apm: set display: Interface not engaged

[Michael Banck <mbanck@gmx.net>]

Hello,

since I changed from 2.2.14 to 2.2.17 (and lately 2.2.18), I get the
above message (apm: set display: Interface not engaged) every once in a
while (they appear to be periodically, but I can't track it down right
now) and every time I switch from X to console. That wouldn't be too
annoying if they didn't show up _on the screen_ and not only in the
logfiles. Tweaking /etc/syslog.conf didn't help eighter - normally only
emergency-type messages get send directly to console (but then to
_every_ console, this error message only appears on the active console)

This is really annoying and prevented me from using 2.2.16-2.2.17 until
now. Because I somehow need USB-support, I'll have to stick with 2.2.18,
but is there a way to shut these messages off?
I am using a Compaq Armada 1500c Notebook (Celeron 400; C&T69000- 
chipset), Debian 2.2. 
I still have the old 2.2.14 kernel around, the message doesn't show up
if I use that one. I didn't change the apm-kernel-settings, there are
some new settings, of course:
APM-settings for linux-2.2.14:

CONFIG_APM=y
# CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_USER_SUSPEND is not set
CONFIG_APM_DO_ENABLE=y
CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE=y
CONFIG_APM_DISPLAY_BLANK=y
CONFIG_APM_POWER_OFF=y
CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_MULTIPLE_SUSPEND=y
CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_SUSPEND_BOUNCE=y
# CONFIG_APM_RTC_IS_GMT is not set
CONFIG_APM_ALLOW_INTS=y

APM-settings for linux-2.2.18:

CONFIG_APM=y
# CONFIG_APM_IGNORE_USER_SUSPEND is not set
CONFIG_APM_DO_ENABLE=y
CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE=y
CONFIG_APM_DISPLAY_BLANK=y
# CONFIG_APM_RTC_IS_GMT is not set
CONFIG_APM_ALLOW_INTS=y
# CONFIG_APM_REAL_MODE_POWER_OFF is not set
# CONFIG_TOSHIBA is not set

Does anybody encounter this error message, too?

thanks a lot,

Michael Banck