How do you know if the ACPI is working? This may seem obvious but I have been searching my desktop but can't find anything.

How do you check the temp of your CPU? Is this hardware dependant? Or just a case of the software? How do you calibate it them?

To see if your ACPI is working properly, have a look in the different entries in /proc/acpi. If the info in these (for instance in /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/temperature or some such) are reasonable, then it's working. I think you have to have acpi=on in your boot options to enable it.

But, on the other hand... Your desktop, you say? Aren't they mostly using APM?

Just had a look - No /proc/acpi directory I am afraid.

Does this mean I have to upgrade my Kernel? I have redhat 9.0 so Kernel is 2.4.20-6.

to test it, do shutdown -h now

and if the pc powers off then its working

I don't know if your kernel supports ACPI, but in Mandrake 9.1, which has kernel 2.4.21, it is not activated by default, so you have to set the acpi=on option. You might even have to compile it in yourself, but of this I'm not entirely sure.

These two threads might help you:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=82690
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=75155

BTW, did you check that acpi is installed on your system?

Edit: I forgot something as usual... The two threads are really discussing ACPI on Mandrake, but it shouldn't differ very much - if at all - with RedHat. Except for the kernel version, maybe.

i'm pretty sure ACPI is not built in by default on the RH kernels. you need to have kernel sources installed and select ACPI with make config ( or make xconfig) from your /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-6 directory.

I did this, rebooted and then I could see /proc/acpi

Ok I do have the /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-6 directory installed, but I am not really sure how to do the make config for ACPI. I don't want to use trial and error for this one.

Cheers

i hear you. if you should decide to persue it, the safest option is to compile a newer kernel (http://kernel.org) with the desired options selected. that way you can choose ( grub menu selection ) which kernel (new or old) to boot. you should never re-compile the only working kernel you have since it seems to be a very touchy operation. as i'm writing this i'm building 2.6.0-test9. i have successfully built 2.4.22 but i want some of the newer features in 2.6.

make xconfig gives you a nice gui where you can select the options you want. you can load the configuration from your current kernel as a starting point and go from there.

ja ... oyasmuinasai

hmmm I've got 2.4.22 and 2.6-test4 on CD somewhere but I am gonna have to read up on this because I don't really have much of a clue.

By not having ACPI set up, am I going to cause my hardware any problems or is it not important?

acpi is probably not important. i've been using my laptop without acpi for over two years. apm -s allows me to suspend it so i can carry it around with me. what is your hardware config? and what do you hope to gain by having acpi?

on my laptop cpu temp / fan control is handled by the chipset so s/w doesn't need to get involved.

here is the build command i used last night for my 2.6 it seems to have finished without fanfare or errors.

make modules modules_install install

i'll try to boot it soon.

Apm -s resulted in a 'no apm support in Kernel' but I guess I don't really need ACPI because I use my laptop as a mobile desktop really - a power supply is always availiable.

My fan must be controlled by the chip set I think.

Would be nice to have the option of doing stuff like running at a lower chip frequency and stuff but I was reading up on Kernel 2.6 and it is supposed to be less then easy to install in RH9.0, so given my lack of knowledge I will just leave it untill I update my OS (that is if you can update RH to the new/next Fedora even).

Cheers.