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1 | Linux ACPI Custom Control Method How To | ||
2 | ======================================= | ||
3 | |||
4 | Written by Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com> | ||
5 | |||
6 | |||
7 | Linux supports customizing ACPI control methods at runtime. | ||
8 | |||
9 | Users can use this to | ||
10 | 1. override an existing method which may not work correctly, | ||
11 | or just for debugging purposes. | ||
12 | 2. insert a completely new method in order to create a missing | ||
13 | method such as _OFF, _ON, _STA, _INI, etc. | ||
14 | For these cases, it is far simpler to dynamically install a single | ||
15 | control method rather than override the entire DSDT, because kernel | ||
16 | rebuild/reboot is not needed and test result can be got in minutes. | ||
17 | |||
18 | Note: Only ACPI METHOD can be overridden, any other object types like | ||
19 | "Device", "OperationRegion", are not recognized. | ||
20 | Note: The same ACPI control method can be overridden for many times, | ||
21 | and it's always the latest one that used by Linux/kernel. | ||
22 | |||
23 | 1. override an existing method | ||
24 | a) get the ACPI table via ACPI sysfs I/F. e.g. to get the DSDT, | ||
25 | just run "cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT > /tmp/dsdt.dat" | ||
26 | b) disassemble the table by running "iasl -d dsdt.dat". | ||
27 | c) rewrite the ASL code of the method and save it in a new file, | ||
28 | d) package the new file (psr.asl) to an ACPI table format. | ||
29 | Here is an example of a customized \_SB._AC._PSR method, | ||
30 | |||
31 | DefinitionBlock ("", "SSDT", 1, "", "", 0x20080715) | ||
32 | { | ||
33 | External (ACON) | ||
34 | |||
35 | Method (\_SB_.AC._PSR, 0, NotSerialized) | ||
36 | { | ||
37 | Store ("In AC _PSR", Debug) | ||
38 | Return (ACON) | ||
39 | } | ||
40 | } | ||
41 | Note that the full pathname of the method in ACPI namespace | ||
42 | should be used. | ||
43 | And remember to use "External" to declare external objects. | ||
44 | e) assemble the file to generate the AML code of the method. | ||
45 | e.g. "iasl psr.asl" (psr.aml is generated as a result) | ||
46 | f) mount debugfs by "mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug" | ||
47 | g) override the old method via the debugfs by running | ||
48 | "cat /tmp/psr.aml > /sys/kernel/debug/acpi/custom_method" | ||
49 | |||
50 | 2. insert a new method | ||
51 | This is easier than overriding an existing method. | ||
52 | We just need to create the ASL code of the method we want to | ||
53 | insert and then follow the step c) ~ g) in section 1. | ||
54 | |||
55 | 3. undo your changes | ||
56 | The "undo" operation is not supported for a new inserted method | ||
57 | right now, i.e. we can not remove a method currently. | ||
58 | For an overrided method, in order to undo your changes, please | ||
59 | save a copy of the method original ASL code in step c) section 1, | ||
60 | and redo step c) ~ g) to override the method with the original one. | ||
61 | |||
62 | |||
63 | Note: We can use a kernel with multiple custom ACPI method running, | ||
64 | But each individual write to debugfs can implement a SINGLE | ||
65 | method override. i.e. if we want to insert/override multiple | ||
66 | ACPI methods, we need to redo step c) ~ g) for multiple times. | ||