# State of ACPI components



## dburkland (Jun 24, 2009)

After just getting into FreeBSD a few months ago I have learned great deal about UNIX-based machines thanks to using it and the stellar documentation. I do however have one complaint and that is the ACPI implementation. Maybe I just have bad luck but I have had a lot of issues on both my Dell Vostro 1310 Laptop and ASUS P5K Deluxe-based Desktop. For example, on my Vostro 1310 I cannot power the machine down at all but every single Power-Management feature works in Linux. On my desktop machine with the P5K Deluxe motherboard I can shutdown but cannot suspend. (All power-management features also work in Linux) According to one post in the forum I learned that suspend works on 8-Current AMD64 but could not find out if that was the same for i386. I installed a amd64 Current Snapshot (6-8-2009) on my Desktop and noticed that the machine would react to acpiconf -s 3 (keyboard and monitor would turn off but machine would not) but unfortunately would result in a lockup and a need to manually restart it. While I am no coder I will be more than happy to both submit any information necessary (I already have posted about my Vostro 1310 which can be found here) along with any testing that needs to be done. I apologize if this post is in the wrong forum and if it affends anybody. I am very thankful for all of your hard work in easily making FreeBSD my favorite operating system.


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## gnemmi (Jun 24, 2009)

I have to ...: _me_too_.

Same complain ... ACPI.

Hardware: Dell 1318.

Add to that the fact that both 7.2 and -CURRENT yields a "Fatal trap 9" if I try to boot "with ACPI disabled" or "Safe Mode". That is to say, I can only boot 7.2 and 8-CURRENT if I go with option #1 on the bootloader.

Info on my hardware and ACPI/Fatal trap 9 problems in here.
Info on "Fatal trap 9" under 8.0-CURRENT-200906 in here

For the record:

1) suspend (acpiconf -s 3) works out of the box from the 7.2 LiveFS CD. As soon as the system gets installed, it doesn't work anymore.

2) I had to switch back to Linux (after trying a lot of distros .. fedora, opensuse, xubuntu, kubuntu, etc, all of them with fully working ACPI, I installed mandriva) just because of ACPI.

It's a real pitty .. not only because I can't use my OS of choice, but also because this small machines (dell 13.3 inchers) make a really good choice for devels .. small, light, fast, good waranty (complete care), reasonable prices (unlike IBM), etc.

Actually, ACPI/Fatal trap 9 got me thinking on cancelling my suscription 

Just as dburkland said:



> I will be more than happy to both submit any information necessary ... along with any testing that needs to be done.



Best regards.
Gonzalo.


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## richardpl (Jun 24, 2009)

dburkland said:
			
		

> I apologize if this post is in the wrong forum and if it affends anybody.



This is really wrong "forum", not because it is wrong but because that not all FreeBSD developers reads it.

Correct place to ask for help is freebsd mailing list explained on web and probably in handbook too ...


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## SirDice (Jun 24, 2009)

Read this it also has info about who to contact:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/acpi-debug.html


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## gnemmi (Jun 24, 2009)

With all due respect, IÂ´m sorry but I beg to differ ...

As I see it, this actually is the right "forum" as there is no other official forum on FreeBSD, and the thread the OP happened to open is in the right topic given that he is explaining the problems he has run into while running "8-Current AMD64" which happens to be the "Development" branch of FreeBSD ... 

Now, with that said, I do agree with you on:



> not because it is wrong but because ..



if what you meant to tell the OP was "youÂ´d be better off mailing current@", then, I agree with you ... but .. whatÂ´s the point of having a "FreeBSD Development" topic on an official "FreeBSD Forum" if OP shouldnÂ´t use it for this kind of matter?

Just a few days ago joel@ opened the Massive sound changes in 8-CURRENT, testers wanted thread .. which clearly indicates devels not only do take a look at what goes on in here, but also resort to it in order to spread the word on changes and look for testers ... same thing could be said about the Broadcom WiFi thread and many others ...

All in all I donÂ´t think we can conclude this is the "wrong" place .. we could just said that the mailing list is the "historical" place to get attention on this kind of matter or that it may be a better place? that the handbook should be updated to reflect the fact that the forum is up and running and that it has been doing fairly well since day one? .. but I still donÂ´t think this is the wrong place 

my 2 cents

Best Regards
Gonzalo


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## gnemmi (Jun 24, 2009)

SirDice@: thanks for the hint, but weÂ´ve already done that .. youÂ´ll find all that info on the links to the threads dburkland and me pasted on our posts ... dburkland sent a mail to acpi@ but he got no reply at all ... after seeing that, it really didnÂ´t make me feel like doing the same thing to get the same result .. :s


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## SirDice (Jun 24, 2009)

You can always file a PR.


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## joel@ (Jun 24, 2009)

gnemmi said:
			
		

> All in all I donÂ´t think we can conclude this is the "wrong" place .. we could just said that the mailing list is the "historical" place to get attention on this kind of matter or that it may be a better place? that the handbook should be updated to reflect the fact that the forum is up and running and that it has been doing fairly well since day one? .. but I still donÂ´t think this is the wrong place


This is definitely not the wrong place to ask. We have several developers browsing our forum on a daily basis and we use (for example) this subforum to reach users who may find mailing lists difficult for some reason. Gathering testers for new features is an excellent example since thay can provide valuable feedback, which we maybe wouldn't get if we only looked for testers on a mailing list.

However, it is still a fact that you'd probably get better/more replies if you post kernel panics, code questions etc to the appropriate mailing list. This forum needs to grow and we need a bigger community before the forum can be seen as a really good alternative to the mailing lists (for this type of question).


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## dburkland (Jun 24, 2009)

I have filed a pr about the issue my Vostro 1310 if it helps any the internal ID is: misc/136008

Thanks guys for all your advice and help.


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