ACPI=FORCE

[Vincent Trouilliez]

> I'm not sure which version of the 2.6 kernel series it was changed in, but it 
> seems on a couple of the earlier ones, the 
> 
> CONFIG_ACPI_BLACKLIST_YEAR:                                             │
>   │                                                                         │
>   │ enter a 4-digit year, eg. 2001 to disable ACPI by default               │
>   │ on platforms with DMI BIOS date before January 1st that year.           │
>   │ "acpi=force" can be used to override this mechanism.                    │
>   │                                                                         │
>   │ Enter 0 to disable this mechanism and allow ACPI to                     │
>   │ run by default no matter what the year.  (default)   
> 
> was not available and the default was to disable ACPI by default on any 
> machine with a bios earlier than 2000 and one had to manually enter the 
> acpi=force boot option either in lilo or grub. Ubuntu's Hoary 2.6.10-5-386 
> seems to have default config set to allow ACPI to run regardless of the year 
> of the bios. I have one machine here that has a GA-7ZX mobo with AMI bios 
> dated prior to 2000 and with a couple of distros in order to get full ACPI 
> functionality, I would have to use the acpi=force perimeter.
> 
> I noticed when I first installed Hoary that I no longer had to tinker with 
> that option and then when I went into the kernel for a recompile I found what 
> I mention above and the light came on, kind of like "Ah Ha Charlie! Thas what 
> has happened." ;-)
> 
> But ACPI seems to have a lot of play in usb and hot plugging. I'm not sure I 
> understand all the ramifications of it, but Linus over on fa.linux.kernel or 
> one of the other guys that hang out there might be willing to take the time 
> out to explain it. If one asks nicely. But then they may not. You might get 
> told to RTFM, depending on how busy they are on any particular given day. ;-)
> 
> I can't explain it. I don't know, and I just haven't got around to Googling 
> out all the information nor completely RTFM myself, but I need to. I do know 
> that it's been talked about a bunch over there... ;-)
> 
> http://shorterlink.com/?SMA4YR
> 
> CC


Thanks Charlie, that would explain why USB hotplug work in Hoary for me
but not in Warty. However I tried adding the acpi=force option in GRUB,
but it doesn't seem to work.
Here is my kernel line in  menu.lst, did I do something wrong ?

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hda2 ro quiet splash
acpi=force vga=773


--
Vince