Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 02:10:55 +0100 From: "Markie" <mark.cullen@dsl.pipex.com> To: <freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Laptop ACPI question Message-ID: <001d01c430ab$7d485610$f700000a@ape> References: <20040502221423.660975D0B@ptavv.es.net> <000d01c4309c$f82b5f80$f700000a@ape>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
----- Original Message ----- From: "Markie" <mark.cullen@dsl.pipex.com> To: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> Cc: <freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org> Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 12:26 AM Subject: Re: Laptop ACPI question | | ----- Original Message ----- | From: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> | To: "Markie" <mark.cullen@dsl.pipex.com> | Cc: <freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org> | Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 11:14 PM | Subject: Re: Laptop ACPI question | | | | > From: "Markie" <mark.cullen@dsl.pipex.com> | | > Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 22:28:55 +0100 | | > | | > | | > ----- Original Message ----- | | > From: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> | | > To: "Markie" <mark.cullen@dsl.pipex.com> | | > Cc: <freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org> | | > Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 10:05 PM | | > Subject: Re: Laptop ACPI question | | > | | > | | > | > From: "Markie" <mark.cullen@dsl.pipex.com> | | > | > Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 21:29:56 +0100 | | > | > Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org | | > | > | | > | > Hello, | | > | > | | > | > Just a quick question... would having ACPI working on a laptop | increase | | > | > battery life at all? I just left it sat idle without ACPI and it | got to | | > an | | > | > hour and 30 minutes... I went to start xchat and it just switched | off | | > | > straight away after it started loading :o) if I leave it doing `cat | | > | > /dev/random > /dev/null` it only lasts 45 minutes :o( | | > | > | | > | > I am just wondering if it's a naffed battery... or... there's | something | | > a | | > | > bit wrong with the laptop or... I just need ACPI? I don't really | know | | > what | | > | > ACPI does, so.... :o) | | > | | | > | Actually, ACPI will greatly improve battery life soon, but not yet. | The | | > | bits and pieces are being fed into CURRENT and I suspect that | SpeedStep | | > | support will be coming soon. | | > | In the meantime, you can use sysctls to manually adjust CPU | performance | | > | to enhance battery life. | | > | | | > | Look at: | | > | hw.acpi.cpu.throttle_max: 8 | | > | hw.acpi.cpu.throttle_state: 8 | | > | hw.acpi.cpu.cx_supported: C1/0 C2/1 C3/85 | | > | hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest: 0 | | > | hw.acpi.cpu.cx_history: 1453705/0 0/0 0/0 | | > | | | > | Reducing the hw.acpi.cpu.throttle_state will increase battery life by | | > | effectively reducing CPU speed. The reduction is linear and a setting | of | | > | 1 makes my system crawl. | | > | | | > | Setting hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest will reduce the responsiveness of P4-M | or | | > | Centrino system by putting the system in a "deeper sleep" than just | | > | halting the CPU. The cost is that it takes longer for the system to | | > | start processing again. Its effect can appear as jerkiness in some | | > | operations. It may be set to as many values (higher is slower) as are | | > | listed in cx_history. (In the example, there are three, 0, 1, and 2 | | > | available.) Depending on hardware connected, some levels may not be | | > | available. On my laptop, 2 is not available if the USB driver is | loaded. | | > | | | > | | > Thanks for both your replies! I am not too sure I have speed step or | | > anything. It's a fairly old CPU, a mobile celeron 800MHz, 100MHz FSB | | > (anyone know anything about these at all? are they not that good? seems | | > nice and quick to me). I guess I am pretty buggered then. There's not | alot | | > of info I can find about the laptop either. In any case, it wouldn't | boot | | > with ACPI enabled anyway... so I think I am just double buggered :o) | | | | Make sure that your BIOS is te latest available. That can make a huge | | difference. The CPU is not the critical issue; it's the BIOS | | support. Older systems may simply not run well with ACPI and APM is the | | best way to go on these systems. (Have you tried APM?) | | Ahh! BIOS Update :o) I will get on that one right away! Hopefully it may | fix my ACPI issues. On their site they said it was required for installing | Windows XP so it must do something! | | According to the version numbers it is one version higher, I have R01-A1s | and I just downloaded R01-A1t. I sure hope it fixes some things! | Unfortuantly there's no change log | | | | | > All I know is some site said that the battery was supposed to last 2 | hours | | > ish, which would be cool. No doubt this was taken with the laptop | sitting | | > totally idle though. | | | | Battery benchmarking is tricky and highly variable. And, as batteries | | age, they go downhill. Try the command 'acpiconf -i 0' to get a lot of | | detailed battery information on current. I think it works on 5.2.1, but | | may have to run as root. I may tell you things like how much of a | | charge the battery is taking and the type and manufacturer. | | I figured it would be hard. I am looking at external batteries if ACPI | doesn't help at all, quite expensive though... but I love computers so I | will need quite a bit of battery life :o) | | I don't think I will be able to run that command without ACPI will I? | | | | | > I will have to try Linux or Windows if I can't get FreeBSD ACPI working | and | | > see if it gets me any more battery life I guess! Such a shame, it | doesn't | | > seem that bad of a laptop for what I want... but if I have to use it on | | > mains it's not as useful as it could be! | | | | Most ACPI code is shared by Linux and FreeBSD as it is based closely on | | the Intel supplied sources. It is possible that Linux support for | | control of different parts of the ACPI is more advanced. but I suspect | | it's pretty close. | | I see, i'll stick to just wasting some time trying Windows then ;o) | | | | | Since every vendor makes sure that their Windows code plays well with | | their hardware, it's unlikely that open source software will ever quite | | catch up with it, but it is rapidly closing the gap. It's just that, | | until a few more pieces are in place, it's not obvious. | | Yeah, I hear ACPI and all the funky power saving stuff is coming along | quite nicely :o) | | Thanks for all your informative replies, that goes to everyone :o) | | *bios update time* | Hello All :o) I just applied the BIOS update (which was, I admit, rather scary - even though I have done it so many times with desktops) and it doesn't appear to be much different. However, I do believe ACPI does work fine after all. After where it appears to hang with ACPI loaded would be where the disks get probed (it doesn't probe ata0 in safe mode for some reason?) and as I don't yet have a hard disk in.. it seems to hang with an "Unretryable error". The BIOS update does seemed to have resolved my close lid = can't unsuspend badness though :o) and I think having ACPI may help, as I saw a 'setting to economy mode' type message when I try ACPI now! I guess I will keep you informed! Thanks ever so much for your help so far (and ... patience? I can be annoying!) | | -- | | R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer | | Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) | | Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) | | E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634 | | _______________________________________________ | freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org mailing list | http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-mobile | To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-mobile-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?001d01c430ab$7d485610$f700000a>