# i8kutils problem

## misc

Hello, I have an inspiron 5150 and im trying to get lm-sensors to work. I know that I need the i8kutils, which I emerged but i cant install the i8k module like it says in the doc. It says to insmod i8k.o force=1 however I don't have an i8k.o file. I assume that it puts it in the kernel source /usr/src/linux/drivers/char but it's just not there. Well, it USE to be there and when I  tired loading it, it said: "couldn't find the kernel version the module was compiled for". So, I thought after a make clean modules modules_install it would fix it, but it just deleted the .o file and now I can't get it back, even after another emerge of i8kutils. 

Does anyone know what the problem is?

Thanks!

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## misc

Ok, I know now how i8k.o is generated - it is via the dell support in the CPU menu of menuconifg. However when I set it as a module and do modprobe i8k, i get this error:

Using /lib/modules/2.4.21/kernel/drivers/char/i8k.o

/lib/modules/2.4.21/kernel/drivers/char/i8k.o: init_module: No such device

Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.

      You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg

Anyone with any suggestions?

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## nalin

For 2.4 kernels find the i8k documentation, I think i used the stuff in some subdir of /usr/src/linux/Documentation...

If i recall it lists some flags that can be passed to modprobe via /etc/modules.conf (edit /etc/modules.d/i386 then update-modules to get them there).  One of the flags was something along the lines of forcing load despite the module thinking your computer is incompatible, thats the flag you want.

BTW, it gives only cpu tems and battery stats, no fan control and I cant remeber if fan checking was functional.  For gkrellm2 the plugin left something to be desired, it takes up like 30% of cpu everytime you start gkrellm2 and continues to take the cpu time until you click the fans to turn off auto monitoring.  I was using it for some time but it was rough enough that I am looking for a better solution

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## misc

I remember trying to force it actually but it still wouldn't load. Anyway it doesn't matter, I've decided to move to the 2.6 kernel and it's been working really well. I have ACPI working and gkrellm shows the battery status (not the temperature but I haven't really had time / be stuffed to stuff around with it) but all my /proc/acpi info is correct.  The only thing that's not working is 3D but I'm sure I'd be able to get that going with a bit of fiddling. Everything else is fine (I think it even has wireless support but again haven't tried).

So, goodbye to 2.4!

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## vificunero

 *misc wrote:*   

> I remember trying to force it actually but it still wouldn't load. Anyway it doesn't matter, I've decided to move to the 2.6 kernel and it's been working really well. I have ACPI working and gkrellm shows the battery status (not the temperature but I haven't really had time / be stuffed to stuff around with it) but all my /proc/acpi info is correct.  The only thing that's not working is 3D but I'm sure I'd be able to get that going with a bit of fiddling. Everything else is fine (I think it even has wireless support but again haven't tried).
> 
> So, goodbye to 2.4!

 

Hi. What's your bios version? I had previously i8k module and utils working perfectly and the battery status working with some operations on acpi. 

Now I have upgraded my bios to version A22 and it shows me, with kernel 2.4.22 (not with the ones before) , my battery status. I guess you can have a look to the temperature searching in /proc/acpi/thermal something like that (I don't have my inspiron at the moment). But i8k doesnt' work so I guess it's do to the fact of this new bios version. 

My 3D works only with 2.4.22 kernels: I simply use the radeon module in 2.4.22 kernel. With 2.4.20 serie and xfree-drm I can't make it doing 3D.

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## misc

Well, I'm not too fussed about lmsensors anymore. I must say that the 2.6kernel works perfectly for me in every way - acpi works, and with the latest ATI drivers, the 3D works fine too. I just have one problem. I assume that you have the same notebook as me right? well, do you use either galeon or mozilla-firebird? Because for some reason, whenever I am using either of those browsers, the whole computer just freezes at random. I can move the mouse but thats it. 

It use to do it also with xscreensaver running but I fixed that by enabling power management after a certain amount of time, instead of just running the screensaver all night.

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## vificunero

Well I have just had a better look at your first post:  I have a 5100 inspiron, sorry.

But I can tell you that I have a little problem with epiphany like your one: it freezes for just 2, 3 seconds. And my xscreensaver sometimes just take a lot amount of  cpu resources... I will try to fix it with your suggestion. Thank's.   :Smile: 

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## misc

hmm quick reply! 

Yeah i'd suggest to move to 2.6, or at least just try it out. I know with the 2.4 kernels, I had to stuff around about getting patches and merging them all into the one kernel without problems. You don't need to worry about that with 2.6. The only thing that didn't work was vmware but I eventually got that working fine.

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## vificunero

 *misc wrote:*   

> hmm quick reply! 
> 
> Yeah i'd suggest to move to 2.6, or at least just try it out. I know with the 2.4 kernels, I had to stuff around about getting patches and merging them all into the one kernel without problems. You don't need to worry about that with 2.6. The only thing that didn't work was vmware but I eventually got that working fine.

 

So I will test it as soon as possible: I have planned to wait the final release but now I'm curious to see if I can fix this problems.

Thank's again. I will shortly report you my progress... at least the browsers stuff.

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## nalin

5150 here too vifi but I agree completely with 2.6 suggestions. Excepting problems with the early tests, (<3 or 4) its been rather smooth sailing.  I think that 2.6 brings a lot of support to (newer dell) laptops that is lacking completely in 2.4, to the point that I went through 3 or 4 different 2.4 kernels before I found an adequete but still minimal hardware support.  With some of the backporting and bios upgrades and the like this in no longer completely the case, but I find that 2.6 runs faster and supports more, and has plenty of stuff to play with (swswap and cpufreq are my favorite ways of locking up my machine). 

I think, or rather suspect, after all this is a laptop I halt and take to work each day and my desktops are more then happy with 2.4, that there are some stability issues with 2.6.  Additionally I have found that quite a bit of stuff need 2.4 to compile (incedentally most of this stuff should not be used under 2.6, such as alsa-drivers, xfree-drm, and lmsensors), but other then the snags associated with familiarizing onself with changed stuff, 2.6 is more then I thought it would be and then some

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## axses

Since you are talking about 2.6 kernel and the inspiron laptops , i have the inspiron 5100 , and the only thing stopping me from switching to 2.6 kernel is the wireless support , ie the cardbus. 

Last time I tried the 2.6 kernel , I couldnt get pcmcia-cs to compile, and the inbuilt kernel stuff didnt work , is there a fix for this yet ??

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## nalin

I got some new hardware and decided to get the newest one last night.  Its been a while since I had wireless card going, as I was under the impression it was conflicting with b44 (built in broadcom ethernet driver), but I decided to give it a go and seems to work flawlessly (minus the beep on load and unload), as does b44.  Incedentally I had problems with previous versions of 2.6, with pcmcia working only when I booted with the card in place and then only until i removed it (ie reinserting was not working), however this was not at all the case yesterday.

With dell 5150 and i believe 8000 and probably yours too you need to comment out something in etc...fuck im lazy....hold on...

Ok get rid of "port 0x800-0x8ff" in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts, otherwise your maching will lock up

I got pcmcia-cs by compiling it on 2.4, not sure if this is the proper way to go about it but it seems to work for me.

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