Debian provides apmd version 3.0final, which generally seems to work OK. However, the Debian implementation of the apmd_proxy script has discarded most of the features that are available in the upstream script. The end result is that the unmodified Debian apmd doesn't support most of the APM features of this machine (or many others, for that matter). I believe that Red Hat uses the upstream script, which requires only slight editing to get most of these features to work.
Recent versions of apmd (3.0.2 as of this writing) have fixed the problems of the 3.0final package. A version of the newer package that has been compiled for Debian 2.2 is available here.
Some problems still remain with the APM support for these machines. In particular, there are two common problems that have been observed, on both the OmniBook 500 and 6000 models, in which the IDE subsystem loses interrupts. One problem occurs when the machine is resumed, and the other occurs when the power cable is removed or inserted. In both cases, the problem only occurs when there is disk activity during the APM event.
In the case of the power-cable problem, serious disk corruption has been observed. The risk of this problem can be minimized by running the sync command immediately prior to removing or inserting the power cable, making sure the disk light goes out before doing so. Also, never suspend the machine in one power state (AC or battery) and resume it in the other state.
There are many messages relating to this problem on the mailing list. Here is the one that started the thread .
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Last Modified: 19 March 2002 (revision history)