[...follow up for posterity and so it gets in the archives for the next
    person searching...]

In message <200401120355.i0C3tYdY020458@fearless-vampire-killer.waterside.net>,
 I wrote: 

-> Folks:
-> 	I've just made room on my T30 to install NetBSD and while I have
-> 	a lot of stuff working and configured now, there's a serious issue
-> 	with me not being able to get battery status via ACPI (APM seemed
-> 	to hand the machine and ACPI has the added bonus of helping out
-> 	with autoconfiguration, so I figured I'd go that route).

Masanori Kanaoka pointed me at kernel.org's bugzilla, where the same
issue had already been reported and diagnosed.  The url is:

    http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1791

The second patch in that bug (the one from Nate Lawson) did the trick for
me and now my battery reports useful things like the charging/discharging
state, current charge, etc.

Thanks, Kanaoka-san!
--rafal

----
Rafal Boni                                                     rafal@pobox.com
  We are all worms.  But I do believe I am a glowworm.  -- Winston Churchill