laptop-mode doesn't start automatically

[Tommy Trussell]

With a fresh* install of Ubuntu Hoary PPC on this PowerBook G3 Series ("PDQ" /
"Wallstreet"), I noticed the hard drive does not spin down or otherwise conserve
power. The file etc/default/laptop-mode contains the string
ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE="yes" but laptop mode does not start until I open a terminal
and type "sudo laptop-mode start" at which time the hard drive behaves as I
expect. I have not found a way to tell whether laptop mode is already in effect
except by listening to and touching the hot keyboard.

*In case it matters there seems to be no way to install Hoary directly on this
oldworld PowerBook -- I cannot get the Hoary installer to finish. So I installed
Warty and performed an immediate upgrade to Hoary. I mention that in case it
affects how the scripts were installed. I went into Synaptic and removed all the
residual configs so I can see as close as possible what the config directories
look like in Hoary. Somewhere I have a list of things I had to overcome during
the install (in one of the forums) but I have not opened a bug for oldworld
installation trouble.

[Tommy Trussell (tommy-trussell)]

I am quoting a posting in a discussion thread at
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=274702#post274702

Bart Samwell wrote (in that thread):

Hi there,

I'm the author of Laptop Mode Tools and the maintainer of the Debian package
laptop-mode-tools. I've just found out about the existence of the Ubunto
laptop-mode package and have done some research. Here's what I've found.

The Ubuntu laptop-mode package predates the laptop-mode-tools package, and it is
based on the script that laptop mode tools forked off of about a year ago. This
old script was maintained mostly by me in the kernel documentation, and I forked
and abandoned it a year ago because of the patching hassle (every change had to
go through Linus) and the installation hassle (it was a script embedded in the
documentation). I've checked the laptop-mode package, and it seems to be mostly
a verbatim packaging of that script, except for the addition of
/etc/default/laptop-mode support.

I guess you'd currently be better off running laptop-mode-tools instead, as it
represents a year's worth of improvements and bugfixes, and has an actual config
file, manpages, and an online FAQ. Whatever you do, you want to install either
laptop-mode-tools or laptop-mode, but not both, because they will probably
interfere with eachother. I'm talking to the maintainer of the laptop-mode
package to resolve this confusing mess.

(If you have any further questions, mail me, because I won't be following the
discussion.)

--Bart

[Anders Aagaard (aagaande)]

just did a apt-get -u dist-upgrade on my laptop running breezy, replacing
laptop-mode with laptop-mode-tools rmeoves
powermanagement-interface,acpi-support and ubuntu-desktop in breezy, and if the
script is more than a year old it really should be upgraded.

Oh, the reason I searched in the first place was my laptop harddrive constantly
making small sounds, and spinning up the hd way too often, init 1 and it's still
there, /usr/sbin/laptop-mode start and it's gone, been annoying me for a long
time and it really should be on per default :)

[Jonathan Carter (jonathan)]

Can you please test whether this problem persists in Ubuntu 6.06 LTS?

[Tommy Trussell (tommy-trussell)]

Thanks for the follow-up... it will be another few weeks before I have time to attempt the Dapper upgrade on this system.

(If I have enough time, I might also attempt a separate clean install, which won't be straightforward because it's an oldworld Mac.)

[Tommy Trussell (tommy-trussell)]

Good news -- I finally went through the (painfully slow) Breezy-Dapper upgrade on my Wallstreet this past week, and now laptop-mode seems to work great!

The config is so very different from before I couldn't diff it easily so I just puzzled through and saw that it's set up just about where I want it already... Good job!

Please close this bug (or is that something I do?). Thank you for all your work!

[Luka Renko (lure)]

Works in Dapper - closing as per request of original reporter.