apmd: cannot open device file '/dev/apmctl': No such file or directory

[Lowell Gilbert]

"Lord Sith" <lordsith49 at hotmail.com> writes:

> I get this error when I am trying to start apmd on a FreeBSD
> 5.1-RELEASE-p10 laptop.

I don't think that APM is supported by default on 5.x.  
ACPI is, but that's got problems of its own; the errata has some
information to help you work around it, but the real solutions have
been taking time to work out on -CURRENT and will probably not get
backported to the release branch.  

Those are the breaks with running a developers' version.  Still, if
you try to use ACPI, with the workarounds, you might be able to get it
running.