[tlinux-users:07580] Re:

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006 16:16:43 -0800 (PST)
John T <[email protected]> wrote:

>  bought a Toshiba L11-202 notebook a few weeks ago and tried to install SUSE 10 on it. The installation went fine 

same experience here (P15 and 5101)

>but I have some problems with the acpi modules. I know that Toshiba recommends Windows XP but I have nowhere to ask for assistance since I couldn't find help on Linux forums.

this is the right place

> I have to mention that I haven't recompiled the kernel since I considered it wasn't necessarily. Until now the acpi modules informs me about the processor temperature(at 57 degrees Celsius the fan starts and at 52 degrees Celsius it stops) 

This is the only real danger I've seen, and it's a BIOS problem, not an ACPI one.  If you're fan is turning on properly, you're in decent shape.  

>and the only function that works is suspend to hdd. The battery level is not indicated because there is no file in /proc/acpi/battery/ to read information about the battery.

here my experience differs; the battery applet does work.  

> Except acpi the other hardware was detected by SUSE at installation and works fine. I couldn't use the Toshiba_acpi module because this laptop has a Phoenix BIOS but this is not such a big problem.
>   Do you have any idea why acpi isn't working properly on SUSE and how could I fix the problem?

others will comment, but ACPI seems to have been a standardization that got frozen half way through. 

>   Do you think there is any danger for the notebook to continue using SUSE, that limited working of the acpi modules might cause damage to my notebook or it is safe to use SUSE?

My 5151 came to me hand-me-down because it was cooking hard drives and batteries -- the fan wasn't turning on at all.  Google is wonderful -- it turned up a bunch of hate mail about 3 years ago the gist of which was that the BIOS was mismatched to the CPU -- Toshiba and Intel were fingerpointing at each other.  And there was a new BIOS to be downloaded and installed.  Which I did -- making the problem go away.  If your fan is turning on (which you are saying it is) then this sea story doesn't apply to you.  The only thing unsafe about Linux (SuSE or otherwise) is that BSOD may go away which seems to cause withdrawal symptoms in some users.