Minor ThinkPad issues and some questions

Question

What I'm using
IBM ThinkPad R40
Pentium-M 1.4Ghz (Banias)
Mobility Radeon 7500 with 32MB RAM
512MB RAM
Hitachi DVD-ROM/CD-burner combo
PCMICA Gigabit Ethernet card using Realtek r8139 chip (as the onboard one is broke)
Hitachi 40GB 4200rpm HDD
I don't use wireless.
How's Arch installed? (details)
I've used the "base" install CD of the recently released 2007.05 "Duke". I basically took all the default suggestions in regards to partitions (as I'm testing an install process that works best on this ThinkPad).
For the power saving bits:
I installed acpid, powernowd, and powersave.
As well, from the "unsupported" AUR: kpowersave (0.7.x one) and kima.
For the kernel, its the default one but recompiled with resume as one of the HOOKS. Other than that, no other changes were made.
In /etc/rc.conf,
for the MODULES section, I've added: speedstep_centrino and ibm_acpi
for the DAEMONS section, I've added: acpid, powernowd, and powersaved
In /etc/rc.local,
I added: echo enable,0xffff >/proc/acpi/ibm/hotkey
In /etc/modprobe.conf,
I added: options ibm_acpi experimental=1
For some reason the swap partition was never activated, so this is necessary: mkswap /dev/sda2
(Is that a bug in the 2007.05 release?)
For Suspend-to-Disk to work, I had to add the following in /boot/grub/menu.lst
On the line that starts with kernel, I added: resume=/dev/sda2
I got everything I needed to work.
(Everything that mattered to me)
This includes the ThinkPad Fn+keys (F3, F4, and F12), and the two grey keys for Forward and Back in KDE and Firefox. (ThinkPad owners will know these F19 and F20 key through xmodmap). Suspend-to-RAM and Suspend-to-Disk works. Dynamic CPU throttling works. Manually setting the CPU speed works as well (via kpowersave). Through kima KDE applet, I can view CPU speed, uptime and temp on the taskbar.
What's the problem? (and questions)
But not everything is perfect...
(1) When I do Suspend-to-Disk OR when I shutdown the system, the hard disk does NOT shutdown properly (like it was in Windows or my old install of Arch Linux). Instead of a normal cricket sound of the HDD head parking, I get the same sound as if I pushed the power button (no battery installed) while its on. A high-pitched shutdown.
This results in Arch booting up occasionally with a message about HDD not properly shutting down and needing to force a check. This is obviously bad from a data integrity and HDD perspective.
Has anyone else experienced this? How did you resolve this issue?
(2) Once I finished testing Suspend-to-RAM, I check dmesg. I get some lines referring to a problem with the USB ports:
hub 1-0:1.0: over-current change on Port 3
(happens on Port 1 and 4 as well).
Anybody have an idea what its complaining about? Should I ignore it?
(I don't have any USB devices plugged in)
Other questions?
(3) I previous installed Arch Linux 0.72 with hibernate-script and the kernel26beyond kernel without the two issues as noted previously. Since the "Beyond" kernel is no longer being maintained, Is it OK to use the recently released default kernel with hibernate-script? Will it work?
(4) If I use the hibernate-script approach to Suspend-to-RAM and Suspend-to-Disk, what applet or app does on use in KDE to allow you to set the desired speed or power scheme? (I like how kpowersave does things, but that reads off powersave)
As you can see, I almost have my Thinkpad working the way I want it with Arch Linux. There's just a few niggles that need to be resolved. I hope you can help. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Well, I tried both approaches: Kernel with Suspend2 and the regular Kernel (2.6.21.3-1)
Both suffer the same HDD issue, but under slightly different scenarios.
They both will get the problem when you suspend to disk (call it STD from now on). But if you enable "RediSafe-like" function on the Suspend2 side, the HDD problem doesn't occur. It shuts down perfectly. However, when I resume back from STD, I lose all IBM button functionality. When I go to shutdown, the HDD problem appears.
With the regular Kernel, the HDD shutdown issue happens regardless if I STD or shutdown the system.
Either way, I'll disable STD use for now. At least until Arch's regular kernel and Suspend2 one moves to 2.6.22 Kernel. So it IS a Kernel related issue.
Here's how I did the Fn keys for my ThinkPad R40 (Pentium-M 1.4Ghz with Mobility Radeon 7500)
In /etc/acpi/events, I created the following files with their respective contents using Suspend2 for STD.
Please note: I don't have wireless on this notebook, that's why you won't see a Fn-F5 one.
Fn-F3  (Turn off and on display backlight. or Blank screen)
event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001003
action=/etc/acpi/events/backlight.sh
backlight.sh (You will need radeontool from the AUR. Be sure to make this executable. ie: chmod +x backlight.sh)
#!/bin/bash
if [ -e /tmp/backlightoff ]
then
        radeontool light on
        rm /tmp/backlightoff
else
        radeontool light off
        touch /tmp/backlightoff
fi
Press Fn-F3 to blank screen. Press Fn-F3 again to get out of it.
Fn-F4 (Suspend to RAM)
event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001004
action=echo -n mem >/sys/power/state
Fn-F7 (Switches between VGA and your notebook's display. I haven't tested this, but its what I got form the ibm_acpi README!)
event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007
action=echo video_switch > /proc/acpi/ibm/video
Fn-F12 (Need sudo and add your user into the wheel as well as an entry into /etc/sudoers.)
event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100c
action=sudo hibernate
lid (Causes same function as Fn-F4. That is, Suspend to RAM)
event=button/lid
action=echo -n mem >/sys/power/state
As mention the problem with the above, is once I resume from STD with Suspend2 Kernel, I lose their functionality.
Maybe I should be changing handler.sh in /etc/acpi instead of adding stuff to events?