7.04 to 7.10 upgrade tip

[Default User]

Just a quick tip, for whoever it may help.  

Just upgraded from Ubuntu 7.04 to 7.10.  Equipment: 2004 Toshiba
Satellite M-35X laptop, 1.4 Mhz Intel Celeron M processor.  Dumbed-down
BIOS has NO option to enable/disable or alter ACPI. 

After doing upgrade for the second time (another story for another
time), the computer would just turn off automatically, about a minute
after bootup.  Not shut down gracefully, just turn off like a light
switch.  Hard drive heads could not even be heard parking.  Running on
battery or line current, no difference.  

That was from a network upgrade.  I re-upgraded using the alternate
install cd.  Luckily I was able to reinstall 7.04 first, since I had
used Partimage to back up the system just before upgrading. Same result.
What to do, what to do . . .   

I remembered something about the adding the line 

acpi=off 

to the file /boot/grub/menu.lst, when Ubuntu complains about a "buggy"
BIOS (although 7.04 didn't seem to think the BIOS was "buggy").  So
booting from a live System Rescue CD, using the nano text editor I
added: 

acpi=off 

to the section that looks like this, at the end of the line that starts
with "kernel", right after "splash": 

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=(whatever) ro quiet
splash 

so that it looks like this: 

## ## End Default Options ##

title		Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=(whatever) ro quiet
splash acpi=off

[disregard the apparent line break after "ro" in this message.]  

It worked!  The computer no automatically longer shuts off, either on
battery or line current (until I tell it to).  

But . . .  I also apparently don't have ACPI running either.  ("Don't
know what it is, but I want it.")  The fan turns on and off
intermittently, apparently as needed, just like before.  But I do wonder
what I am "missing" by not having ACPI running, and if I have done
something horribly wrong.  

I hope this helps someone out there.