[SOLVED] /proc/acpi/battery empty with Acer Travelmate notebook

[Piero]

On 17th of June 2005, I posted at 20.22 a problem regarding ACPI, which I
didn't obtain battery status and info on Acer TM2301LM notebook (I use
Fedora Core 4).

I've found out (maybe just me didn't know it! :) ) that Acer Travelmate
notebooks have Smart Battery that isn't supported by linux.
After a deep researches, I've found a driver for Smart Batteries.

Here the solution: http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-5949.html

The driver is
http://shayol.bartol.udel.edu/~rhdt/download/acpi_sbs-20050120.tar.gz .

My steps were:

1) Applying patch acpi-ec-2.6.10.diff located into acpi_sbs-20050120.tar.gz
package as well described in README file (I used 2.6.12 vanilla kernel)
2) Compiling kernel WITHOUT BATTERY and AC support;
3) Compiling driver and install modules

After reboot with new kernel, I loaded SBS (Smart Battery System) modules
with modprobe i2c-acpi-ec and modprobe acpi-sbs

Then, under /proc/acpi/battery I can find BAT0 directory, with info and
state files.

The best feature of this driver is /proc/acpi/sbs/SB0 directory, which
contains info and state files with extended information.
Here an output:



[root at acer-tm2301lm SB0]# cat state
present:                 yes
charging state:          charging
current:                 1045 mA
average current          1061 mA
voltage:                 16754 mV
temperature:             35.1 C
relative charge:         86%
absolute charge:         68%
remaining capacity:      1503 mAh
run time to empty:       n/a
average time to empty:   n/a
average time to full:    1h 42m
[root at acer-tm2301lm SB0]#


[root at acer-tm2301lm SB0]# cat info
present:                 yes
design voltage:          14800 mV
design capacity:         2200 mAh
full charge capacity:    1745 mAh
cycle count:             99
charge reporting error:  1%
SB specification:        v1.1 (without PEC)
manufacturer name:       SANYO
manufacture date:        2004- 9-27
serial number:           32462
device name:             05ZL
device chemistry:        LION
[root at acer-tm2301lm SB0]#


And output of traditional /proc/acpi/battery/BT0 files:


[root at acer-tm2301lm BAT0]# cat state
present:                 yes
capacity state:          ok
charging state:          charged
present rate:            0 mA
remaining capacity:      1472 mAh
present voltage:         16182 mV
[root at acer-tm2301lm BAT0]#


[root at acer-tm2301lm BAT0]# cat info
present:                 yes
design capacity:         2200 mAh
last full capacity:      1745 mAh
battery technology:      rechargeable
design voltage:          14800 mV
model number:            05ZL
serial number:           32462
battery type:            LION
OEM info:                SANYO
[root at acer-tm2301lm BAT0]#


So... I hope can help many people with Acer notebook, and thanks a lot to
Rich Townsend and Bruno Ducrot.

Forgive me for my bad english... I'm italian!

Piero