Hi all,

I'm running SimplyMepis on a Toshiba A30-307 laptop,
and - as far as I can see - everything is going
excellently well. Except...

... the cooling fan.

[By the way, I have posted on another forum about this problem, but with the help of those who kindly responded, I'm getting closer to a clearer presentation of the problem]

The sequence of events is (explained in newbie-ese,
since that's the language I speak):

a) I boot up, into Mepis (with either kernel, the 2.4
one and the 2.6 one), and leave it run for a few
minutes. The computer warms up - no cooling going on.

b) Either it shuts itself down, or I shut it down
manually (to stop it shutting down)

c) I reboot, and the BIOS (I suppose) picks up the
heat from the previous boot, and switches the fan on.
From this forth the cooling works, and I can then run
the machine as long as I want.

Now, obviously this is not the way its supposed to
work.
I think I've understood that the solution may have
something to do with ACPI settings, but I'll admit
that I'm fairly ignorant of all this.

Questions:

a) Is there a simple solution to this problem?
or
b) Is there somewhere I can read something that would
at least give me an orientation in seeking a solution?
and
c) Is this problem dependent on my installation?

Suppose I installed the same distro again, or another,
would I have the same problem? I had Mandrake 10
installed before, and this problem wasn't evident, but
there were other problems there.

I received the helpful, and probably accurate suggestion that I should check the ACPI settings. Well, if this is the case, what might I be checking them for?

Thanks a lot in advance,

Declan

in your kernel config enable fan support and thermal zone support then recompile

Sounds like a good idea.
How might one go about that?

I'll admit that I'm not allergic to the CLI, but one has to learn it gradually, so if there's some gui for doing it, I'd be gladder.
Failing that, what are the exact steps?

Thanks for the response,

Declan

Bump.

I've been offered some apparently wise advice, but it's useless to me, since it's written in telegraphic technicalese.
Does anyone know how what has been suggested should be attempted?

Or even a hint to get me started?

Thanks.

basically you need to recompile your kernel. in the kernel config program, in the "power management" section, there's APM (which you should disable) and ACPI (which is what you're looking for); inside the ACPI section, there's a whole slew of different functions to pick whether you want, like Processor, Thremal Zone, Fan, etc etc. switch all of them on

good luck, and have fun!