[ltp] How to turn your T42p into a brick with ACPI...

[David A. Desrosiers]

	At the suggestion of one of my colleagues, I tried moving from 
apm (which has never failed me), to acpi (where I've heard nothing but 
horror stories). I compiled up an acpi-enabled kernel, added a 'lid' 
script in /etc/acpi/events, and ran the following command after 
booting to this new kernel: 

	echo mem > /sys/power/state

	After that, my T42p turned into a brick. 

	I ended up spending about 3 hours on the phone with IBM, up to 
level 3 support (I didn't even know they _had_ a level 3). They 
basically said I should send it in for a replacement because it was 
"deader than dead". We tried everything (power, battery, holding down 
power button for 75 seconds with all power input detached, and many 
dozens of other things). Nothing would work.

	I could push the power button and the power light would come 
on, but there was no BIOS, no POST, no beeps, no backlight, nothing. I 
pulled out all of the drives and peripherals, and still nothing would 
bring the laptop back up. I tried draining the battery and leaving it 
running overnight, that too didn't help.

	Finally, I found a resource on the IBM website (with the help 
of third-level support) that had tutorial movies for every single step 
of disassembling every laptop they support. I found the one that 
described removing the "backup battery" under the wristrest. Once I 
removed that, and replaced it... everything came back together, and 
the laptop booted (with generic factory settings).

	So now.. after stressing and sweating that I had just bricked 
a 2-week-old $3k laptop, I'd like to return to the original reason I 
started trying to get acpi working on my Thinkpad in the first 
place... so I could get my docking station (and its attached 
peripherals) working.

	What do I need to do, to get my "Dock II" docking station 
working with my T42p, so I can dock, undock, and mount the peripherals 
attached to it (dvd drive, external backup drive, mouse, sound, etc.)? 

	Also, what is the "proper" way to get acpi working, without 
turning my laptop into a brick? I'd rather not have to disassemble the 
whole laptop (14+ screws on the bottom) to unplug the backup battery, 
just so I can resume from suspend, if I can avoid it. APM works 
beautifully here without any problems at all.

	Has anyone managed to accomplish both of these tasks?


David A. Desrosiers
desrod@gnu-designs.com
http://gnu-designs.com