linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] DMI: Decode and save OEM String information

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Message-ID: <41840b750607270942l7a53010du1fabcf2a4b492789@mail.gmail.com>
Date:	Thu, 27 Jul 2006 19:42:10 +0300
From:	"Shem Multinymous" <multinymous@...il.com>
To:	"Bjorn Helgaas" <bjorn.helgaas@...com>
Cc:	"linux kernel mailing list" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"Matt Domsch" <Matt_Domsch@...l.com>,
	"Brown, Len" <len.brown@...el.com>,
	"Henrique de Moraes Holschuh" <hmh@...ian.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] DMI: Decode and save OEM String information

Hi,

On 7/27/06, Bjorn Helgaas <bjorn.helgaas@...com> wrote:
> I always thought that ACPI was supposed to describe everything that
> (a) consumes resources or requires a driver and (b) is not enumerable
> by other hardware standards such as PCI.
>
> If that's true, isn't it a BIOS defect if this embedded controller isn't
> described via ACPI?

The ThinkPad ACPI tables do list the relevant IO ports (0x1600-0x161F)
as reserved, but provide no way to discern what's behind them. Other
machines have different hardware on the same ports.

BTW, I should clarify that this embedded controller interface (used by
hdaps and tp_smapi) is different than the standard ACPI EC interface,
and goes through different IO ports.

> it seems like the ideal way forward
> would be to get the BIOS fixed so you could claim the device with PNP
> for future ThinkPads, and the table of OEM strings would not require
> ongoing maintenance.

This is unrealistic. The hdaps and tp_smapi drivers support dozens of
ThinkPad models, each with a different BIOS.

For the tp_smapi driver, AFAIK the only completely safe alternative to
this patch is a frequently-updated whitelist of over a hundred models,
identified by the existing DMI attributes.

  Shem
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