Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:52 EST.
1 Upgrading ACPI tables via initrd 2 ================================ 3 4 1) Introduction (What is this about) 5 2) What is this for 6 3) How does it work 7 4) References (Where to retrieve userspace tools) 8 9 1) What is this about 10 --------------------- 11 12 If the ACPI_TABLE_UPGRADE compile option is true, it is possible to 13 upgrade the ACPI execution environment that is defined by the ACPI tables 14 via upgrading the ACPI tables provided by the BIOS with an instrumented, 15 modified, more recent version one, or installing brand new ACPI tables. 16 17 For a full list of ACPI tables that can be upgraded/installed, take a look 18 at the char *table_sigs[MAX_ACPI_SIGNATURE]; definition in 19 drivers/acpi/tables.c. 20 All ACPI tables iasl (Intel's ACPI compiler and disassembler) knows should 21 be overridable, except: 22 - ACPI_SIG_RSDP (has a signature of 6 bytes) 23 - ACPI_SIG_FACS (does not have an ordinary ACPI table header) 24 Both could get implemented as well. 25 26 27 2) What is this for 28 ------------------- 29 30 Complain to your platform/BIOS vendor if you find a bug which is so severe 31 that a workaround is not accepted in the Linux kernel. And this facility 32 allows you to upgrade the buggy tables before your platform/BIOS vendor 33 releases an upgraded BIOS binary. 34 35 This facility can be used by platform/BIOS vendors to provide a Linux 36 compatible environment without modifying the underlying platform firmware. 37 38 This facility also provides a powerful feature to easily debug and test 39 ACPI BIOS table compatibility with the Linux kernel by modifying old 40 platform provided ACPI tables or inserting new ACPI tables. 41 42 It can and should be enabled in any kernel because there is no functional 43 change with not instrumented initrds. 44 45 46 3) How does it work 47 ------------------- 48 49 # Extract the machine's ACPI tables: 50 cd /tmp 51 acpidump >acpidump 52 acpixtract -a acpidump 53 # Disassemble, modify and recompile them: 54 iasl -d *.dat 55 # For example add this statement into a _PRT (PCI Routing Table) function 56 # of the DSDT: 57 Store("HELLO WORLD", debug) 58 # And increase the OEM Revision. For example, before modification: 59 DefinitionBlock ("DSDT.aml", "DSDT", 2, "INTEL ", "TEMPLATE", 0x00000000) 60 # After modification: 61 DefinitionBlock ("DSDT.aml", "DSDT", 2, "INTEL ", "TEMPLATE", 0x00000001) 62 iasl -sa dsdt.dsl 63 # Add the raw ACPI tables to an uncompressed cpio archive. 64 # They must be put into a /kernel/firmware/acpi directory inside the cpio 65 # archive. Note that if the table put here matches a platform table 66 # (similar Table Signature, and similar OEMID, and similar OEM Table ID) 67 # with a more recent OEM Revision, the platform table will be upgraded by 68 # this table. If the table put here doesn't match a platform table 69 # (dissimilar Table Signature, or dissimilar OEMID, or dissimilar OEM Table 70 # ID), this table will be appended. 71 mkdir -p kernel/firmware/acpi 72 cp dsdt.aml kernel/firmware/acpi 73 # A maximum of "NR_ACPI_INITRD_TABLES (64)" tables are currently allowed 74 # (see osl.c): 75 iasl -sa facp.dsl 76 iasl -sa ssdt1.dsl 77 cp facp.aml kernel/firmware/acpi 78 cp ssdt1.aml kernel/firmware/acpi 79 # The uncompressed cpio archive must be the first. Other, typically 80 # compressed cpio archives, must be concatenated on top of the uncompressed 81 # one. Following command creates the uncompressed cpio archive and 82 # concatenates the original initrd on top: 83 find kernel | cpio -H newc --create > /boot/instrumented_initrd 84 cat /boot/initrd >>/boot/instrumented_initrd 85 # reboot with increased acpi debug level, e.g. boot params: 86 acpi.debug_level=0x2 acpi.debug_layer=0xFFFFFFFF 87 # and check your syslog: 88 [ 1.268089] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT] 89 [ 1.272091] [ACPI Debug] String [0x0B] "HELLO WORLD" 90 91 iasl is able to disassemble and recompile quite a lot different, 92 also static ACPI tables. 93 94 95 4) Where to retrieve userspace tools 96 ------------------------------------ 97 98 iasl and acpixtract are part of Intel's ACPICA project: 99 http://acpica.org/ 100 and should be packaged by distributions (for example in the acpica package 101 on SUSE). 102 103 acpidump can be found in Len Browns pmtools: 104 ftp://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/lenb/acpi/utils/pmtools/acpidump 105 This tool is also part of the acpica package on SUSE. 106 Alternatively, used ACPI tables can be retrieved via sysfs in latest kernels: 107 /sys/firmware/acpi/tables