Re: [gentoo-user] [Somewhat OT] Laptop battery not showing up in KDE, Smart Battery calibration

[Fatih Tümen]

On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 06:49, Paul Hartman
<paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com<paul.hartman%2Bgentoo@×××××.com>
> wrote:

> 2010/11/24 Fatih Tümen <fthtmn+gentoo@×××××.com<fthtmn%2Bgentoo@×××××.com>
> >:
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 22:51, Paul Hartman <
> paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com <paul.hartman%2Bgentoo@×××××.com>>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 12:43 AM, Paul Hartman
> >> <paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com <paul.hartman%2Bgentoo@×××××.com>>
> wrote:
> >> > On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 12:03 AM, Paul Hartman
> >> > <paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com <paul.hartman%2Bgentoo@×××××.com>>
> wrote:
> >> >> On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 1:11 PM, J. Roeleveld <joost@××××××××.org>
> >> >> wrote:
> >> >>> On Thursday 11 November 2010 18:07:35 Paul Hartman wrote:
> >> >>>> On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 12:05 PM, J. Roeleveld <joost@××××××××.org
> >
> >> >>>> wrote:
> >> >>>> > If the soldering isn't done correctly, the battery-pack can
> >> >>>> > literally
> >> >>>> > explode when put under load.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> Yeah, I don't think the savings would be big enough to justify the
> >> >>>> risk.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> I found a replacement battery online for less than USD$30 so I
> >> >>>> ordered
> >> >>>> it. Hopefully it fits and holds a charge. :)
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Good luck :)
> >> >>> If laptops would work with the same LIPO-packs that are used for
> >> >>> Remote
> >> >>> Control planes, then it would be cheaper and easier as the chargers
> >> >>> used for
> >> >>> those are better then the stuff they stick in laptops.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> But that's wishfull thinking
> >> >>
> >> >> The replacement battery is good, it fits perfectly and holds over 90%
> >> >> of maximum rated charge.
> >> >>
> >> >> I booted from Sabayon KDE LiveCD and the battery meter works fine in
> >> >> there, so there must be something wrong in my config. I will dig
> >> >> deeper to try to identify the differences.
> >> >>
> >> >> Thanks for all suggestions. :)
> >> >
> >> > After a combination of kernel upgrade, BIOS downgrade (to fix an
> >> > unrelated bug with resuming from suspend), KDE upgrades, and of course
> >> > general "messing with stuff", now it is working most of the time. I
> >> > have an actual battery meter and power management works and I am
> >> > happy.
> >> >
> >> > I sometimes get ACPI/DSDT errors in dmesg from boot time, about
> >> > infinite loops in 3 places, and when this happens the battery is
> >> > either "not present" to ACPI or is present but the state never changes
> >> > (for example remaining capacity at boot time is 2048 and this will
> >> > remain to be the value even as battery is dying). This properly seems
> >> > to happen randomly, or maybe affected somehow by dual-booting into MS
> >> > Windows. I didn't think DSDT/ACPI changes by the OS were persistent?
> >> > Perhaps it's something to do with warm rebooting vs powering off and
> >> > back on. I will have to experiment with it some more to see if I can
> >> > break it :)
> >> >
> >> > A long time ago I tried to extract and repair my broken DSDT but it
> >> > was over my head. I don't understand why it doesn't always work but
> >> > for now things seem to be functioning properly when ACPI is okay at
> >> > boot time.
> >>
> >> Another follow-up. It seems to work normally until it gets this error,
> >> at which point batter monitor stops working. Sometimes this error
> >> happens right away, other times it works for hours and then breaks. I
> >> guess it's a DSDT problem:
> >>
> >> ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed
> >> [\_SB_.PCI0.PIB_.EC0_.SMRD] (Node ffff88007f826320),
> >> AE_AML_INFINITE_LOOP
> >> ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed
> >> [\_SB_.BAT1.CHBP] (Node ffff88007f81d0f0), AE_AML_INFINITE_LOOP
> >> ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed
> >> [\_SB_.PCI0.PIB_.EC0_.SMSL] (Node ffff88007f826398),
> >> AE_AML_INFINITE_LOOP
> >> ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed
> >> [\_SB_.PCI0.PIB_.EC0_._Q09] (Node ffff88007f826438),
> >> AE_AML_INFINITE_LOOP
> >>
> >> Does anyone here know about this kind of thing? I am not really sure
> >> what it means. I've decompiled my DSDT but really don't know anything
> >> about how to fix it. Maybe I need to find some ACPI mailing list.
> >> Thanks.
> >>
> >
> > Usually a BIOS update will do it or a kernel update. You can also try to
> > disable acpi and see if you can keep it working.
> > kernel parameters come to mind are acpi=off and pci=noacpi. The first one
> > completely disables acpi and the latter AFAIR just disables acpi routing
> for
> > pci subsystem. Look at kernel-parameters in linux Doc for more
> > combinations.
>
> Thanks, unfortunately it is an old computer (from 2004), the newest
> BIOS, which is several years old, breaks suspend (it does not resume
> from suspend, not even Windows XP works...), so I'm using the
> penultimate BIOS. It's an Acer Ferrari 3400, back in the time when I
> bought it, the internet was full of people who have to edit their DSDT
> on Acer laptops in order to fix it, many people had no battery support
> at all.
>
> I know I used some "magic" kernel parameters at some point, I'm not
> sure if it was ACPI related, though. I will look into them to see if
> there's anything new in the past 5 years of kernel development that
> might help me. :)
>
>

Have a look at this bug affecting acer laptops. there is a solution proposed
in its duplicate

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi/+bug/535643
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/578506/comments/24

Hope it helps
--
   Fatih