Content-type: text/html Manpage of ACPITOOL

ACPITOOL

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 15 Jul 2004
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

acpitool - a Linux ACPI client, allowing you to query or set ACPI values  

SYNOPSIS

acpitool [ -abBefFhlsStTvw ]  

DESCRIPTION

acpitool is a Linux ACPI client. It simply reads /proc/acpi entries and presents the output in a meaningfull, human-readable format.

It provides a.o. information on battery status, AC adapter presence, thermal reading, etc. This command is most useful on laptops with an ACPI compliant BIOS and a Linux kernel, preferably from the 2.6 series, with ACPI enabled.

acpitool also allows the machine to be put into standby. If your laptop is a Toshiba, it also allows you to set the LCD brighness level and toggle the fan on/off.  

OPTIONS

-a
Show AC adapter presence
-b
Show battery status information, available batteries only.
-B
Show battery status information, all batteries.
-e
Show extended information : more info on the batteries, ACPI version, kernel version.
-f
Show fan status.
-F x
Force the fan on (x=1) or off (x=0). Works only on Toshiba laptops. Requires write access to /proc/acpi/toshiba/fan
-h
Show help text.
-l x
Set LCD brightness level to x, where x is in the range 0..7. Works only on Toshiba laptops. Requires write access to /proc/acpi/tochiba/lcd
Illegal values for x will result in the value being set to either 0 or 7.
-s, --suspend to memory
Put the machine into sleep state S3, if possible. Requires write access to /proc/acpi/sleep (kernel 2.4.x) or /sys/power/state (kernel 2.6.x)
-S, --suspend to disk ?
Put the machine into sleep state S4, if possible. Requires write access to /proc/acpi/sleep (kernel 2.4.x) or /sys/power/state (kernel 2.6.x)
-t
Show thermal zone(s) information.
-T
Show supported Toshiba ACPI extensions, currently being LCD brightness level, video out routing (what display is the video chip sending to) and fan status (on/off, forced or not).
-v
Show acpitool version number and exit.
-w
Show the wakeup capable devices. (Available since ACPI 20040715, check your version).
 

REMARKS

This program absolutely requires a Linux kernel with ACPI support enabled. This program will not work without it.

Don't blame me if acpitool can't suspend your laptop : there are quite some problematic laptops out there. Check the acpi-bugzilla list if you don't believe me ;)

Note that some options, like -F, -l and -s, require write access to some of the /proc/acpi entries. This requires acpitool either to be run as root or either administrative measures must be taken, most likely by root, to allow ordinary users to write to these files. Creating a group for ACPI users and setting permissions accordingly comes to mind.

Also note that older laptops (< 2000) often simply don't have ACPI support, they support APM only, which may however sometimes work even better than ACPI . . .  

BUGS

None that I know of yet. Let me know if you think you found one.  

FILES

/proc/acpi
/proc/acpi/toshiba
/sys/power/state  

HOMEPAGE

http://freeunix.dyndns.org:8088/site2/acpitool.shtml  

AUTHOR

This program is written and maintained by David Leemans (davidleemans |at| tiscali |dot| be) and may be freely distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY for this program.

 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
REMARKS
BUGS
FILES
HOMEPAGE
AUTHOR
This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 13:12:10 GMT, July 19, 2004