linux-hardened/Documentation/acpi/initrd_table_override.txt
Lv Zheng 5d8813271f ACPI / tables: Convert initrd table override to table upgrade mechanism
This patch converts the initrd table override mechanism to the table
upgrade mechanism by restricting its usage to the tables released with
compatibility and more recent revision.

This use case has been encouraged by the ACPI specification:

 1. OEMID:
    An OEM-supplied string that identifies the OEM.

 2. OEM Table ID:
    An OEM-supplied string that the OEM uses to identify the particular data
    table. This field is particularly useful when defining a definition
    block to distinguish definition block functions. OEM assigns each
    dissimilar table a new OEM Table Id.

 3. OEM Revision:
    An OEM-supplied revision number. Larger numbers are assumed to be newer
    revisions.

For OEMs, good practices will ensure consistency when assigning OEMID and
OEM Table ID fields in any table. The intent of these fields is to allow
for a binary control system that support services can use. Because many
support function can be automated, it is useful when a tool can
programatically determine which table release is a compatible and more
recent revision of a prior table on the same OEMID and OEM Table ID.

The facility can now be used by the vendors to upgrade wrong tables for bug
fixing purpose, thus lockdep disabling taint is not suitable for it and it
should be a default 'y' option to implement the spec encouraged use case.

Note that, by implementing table upgrade inside of ACPICA itself, it is
possible to remove acpi_table_initrd_override() and tables can be upgraded
by acpi_install_table() automatically. Though current ACPICA impelentation
hasn't implemented this, this patched changes the table flag setting timing
to allow this to be implemented in ACPICA without changing the code here.

Documentation of initrd override mechanism is upgraded accordingly.

Original-by: Octavian Purdila <octavian.purdila@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Lv Zheng <lv.zheng@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
2016-04-18 23:59:09 +02:00

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Upgrading ACPI tables via initrd
================================
1) Introduction (What is this about)
2) What is this for
3) How does it work
4) References (Where to retrieve userspace tools)
1) What is this about
---------------------
If the ACPI_TABLE_UPGRADE compile option is true, it is possible to
upgrade the ACPI execution environment that is defined by the ACPI tables
via upgrading the ACPI tables provided by the BIOS with an instrumented,
modified, more recent version one, or installing brand new ACPI tables.
For a full list of ACPI tables that can be upgraded/installed, take a look
at the char *table_sigs[MAX_ACPI_SIGNATURE]; definition in
drivers/acpi/tables.c.
All ACPI tables iasl (Intel's ACPI compiler and disassembler) knows should
be overridable, except:
- ACPI_SIG_RSDP (has a signature of 6 bytes)
- ACPI_SIG_FACS (does not have an ordinary ACPI table header)
Both could get implemented as well.
2) What is this for
-------------------
Complain to your platform/BIOS vendor if you find a bug which is so severe
that a workaround is not accepted in the Linux kernel. And this facility
allows you to upgrade the buggy tables before your platform/BIOS vendor
releases an upgraded BIOS binary.
This facility can be used by platform/BIOS vendors to provide a Linux
compatible environment without modifying the underlying platform firmware.
This facility also provides a powerful feature to easily debug and test
ACPI BIOS table compatibility with the Linux kernel by modifying old
platform provided ACPI tables or inserting new ACPI tables.
It can and should be enabled in any kernel because there is no functional
change with not instrumented initrds.
3) How does it work
-------------------
# Extract the machine's ACPI tables:
cd /tmp
acpidump >acpidump
acpixtract -a acpidump
# Disassemble, modify and recompile them:
iasl -d *.dat
# For example add this statement into a _PRT (PCI Routing Table) function
# of the DSDT:
Store("HELLO WORLD", debug)
# And increase the OEM Revision. For example, before modification:
DefinitionBlock ("DSDT.aml", "DSDT", 2, "INTEL ", "TEMPLATE", 0x00000000)
# After modification:
DefinitionBlock ("DSDT.aml", "DSDT", 2, "INTEL ", "TEMPLATE", 0x00000001)
iasl -sa dsdt.dsl
# Add the raw ACPI tables to an uncompressed cpio archive.
# They must be put into a /kernel/firmware/acpi directory inside the cpio
# archive. Note that if the table put here matches a platform table
# (similar Table Signature, and similar OEMID, and similar OEM Table ID)
# with a more recent OEM Revision, the platform table will be upgraded by
# this table. If the table put here doesn't match a platform table
# (dissimilar Table Signature, or dissimilar OEMID, or dissimilar OEM Table
# ID), this table will be appended.
mkdir -p kernel/firmware/acpi
cp dsdt.aml kernel/firmware/acpi
# A maximum of "NR_ACPI_INITRD_TABLES (64)" tables are currently allowed
# (see osl.c):
iasl -sa facp.dsl
iasl -sa ssdt1.dsl
cp facp.aml kernel/firmware/acpi
cp ssdt1.aml kernel/firmware/acpi
# The uncompressed cpio archive must be the first. Other, typically
# compressed cpio archives, must be concatenated on top of the uncompressed
# one. Following command creates the uncompressed cpio archive and
# concatenates the original initrd on top:
find kernel | cpio -H newc --create > /boot/instrumented_initrd
cat /boot/initrd >>/boot/instrumented_initrd
# reboot with increased acpi debug level, e.g. boot params:
acpi.debug_level=0x2 acpi.debug_layer=0xFFFFFFFF
# and check your syslog:
[ 1.268089] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
[ 1.272091] [ACPI Debug] String [0x0B] "HELLO WORLD"
iasl is able to disassemble and recompile quite a lot different,
also static ACPI tables.
4) Where to retrieve userspace tools
------------------------------------
iasl and acpixtract are part of Intel's ACPICA project:
http://acpica.org/
and should be packaged by distributions (for example in the acpica package
on SUSE).
acpidump can be found in Len Browns pmtools:
ftp://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/lenb/acpi/utils/pmtools/acpidump
This tool is also part of the acpica package on SUSE.
Alternatively, used ACPI tables can be retrieved via sysfs in latest kernels:
/sys/firmware/acpi/tables