[ltp] Re: T60p officially supported with SuSE SLED 10 by Levono

[David Abrahams]

Andrew Barr <andrew.james.barr@gmail.com> writes:

> On Wed, 2006-08-16 at 09:29 -0400, David Abrahams wrote:
>> What I mean by "reasonably detailed instructions" is that you'll have
>> to tell me where to find the new modules, where to put them, and how
>> to load them.  I'm still a novice when it comes to all things kernel,
>> but happy to learn.
>
> First, save the contents of /proc/ioports by doing 'cat /proc/ioports >
> pre.txt'
>
> Then run 'dmesg' and note the last few messages.
>
> Go to the IBM/Lenovo tech support page linked to in the original post,
> and you want the RPM for "power management".

<snip> 

Thanks, I'll be able to start this in a couple hours.

> If you're not running SuSE 10.1 with the indicated kernel, extract the
> file 'batinfo.ko' from the RPM (GNOME's File Roller can do this, and if
> you have rpm installed Midnight Commander is also capable) and drop it
> in /lib/modules/<your kernel version>/misc. Run 'depmod -ae' and then
> 'modprobe --force batinfo'.

I would have normally used alien to convert it, but I guess this is
simpler.

> Run 'dmesg' again and see if anything is new. Save any new messages to a
> text files. You will probably see messages about the kernel being
> tainted, either because of bad vermagic or an unspecified license.
>
> Then save the contents of /proc/ioports again, except to a different
> file, for example post.txt.
>
> Diff the two files--'diff -Naru pre.txt post.txt > ioports.diff'
>
> Finally, look for interesting stuff under /proc that might have been
> created by the batinfo module.
>
>> This is really important to me because with NHC installed and wireless
>> on under Windows XP, the machine runs cool and idles with no fan.  I
>> want this to be a Linux machine primarily, but if we can't achieve the
>> same, I'm afraid I'll be stuck in MS-land.
>
> I think you should look into the undervolting patches available for the
> Linux kernel to get the equivalent of NHC. Look at ThinkWiki for more
> information.

Does NHC undervolt the CPU without any special configuration?  It
looked like that section of the NHC panel was not enabled (I'd have
had to check a box).  I just turned NHC on and the machine cooled off
a little and the fan stopped, like magic.

And what is it about Windows that allows undervolting to be done
without patching the kernel (or, what is it about Linux that requires
a kernel patch?)

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com