APM problem in Slackware
 

I have been using Slackware on my old Compaq Presario 350 MHz AMD k-6 for years but with the older 2.4.x kernels. I just tried to do a fresh install of Slackware 13 and now 12.2 and found the same problem-my computer freezes up when I do a modprobe apm. I'm thinking this may be a problem with 2.6.x kernels on my old pc.

I'm also thinking that since APM is so old that ACPI may be assumed now in the kernel build...maybe I just need to rebuild the kernel. Another problem is that I only have 700 MB in which to install a new kernel.

Can I fix this without rebuilding the kernel? If not, can I install a kernel without the kernel source and how?

EDIT:

I decided to do a fresh install of Slackware 13...the APM problem remains.

try append="acpi=off" in lilo.conf, then modprobe apm

I added that to my image section so /etc/lilo.conf looks like this:

image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux
root=/dev/hda1
append="acpi=off"
read-only

On reboot I looked at dmesg and found no entries about apm and this line about acpi:

Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=Linux ro root=301 acpi=off

However, modprobe apm still freezes the pc and it won't turn off without my pressing in the power button for 3 secs.

Maybe I need to add an apm=on in lilo.conf?

append="acpi=off apm=on apm=power-off" ?

nope-I tried it and got errors in my dmesg. I typed in apm -s to try to get it to suspend and was told apm wasn't in the kernel and then modprobe apm froze my pc. I rebooted and then just tried to do a halt -p and I still had to manually power down. I googled this and found that apm=on can only be used when apm was built into the kernel and not just a module (modprobe apm would be for that).

I think I need to rebuild the kernel. I've re-built kernels several times my other pc with a lot more hard drive space than the 500 MB on my Slack 13 pc. Can I boot with just the resultant bzImage on my Slack pc and do a make modules_install to build the modules in /lib/modules?

Hey, I just realised I was looking at another thread of yours...good question, I'm wondering, as well, how to build a kernel on another machine.
I found some Slackbuilds that could be useful here.
/edit/ That appears to be available in the /pub/slackware/slackware-*/source/ directory on (probably) any mirror; that was just the first one I found.