On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 10:07:44 -0800, Rich Burroughs <rich@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Jonathan Berry wrote: > > Please be aware that this is not a "fix" but rather is a "workaround." > > The problem is still there, the "acpi=off" just forces a different > > set of code to do the turning off (apm). Also, this workaround has > > some pontentially undesirable consequences. For instance, my laptop > > uses acpi for processor frequency scaling and power management. If I > > turn it off, these won't work, which would be fairly bad. If you have > > a desktop, I'd say the chance that it needs acpi is much less. I > > guess you just have to weigh whether you need acpi and if you can deal > > with manually powering off your system. > > Thanks Jonathan. I am using a desktop, and turning ACPI off does not > seem to have hurt me. > > The big problem was that the power button actually wouldn't even > respond. I have an Emachines box, it has a power button with a blue ring > around it that lights up when it's on - I would press that button after > the Power Down message and nothing would happen. I couldn't CTRL-ALT-DEL > either. I had to pull the power plug the first time it happened. Yes, simply pressing the power button on my desktop doesn't do it for me either. What does work is to hold the button down for about 3 seconds and it will eventually turn off. I think this is pretty standard behavior so you might try it. Also, I have my computer plugged into a surge protector that has a power switch that I can use to turn off power to the computer's supply. This would be better than pulling the plug, and it's always good to run through some sort of protection. Eventually, I'll probably get a UPS, but the really nice ones are a little expensive. > What I did as a workaround first was choosing to restart instead, and > then I was able to power the box off once it started the reboot sequence. > > So, the acpi=off workaround is a lot cleaner for me :) I'm sure it's > different for some. > > Still haven't found a good way to suspend, though, nothing as clean as > the suspend in XP. When I do "apm -s" or "apm -S", the box beeps a few > times and it sounds like the drive spins down, but everything else is > still going. I can still hear the CPU fan. The suspend in XP pretty much > powers off the whole box, then that blue light blinks until I hit a key > or move the mouse and it wakes again. Yes, suspend support is one area where Linux is really lacking. In the Microsoft world, such features also were not that reliable in Win98, I remember. I haven't had any experience with power management with Win2k, but XP seems to have things figured out fairly well, though I have seen some problems. I especially like the hibernate (suspend to disk) feature of XP. Usually I do that instead of shutting down, and it comes back on *much* more quickly than having to boot up again. Similar functionality in Linux would be really nice, as Linux inevitably takes a long time to boot with all the stuff it starts. I know there are people experimenting with different suspend modes, but generally without much success from what I can tell. > I have used Linux for a long time but haven't had to deal with power > management much, I usually use desktops and don't worry about it... > > Thanks, > Rich > Jonathan
