Laptops :: no apm or acpi
Well, I am in the process of putting instructions together and recompiling the kernel again. When the menu for mods to put in the kernel comes up (where you said to load the configuration file) I believe that there is a separate dell acpi module. I'm going to recompile with this included and if it works, I'll post the instructions, requirements, etc.
I looked at the xconfig options just prior to the recompile, and didn't see anything specific to Dell in the "General setup" > "ACPI support" section ... though I can say that that the newly compiled "standard" acpi modules (in /lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/acpi) are different filesizes than the old modules - so it appears that the ACPI patch has modified these.
So I just had another look at xconfig now, and there's another section - "Processor type and features" and I see a module option for "Dell laptop support". There's a help button which identifies this module as /lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/char/i8k.o, and a link to www.debian.org/~dz/i8k/
It might be worth reading the information at this website - especially the part about being able to force load this module (modprobe i8k force=1), but the newly compiled i8k module doesn't appear any different to the existing i8k module in DSL.
Well, yes, there is no Dell ACPI option, and the i8k module doesn't do ACPI, that is simply for monitoring the specialized bios functions (theres bios volume, brightness, etc). I use I8k to turn on the fan on ly laptop as the thermal sensor is dead and its more than the cost of the laptop to replace it. I loaded the new kernel, and it appeared to work find, but still no acpi. I just booted feather linux off of a cd and it found it fine and can run the wmacpi dockapp. It's kinda freaky because the only major difference would appear to be the 2.4.27 kernel. Considering that DSL just crashed for me (tried to load too many games LOL), I think I'll just stick with Feather.
Sorry to be a betrayer but it works on my box.
Yep. Newer kernel figures.
You're not a betrayer, DSL and Feather are closely related. For hard drive installation, where size is not such an issue, Feather is probably the better option anyway.
original here.