APCI v. APM for laptops Was RE: [NBLUG/talk] Fujitsu P2120

[troy]

On Mon, Sep 08, 2003 at 07:54:29PM -0700, Doug Palmer wrote:
> My problem isn't that severe, but it is annoying.
> 
> Basically, if I run the laptop on battery power, the battery meter
> reports that:
> A) I'm plugged in and running on line power.
> And
> B) I'm not charging the battery because
> C) There isn't any battery in the system!
> 
> Is this just one of those things where MS is better than Linux, or am I
> missing something?

ACPI is still very much a work in progress.  As I understand it (very
incompletely from following the LKML summaries on <http://kt.zork.net>),
development has been slow in part due to kernel developers wanting to
implement things according to spec. while many hardware manufactures
apparently build things to work with MS's incorrect implementation.

Getting ACPI items working under Linux usually means going bleeding
edge.  By that I mean a custom kernel with the latest ACPI patches from
Intel.  For instance, I've had a Compaq 1720 for over a year now and it
wasn't until a month ago that I was able to get decent battery
status out of it.  I'm currently enjoying the kernel patch set of Con
Kolivas[1], which contains a very recent ACPI as well as a handful of
patches which make interactive use more pleasant when the machine is
busy on other tasks (pre-empt, low latency etc.).

Some of the major distributions include some of these patches as well,
but I don't know who includes what.

-troy

[1] <http://members.optusnet.com.au/ckolivas/kernel/>