apmd doesn't log battery status

["R. Poss" <raph@burp.hostns>]

Hi,
	I'm using a TP310E, which works quite well, even with
suspend-to-disk (hibernation mode), thanks to the "hdparm -u1
/dev/hda" trick. 

However, the APM bios doesn't seem to report battery status unless the
power state changes (i.e. when I plug in or out the power supply), and the
consequence is that I have no idea of the evolution of the remaining
battery life until the laptop starts to complain loudly (<5% left).

	So, this is the question, what can I do to have the kernel check
(or report, or "be informed bye the bios", or whatever) the battery
status ? I guess that this is an apm bios probem, but I couldn't yet
figure out where I'm doing wrong. And of course, I don't always have the
power supply with me to force the check by doing a power cycle...

Thanks in advance for any help,
raph


PS: for information, I'm using a bare slink with a 2.2.12 kernel and apmd
3.0beta5 and pcmcia-cs 3.1.2, but I had the same problem with my first
slink install.