how to get battery power management

wendallsan · 10-15-2003, 02:36 PM

Hi all,

I have slackware 9.0 running on my Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop. It runs great (of course), but my kernal doesn't either doesn't have APM or ACPI support compiled into it or I don't have ACPI software installed. How can I tell if I have the right stuff compiled into my kernal for this? Also does this ACPI allow you to do things like put your laptop into sleep mode when you close the screen, and then pop right back up when you open it again, and stuff like that? Or is that some other program? Or is it possible on linux?

thanks,

wendallsan

ceedeedoos · 10-15-2003, 05:24 PM

ps -ax | grep acpid

if that returns something, you're already running the acpi daemon. I'm not sure about this dell, I don't own one or have no idea on it's age, but I'll suppose it's relatively new and it uses ACPI (hence the acpid)

I have a script that starts the acpi daemon, which is embedded in my rc.M script. That way it starts when I boot my system into multiuser ... have a look in your rc.M and other bootscripts to see if you have a reference to acpid there. If you have one, it should start, otherwise you should create one.

If that doesn't solve it (I don't have a clue about the kernel you use) you may need to get a new kernel (I believe bareacpi.i kernel though I'm not sure) or recompile one with acpi support (not too difficult)

If your kernel has acpi support already, the key will be running the acpid daemon.

I haven't tried the sleepmode myself yet, so I can't really point you in any direction on that one....

Hope it helps you a bit!

wendallsan · 10-16-2003, 11:27 AM

thanks for the help.

there is no acpid process running currently on my system. I just checked my rc.M file and it runs a rc.acpid file. I checked out that rc file, and it looks like it takes an arg and either starts, stops, or restarts acpid. I figured out where the acpid command lives (/usr/sbin/ on my system), went su and ran it. When I did I got the following error:

acpid: can't open /proc/acpi/event: no such file or directory

does this mean that my kernal is not compiled with acpi support in it, or what?

thanks again,

wendallsan

ceedeedoos · 10-16-2003, 11:59 AM

that would be my guess, but I'm not sure ...
I don't know which kernel you chose, but I don't think bare.i will have ACPI compiled in ...

wendallsan · 10-16-2003, 01:35 PM

bare.i is the kernal I installed when I set up slackware, so I bet you're right. Time to learn how to compile a kernal!! thanks for the help.

wendallsan

ceedeedoos · 10-16-2003, 01:53 PM

the guide in the slackware forum on this site helped me a lot! I suggest you have a look at it (it's on top of the slack forum)

homebray · 10-16-2003, 03:15 PM

I believe slack 9.x has a bareapci.i try that.

zLinuxz · 10-16-2003, 11:53 PM

hi wendallsan.
In regard to your question. It depends on 2 things whether you will have ACPI support in your computer. The type of laptop and the kernel you are using with your laptop.
ACPI is relatively new in the kernel, and it is under heave development still right now. However, every kernel that somes out, the better the ACPI support gets!

I suggest the following. Download the latest vanilla kernel from kernel.org, it should be 2.4.22 right now.
And configure it, and select ACPI and all of its functions. compile it, and boot it.

Depending on your laptop and hardware, you may or may not have full ACPI support.

For example, in my laptop, on kernel 2.4.21 I did not have battery reading support, but when I got the 2.4.22 kernel, voila!!!, battery reading support! I was so happy!!
Now, still suspend doesn't work, nor does the automatic screen dimming when I'm running solely on battery. I hope that's a new feature for 2.4.23, but who knows...

Anyway, try what I'm telling you, and I am sure that atleast a couple of power management by ACPI will work in your laptop!,

cheers!

zLinuxz