ThinkWiki - User contributions [en]

SMAPI support for Linux

2005-12-09T08:08:55Z

Lammic: cdrom_speed working on T40

ThinkPad laptops include a proprietary interface called SMAPI BIOS (System Management Application Program Interface) which provides some
hardware control functionality that is not exposed by any other interface (e.g., ACPI).

The SMAPI interfaces changes a lot between models, and is poorly documented, so Linux support is not exhaustive for most models. There are currently two SMAPI access mechanisms available: <tt>thinkpad</tt> and <tt>tpctl</tt> for older ThinkPads, and <tt>tp_smapi</tt> for newer ones.

{{WARN|These drivers use undocumented features and direct hardware access. They thus cannot be guaranteed to work, and may cause arbitrary damage
(especially on models they weren't tested on).}}

==Using the <tt>thinkpad</tt> module==

This solution consists of a module, called <tt>thinkpad</tt>, and a user-space tool caled <tt>tpctl</tt>. It provides very rich functionality for older ThinkPads, but on newer ThinkPads much of this functionality is exposed and supported through an ACPI interface and the SMAPI access does not work anymore. For details, see the [http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/README README] and [http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/SUPPORTED-MODELS list of supported models].

* Project page: http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/
* You need to download the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1212&package_id=29354t thinkpad module] and [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1212&package_id=1204 tpctl userspace tool].
* There is also an optional GUI: [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1212&package_id=99929 configure-thinkpad].

==Using the <tt>tp_smapi</tt> module==

The <tt>tp_smapi</tt> kernel module exposes some features of the SMAPI BIOS found on recent ThinkPads via a sysfs interface. Currently, the only implemented functionality is control over battery charging (this is useful for [[Maintenance#Battery_Treatment|increasing battery lifetime]], or for using a leftover under-spec power supply that can't handle the combined power draw of running and charging).

* Project page: http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/
* You need to donwnload only the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1212&package_id=171579 tp_smapi kernel module].

To compile and load the module:

# tar xzvf tp_smapi-0.07.tgz
# cd tp_smapi-0.07
# make load

To install permanently (optional):

# make install
# modprobe tp_smapi

To set the thresholds for starting and stopping battery charging (in percent of current full charge capacity):

# echo 40 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/start_charge_thresh
# echo 70 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/stop_charge_thresh
# cat /sys/devices/platform/smapi/*_charge_thresh
40
70

To unconditionally inhibit charging for 17 minutes:

# echo 17 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/inhibit_charge_minutes

To cancel charge inhibiting:

# echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/inhibit_charge_minutes

To control the speed of the optical drive:
{{WARN|Changing the CD speed simultaneously with a read or write to the CD will '''hang your computer'''. The <tt>hdparm -E</tt> or <tt>eject -x</tt> commands might also work for you, and are safer.<br />''Kernel hackers: if you know how to check whether an ATAPI device is being accessed, please [[Talk:SMAPI support for Linux|tell the author]].''}}
# echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/cdrom_speed # slow
# echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/cdrom_speed # medium
# echo 2 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/cdrom_speed # fast
# cat /sys/devices/platform/smapi/cdrom_speed
2

Other things that can be controlled through SMAPI, but are not supported in this version of the driver, include forcing battery discharge, PCI bus power saving, CPU power saving control, extended smart battery information and fan control. See the included README file for more information.

====Model-specific status====
* ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T43p}}, {{R52}}
** all works
* ThinkPad {{X41}}
** work: all battery-related
** unknown: cdrom_speed
* ThinkPad {{G41}}
** work: start_charge_thresh, inhbit_charge_minutes, cdrom_speed
** don't work: stop_charge_thresh (not supported by hardware)
* ThinkPad {{T42p}}, {{T41}}, {{R51}}, {{X40}}
** work: start_charge_thresh, inhbit_charge_minutes
** don't work: stop_charge_thresh (not supported by hardware)
** unknown: cdrom_speed
* ThinkPad {{T42}}
** work: start_charge_thresh, cdrom_speed
** unknown: inhbit_charge_minutes, stop_charge_thresh
* ThinkPad {{T41p}}, {{T40p}}, {{R50p}}, {{R40}}, {{T40}}
** work: cdrom_speed
** don't work: all battery-related (not supported by hardware)
* ThinkPad {{X31}}
** don't work: all battery-related (not supported by hardware)
** unknown: cdrom_speed

Please update the above and report your experience on the [[Talk:SMAPI support for Linux|discussion]] page. If the module loads but gives a "<tt>not supported</tt>" or "<tt>not implementeded</tt>" when you try to use some specific file in {{path|/sys/devices/platform/smapi/}}, please report the <tt>dmesg</tt> output and whether the corresponding functionality is available under Windows - maybe your ThinkPad just can't do that.

[[Category:Tools]] [[Category:Patches]]

Talk:SMAPI support for Linux

2005-12-09T08:06:47Z

Lammic:

Great, great work! Really! This completely rocks. I just stopped my battery from charging at 77% and restarted charging a bit later, no problems whatsoever. BTW, this is on kernel 2.6.14.3.

--[[User:Spiney|spiney]] 21:25, 5 Dec 2005 (CET)
----
None of the fuctions is working on my T40, kernel 2.6.14-mm2.

--[[User:Lammic|lammic]], 2005.12.05

Works for me on a T41 running 2.6.12-10-686 (Ubuntu 5.10).

--[[User:berndtnm|berndtnm]], 2005.12.06

Including stop_charge_thresh? That one seems to be missing on the T42p.

--[[User:Thinker|Thinker]] 00:46, 7 Dec 2005 (CET)
----

tp_smapi works just fine on an R52 with Ubuntu Breezy stock kernel.

--[[User:Micampe|Micampe]] 12:52, 7 Dec 2005 (CET)

----

''To set the thresholds for starting and stopping battery charging (in percent of current capacity):''

'''current''' really? That'd be weird, I'd expect it to be percent of '''total''' capacity.

--[[User:Micampe|Micampe]] 14:39, 7 Dec 2005 (CET)

"Current full charge capacity", as opposed to "current remaining capacity" or "designed full charge capacity"...

--[[User:Thinker|Thinker]] 15:05, 7 Dec 2005 (CET)
----

Battery features don't work with my T41p. I can't check this with windows. Can anybody try these features?

-- Nils, 7 Dec 2005
----

Nils, does cdrom_speed work for you on the T41p? Could you provide the details requested in the README (dmesg etc.)?

--[[User:Thinker|Thinker]] 21:57, 7 Dec 2005 (CET)
----

CDRom Speed seems to work. (I see no warnings, but I have to do a speed test.) Now, I've send all outputs to the email-address in the readme.

-- Nils, 8 Dec 2005
----

==Changing the CD speed when the CD is being accessed will hang your computer==

I don't have this problem on my T40p. CDROM is mounted and file on CD is opened. Change speed do '''not''' hang my system.

-- Stefan Schmidt
----

An open file looks fine if you're not reading/writing at that point. But my T43 does hangs on this:
# dd if=/dev/scd0 of=/dev/null &
# echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/cdrom_speed

--[[User:Thinker|Thinker]] 16:41, 7 Dec 2005 (CET)
----

OK, sorry. I was to fast. My system hangs on this commands, too. :(

-- Stefan Schmidt

Works well. Great.

T42 2373-8zh. Working :cdrom_speed and start_charge_thresh. Untest : inhibit_charge_minutes.

-- Haifeng Chen

cdrom_speed works on my T40.

-- [[User:Lammic|lammic]], 2005.12.09

SMAPI support for Linux

2005-12-06T08:26:07Z

Lammic: added T40 to non working models list

ThinkPad laptops include a proprietary interface called SMAPI BIOS (System Management Application Program Interface) which provides some
hardware control functionality that is not exposed by any other interface (e.g., ACPI).

The SMAPI interfaces changes a lot between models, and is poorly documented, so Linux support is not exhaustive for most models. There currently two SMAPI interfaces available: <tt>tpctl</tt> for older ThinkPads, and <tt>tp_smapi</tt> for newer ones.

{{WARN|This driver uses undocumented features and direct hardware access. They thus cannot be guaranteed to work, and may cause arbitrary damage
(especially on models they weren't tested on).}}

==Using the <tt>thinkpad</tt> module==

This solution consists of a module, called <tt>thinkpad</tt>, and a user-space tool caled <tt>tpctl</tt>. It provides very rich functionality for older ThinkPads, but on newer ThinkPads much of this functionality is exposed and supported through an ACPI interface and the SMAPI access does not work anymore. For details, see the [http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/README README] and [http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/SUPPORTED-MODELS list of supported models].

* Project page: http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/
* You need to download the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1212&package_id=29354t thinkpad module] and [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1212&package_id=1204 tpctl userspace tool].

==Using the <tt>tp_smapi</tt> module==

The <tt>tp_smapi</tt> kernel module uses the current SMAPI interface to expose some features of the SMAPI BIOS via a sysfs interface. Currently, the only implemented functionality is control over battery charging (this is useful for [[Maintenance#Battery_Treatment|increasing battery lifetime]], or for using a leftover under-spec power supply that can't handle the combined power draw of running and charging).

* Project page: http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/
* You need to donwnload only the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1212&package_id=171579 tp_smapi kernel module].

To compile and load the module:

# tar xzvf tp_smapi-0.06.tgz
# cd tp_smapi-0.06
# make load

To install permanently (optional):

# make install
# modprobe tp_smapi

Example of usage:

# echo 40 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/start_charge_thresh
# echo 70 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/stop_charge_thresh
# cat /sys/devices/platform/smapi/*_charge_thresh
40
70

To unconditionally inhibit charging for 17 minutes:

# echo 17 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/inhibit_charge_minutes

To cancel charge inhbiting:

# echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/inhibit_charge_minutes

If you get a "not supported error", your laptop doesn't provide the specific function (or at least not via SMAPI).

Other things that can be controlled through SMAPI, but are not supported in this version of the driver, include forcing battery discharge, PCI bus power saving, CPU power saving control, extended smart battery information, CD/DVD drive speed control and fan control. See the exported symbols in
PWRMGRIF.DLL or TPPWR32.DLL in your Windows partition for more hints.

====Models on which this driver works (at least some functions)====
* ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T43p}}, {{T42p}}, {{X41}} (all functions)
* ThinkPad {{X40}}, {{G41}} (some of the functions)

For the details, see the README file inside the package.
If you have new data, please report it on the [[Talk:Editing SMAPI support for Linux|discussion]] page.

====Models on which none of the functions work====
* ThinkPad {{T40}}, {{T40p}}, {{R50p}}, {{R40}}, {{X31}} and probably all earlier models. These apparently don't have the relevant capabilities, even under Windows.

Please update the above and report your experience on the [[Talk:Editing SMAPI support for Linux|discussion]] page. If the module loads but gives "not supported" errors when you try to use it, report whether the corresponding functionality is available under Windows - maybe your ThinkPad just can't do that.

[[Category:Tools]] [[Category:Patches]]

Talk:SMAPI support for Linux

2005-12-06T08:24:44Z

Lammic:

Problem with high power drain in ACPI sleep

2005-02-02T08:59:17Z

Lammic:

Information about the problem of too high power drain in ACPI sleep mode.

==Problem description==
Several people realised that their ThinkPads eat up too much power while suspended to ram via ACPI. Compared to APM suspend to ram the power drain is experienced to be about 10 times as high, 2-5 Watts. This empties the battery within one or two days.

==Affected Models==
*Different symptoms have been reported for different models. In some models the origin of the power drain is obvious ([[Problem with LCD backlight remaining on during ACPI sleep|backlight on during suspend]]), in other models there is no obvious reason.
*On some models/configurations the higher power drain couldn't even be realized or was at least significantly lower.
*The T4x thinkpad series (T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p) suspends to ram just fine, and there are no components that are obviously left powered up. The ultrabay and network light is on, but that is the same under windows (but under APM sleep to RAM those lights are OFF).
The following table gives an overview of the models suffering from the mysterious power drain. To find out about your model, you may use the following [[ACPI sleep power drain test script | script]]. It creates a file <tt>/var/log/battery.log</tt> which will tell you if you are affected or not.
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
! style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#ffcfbc;" | affected models
! style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#cfefcf;" | unaffected models
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#fff0e0;" |
*[[:Category:T40 | T40]]
**2373-MU3
**2373-82U
**2373-92U
**2373-94U
**2373-22G
*[[:Category:T40p | T40p]]
**2373-G1U
**2373-G3U
**2373-G3G
* [[:Category:T41 | T41]]
**2379-DJU
**2373-9HU
**2373-4FG
**2373-2FG
* [[:Category:T42 | T42]]
**2378-DUU
* [[:Category:R40 | R40]]
** 2722-5MG
** 2722-B3G
* [[:Category:X21 | X21]]
* [[:Category:T30 | T30]]
** 2366-81A
* [[:Category:R51 | R51]]
** 1829-EHG
| style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#e9f9e9;" |
*[[:Category:T41p | T41p]]
**2373-GKG
**2373-GGG
**[[2373-GHG]]
*[[:Category:T42p | T42p]]
**[[2373-HTG]]
**[[2373-W6M]]
**2373-KXM
*[[:Category:R50p | R50p]]
|}

==Affected Operating Systems==

*Linux, all flavours.
*Windows, for some models as well (only when using non-IBM drivers).

==Status==
The cause of the problem is not really clear, yet.

A faulty DSDT might be responsible for the phenomena. The thinkpad T4x DSDT has a few small bugs, none of which should cause the extra power drain. (Interesting to note: The DSDT from BIOS 3.13 (Nov 04) for the T42p compiles without bugs.)

There is a interesting discussion taking place in the [http://bugme.osdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3022 OSDL Bugzilla].

Update: it seems that the most significant difference can be made by properly turning off the video chip.

==Solutions==
===For Thinkpads with Radeon graphic driver===
A proposed solution is to remove the CONFIG_PPC_PMAC condition for enabling D2 sleep in drivers/video/aty/radeon_pm.c as discussed in [http://bugme.osdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3022 kernel bug 3022]. There you can also find patches doing this. The patches devide in unconditional ones like [http://carrot.hep.upenn.edu/~vbraun/kernel-T4x/i386/patch-2.6.11-rc2-radeonfb-D2.patch.bz2 this one for 2.6.11-rc2] and conditional ones. The conditional ones only do D2 on models where it has been reported to work, the unconditional ones force D2 sleep on every model and you might experience hangs on resume with those.

For [[:Category:Fedora Core | Fedora Core]] there's are precompiled patched kernels (2.6.11-rc2 based) available:
*[http://carrot.hep.upenn.edu/~vbraun/kernel-T4x/test/kernel-DANGEROUS-T4x-2.6.11-8.i386.rpm kernel with unconditional patch applied]
*[http://carrot.hep.upenn.edu/~vbraun/kernel-T4x/test/kernel-T4x-2.6.11-8.i386.rpm kernel with conditional patch applied].

If you try, please send the result (hang yes/no, battery drain yes/no) with the precise model number (for example, I have a IBM thinkpad T41 2379-DJU) to <tt>vbraun at physics dot upenn dot edu</tt>, it would be nice if your subject line would include "RADEONFB:" to make sure that I do not miss any emails.

'''ATTENTION!'''<br />
This solution enables doing suspend-to-D2 on non-PPC-machines, which is not tested at all and supposed to be the wrong thing to do!
Be careful and have a look at [http://bugme.osdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3022 the bugs discussion] before applying the patch.

===Other models===
Nothing yet.

[[Category:R40]] [[Category:R50]] [[Category:R50p]] [[Category:R51]] [[Category:R51p]] [[Category:T30]] [[Category:T40]] [[Category:T40p]] [[Category:T41]] [[Category:T41p]] [[Category:T42]] [[Category:T42p]] [[Category:X30]] [[Category:X31]] [[Category:X40]]

Ordering Recovery CDs

2004-09-28T08:10:35Z

Lammic: /* Country overview */

Information on getting Recovery CDs from IBM.

The information on this page is unofficial. It is gathered from personal experiences. It is here to raise your chances of success when you give it a try yourself.

==About Recovery CDs==
Recovery CDs enable you to reproduce the original software state on your ThinkPad. Modern ThinkPads have a [[The PreDesktop Area | PreDesktop area]], which's purpose is to make Recovery CDs obsolete. There are, however, reasons why you might still want to have them, and for the time being they are available on request. Also it seems to depend on your country (see below).

Recovery CDs are localized, meaning that there are specific versions for each language. The language you will get depends on the language of the OS that was shipped with your ThinkPad. There's usually no way to get CDs in a different language from IBM.

==How to get them==
The normal procedure is to contact the IBM service and ask for them. This can be done by eMail or phone.

If you actually get them or not, seems to be more a personal decision of the service person dealing with you than following fixed rules.

They will usually expect you to tell them a good reason for your request (see below).
As with every service request, you'll also have to provide your model and serial number to verify the warranty state. You can be almost certain not to get the CDs after your warranty has expired. The model number is also used to determine which CDs you will get.

Also, orders done during the first month after purchase have proven to be the most successful.

==Good reasons to tell==
*You replaced your hard drive.
*You installed Linux or some other OS and accidentally removed/destroyed [[The PreDesktop Area | the PreDesktop area]].

==What happens then==
Once it's decided that you get the CDs, they usually get shipped very fast. Times from 16h to 3 days have been reported, 3 days being the time to expect. The shipping can even happing without prior confirmation of your request, so don't be worried if you hear nothing within this time.

==Country overview==
Please put an entry for your country into this table if it's missing and you made a try to get the Recovery CDs.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
| CDs recieved in || CDs were denied in
|-
| Germany ||
|-
| Italy ||
|}

[[Category:R40]] [[Category:R50]] [[Category:R50p]] [[Category:R51]] [[Category:R51p]] [[Category:T40]] [[Category:T40p]] [[Category:T41]] [[Category:T41p]] [[Category:T42]] [[Category:T42p]] [[Category:X40]]