When the X server starts, it attempts to open /dev/apm_bios normally, in order to try to access APM services in the kernel. If the kernel has APM support built in or loaded, and configured, etc. then APM support in the X server will generally work. However, if the user does not have any need for APM support on their machine and does not have it configured, or does not have a kernel with APM support loaded, then the X server will not be able to open /dev/apm_bios. That is normal behaviour, and not a bug or a problem of any kind. In this case, the X server realizes that it is unable to access the kernel's APM functions, and it just disables APM support. Users who do not want/need APM support don't need to know or care about this. However, the X server logs a line to the X server log file when it is unable to open the APM device, which scares a lot of users, who often think this is some kind of error, and may be responsible for some random problem they are having with the X server. (WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such device) Since the error message given above by the X server is not very detailed or informative to the average user, it is not surprising that many users consider this to be the cause of random problems, when it is just a harmless message. Most users probably don't even know what APM is, and are thus even more likely to think this (WW) warning is the cause of their problems. Solution: The above error message should be modified to be more informative to users in the log file, and be downgraded from (WW) warning to (II) info level. Something like: (II) Operating system APM services via /dev/apm_bios are unavailable, so APM power management features in the X server will not be used. If you require APM power management features, please ensure your BIOS and operating system kernel are configured to provide APM services. This message is just an informative message which can be safely ignored, and is not an error.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 119195 ***
Changed to 'CLOSED' state since 'RESOLVED' has been deprecated.