acpi shows wrong battery state

[Ian Smith]

On Sun, 29 Aug 2010, kuba guzik wrote:
 > Hi!
 > thanks for anwser :)
 > 
 > this is part of my /var/run/dmesg.boot
 > 
 > ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffffff0002694180)
 > [EmbeddedControl] (20100331/evregion-487)
 > ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(0x3) has no handler
 > (20100331/exfldio-383)

It seems that your EC (embedded controller) isn't responding.

What does 'sysctl debug.acpi' say?  There are some settings there re the 
EC, especially perhaps the default 750ms timeout, however I don't think 
you can update these settings until after boot (ie in /etc/sysctl.conf)

 > ACPI Error (psparse-0633): Method parse/execution failed [\\_SB_.BAT0._STA]
 > (Node 0xffffff000269d740), AE_NOT_EXIST
 > ACPI Error (uteval-0318): Method execution failed [\\_SB_.BAT0._STA] (Node
 > 0xffffff000269d740), AE_NOT_EXIST
 > ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffffff0002694180)
 > [EmbeddedControl] (20100331/evregion-487)
 > ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(0x3) has no handler
 > (20100331/exfldio-383)
[..]
 > ACPI Error (psparse-0633): Method parse/execution failed [\\_SB_.BAT0._BST]
 > (Node 0xffffff000269d6c0), AE_NOT_EXIST
 > ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffffff0002694180)
 > [EmbeddedControl] (20100331/evregion-487)
 > ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(0x3) has no handler
 > (20100331/exfldio-383)

These are trying to get the battery status from the battery, which is 
connected via the EC (as is common), but which is failing to respond.

[.. snip lots more attempts to get those two ..]

 > ACPI Error (psparse-0633): Method parse/execution failed [\\_TZ_.THRM._TMP]
 > (Node 0xffffff000269a7a0), AE_NOT_EXIST
 > ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffffff0002694180)
 > [EmbeddedControl] (20100331/evregion-487)
 > ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(0x3) has no handler
 > (20100331/exfldio-383)

Similarly for the Thermal Zone temperature.

 > ACPI Error (psparse-0633): Method parse/execution failed [\\_SB_.AC__._PSR]
 > (Node 0xffffff000269d640), AE_NOT_EXIST
 > ACPI Error: No handler for Region [ERAM] (0xffffff0002694180)
 > [EmbeddedControl] (20100331/evregion-487)
 > ACPI Error: Region EmbeddedControl(0x3) has no handler
 > (20100331/exfldio-383)

And that's your AC adaptor status (reported as -1, ie status unknown); 
all of these depend on communications with the EC working properly.

 >  FreeBSD 8.0 had proper temperature indicator. ACPI worked great, but now
 > .... :/
 > This notebook operates normally without charge. battery is one year old.
 > 
 > cheers, kuba

Ok, well it's interesting that it stopped working between 8.0 and 8.1; I 
don't yet know what might have changed in ACPI code between the two.

Have you checked the HP site to see if there's a later BIOS and/or EC 
flash update available?  If so, please try that before aything else.

If not, can you boot 8.0 again (from dvd, disc1, the fixit disc, or the 
USB memstick.img) to be sure that it still works properly on 8.0, ie to 
be sure that your hardware hasn't failed around the same time?

If it still works right on 8.0 but not on 8.1, try to get a full verbose 
dmesg from both OS versions, and submit a PR showing both of those and a 
link to a dump of your ACPI AML according to the Handbook section 11.6:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/acpi-debug.html

cheers, Ian