Re: Making the power button smarter?
--
On Sat, 8 Feb 2003 10:57:32
Brian Kendig wrote:
>Derek Broughton wrote:
>> From: "Brian Kendig" <brian@enchanter.net>
>>> It looks like 'acpi' is just for compatibility with the old 'apm'
>>> stuff?
>>
well its over and above what APM offers. most importantly the launch of acpi shifted power management from bios to the operating system. this is useful for vendors because they don't have to tweak with the everytime and also for users because it gives more control into our hands (e.g. behavior of the power button.)
here's a link i found which really makes the case:
http://linux-sxs.org/bedtime/apmacpi.html
>> Everything I've seen makes it quite clear that acpi is the replacement
>> for apm, so I'm not sure where you'd get that idea.
>
>I got this idea from the description of the acpi package, which says
>'Attempts to replicate the functionality of the old apm command on ACPI
>sysems.' Sorry for having misunderstood; thanks for setting me
>straight!
>
>But, that said, I've still got some confusion about apm/acpi that a web
>search hasn't cleared up, so more guidance would be appreciated. :)
>Specifically...
>
>- apm was the 'old' interface for handling power management, and acpi
>is the 'new' interface, right? Does the PC's BIOS determine which one
>of these the PC supports, and it won't support the other? I ask
>because I searched for info on my Dell Latitude CPi D266XT, and I've
>found reference to people using apm and/or acpi on it, and I'm not sure
>how that is. My laptop's BIOS setup screen makes reference to power
>conservation features which 'have no effect under ACPI operating
>systems.'
first, your bios says that because when you run acpi, power management resposibility is no longer with APM and hence with bios. it is then handled by your kernel through acpi. i am not sure how you can find out how well acpi works with ur laptop unless you try it. follow the references of people who used acpi and find whether you can get at least as much functionality as they got or more.
>
>- Or is the choice between apm and acpi handled entirely by whether
>support for it is compiled into the kernel? I'm using the standard
sure, the kernel configuration offers a choice between using APM, in which case it expects the bios to do the power mgmt jobs, or ACPI, in which case you can specify how acpi is built into the kernel.
>Debian kernel 2.4.19 package, and when I run 'acpi' it tells me 'No
>ACPI support in kernel, or incorrect acpi_path ("/proc/acpi").' I'm
>not familiar with building kernels, so I'm hesitant to do it for fear
>of making something else stop working. Why wouldn't acpi support be
>compiled into the distribution kernel?
acpi is still experimental in linux. microsoft was the first to implement acpi, so another check that you could do is see whether your windows partition (if you are using one) actually uses acpi for power management. if it does, you can be sure that you will have at least some minimal features working in linux. since it is experimental, most out-of-the-box installations do not include acpi in the kernel by default. (that was the case a while back. i am not sure abt others, but with my woody, i had to compile acpi myself.)
note that acpi is still under development. so if you would rather not tweak with your kernel and your need for power mgmt features is not staggering, you may as well stick to APM for now. if you really want the features of acpi, you certainly have to tweak with the kernel. its actually pretty easy if you look at any kernel-howto.
>
>I had the apm packages and the acpi packages installed -- thinking
>there might be a conflict, I tried uninstalling the apm packages, but
>that hasn't changed the message I get when I run 'acpi'.
>
>Many thanks in advance for helping clear this up!
>
like i said, you have to build acpi.
>
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