.
@viao:~$ uname -r
2.6.31-20-generic
@viao:~$ lshal | grep system.hardware
system.hardware.primary_video.product = 9618 (0×2592) (int)
system.hardware.primary_video.vendor = 32902 (0×8086) (int)
system.hardware.product = ‘VGN-FS690P’ (string)
system.hardware.serial = ’9578903-3000001′ (string)
system.hardware.uuid = ’447E4D40-ECFB-11D9-818D-00014A603D17′ (string)
system.hardware.vendor = ‘Sony Corporation’ (string)
system.hardware.version = ‘A2227HL9′ (string)
@viao:~$ lsmod | grep sony
sony_laptop 31972 0
sonypi 18012 0
@viao:~$ ls /sys/class/backlight/sony
actual_brightness brightness power uevent
bl_power max_brightness subsystem
@viao:~$ ls /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop
brightness_default driver fnkey modalias power subsystem uevent
@viao:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/fnkey
30