im running slack 9.1 on an inspiron 8500, and im trying to get acpi to work so that i may use my battery monitor and fan options.. but when i try acpid i get

root@mwafcu-laptop:/home/eric# acpid
acpid: can't open /proc/acpi/event: No such file or directory

I run slack 9.1 with an Inspiron 8200. ACPI is not built into the default slack kernel by default. I use the APM module and it seems to work OK for at least the battery/fan monitoring. I had to rebuild the kernel anyway to avoid clock drift by enabling interrupts for APM.

CONFIG_APM=m
# CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_USER_SUSPEND is not set
CONFIG_APM_DO_ENABLE=y
CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE=y
CONFIG_APM_DISPLAY_BLANK=y
# CONFIG_APM_RTC_IS_GMT is not set
CONFIG_APM_ALLOW_INTS=y
CONFIG_APM_REAL_MODE_POWER_OFF=y

You'll have to find the src package for i8kutils and build/install.

My rc.local:
/usr/sbin/hdparm -c3 -m16 -d1 -X68 -K1 /dev/hda
/usr/bin/amixer set Master 50 unmute >/dev/null 2>&1
/usr/bin/amixer set PCM 50 unmute >/dev/null 2>&1
/usr/bin/amixer set CD 50 unmute >/dev/null 2>&1
/usr/bin/i8kbuttons -u "aumix -v +5" -d "aumix -v -5" -m "aumix -v m" &
/usr/bin/i8kfan 1 1

The i8kfan 1 1 starts the fans at least until I get into X and use gkrellm with the Dell i8k plugin.

ACPI is better supported in linux2.6-test kernels if you want to experiment even more.

thanks a bunch, little out of my league though

you could also compile your own kernel... at least that is what i have done. enable ACPI, and mark the options you need/want.