software short list for laptop?

[number_nine]

I just finished installing Gentoo on a Thinkpad T43. Installation was remarkably smooth!

Everything seems to be working so far, but that's via manual control (usually as root). For example:

• "/etc/init.d/net.eth1 start" to connect wireless
  
• compare files "state" and "info" in /proc/acpi/battery/BAT* to determine remaining charge in battery
  
• determine & adjust CPU speed (cpufrequtils? cpufreqd? ncpufreqd?)
  
• control fan speed (bios controlled?)
  

So for the list above, what tools are available to automate these things? What tools are available for monitoring?

Is there a "most popular" set of tools for typical laptop function administration?

Basically, I'm just hoping I can get some help figuring out what software I need now that I've got everything installed and working.

Thank you!

[papal_authority]

There's GNOME Power Manager and possibly GWireless.
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The free market gave me gonorrhea.

[ppurka]

The Gentoo Power Management Guide is a good starting point to setup powermanagement which I followed while installing gentoo on a T43. An alternative (?) to that might be kpowersave and powersave. Both these packages are in portage. However, I haven't tried installing/configuring these packages.

This gentoo guide might help you to setup some network management features. I could not figure out how to get ifplugd/quickswitch to work though. You can also have a look at kwifimanager and wifi-radar for wireless management.

An interesting software is hdaps. Its even in portage at present. You can look up the directions in thinkwiki on how to patch your kernel, and configure the daemon.