toshiba tecra 8100 acpi problems

okay, i asked earlier in the new to linux forum, but this probably belongs here. and since i've been able to hunt down alot more information related to the problem, i thought i would repost with hopes that someone might have more insight.

i'm quite fond of knoppix and i love how it works but the cpu fan (acpi) on my toshiba tecra 8100 laptop does not run correctly. while running knoppix, gkrellm shows my cpu temp hovering around 64 deg and spikes to 70 when the cd runs or when the system is crunching numbers. WAY too hot. this is because:
1) the fan does not turn on when it should.
2) the intel "speed step technology" does not step down the cpu when it starts to get hot.

i have the same exact issue in windows 2000. from what i've read here: http://www.buzzard.me.uk/toshiba/index.html , the problem is related to the fact that the bios doesn't know how to handle a 32 bit os.

according to the toshiba website (support document 98060139 "Tecra 8100 - Windows 2000 Clean Installation - General Information"), this is a known issue and requires special steps during the installation of windows in order to make the acpi work correctly. the sequence is as follows:

Quote:

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1. With the Windows 2000 CD in the CD-Rom drive power the computer on while holding down the "C" key which boots the Tecro[sic] 8100 to the Windows 2000 CD.
2. When you see the following message displayed at the bottom of the screen "Press F6 for SCSI drivers, etc," DO NOT press F6 Press the F5 key instead.
3. Use the arrow keys to scroll up to the choice:
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC.
Note: This forces an ACPI install and the W2K Pre-Setup continues.

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i have flashed my bios with the most recent release, and i still have this problem both in windows (due to the fact that i was not aware of the above stated installation steps) and in linux. i've found a utility to keep my cpu happy in windows, but i haven't been able to figure out how to solve the problem in linux.

my current set up is with knoppix dvd release 4.0 with kernel 2.6.12. i also have access to the cd version 3.8 with kernel 2.6.11. both versions have the same problem. i have written a persistent image to a usb flash drive, and i have installed klik.

there is a package written for linux to control the acpi, but i can't install it due to its gtk+ dependencies. the package and source code can be found here: http://www.buzzard.me.uk/toshiba/download.html

johnathan buzzard has written two good technical documents general to older toshiba laptops which are a bit beyond my understanding about cmm, sci, and hci but in case they might shed some light on the problem the documents can be found here: http://www.buzzard.me.uk/toshiba/docs.html

i'm not a coder, and i'm very new to linux so i'm not too sure how to address this issue in knoppix. anyone have any ideas?

found a bit more. upon more searching, i found that there are some acpi utilities included with the knoppix 4.0 dvd under /procs/acpi

i looked here and found the following directory structure:
ac_adapter button event info sleep wakeup
alarm dsdt fadt power_resource thermal_zone
battery embedded_controller fan processor video

when i look in this directory, there is only a lising for fan state. nothing more.
when i attempt to togle the fan using the echo enable > /proc/acpi/fan/FAN/state, the fan state then shows on, but the fan is not running.

i also attempted an apt-get for fnfx (another toshiba acpi utility) but failed miserably.

i'd really like to be able to toggle my fan on, as otherwise i'm way to hot. ANY ideas at all?

just in case you think i'm a complete idiot ... yes, the fan works fine in windows.

i have to use a utility to make it work, but it does run. this is NOT a hardware issue (or at least not a fan hardware issue). i need to configure knoppix to be able to manually toggle my fan on. there are utilities to make this work, but i can't make them run. i don't know why.

near as i can tell, i should have a toshiba_acpi directory in /proc/acpi/, but it's not there.

have i not given enough information? need more? asked in the wrong forum? any bones at all? i've literally fried hardware trying to solve this one.

a gold doubloon to the person who can turn on my fan, arrrr! i'm on my knees here.

try modprobe toshiba

you are my hero. it was actually modprobe toshiba_acpi ... but it was close enough to tell me what i needed. my cpu thanks you.

you are herby entitled to 100% of doubloons in my posession. :)