ACPI HOWTO
Hello,
I've just published an updated version of the ACPI HOWTO. It is available at:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/ACPI-HOWTO/index.html
I know everyone's busy...but I was hoping that I could get a few eyes on the text at some point. I'd like to create a section that has "gotchas" listed by kernel version, but I haven't quite decided where to put that information yet (perhaps as an appendix?). I've already moved the patch information to an appendix as it shouldn't be relevant once the bugs are ironed out of the 2.6.x series kernel...right?
emma
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Quoted 9 lines · Emma Jane Hogbin
I've just published an updated version of the ACPI HOWTO. It is available at:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/ACPI-HOWTO/index.html
I know everyone's busy...but I was hoping that I could get a few eyes on the text at some point. I'd like to create a section that has "gotchas" listed by kernel version, but I haven't quite decided where to put that information yet (perhaps as an appendix?). I've already moved the patch information to an appendix as it shouldn't be relevant once the bugs are ironed out of the 2.6.x series kernel...right?
I looked at this briefly on your first announcement, and felt that there is a conceptual problem with the document. Half of it seems to be dedicated to compiling and installing kernels, which is covered in other HOWTO's and guides, Debian way or otherwise.
It may be that when you started with ACPI, there was a large gap between ACPI development work and kernel releases. From my understanding, these days, the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels use the same ACPI system, and improvements
by the ACPI team show up rather quickly in the kernel, especially the
2.6 series. I'm sure others on this list are more qualified to talk about this than I am.
Certainly ACPI is a complex system, and transitioning from APM is difficult. These topics are worthy of documentation efforts like yours.
However, it may be better to start such a document with "Be sure you
are using the latest 2.4 or 2.6 kernel", provide a reference to documents which may assist users in upgrading their kernel, and focus on ACPI configuration and troubleshooting itself.
Regards,
-John
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Quoted 6 lines · John Belmonte
Certainly ACPI is a complex system, and transitioning from APM is difficult. These topics are worthy of documentation efforts like yours.
However, it may be better to start such a document with "Be sure you
are using the latest 2.4 or 2.6 kernel", provide a reference to documents which may assist users in upgrading their kernel, and focus on ACPI configuration and troubleshooting itself.
Agreed. At this point I've started introducing the 2.6.x series information into the document; however, I've actually wrecked my own laptop to try and get the new information in. I used to have a perfectly functional laptop, now that I've got the 2.6.5 kernel I'm having problems with not only ACPI, but also my wireless card and my printers. Even in 2.4.22 ACPI has never worked perfectly for me and it was virtually impossible for me to extend the documentation past what my laptop was capable of doing.
Although I'm happy to compile and write documentation on a subject that I know little about, I am not willing to release documentation that I am not able to test for myself. I've asked for help from a number of different places and have gotten no response other than from this email. I recently received email from one person about a specific bug. When I asked them for further information about the problem he told me to just put in the documentation that users should upgrade their BIOS--as if everyone already knew how to do this. I certainly don't and I can't imagine I'm the only one.
I understand that everyone is busy. I know I certainly am. While I'm happy to work on bringing the documentation up to date, I cannot do it without help.
emma
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Quoted 6 lines · John Belmonte
It may be that when you started with ACPI, there was a large gap between ACPI development work and kernel releases. From my understanding, these days, the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels use the same ACPI system, and improvements
by the ACPI team show up rather quickly in the kernel, especially the
2.6 series. I'm sure others on this list are more qualified to talk about this than I am.
Emma,
It would be fair to call ACPI on Linux an "emerging technology", and bugs are being fixed at a rapid rate. For this reason I do agree that step 1 should be to run the most recent kernel that is practical.
Note that we support the latest ACPI code on 2.4 and 2.6; both the latest released kernel and the kernel under development. eg.
2.6.7 (develpment)
2.6.6 (released)
2.4.27 (development)
2.4.26 (released)
The ACPI patch gets absorbed into the development trees about every 5 to 10 days. We try to make these updates as frequent as practical so that the ACPI patch never grows too big.
As the released trees are no longer accepting patches, the ACPI patch for the grows monatonically, but then gets deleted when the development tree gets released and a new development tree is created. This is to encourage users to run (and test;-) the latest kernels.
Also, before any ACPI bugs are reported, it is best to verify that the machine is running the latest BIOS from the vendor.
The better vendors are actually quite good about releasing BIOS fixes for systems in the field.
For a number or reasons, I am not a big advocate of running patched DSDTs -- my view in this area is that is a debugging tool, and that we should either fix Linux to handle the BIOS, or the BIOS should be corrected by the vendor.
thanks,
-Len
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