I found that by updating the linux kernel to 2.6.11.6 (from www.kernel.org), that I am now able to get ACPI to work!

When compiling the kernel, I had to disable APM and compile ACPI into the kernel (ie, not as a loadable module).

Now the fan works! The battery gauge (klaptop) reports! I get much longer run times now. I have some issues to work out with suspend mode, but manly laptops also do. Suspend mode is not a necessity for me, yet...

Also, the BIOS issue was addressed with one of the recent versions of the PCMCIA module, and in order to have cardbus compatiblity I had to add this to modprobe.conf:

options yenta_socket override_bios=1

The kernels since 2.6.12 have given this laptop issues with ACPI. Lockups on battery events, lid, ac_power, etc. The fan control works fine. I have a kernel bug submitted regarding this, hopefully it can be reseolved.

Currently with 2.6.14 everything except ACPI works fine, USB, Firewire, LAN, Video, etc. all work well.

The factory dsdt has 4 compile warnings from iasl, but they do not appear to be critical. Fixing them offers no help. I would post the fixes to the sourceforge ACPI dsdt repository when I am convinced that they actually fix something.

Overall I am happy with this lappy, but if I were to do it all again I would probably buy a HP.

g