xref: /openbmc/linux/Documentation/power/apm-acpi.rst (revision 0898782247ae533d1f4e47a06bc5d4870931b284)
1*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab============
2*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho ChehabAPM or ACPI?
3*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab============
4*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab
5*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho ChehabIf you have a relatively recent x86 mobile, desktop, or server system,
6*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabodds are it supports either Advanced Power Management (APM) or
7*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho ChehabAdvanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI).  ACPI is the newer
8*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabof the two technologies and puts power management in the hands of the
9*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehaboperating system, allowing for more intelligent power management than
10*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabis possible with BIOS controlled APM.
11*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab
12*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho ChehabThe best way to determine which, if either, your system supports is to
13*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabbuild a kernel with both ACPI and APM enabled (as of 2.3.x ACPI is
14*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabenabled by default).  If a working ACPI implementation is found, the
15*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho ChehabACPI driver will override and disable APM, otherwise the APM driver
16*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabwill be used.
17*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab
18*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho ChehabNo, sorry, you cannot have both ACPI and APM enabled and running at
19*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabonce.  Some people with broken ACPI or broken APM implementations
20*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabwould like to use both to get a full set of working features, but you
21*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabsimply cannot mix and match the two.  Only one power management
22*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabinterface can be in control of the machine at once.  Think about it..
23*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab
24*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho ChehabUser-space Daemons
25*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab------------------
26*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho ChehabBoth APM and ACPI rely on user-space daemons, apmd and acpid
27*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabrespectively, to be completely functional.  Obtain both of these
28*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabdaemons from your Linux distribution or from the Internet (see below)
29*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehaband be sure that they are started sometime in the system boot process.
30*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho ChehabGo ahead and start both.  If ACPI or APM is not available on your
31*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehabsystem the associated daemon will exit gracefully.
32*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab
33*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab  =====  =======================================
34*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab  apmd   http://ftp.debian.org/pool/main/a/apmd/
35*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab  acpid  http://acpid.sf.net/
36*151f4e2bSMauro Carvalho Chehab  =====  =======================================
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