Arch Linux

Valavien

Member

Registered: 2004-06-12

Posts: 13

APM vs ACPI for Dell C600

Hi all,
Well I am really enjoying installing and mucking around with Arch.  Since my success with the network this morning everything has been going swimmingly.  I am now happily running XFCE. 

I have read through the wiki for the C600 and it mentions making acpi=off to enable APM.  I have done this but it does not work  as APM is not part of the kernel. 

Unfortunately all the other guides about the bios changes and other settings have dissapered.

APM does seem appealing by what the wiki says but my main concern now is getting the fans working and to know what temperature it's running at.  I have i8k running in modules and i8kutils installed but have not been able to find  any docs in how to use i8kutils. Any good links?

Maybe it's because I have had very little sleep.  Can't help, just having so much fun.  Tried to install arch 3 years ago and had no idea.  3 years of ubuntu later and I have a bit more of a clue.

elliott

Member

Registered: 2006-03-07

Posts: 296

Re: APM vs ACPI for Dell C600

Did you install apmd? I have this exact laptop running Arch, using APM. This system does have minor support for ACPI, but I find it much easier and more reliable to use APM. I even have suspend to ram working with APM, it should work pretty much out of the box, I just needed to add something to the wakeup script so my wireless comes back up.

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: APM vs ACPI for Dell C600

You need acpi=off apm=on to activate apm, and it is definitely supported by the Arch kernel packages:

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

Valavien

Member

Registered: 2004-06-12

Posts: 13

Re: APM vs ACPI for Dell C600

Thanks for the info, I have really tried getting it to work over the last few days and I really just don't know where to go next.  From all I have read (unless I missed it somewhere). I am really not 100% sure on where to make these changes.  I have examined the /usr/src/linux-2.6.22-ARCH/.config file and the APM section does look like that but when you say acpi=off, where does that go?  or is it in the .config: CONFIG_APM=y?  which means that CONFIG_ACPI=n turns it off?

Mikko777

Member

From: Suomi, Finland

Registered: 2006-10-30

Posts: 837

Re: APM vs ACPI for Dell C600

Thanks for the info, I have really tried getting it to work over the last few days and I really just don't know where to go next.  From all I have read (unless I missed it somewhere). I am really not 100% sure on where to make these changes.  I have examined the /usr/src/linux-2.6.22-ARCH/.config file and the APM section does look like that but when you say acpi=off, where does that go?  or is it in the .config: CONFIG_APM=y?  which means that CONFIG_ACPI=n turns it off?

Dont worry about those kernel options. All you need to do is to add acpi=off to kernel boot options line in

/boot/grub/menu.lst that turns off acpi and apm should kick in automatically.

I got dell c400 and cant remember why but I used acpi instead of apm.

So to use acpi you need to load some modules in rc conf. (check wiki)
Then configure cpu throttling, screen blanking, and install laptopmode-tools to spindown hardware.
also wireless card uses lots of energy and you might want to look if you can enable powersaving mode with that.

I never use suspend-to-anything so can't help with that.

check archwiki and there is / was an excellent guide in gentoo wiki for powersaving but alas cant seem to find it now

---

Planet KDE | Opendesktop.org | Chakra Project

Valavien

Member

Registered: 2004-06-12

Posts: 13

Re: APM vs ACPI for Dell C600

Thanks for the info which I will have a good look at next, but my current primary goal is to get the fans working.  I know the module is loading but there is nothing in /proc/acpi/fan and I don't know how i8kutils work or how to change what temperatures the fans should kick in.

elliott

Member

Registered: 2006-03-07

Posts: 296

Re: APM vs ACPI for Dell C600

Thanks for the info which I will have a good look at next, but my current primary goal is to get the fans working.  I know the module is loading but there is nothing in /proc/acpi/fan and I don't know how i8kutils work or how to change what temperatures the fans should kick in.

There shouldn't be anything in /proc/acpi/fan, because you aren't using ACPI. You set the fan trigger temperatures and other options in /etc/i8kutils/i8kmon.conf, the file is pretty self explanitory.

You'll also need add the i8kmon daemon to your rc.conf. You can over ride the daemon at any time with i8kfan with a command like "i8kfan 0 1" which sets your fan on low, "i8kfan 0 2" will set it on high.

Also, you can make your volume control buttons work with i8kbuttons, I added this to my .xinitrc, you may have to change it a little to suit your system:

i8kbuttons -m "amixer -q sset Master,0 toggle" -u "amixer -q sset Master,0 5%+ unmute" -d "amixer -q sset Master,0 5%- unmute" &

Last edited by elliott (2007-08-28 16:51:58)

Valavien

Member

Registered: 2004-06-12

Posts: 13

Re: APM vs ACPI for Dell C600

That's brilliant, everything works perfectly!
For anyone else who may need this thread also look up i8kctl i8kmon and i8kbuttons