I am a new Linux user, Used to mess around the various distros, knoppix, redhat & mandrake. Using Pcs for 22 years from MSDOS & Win 3.1. I have just been using Ubuntu 8.04 Hard Herron for 2 weeks now on my Sony vaio vgn-n325e laptop and I have serious acpi problems. Machine wont shutdown without hard power-off, restarts fine, cant see battery state or ac adapter states. Please help, I have completely formatted vista, I am so impressed with the system responsiveness but need full laptop compatibility.

These are more indepth specs
Sony Vaio VGN-N325E/B or /W (Black or White)
15.4-inch widescreen display with xBrite-ECO LCD technology
Intel Pentium Core Duo T5300 @ 1.73ghz
Intel GMA 950 graphics 256MB Graphics Video RAM Memory
120gb 5400 rpm SATA hd
1gb ram
SuperMulti CD/DVD burner
2 USB Ports
1 4-pin iLink IEEE1304 Interface
802.11b/g Wireless Interface
Memory Stick Media
Secure Digital Slot
Express Card/34
VGA Output
Width 14.4 x Depth 10.5 x Height 1.2 to 1.6-inch
Weight 6.5 pounds with standard battery

Recent kernels have a bunch of Sony laptop-specific stuff. If Ubuntu's
stock kernel doesn't have support compiled in (and even if it does) you
may want to compile a fresh kernel from kernel.org

Mike

Have you tried using apm instead of acpi ? You can usually turn it off if you pass this argument to the kernel when booting:
I have also found that on my sony laptop disabling apic may also help in some situations, that would be with:
one or a combination of those.

Why IS it that APIC support is so spotty with the kernel?!?

Also, I didn't think modern (<2 years old or so) laptops had APM capability anymore. I know my new (made September bought December) Asus
5520-5912 dual Turion machine has no APM, for instance.

And thanks for the command, I was going to give that to him in a longer
message, but couldn't remember it before the forum kicked me off (what IS
it with this forum software and these ridiculously short timeouts?!?).

Mike

Tried all of these plus various combinations including "force" but it still wont shut down. Restarts fine though. I am not able to see percentage battery left or if I am even running an AC adapter. So if you are using the laptop without the adapter it will just shutdown without any warning.

PLus there also seems to be an intel ring fwh error as weel

What commands are you using to shutdown and restart ? You say restart works but shutdown doesn't. I remember when I was running Ubuntu it did the same thing, and I had to use 'poweroff' not 'halt', I still say 'shutdown -h now' is most universal.

shutdown -h and it stops running services and then leaves me at a prompt screen saying system halted, after about two minutes or so it goes blank, with the lcd light/screen still on as well as the hard disk.

Try seeing this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s....20/+bug/42160

yeah, I checked it out. You see, shutting down is a problem, while evident, it is not exactly as concerning as not being able to see how much battery is left or when I am plugged into AC power. Can you help me to fix the issues in this sequence.
1) Battery and AC adapter (Power states)
2) Shutdown Problem
3) Fn Keys not working

1) Try running this as root:
2) Upgrade to the latest kernel.

3) run:

modprobe ac
FATAL: Error inserting ac (/lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko): No such device

modprobe battery
FATAL: Error inserting battery (/lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/acpi/battery.ko): No such device

modprobe sonypi
no output (nothing hapens)

I am running the latest kernel

I should mention in order to install Ubuntu I had to select the option ACPI workaround otherwise it wouldn't install.

I really just would like to know what my battery state is can anyone help?

This looks like an Ubuntu specific issue, so I can't help much. However, to me it looks like the kernel and modules were not installed properly.