I looked at the following:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=66934

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acpi

Although I don't know much about Linux or laptops, the possibility of ACPI related trouble on a Linux based laptop concerns me, since I am thinking about buying a new laptop.

Of course, I will wipe the hdd clean of whatever Dell pre-installs to do a clean Linux install. It will either be a Dell Inspiron E1705 or Dell Inspiron B130 (both "home" versions, not "business" versions).

I have heard rumors that running Linux on a laptop is more difficult than running Linux on a desktop. Is this true of modern laptops and Linux distros? If yes, is ACPI the reason why or is it something else?

I just don't want lots of headaches installing and operating this new laptop on Linux.

Your thoughts, etc would be appreciated.

Thanks!

This; http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=66934 is useless un-formed dribble no facts no links just FUD

So is this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acpi sorry but when a vote is taken and a select few can override experts then you get what you pay for.

Yes this is something to be concerned about. Since your thinking about a Dell then I would advise using Fedora Core or some other distro that has patches for Dell laptops. Hopefully your batteries will not explode and/or burn up your laptop.

https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/

Partially true, some distros like the RHEL family of clones are based on the older and feature backports of the 2.6.9 kernel and have some problems with some laptops and acpi. Try and use a distro that has good laptop mode support.

You might want to visit the sourceforge acpi pages to find out more;

http://acpi.sourceforge.net/

Also visit; http://www.linux-laptop.net/

How do I know if my distro has ". . .patches for Dell laptops" or ". . .good laptop support mode." ?

Is this in BIOS perhaps? The motherboard?

No the Linux Dell and/or acpi laptop patches are not in the BIOS or on/in the motherboard.

Your distro, which I believe is MEPIS 3.43 may or may not, simply ask in or search the MEPIS forums; http://www.mepis.org/forum

While I wait for an answer from the official mepis forum (which could easily take weeks, if ever), I have a related question:

My debian based distro (MEPIS 3.43) has kernal 2.6.15. Would that kernal be "recent enough" to do decent Linux ACPI support, or is the kernal not an issue?

Thanks!

Yes the 2.6.15 or better kernels do a much better job of handling acpi. The laptop tools should be in MEPIS 3.43 since this is debian based as you say.

Take a quick look at your current kernel's config file (if available);

#
# Firmware Drivers
#
# CONFIG_EDD is not set
# CONFIG_DELL_RBU is not set
# CONFIG_DCDBAS is not set

I do not have the DELL option above set since I have no need, but this option is a good idea for Dell laptops. Also the laptop mode information is available within the kernel source in the /linux-<version_number>/Documentation/ directory, filename laptop-mode.txt

Sorry but how do I check my current kernel's config file? Is that what you mean when you say:

>>>linux-<version_number>/Documentation/ directory, filename laptop-mode.txt<<<

Where would I do that? In konsole? Or something else?

/ super n00b

Do you do have the kernel source for you system installed?? Most of the time you will find the kernel source in the directory location of /usr/src, for example from the console or xterm session;

$ ls -al /usr/src
total 81992
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Sep 11 12:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 Sep 9 07:00 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 8613 Jan 29 2006 acpi.patch
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 15 2005 cdfs
-rw-rw-r-- 1 lenard lenard 28839 Jun 25 08:00 cdfs.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Aug 15 13:13 debug
drwxrwxrwx 19 root root 4096 Sep 7 06:41 linux-2.6.17.11
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 41288067 Aug 23 20:06 linux-2.6.17.11.tar.bz2
drwxrwxrwx 20 root root 4096 Sep 12 13:00 linux-2.6.17.13
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 41287303 Sep 9 06:24 linux-2.6.17.13.tar.bz2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38826 Sep 8 19:38 master.config
-rw-rw---- 1 root root 632 Jul 15 16:27 patch.cdfs
-rw-r----- 1 root root 640 May 11 11:35 patch_old.cdfs
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 537422 Sep 10 13:25 patch.rt2400
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 538103 Sep 10 13:11 patch.rt2400.keep
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Mar 21 07:38 redhat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 56969 Sep 10 11:29 test.config
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 10 13:17 wireless

The above example show that two kernels (linux-2.6.17.11 and linux-2.6.17.13) are extracted from the downloaded tar.bz2 files (also in the directory).

Yes, I do mean the laptop-mode.txt file is in the respective linux-<version_number>/Documentation directory;

$ ls -al /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.11/Documentation/lapt*
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 31467 Aug 23 17:16 /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.11/Documentation/laptop-mode.txt

$ ls -al /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.13/Documentation/lapt*
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root 31467 Sep 8 23:23 /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.13/Documentation/laptop-mode.txt

And each kernel source directory has a .config file;

$ ls -al /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.11/.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38826 Aug 29 11:56 /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.11/.config

$ ls -al /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.13/.config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 38826 Sep 11 15:55 /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.13/.config

$ cat /usr/src/linux-2.6.17.13/.config
#
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit
# Linux kernel version: 2.6.17.13
# Mon Sep 11 15:55:39 2006
#
CONFIG_X86_64=y
CONFIG_64BIT=y
CONFIG_X86=y

<snip>

Please review; http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/K...ild-HOWTO.html

Lenard. . .I did that konsole command and this is all I got:

guest1978@1[~]$ ls -al /usr/src
total 16
drwxrwsr-x 4 1000 1000 4096 2005-10-26 11:31 .
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 4096 2006-02-08 08:37 ..
drwxr-sr-x 2 root 1000 4096 2003-09-30 13:29 modules
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2005-02-19 19:31 rpm
guest1978@1[~]$

What does that mean? I don't see anything like what you posted. Did I do something wrong?

If anyone else reading this has some insight, feel free to share as well!

Thanks!

guest1978@1[~]$ ls -al /usr/src
total 16
drwxrwsr-x 4 1000 1000 4096 2005-10-26 11:31 .
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 4096 2006-02-08 08:37 ..
drwxr-sr-x 2 root 1000 4096 2003-09-30 13:29 modules
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2005-02-19 19:31 rpm

guest1978@1[~]$ ls -al /usr/src/linux-2.6.15/Documentation/lapt*
ls: /usr/src/linux-2.6.15/Documentation/lapt*: No such file or directory

guest1978@1[~]$ ls -al /usr/src/linux-2.6.15/.config
ls: /usr/src/linux-2.6.15/.config: No such file or directory

guest1978@1[~]$ cat /usr/src/linux-2.6.15/.config
cat: /usr/src/linux-2.6.15/.config: No such file or directory

guest1978@1[~]$

So you do not have the kernel source installed, install it.

Could you explain (briefly) exactly what is "kernal source?" Do you mean the Linux kernal itself (2.6.15)? Wouldn't I already have that (2.6.15) by virture of having already installed a Linux distro on my computer?

Anyways, how do I get this "kernel source" and how do I install it? Is there a tutorial or anything you know of that I could use as a reference?

Thanks again for your time!

Yes I mean the source for the kernel, currently you only have a compiled kernel. One source for the kernel is from kernel.org.

The kernel source is all the code used to create a working binary kernel and associated modules (the drivers). Most distributions that make modification also provide the kernel source they use along with any patches, backports and other changes or tweaks they make. The vanilla kernel from (where else but); http://kernel.org/ scroll down a bit and you will find some good links and references about Linux.

Some additional suggested reading;

http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/K...ild-HOWTO.html

Thanks for your reply Lenard.

I am a bit embarrassed to say this, but after looking back at my previous posts, a question just arose in my mind:

Why is it that I need the kernel source? I forgot what I needed it for. LOL

Obviously something to do with ACPI, since that was the original thread posting subject.

Anyways, is it required that I have that kernel source, or just highly recommend? Also, my distro uses 2.6.15. If I were to download a newer kernel, say 2.6.17, would that cause trouble (ACPI or otherwise)?

Thanks again!

Yes, the latest released kernel (currently 2.6.17.13) from kernel.org is an improvement over the older 2.6.16 kernel.

No it is not required to have the kernel source. My distro (CentOS 4.4) uses the 2.6.9 kernel source as a base with backports from the upstream sources (newer versions of the kernel from kernel.org) and other tweaks. Nothing stops one from using a newer kernel if desired, one of the many great things about Linux. I currently have the latest released kernel from kernel.org downloaded, extracted, patched, built and running on my systems.

The kernels since 2.6.12 or so have much better acpi support then older kernels. For example when I first got my current laptop, due to a buggy BIOS I had to patch the kernel source to allow the use of a custom version of DSDT (see the acpi sourceforge link from post #2 for the details) before building. Now I no longer have to apply the patch.

Bottom line, you only need the kernel source if required to fix a problem or build a driver or tool that requires the kernel source.