	aKpi - QT/KDE acpi frontend for Linux-based Operatingsystems
	version 0.3.4


	(c) Thomas Winkler, 2002




	TABLE of CONTENTS

	1) about aKpi and it's current state
	2) requirements
	3) getting and installing aKpi
  4) Toshiba Laptop Extras support
	5) known limitations and how to report bugs
	6) author & contact
	7) contributions
	8) license

	Also have a look at  http://akpi.scmd.at where you can find most parts of this
	documentation in an HTML version.


	1) about aKpi and it's current state

	   aKpi provides a simple GUI frontend for acpi. It makes heavy use of Trolltech's QT library
	   and for some parts some KDE specific library functions are used. For those who are not running
	   KDE there is an option that disables all KDE library calls and makes aKpi a pure QT application.

	   Currently aKpi provides a browser that presents the content of /proc/acpi/ in a convenient way.
	   Those values are update every X seconds (polling).
	   Furthermore akpi provides an icon in KDE's tray-bar that shows the current capacity of the machine's
	   battery and the AC power state.

	2) requirements

	   Although the aKpi code itself should be (thanks to QT) pretty OS independent there are certain
	   requirements that need to be met if you want to use aKpi. First of all you need a Linux kernel
	   and apply the acpi patches (go to http://sf.net/projects/acpi/ to get them). Some recent ac
	   kernels as well as the current 2.5 kernel series already offer acpi support by default.
	   Secondly you should have a system with an acpi BIOS. Older machines typically use apm instead
	   of acpi but most of the new machines have acpi support (actually only acpi support in many cases)
	   in their BIOS.
	   I've no idea what the status of acpi support is for *BSD operating systems but I have some
	   doubt that it will look the same as with Linux so aKpi won't be very usefull there (no proc fs).

	3) getting and installing aKpi

	   To use aKpi your Linux kernel has to support acpi (acpi version 20020308 and above should work).
	   aKpi source code can be downloaded from http://akpi.scmd.at
	   There are also deb and rpm packages available. Have a look at the website to get the latest versions.
	   Compiling should not be that hard. Besides a c++ compiler you'll the moc (Meta Object Compiler)
	   from Trolltech. If you want to re-generate the makefile yourself (out of akpi.pro) you'll also
	   need qmake from Trolltech. moc as well as qmake should be available for all current distributions
	   that offer QT3 support. In addition to that you'll of course need need QT and KDE libraries and
	   the appropriate include files.
	   There is no configure file. Just do a make in the source directory. If everything works fine
	   you'll get an akpi executeable in the source sub-folder. To make library and include paths fit
	   your environment you might have to modify some parameters in source/Makefile. The most interesting
	   of those parameters might be INCPATH, LIBS and MOC.
	   Please don't forget to make sure that the QTDIR is set correctly to fit your system.
	   Unfortunately I'm not able to offer any further help with those parameters at this place since
	   I'm not familiar with all the Linux-distributions out there. The preconfigured settings work
	   nicely on Debian systems and might do so as well on other systems. I'd be interested in your
	   feedback if you had to tweak these settings or not. Moreover I'd be thankful if you could offer
	   ssh access to machines running current versions of RedHat, SuSE or Mandrake. This way I could
	   check if aKpi builds cleanly there as well and I maybe could change the default makefile settings
	   to get aKpi to compile cleanly on those systems.
	   To change basic settings (such as image paths) have a look at config.h in the source sub-folder.
	   There you'll also find a #define to switch between the pure Qt version or the KDE version.
	   Please note that not only the aKpi executeable is needed to run the application but also some *.png
	   files that are located in the source/pics sub-folder. Please be sure to place those files in exactly
	   the path that you've entered in config.h

	4) Toshiba Laptop Extras support

	   Starting with aKpi 0.3.3 some special features for Toshiba laptops have
	   been added. The code was contributed by David B. Banas (dbanas@taoofdigital.com).
	   It makes use of the so called "Toshiba Laptop Extras" which are part of the
	   Linux ACPI implementation (see requirements). In addition to that you need an
	   extra patch for the Kernel (the patch can be found at http://akpi.scmd.at).
	   To make use of the "Toshiba Laptop Extras" from within aKpi you have to do
	   the following things:
	   - get a Linux kernel (2.4.x) and apply the ACPI patches (see requirements)
	     note: current 2.5.x Kernels are already shipped with ACPI support
     - apply the ACPI-Toshiba patch from http://akpi.scmd.at
	   - enable ACPI support in your Kernel (as well as the "Toshiba Laptop Extras")
	   - build aKpi as described above (installation)
     - in the source directory of aKpi you will find a subdirectory called toshiba
       - enter this direcktory and type "make"
       - this will generate fan, lcd and video executeables
       - copy those 3 files into the same directory as the aKpi executeable
	     - the owner of these files has to be set to root (chown root)
	     - the SUID bit has to be set for all 3 files
	   - that's it - aKpi should now offer you several additional features if you own
	     an ACPI enabled laptop from Toshiba

	   Starting with aKpi 0.3.4 another feature for Toshiba laptops has been added.
	   It now allows you to control the sensitivity of your touchpad. To make use of
	   this you have to do the following steps:

	   - get the cPad driver from http://www.janerob.com/rob/ts5100/cPad/index.shtml
	   - get and apply cPad patch from http://akpi.scmd.at
	   - build and install the cPad driver as described in it's documentation
     - in the source directory of aKpi you will find a subdirectory called toshiba
       - enter this direcktory and type "make cpad"
       - this will generate the cpad executeable
       - copy this file into the same directory as the aKpi executeable
       - the owner of the file has to be set to root (chown root)
       - the SUID bit has to be set for the file
	   - that's it - you sould now be able to control the mouse sensitivity of
	     your touchpad from within aKpi

	   As you might have noticed: Enabling the extended features of aKpi for Toshiba
	   laptops requires some work and knowledge from the user. We are very well aware
	   of this fact. Suggestions about how this process can be simplified are always
	   welcome.

	   After reading the installation instructions you might raise the following
	   question: "Why do the toshiba files have to be owned by root and need the SUID
	   bit set?"
	   As you might have noticed only root user is allowed to write to the /proc/acpi
	   filesystem. For the additional features write access is needed which is achieved
	   by having those control executables owned by root and the SUID bit set.
	   Again: If you have any suggestions or ideas about this issue and how it can be
	          addressed - don't hesitate and write an e-mail to dbanas@taoofdigital.com

	5) known limitations and how to report bugs

	   There sure are some bugs in aKpi. I've been testing and developing aKpi now for some time now and
	   I can say that (for me) it seems to work as expected but that doesn't mean all that
	   much. If you find bugs please report them via mail (see below). Contributions to aKpi are always
	   welcome.
	   If you've made some improvements on the code I'd be happy to hear and learn from you.

	6) author & contact

	   I just wrote this little tool because I was missing some type of battery status control as it is
	   provided by other operating systems.
	   If you want to contact me please send an email to akpi@wnk.at
	   You contact me either in English or German.

	7) contributions

	   Thoshiba Laptop Extras support
		   version: aKpi0.3.3 and above
	     author:  David B. Banas
       contact: dbanas@taoofdigital.com

	8) license

	   Although there is no copyright notice (yet) in most of the source files,
	   this program is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html).
