5.1b2, configuring kernel for Thinkpad x20

[Kevin Oberman]

> From: "Marcin Kot" <mailingliste at broadpark.no>
> Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 16:35:10 +0200
> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I have a Thinkpad x20 which is running 5.1-BETA2. I do have som problems
> with the computer booting up at random with the GENERIC kernel, although all
> boot-up options are disabled in the bios. This laptop has latest bios and
> embedded controller software installed. I want to recompile the kernel, are
> there any options I should be aware of to make acpi work correctly? I read
> though that ACPI support is loaded dynamically during boot. After a random
> boot, or after pressing the lid-switch it seems to hang and these messages
> are displayed:
> 
> kernel: ACPI-0432: *** Error: Handler for [EmbeddedControl] returned
> AE_ERROR
> kernel: ACPI-1287: *** Error: Method execution failed
> [\_SB_.PCI0.ISA_.EC__.AC__._PSR] (Node 0xc1f54560
> ), AE_ERROR
> 
> I've noticed that there are quite many sysctl settings which are
> acpi-related.

ACPI and ThinkPads usually don't get along, I'm afraid. The latest
5-CURRENT has some more patches that might help with this, but you
will probably be much happier with APM. It seems to work quite well,
with a couple of caveats.

1. Edit /boot/device.hints:
Change hint.apm.0.disabled="1" to hint.apm.0.disabled="0"
Add hint.acpi.disabled="1"

2. Edit rc.conf to add apm_enabled="YES"

3. Either add "device apm" to you kernel config or load it at boot time by
adding apm_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf.

4. Get the ps2 utility from IBM. If the system still has Windows, it is
available there (in DOS mode). Otherwise, you can get a floppy image
from IBM and boot that to use ps2. There are MANY power options that may
be configured with ps2. (Quite a bit of other stuff is also configurable
there. ps2 is the only way to configure many BIOS options on the
X20. While the ThinkPad Configuration Utility will allow them to be
configured with Windows, many options are NOT saved to CMOS but are
loaded from the registry when Windows starts.)

This is optional as the defaults are usually not too bad, but ps2 can be
useful for quite a few things, so it's probably worth having.

R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634