lm_sensor on a Netvista

[Guillaume APOSTOLY]

Hi,

I'm on a gentoo 1.4, with gcc 3.2 and a 2.4.20 kernel. I've added the I2C/lm_sensor kernel module and installed lm_sensor and ...
had the surprise, that "I've got an IBM and we don't go any further".
I've read the documentation, and understand why !! Still, i've got a NetVista A20 (basically a tower, P4 system).
So i've got several questions :
1/ are your sure that lm_sensors only mess up with 24RF08 eprom system ?

2/ if so, can I check if my computer as got this eprom, with a "cat /proc/something" or else, and so take an older version with
doesn't do the machine check and install lm_sensors ?

3/ I read in the documentation that :
"IBM Thinkpads contain a proprietary Embedded Controller which
   is used to access sensors. This controller is not on the SMBus,
   and IBM will not release the programming interface to the
   controller. So lm_sensors isn't useful on Thinkpads anyway."
What is that device, and is there a way to use it under linux ?

4/ is IBM aware of the problem, and do they want to make something for that ? I know that IBM is pretty involved in the Gentoo
distribution, so maybe that way, contacting the package maintener for gentoo lm_sensor we could achieve something

5/ is their a SAFE way, to safe that eprom information and make tries with lm_sensors ? I mean, if I try lm_sensor, and that break
my machine because of this eprom, what way have I got to fix it, and get a working system back ???

I'm ready to do testings, if you want, and if you've got ways to fix my machine if broken ! (if  just the system is messed up, I
don't care, it's a home, development and test machine).
Thanks by advance, i'm particularly keen of an answer to the 2/ question.

Regards,

Guillaume.

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Guillaume APOSTOLY
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