Bug 48983 - klaptop doesn't show battery or ac information, gives message about partial ACPI build, SOLUTION
Summary: klaptop doesn't show battery or ac information, gives message about partial A...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: klaptopdaemon
Classification: Miscellaneous
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: openSUSE Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Paul Campbell
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2002-10-10 20:11 UTC by Glen Barney
Modified: 2008-06-16 18:22 UTC (History)
0 users

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Description Glen Barney 2002-10-10 20:11:09 UTC
Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.0.3)
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs
OS:          Linux

On a fresh load of Suse Linux 8.1 containing KDE 3.0.3 on my Dell Inspiron 8000 latptop, the battery meter was "X"'ed out and not displaying correctly.  Moreover, if I tried to open the icon, I'd get a message that my ACPI kernel support was only partially enabled.  Even building a new kernel with the ACPI support fully in the kernel didn't work.

Many thanks to Derek Fountain who pointed me in the direction of his solution, which is to add:

apm=on acpi=off

to the GRUB menu or lilo.conf file, making them kernel parameters on boot.  Booting in this way restored perfect service to my KLaptop battery meter!

Submitted just to help others find a solution - the problem seems to be in the Dell BIOS's interaction with the SuSE kernel - but since it's manifested in KDE, I wanted to report it here.

Glen
Comment 1 Paul Campbell 2002-10-11 19:50:26 UTC
Subject: Re:  New: klaptop doesn't show battery or ac information, gives message about partial ACPI build, SOLUTION

On Thursday 10 October 2002 11:11 am, Glen Barney wrote:
> Installed from:    SuSE RPMs
> OS:          Linux
>
> On a fresh load of Suse Linux 8.1 containing KDE 3.0.3 on my
> Dell Inspiron 8000 latptop, the battery meter was "X"'ed out
> and not displaying correctly.  Moreover, if I tried to open
> the icon, I'd get a message that my ACPI kernel support was
> only partially enabled.  Even building a new kernel with the
> ACPI support fully in the kernel didn't work.
>
> Many thanks to Derek Fountain who pointed me in the direction
> of his solution, which is to add:
>
> apm=on acpi=off
>
> to the GRUB menu or lilo.conf file, making them kernel
> parameters on boot.  Booting in this way restored perfect
> service to my KLaptop battery meter!
>
> Submitted just to help others find a solution - the problem
> seems to be in the Dell BIOS's interaction with the SuSE
> kernel - but since it's manifested in KDE, I wanted to report
> it here.

actually it was caused by a change to the kernel ACPI support 
that caused the names of the /proc ACPI devices to be changed 
.... the version of klaptopdaemon that's currently in CVS 
(should be out in 3.1) fixes this problem.

If APM works for you it's still prefereable than ACPI - linux 
ACPI does not yet support suspend/resume/hibernate etc for 
mainline kernels (2.4 etc) while APM does. Both are somewhat 
flakey on some laptops (with APM still being better). 
Klaptopdaemon will try and use whichever you have configured in 
your laptop

	Paul

Comment 2 Torquil Macdonald Sørensen 2008-06-16 18:22:45 UTC
In "KControl -> Power Control -> Laptop Battery" there is a similar message under all the tabs except "Battery". The tabs in question are "Power Control", "Low Battery Warning", "Low Battery Critical" and "Button Actions". The message on each of those tabs is:

"Your computer seems to have a partial ACPI installation. ACPI was probably enabled, but some of the sub-options were not - you need to enable at least 'AC Adaptor' and 'Control Method Battery' and then rebuild your kernel."

I am, however, not so interested in disabling ACPI on my computer.

$ls /proc/acpi
button  embedded_controller  fadt  ibm   power_resource  sleep         video
dsdt    event                fan   info  processor       thermal_zone  wakeup

Versions:
IBM T42, Debian Unstable, linux-image_2.6.25, KDE3.5.9.

Best regards,
Torquil Sørensen