USB: documentation for USB power management

This patch (as998) adds documentation on how USB power management
works and how to use it.

Signed-off-by: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>

1 files changed, 517 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/usb/power-management.txt b/Documentation/usb/power-management.txt
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+                        Power Management for USB
+
+                 Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
+
+                            October 5, 2007
+
+
+
+        What is Power Management?
+        -------------------------
+
+Power Management (PM) is the practice of saving energy by suspending
+parts of a computer system when they aren't being used.  While a
+component is "suspended" it is in a nonfunctional low-power state; it
+might even be turned off completely.  A suspended component can be
+"resumed" (returned to a functional full-power state) when the kernel
+needs to use it.  (There also are forms of PM in which components are
+placed in a less functional but still usable state instead of being
+suspended; an example would be reducing the CPU's clock rate.  This
+document will not discuss those other forms.)
+
+When the parts being suspended include the CPU and most of the rest of
+the system, we speak of it as a "system suspend".  When a particular
+device is turned off while the system as a whole remains running, we
+call it a "dynamic suspend" (also known as a "runtime suspend" or
+"selective suspend").  This document concentrates mostly on how
+dynamic PM is implemented in the USB subsystem, although system PM is
+covered to some extent (see Documentation/power/*.txt for more
+information about system PM).
+
+Note: Dynamic PM support for USB is present only if the kernel was
+built with CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND enabled.  System PM support is present
+only if the kernel was built with CONFIG_SUSPEND or CONFIG_HIBERNATION
+enabled.
+
+
+        What is Remote Wakeup?
+        ----------------------
+
+When a device has been suspended, it generally doesn't resume until
+the computer tells it to.  Likewise, if the entire computer has been
+suspended, it generally doesn't resume until the user tells it to, say
+by pressing a power button or opening the cover.
+
+However some devices have the capability of resuming by themselves, or
+asking the kernel to resume them, or even telling the entire computer
+to resume.  This capability goes by several names such as "Wake On
+LAN"; we will refer to it generically as "remote wakeup".  When a
+device is enabled for remote wakeup and it is suspended, it may resume
+itself (or send a request to be resumed) in response to some external
+event.  Examples include a suspended keyboard resuming when a key is
+pressed, or a suspended USB hub resuming when a device is plugged in.
+
+
+        When is a USB device idle?
+        --------------------------
+
+A device is idle whenever the kernel thinks it's not busy doing
+anything important and thus is a candidate for being suspended.  The
+exact definition depends on the device's driver; drivers are allowed
+to declare that a device isn't idle even when there's no actual
+communication taking place.  (For example, a hub isn't considered idle
+unless all the devices plugged into that hub are already suspended.)
+In addition, a device isn't considered idle so long as a program keeps
+its usbfs file open, whether or not any I/O is going on.
+
+If a USB device has no driver, its usbfs file isn't open, and it isn't
+being accessed through sysfs, then it definitely is idle.
+
+
+        Forms of dynamic PM
+        -------------------
+
+Dynamic suspends can occur in two ways: manual and automatic.
+"Manual" means that the user has told the kernel to suspend a device,
+whereas "automatic" means that the kernel has decided all by itself to
+suspend a device.  Automatic suspend is called "autosuspend" for
+short.  In general, a device won't be autosuspended unless it has been
+idle for some minimum period of time, the so-called idle-delay time.
+
+Of course, nothing the kernel does on its own initiative should
+prevent the computer or its devices from working properly.  If a
+device has been autosuspended and a program tries to use it, the
+kernel will automatically resume the device (autoresume).  For the
+same reason, an autosuspended device will usually have remote wakeup
+enabled, if the device supports remote wakeup.
+
+It is worth mentioning that many USB drivers don't support
+autosuspend.  In fact, at the time of this writing (Linux 2.6.23) the
+only drivers which do support it are the hub driver, kaweth, asix,
+usblp, usblcd, and usb-skeleton (which doesn't count).  If a
+non-supporting driver is bound to a device, the device won't be
+autosuspended.  In effect, the kernel pretends the device is never
+idle.
+
+We can categorize power management events in two broad classes:
+external and internal.  External events are those triggered by some
+agent outside the USB stack: system suspend/resume (triggered by
+userspace), manual dynamic suspend/resume (also triggered by
+userspace), and remote wakeup (triggered by the device).  Internal
+events are those triggered within the USB stack: autosuspend and
+autoresume.
+
+
+        The user interface for dynamic PM
+        ---------------------------------
+
+The user interface for controlling dynamic PM is located in the power/
+subdirectory of each USB device's sysfs directory, that is, in
+/sys/bus/usb/devices/.../power/ where "..." is the device's ID.  The
+relevant attribute files are: wakeup, level, and autosuspend.
+
+        power/wakeup
+
+                This file is empty if the device does not support
+                remote wakeup.  Otherwise the file contains either the
+                word "enabled" or the word "disabled", and you can
+                write those words to the file.  The setting determines
+                whether or not remote wakeup will be enabled when the
+                device is next suspended.  (If the setting is changed
+                while the device is suspended, the change won't take
+                effect until the following suspend.)
+
+        power/level
+
+                This file contains one of three words: "on", "auto",
+                or "suspend".  You can write those words to the file
+                to change the device's setting.
+
+                "on" means that the device should be resumed and
+                autosuspend is not allowed.  (Of course, system
+                suspends are still allowed.)
+
+                "auto" is the normal state in which the kernel is
+                allowed to autosuspend and autoresume the device.
+
+                "suspend" means that the device should remain
+                suspended, and autoresume is not allowed.  (But remote
+                wakeup may still be allowed, since it is controlled
+                separately by the power/wakeup attribute.)
+
+        power/autosuspend
+
+                This file contains an integer value, which is the
+                number of seconds the device should remain idle before
+                the kernel will autosuspend it (the idle-delay time).
+                The default is 2.  0 means to autosuspend as soon as
+                the device becomes idle, and -1 means never to
+                autosuspend.  You can write a number to the file to
+                change the autosuspend idle-delay time.
+
+Writing "-1" to power/autosuspend and writing "on" to power/level do
+essentially the same thing -- they both prevent the device from being
+autosuspended.  Yes, this is a redundancy in the API.
+
+(In 2.6.21 writing "0" to power/autosuspend would prevent the device
+from being autosuspended; the behavior was changed in 2.6.22.  The
+power/autosuspend attribute did not exist prior to 2.6.21, and the
+power/level attribute did not exist prior to 2.6.22.)
+
+
+        Changing the default idle-delay time
+        ------------------------------------
+
+The default autosuspend idle-delay time is controlled by a module
+parameter in usbcore.  You can specify the value when usbcore is
+loaded.  For example, to set it to 5 seconds instead of 2 you would
+do:
+
+        modprobe usbcore autosuspend=5
+
+Equivalently, you could add to /etc/modprobe.conf a line saying:
+
+        options usbcore autosuspend=5
+
+Some distributions load the usbcore module very early during the boot
+process, by means of a program or script running from an initramfs
+image.  To alter the parameter value you would have to rebuild that
+image.
+
+If usbcore is compiled into the kernel rather than built as a loadable
+module, you can add
+
+        usbcore.autosuspend=5
+
+to the kernel's boot command line.
+
+Finally, the parameter value can be changed while the system is
+running.  If you do:
+
+        echo 5 >/sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend
+
+then each new USB device will have its autosuspend idle-delay
+initialized to 5.  (The idle-delay values for already existing devices
+will not be affected.)
+
+Setting the initial default idle-delay to -1 will prevent any
+autosuspend of any USB device.  This is a simple alternative to
+disabling CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND and rebuilding the kernel, and it has the
+added benefit of allowing you to enable autosuspend for selected
+devices.
+
+
+        Warnings
+        --------
+
+The USB specification states that all USB devices must support power
+management.  Nevertheless, the sad fact is that many devices do not
+support it very well.  You can suspend them all right, but when you
+try to resume them they disconnect themselves from the USB bus or
+they stop working entirely.  This seems to be especially prevalent
+among printers and scanners, but plenty of other types of device have
+the same deficiency.
+
+For this reason, by default the kernel disables autosuspend (the
+power/level attribute is initialized to "on") for all devices other
+than hubs.  Hubs, at least, appear to be reasonably well-behaved in
+this regard.
+
+(In 2.6.21 and 2.6.22 this wasn't the case.  Autosuspend was enabled
+by default for almost all USB devices.  A number of people experienced
+problems as a result.)
+
+This means that non-hub devices won't be autosuspended unless the user
+or a program explicitly enables it.  As of this writing there aren't
+any widespread programs which will do this; we hope that in the near
+future device managers such as HAL will take on this added
+responsibility.  In the meantime you can always carry out the
+necessary operations by hand or add them to a udev script.  You can
+also change the idle-delay time; 2 seconds is not the best choice for
+every device.
+
+Sometimes it turns out that even when a device does work okay with
+autosuspend there are still problems.  For example, there are
+experimental patches adding autosuspend support to the usbhid driver,
+which manages keyboards and mice, among other things.  Tests with a
+number of keyboards showed that typing on a suspended keyboard, while
+causing the keyboard to do a remote wakeup all right, would
+nonetheless frequently result in lost keystrokes.  Tests with mice
+showed that some of them would issue a remote-wakeup request in
+response to button presses but not to motion, and some in response to
+neither.
+
+The kernel will not prevent you from enabling autosuspend on devices
+that can't handle it.  It is even possible in theory to damage a
+device by suspending it at the wrong time -- for example, suspending a
+USB hard disk might cause it to spin down without parking the heads.
+(Highly unlikely, but possible.)  Take care.
+
+
+        The driver interface for Power Management
+        -----------------------------------------
+
+The requirements for a USB driver to support external power management
+are pretty modest; the driver need only define
+
+        .suspend
+        .resume
+        .reset_resume
+
+methods in its usb_driver structure, and the reset_resume method is
+optional.  The methods' jobs are quite simple:
+
+        The suspend method is called to warn the driver that the
+        device is going to be suspended.  If the driver returns a
+        negative error code, the suspend will be aborted.  Normally
+        the driver will return 0, in which case it must cancel all
+        outstanding URBs (usb_kill_urb()) and not submit any more.
+
+        The resume method is called to tell the driver that the
+        device has been resumed and the driver can return to normal
+        operation.  URBs may once more be submitted.
+
+        The reset_resume method is called to tell the driver that
+        the device has been resumed and it also has been reset.
+        The driver should redo any necessary device initialization,
+        since the device has probably lost most or all of its state
+        (although the interfaces will be in the same altsettings as
+        before the suspend).
+
+The reset_resume method is used by the USB Persist facility (see
+Documentation/usb/persist.txt) and it can also be used under certain
+circumstances when CONFIG_USB_PERSIST is not enabled.  Currently, if a
+device is reset during a resume and the driver does not have a
+reset_resume method, the driver won't receive any notification about
+the resume.  Later kernels will call the driver's disconnect method;
+2.6.23 doesn't do this.
+
+USB drivers are bound to interfaces, so their suspend and resume
+methods get called when the interfaces are suspended or resumed.  In
+principle one might want to suspend some interfaces on a device (i.e.,
+force the drivers for those interface to stop all activity) without
+suspending the other interfaces.  The USB core doesn't allow this; all
+interfaces are suspended when the device itself is suspended and all
+interfaces are resumed when the device is resumed.  It isn't possible
+to suspend or resume some but not all of a device's interfaces.  The
+closest you can come is to unbind the interfaces' drivers.
+
+
+        The driver interface for autosuspend and autoresume
+        ---------------------------------------------------
+
+To support autosuspend and autoresume, a driver should implement all
+three of the methods listed above.  In addition, a driver indicates
+that it supports autosuspend by setting the .supports_autosuspend flag
+in its usb_driver structure.  It is then responsible for informing the
+USB core whenever one of its interfaces becomes busy or idle.  The
+driver does so by calling these three functions:
+
+        int  usb_autopm_get_interface(struct usb_interface *intf);
+        void usb_autopm_put_interface(struct usb_interface *intf);
+        int  usb_autopm_set_interface(struct usb_interface *intf);
+
+The functions work by maintaining a counter in the usb_interface
+structure.  When intf->pm_usage_count is > 0 then the interface is
+deemed to be busy, and the kernel will not autosuspend the interface's
+device.  When intf->pm_usage_count is <= 0 then the interface is
+considered to be idle, and the kernel may autosuspend the device.
+
+(There is a similar pm_usage_count field in struct usb_device,
+associated with the device itself rather than any of its interfaces.
+This field is used only by the USB core.)
+
+The driver owns intf->pm_usage_count; it can modify the value however
+and whenever it likes.  A nice aspect of the usb_autopm_* routines is
+that the changes they make are protected by the usb_device structure's
+PM mutex (udev->pm_mutex); however drivers may change pm_usage_count
+without holding the mutex.
+
+        usb_autopm_get_interface() increments pm_usage_count and
+        attempts an autoresume if the new value is > 0 and the
+        device is suspended.
+
+        usb_autopm_put_interface() decrements pm_usage_count and
+        attempts an autosuspend if the new value is <= 0 and the
+        device isn't suspended.
+
+        usb_autopm_set_interface() leaves pm_usage_count alone.
+        It attempts an autoresume if the value is > 0 and the device
+        is suspended, and it attempts an autosuspend if the value is
+        <= 0 and the device isn't suspended.
+
+There also are a couple of utility routines drivers can use:
+
+        usb_autopm_enable() sets pm_usage_cnt to 1 and then calls
+        usb_autopm_set_interface(), which will attempt an autoresume.
+
+        usb_autopm_disable() sets pm_usage_cnt to 0 and then calls
+        usb_autopm_set_interface(), which will attempt an autosuspend.
+
+The conventional usage pattern is that a driver calls
+usb_autopm_get_interface() in its open routine and
+usb_autopm_put_interface() in its close or release routine.  But
+other patterns are possible.
+
+The autosuspend attempts mentioned above will often fail for one
+reason or another.  For example, the power/level attribute might be
+set to "on", or another interface in the same device might not be
+idle.  This is perfectly normal.  If the reason for failure was that
+the device hasn't been idle for long enough, a delayed workqueue
+routine is automatically set up to carry out the operation when the
+autosuspend idle-delay has expired.
+
+Autoresume attempts also can fail.  This will happen if power/level is
+set to "suspend" or if the device doesn't manage to resume properly.
+Unlike autosuspend, there's no delay for an autoresume.
+
+
+        Other parts of the driver interface
+        -----------------------------------
+
+Sometimes a driver needs to make sure that remote wakeup is enabled
+during autosuspend.  For example, there's not much point
+autosuspending a keyboard if the user can't cause the keyboard to do a
+remote wakeup by typing on it.  If the driver sets
+intf->needs_remote_wakeup to 1, the kernel won't autosuspend the
+device if remote wakeup isn't available or has been disabled through
+the power/wakeup attribute.  (If the device is already autosuspended,
+though, setting this flag won't cause the kernel to autoresume it.
+Normally a driver would set this flag in its probe method, at which
+time the device is guaranteed not to be autosuspended.)
+
+The usb_autopm_* routines have to run in a sleepable process context;
+they must not be called from an interrupt handler or while holding a
+spinlock.  In fact, the entire autosuspend mechanism is not well geared
+toward interrupt-driven operation.  However there is one thing a
+driver can do in an interrupt handler:
+
+        usb_mark_last_busy(struct usb_device *udev);
+
+This sets udev->last_busy to the current time.  udev->last_busy is the
+field used for idle-delay calculations; updating it will cause any
+pending autosuspend to be moved back.  The usb_autopm_* routines will
+also set the last_busy field to the current time.
+
+Calling urb_mark_last_busy() from within an URB completion handler is
+subject to races: The kernel may have just finished deciding the
+device has been idle for long enough but not yet gotten around to
+calling the driver's suspend method.  The driver would have to be
+responsible for synchronizing its suspend method with its URB
+completion handler and causing the autosuspend to fail with -EBUSY if
+an URB had completed too recently.
+
+External suspend calls should never be allowed to fail in this way,
+only autosuspend calls.  The driver can tell them apart by checking
+udev->auto_pm; this flag will be set to 1 for internal PM events
+(autosuspend or autoresume) and 0 for external PM events.
+
+Many of the ingredients in the autosuspend framework are oriented
+towards interfaces: The usb_interface structure contains the
+pm_usage_cnt field, and the usb_autopm_* routines take an interface
+pointer as their argument.  But somewhat confusingly, a few of the
+pieces (usb_mark_last_busy() and udev->auto_pm) use the usb_device
+structure instead.  Drivers need to keep this straight; they can call
+interface_to_usbdev() to find the device structure for a given
+interface.
+
+
+        Locking requirements
+        --------------------
+
+All three suspend/resume methods are always called while holding the
+usb_device's PM mutex.  For external events -- but not necessarily for
+autosuspend or autoresume -- the device semaphore (udev->dev.sem) will
+also be held.  This implies that external suspend/resume events are
+mutually exclusive with calls to probe, disconnect, pre_reset, and
+post_reset; the USB core guarantees that this is true of internal
+suspend/resume events as well.
+
+If a driver wants to block all suspend/resume calls during some
+critical section, it can simply acquire udev->pm_mutex.
+Alternatively, if the critical section might call some of the
+usb_autopm_* routines, the driver can avoid deadlock by doing:
+
+        down(&udev->dev.sem);
+        rc = usb_autopm_get_interface(intf);
+
+and at the end of the critical section:
+
+        if (!rc)
+                usb_autopm_put_interface(intf);
+        up(&udev->dev.sem);
+
+Holding the device semaphore will block all external PM calls, and the
+usb_autopm_get_interface() will prevent any internal PM calls, even if
+it fails.  (Exercise: Why?)
+
+The rules for locking order are:
+
+        Never acquire any device semaphore while holding any PM mutex.
+
+        Never acquire udev->pm_mutex while holding the PM mutex for
+        a device that isn't a descendant of udev.
+
+In other words, PM mutexes should only be acquired going up the device
+tree, and they should be acquired only after locking all the device
+semaphores you need to hold.  These rules don't matter to drivers very
+much; they usually affect just the USB core.
+
+Still, drivers do need to be careful.  For example, many drivers use a
+private mutex to synchronize their normal I/O activities with their
+disconnect method.  Now if the driver supports autosuspend then it
+must call usb_autopm_put_interface() from somewhere -- maybe from its
+close method.  It should make the call while holding the private mutex,
+since a driver shouldn't call any of the usb_autopm_* functions for an
+interface from which it has been unbound.
+
+But the usb_autpm_* routines always acquire the device's PM mutex, and
+consequently the locking order has to be: private mutex first, PM
+mutex second.  Since the suspend method is always called with the PM
+mutex held, it mustn't try to acquire the private mutex.  It has to
+synchronize with the driver's I/O activities in some other way.
+
+
+        Interaction between dynamic PM and system PM
+        --------------------------------------------
+
+Dynamic power management and system power management can interact in
+a couple of ways.
+
+Firstly, a device may already be manually suspended or autosuspended
+when a system suspend occurs.  Since system suspends are supposed to
+be as transparent as possible, the device should remain suspended
+following the system resume.  The 2.6.23 kernel obeys this principle
+for manually suspended devices but not for autosuspended devices; they
+do get resumed when the system wakes up.  (Presumably they will be
+autosuspended again after their idle-delay time expires.)  In later
+kernels this behavior will be fixed.
+
+(There is an exception.  If a device would undergo a reset-resume
+instead of a normal resume, and the device is enabled for remote
+wakeup, then the reset-resume takes place even if the device was
+already suspended when the system suspend began.  The justification is
+that a reset-resume is a kind of remote-wakeup event.  Or to put it
+another way, a device which needs a reset won't be able to generate
+normal remote-wakeup signals, so it ought to be resumed immediately.)
+
+Secondly, a dynamic power-management event may occur as a system
+suspend is underway.  The window for this is short, since system
+suspends don't take long (a few seconds usually), but it can happen.
+For example, a suspended device may send a remote-wakeup signal while
+the system is suspending.  The remote wakeup may succeed, which would
+cause the system suspend to abort.  If the remote wakeup doesn't
+succeed, it may still remain active and thus cause the system to
+resume as soon as the system suspend is complete.  Or the remote
+wakeup may fail and get lost.  Which outcome occurs depends on timing
+and on the hardware and firmware design.
+
+More interestingly, a device might undergo a manual resume or
+autoresume during system suspend.  With current kernels this shouldn't
+happen, because manual resumes must be initiated by userspace and
+autoresumes happen in response to I/O requests, but all user processes
+and I/O should be quiescent during a system suspend -- thanks to the
+freezer.  However there are plans to do away with the freezer, which
+would mean these things would become possible.  If and when this comes
+about, the USB core will carefully arrange matters so that either type
+of resume will block until the entire system has resumed.