[gutsy]ibm-acpi -> now thinkpad_acpi possibly causing problems

[Thomas Wolfe]

Binary package hint: linux-image-2.6.22-6-generic

In feisty the module ibm-acpi was loaded by itself and worked great, now with gutsy and kernel 2.6.22 it has been renamed to thinkpad_acpi and it does not seem to be loaded automatically anymore (noticed this with pidgin-thinklight which requires thinkpad_acpi, i had to manually load the module). Quite a few things depend on it (fan control, docking, etc).

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

There's no autoloading aliases in this module, so it will have to be loaded by boot scripts.

[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

ibm-acpi didn't have aliases either

and I see nothing in the initramfs that loads ibm-acpi

the only reference I can find is in /etc

./acpi/resume.d/72-acpi-pain.sh: modprobe -r ibm-acpi
./acpi/resume.d/72-acpi-pain.sh: modprobe ibm-acpi

[Roland Dreier (roland.dreier)]

I think the title of this bug is a little deceptive -- the thinkpad-acpi change is definitely causing a regression, since some of the things like bluetooth enable/disable that used to be available in feisty are not available in gutsy without manually loading the thinkpad-acpi module.

Anyway, I ran into this too on my X60s, and it took a little time to work out how ibm-acpi used to be loaded and why thinkpad-acpi isn't loaded any more. It turns out that the modules are loaded in /etc/init.d/acpid by the shell function load_modules(). That function essentially loads everything in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/acpi and /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/ubuntu/acpi. However, thinkpad-acpi is under kernel/drivers/misc/ now (ever since the kernel change 3ede41c7, "ACPI: ibm-acpi: move driver to drivers/misc hierarchy", in 2.6.21).

It seems we probably need an explicit list of modules from drivers/misc to load in the acpi startup script. For example, msi-laptop and sony-laptop at least look useful in addition to thinkpad-acpi. But we definitely do *NOT* want to load all the modules from drivers/misc, since eg blink is a debugging only module that confuses some keyboard controllers. So I think the only solution for gutsy is just to list exactly which misc drivers should be loaded.

BTW there is a modalias of ibm-acpi for thinkpad-acpi, so modprobe ibm-acpi still works, although it is probably better in gutsy to use the real thinkpad-acpi name.

[Benjamin Pineau (ben-pineau)]

Here is a patch reflecting the name change in acpi-support.

The "not autoloading" behavior is an independent problem (as Ben Collins and Roland Dreier said).

Please note that this fix and loading the module is a prerequisite to properly fix bug #45404.

[Peter Meiser (meiser79)]

Hi, latest version of thinkpad_acpi adds DMI based autoloading. I can be found at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=117042

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

Was fixed by:

acpi-support (0.96) gutsy; urgency=low

  * ibm-acpi has been renamed to thinkpad-acpi. Rename options file accordingly.
    LP: #119052. Thanks to Benjamin Pineau <email address hidden> for the patch.

 -- Reinhard Tartler <email address hidden> Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:55:10 +0200

[Johan Van Hellemont (johan-van-hellemont)]

Installed Tribe 3 on my thinkpad T43,i have to manually load the thinkpad_acpi module.
In feisty I had fan control with e.g #echo level 2 > /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
Now in gutsy it does not work anymore.
Should I open another bug report?

[Chris Jones (cmsj)]

I've upgraded my X40 from feisty to gutsy since acpi-support 0.96 went in and my laptop doesn't seem to be auto-loading the thinkpad_acpi module

[Eddie Hung (eddieh)]

Hi Chris - just add thinkpad_acpi to the end of /etc/modules to get it to load on startup (or do a modprobe thinkpad_acpi to get it to load immediately). Clearly I'm not the only person to experience the fact that thinkpad_acpi is not loaded automatically - should I change the status back to confirmed then?

[Chris Jones (cmsj)]

Eddie: indeed, I could fix it for me with that, but I'd rather poke it manually so I notice when it is properly fixed.

I'm not exactly sure of the LP etiquette, but I don't think this is fixed, so it should probably be reverted to Confirmed, yes.

[Erik Meitner (e.meitner)]

I can confirm that the module does not auto-load on my T60(8744-5bu).

[Benjamin Pineau (ben-pineau)]

Indeed.

DMI based autoload was only merged lately, in 2.6.23-rc1
(git commits 4f5c791a850e5305a5b1b48d0e4b4de248dc96f9 and b964b437601a0e7d09896d5d9a85c83643e94f41 ).

So thinkpad_acpi autoload won't happen in Gutsy (based on 2.6.22) unless either someone backport this, or add a temporary tweak/hack somewhere to load the thinkpad_acpi module (and to add it in the initrd).

[Johan Van Hellemont (johan-van-hellemont)]

I hope that the devs look at this !
Yes modprobe thinkpad_acpi works or what Eddie says,add this to /etc/modules.
And for fan control I add fan_control=1 to /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.modprobe and now I control my fan,special for the T43 owners.

[Ohad Lutzky (lutzky)]

Problem persists in Tribe 4...

[Tom Vetterlein (smbm)]

Ditto here on my R61, Tribe 4 + updates setup.

[Markus Petersen (mafu)]

When will this fix be incorporated in the updates to Gutsy? It was nice to be able to change the fan speed manually.

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

Changed bug target to acpi-support, where it has been (partly fixed).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.