Im running a Sony Vaio 1.6GHz laptop (PCG-GRX500P) that I just installed RH9 on. The kernel is version 2.4.20-8. APM is installed, and I can see it on my taskbar except there is one problem:

It never shows when Im on battery! Im 'permanently' plugged in, according to the module. This is definitely not the power management Im looking for!

When I apm -v, I get the following results:
[iseff@bezos iseff]$ apm -v
APM BIOS 1.2 (kernel driver 1.16)
AC on-line, no system battery

Is there anything I can do to change this? Im sure its hidden in a config file somewhere that I need to get at, but I just can't figure out which.

[edit]I also feel like the battery is only lasting like a half hour in Linux, compared to what it used to last (around 2hours30min) in WinXP.[/edit]

Thanks!
Ian

Well, since its a 1.6Ghz laptop... the solution is probably the same one thats in half the forums on this laptop section.. You have ACPI... You'll need to completely recompile the kernel for your system since redhat has absolutely no acpi features at all...
Or go instal Suse or Mandrake which will enable acpi by default...

As for battery life, Windows uses SpeedStep to turn down its power consumption.. and the battery lasts longer.. Kernel 2.6 supports speedstep and you could try it if you felt like compinling 2.6 Test...2? 3? whatever test were on.

SuSE has acpi all ready built in, but it is not started by default. You have to enable it through the YAST runlevel editor and set it to start at boot. Once you do that, the klaptop applet or akpi will correctly monitor the battery/power. Akpi also reports the tempature.
Zane

Now we're cookin' with fire. This is my problem too. Now what runlevels do you check to get it to work properly. I fixed acpi like this before, but I don't remember exactly what I did.

Lee_B_H,
YAST2-->System-->Runlevel Editor-->runlevel properties.
Set acpid to yes and check the '5' box at the bottom to have acpid start at boot.
Zane