FC5 ACPI modules - how to add missing modules

[Laurence Vanek]

Im currently running the latest FC5 kernel (2.6.17-1.2174_FC5).  Looking in:

/lib/modules/2.6.17-1.2174_FC5/kernel/drivers/acpi

I see only:

ac.ko
battery.ko
ibm_acpi.ko
video.ko
asus_acpi.ko
button.ko
toshiba_acpi.ko

I was hopeing to find a fan & thermal module also.  I assume this means
these
were not compiled into this kernel.  Is that a correct assumption?  I am
fearful that
to get these I will need to recompile this kernel - something that makes
me break out
in hives.

thoughts anyone?

[Mikkel]

Laurence Vanek wrote:
> Im currently running the latest FC5 kernel (2.6.17-1.2174_FC5).  Looking in:
>
> /lib/modules/2.6.17-1.2174_FC5/kernel/drivers/acpi
>
> I see only:
>
> ac.ko
> battery.ko
> ibm_acpi.ko
> video.ko
> asus_acpi.ko
> button.ko
> toshiba_acpi.ko
>
> I was hopeing to find a fan & thermal module also. I assume this
> means these were not compiled into this kernel. Is that a correct
> assumption? I am fearful that to get these I will need to
> recompile this kernel - something that makes me break out in hives.
> thoughts anyone?

I have not looked to see where the modules for the fan and thermal
are, but I know I have entries in /proc/acpi for both the fan and
the temp sensors. So you will not have to compile your own kernel.

Mikkel

[Laurence Vanek]

Laurence Vanek wrote:
> Im currently running the latest FC5 kernel (2.6.17-1.2174_FC5).  Looking in:
>
> /lib/modules/2.6.17-1.2174_FC5/kernel/drivers/acpi
>
> I see only:
>
> ac.ko
> battery.ko
> ibm_acpi.ko
> video.ko
> asus_acpi.ko
> button.ko
> toshiba_acpi.ko
>
> I was hopeing to find a fan & thermal module also.  I assume this means
> these
> were not compiled into this kernel.  Is that a correct assumption?  I am
> fearful that
> to get these I will need to recompile this kernel - something that makes
> me break out
> in hives.
>
> thoughts anyone?

I have directories titled "fan" & "thermal_zone" but they are empty.  I
assumed it was because I dont seem to have a thermal.ko & fan.ko to
load.  lsmod does show "button" & "battery" acpi modules loaded.  wonder
what the deal is?

[Mikkel]

Laurence Vanek wrote:
> I have directories titled "fan" & "thermal_zone" but they are empty.  I
> assumed it was because I dont seem to have a thermal.ko & fan.ko to
> load.  lsmod does show "button" & "battery" acpi modules loaded.  wonder
> what the deal is?

If you have the directory, but it is empty, then the module is
loaded, but it did not find any hardware it could monitor. The way I
understand it, if the BIOS ACPI code does not define how to access
the hardware, then loading the module does nothing. This is why you
have the asus_acpi, ibm_acpi, toshiba_acpi, and omnibook modules.
They provide another way to access the hardware, if your machine is
supported. The acpitool program knows how to access the settings of
the first 3 of those modules, and give you the information.

You can double check if you have the modules by running "modprobe
fan" or "modprobe thermal" as root. If it finds the modules, it will
return without an error message, but if you do not have them, it
will tell you that the module was not found.

Mikkel

[John DeDourek]

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> Laurence Vanek wrote:
> > I have directories titled "fan" & "thermal_zone" but they are empty.  I
> > assumed it was because I dont seem to have a thermal.ko & fan.ko to
> > load.  lsmod does show "button" & "battery" acpi modules loaded.  wonder
> > what the deal is?
>
> If you have the directory, but it is empty, then the module is
> loaded, but it did not find any hardware it could monitor. The way I
> understand it, if the BIOS ACPI code does not define how to access
> the hardware, then loading the module does nothing. This is why you
> have the asus_acpi, ibm_acpi, toshiba_acpi, and omnibook modules.
> They provide another way to access the hardware, if your machine is
> supported. The acpitool program knows how to access the settings of
> the first 3 of those modules, and give you the information.
>
> You can double check if you have the modules by running "modprobe
> fan" or "modprobe thermal" as root. If it finds the modules, it will
> return without an error message, but if you do not have them, it
> will tell you that the module was not found.
>
> Mikkel

I happened to look at an FC4 machine (i686 machine) and noted that
the kernel build configuration specified that the
    CONFIG_ACPI_FAN
and
    CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL
as "y" rather than "m".  I believe that this means that the code
for those "modules" has been made a part of the kernel itself
rather than as a "loadable module" from the /lib/modules/....
directory.

I am not very expert on kernel configurations, however, so perhaps
someone with more experience might comment on the correctness of
this statement.

I don't have the FC5 machine in front of me, so I am not sure
whether is has the same configuration.

[Laurence Vanek]

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> Laurence Vanek wrote:
> > I have directories titled "fan" & "thermal_zone" but they are empty.  I
> > assumed it was because I dont seem to have a thermal.ko & fan.ko to
> > load.  lsmod does show "button" & "battery" acpi modules loaded.  wonder
> > what the deal is?
>
> If you have the directory, but it is empty, then the module is
> loaded, but it did not find any hardware it could monitor. The way I
> understand it, if the BIOS ACPI code does not define how to access
> the hardware, then loading the module does nothing. This is why you
> have the asus_acpi, ibm_acpi, toshiba_acpi, and omnibook modules.
> They provide another way to access the hardware, if your machine is
> supported. The acpitool program knows how to access the settings of
> the first 3 of those modules, and give you the information.
>
> You can double check if you have the modules by running "modprobe
> fan" or "modprobe thermal" as root. If it finds the modules, it will
> return without an error message, but if you do not have them, it
> will tell you that the module was not found.
>
> Mikkel

I already have tried loading those 2 modules using modprobe.  I get
"FATAL: Module thermal not found" for both of them.

Recently updated my bios so Im fairly sure thats not the problem.  I can
see hardware monitoring info in bios setup but dont have the thermal or
fan modules to look at them using acpitools.

Perhaps I should have asked if anyone running FC5 has these 2 modules
loaded & working.

[Mikkel]

Laurence Vanek wrote:
> I already have tried loading those 2 modules using modprobe.  I get
> "FATAL: Module thermal not found" for both of them.
>
> Recently updated my bios so Im fairly sure thats not the problem.  I can
> see hardware monitoring info in bios setup but dont have the thermal or
> fan modules to look at them using acpitools.
>
> Perhaps I should have asked if anyone running FC5 has these 2 modules
> loaded & working.

I should have double checked on the laptop - fan and thermal are
build in, and not modules, so you do not load them. But if you are
not getting /proc/acpi/fan and /proc/acpi/thermal_zone but you are
getting the /proc/acpi directory, then there is something wrong. If
you are getting the directories, but they are empty, then the values
can not be accessed through acpi.

For example, I have /proc/acpi/fan/FAN0/state on my laptop, but I
only have /proc/acpi/fan on my desktop.

Mikkel