0001 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
0002
0003 =============
0004 SSDT Overlays
0005 =============
0006
0007 In order to support ACPI open-ended hardware configurations (e.g. development
0008 boards) we need a way to augment the ACPI configuration provided by the firmware
0009 image. A common example is connecting sensors on I2C / SPI buses on development
0010 boards.
0011
0012 Although this can be accomplished by creating a kernel platform driver or
0013 recompiling the firmware image with updated ACPI tables, neither is practical:
0014 the former proliferates board specific kernel code while the latter requires
0015 access to firmware tools which are often not publicly available.
0016
0017 Because ACPI supports external references in AML code a more practical
0018 way to augment firmware ACPI configuration is by dynamically loading
0019 user defined SSDT tables that contain the board specific information.
0020
0021 For example, to enumerate a Bosch BMA222E accelerometer on the I2C bus of the
0022 Minnowboard MAX development board exposed via the LSE connector [1], the
0023 following ASL code can be used::
0024
0025 DefinitionBlock ("minnowmax.aml", "SSDT", 1, "Vendor", "Accel", 0x00000003)
0026 {
0027 External (\_SB.I2C6, DeviceObj)
0028
0029 Scope (\_SB.I2C6)
0030 {
0031 Device (STAC)
0032 {
0033 Name (_HID, "BMA222E")
0034 Name (RBUF, ResourceTemplate ()
0035 {
0036 I2cSerialBus (0x0018, ControllerInitiated, 0x00061A80,
0037 AddressingMode7Bit, "\\_SB.I2C6", 0x00,
0038 ResourceConsumer, ,)
0039 GpioInt (Edge, ActiveHigh, Exclusive, PullDown, 0x0000,
0040 "\\_SB.GPO2", 0x00, ResourceConsumer, , )
0041 { // Pin list
0042 0
0043 }
0044 })
0045
0046 Method (_CRS, 0, Serialized)
0047 {
0048 Return (RBUF)
0049 }
0050 }
0051 }
0052 }
0053
0054 which can then be compiled to AML binary format::
0055
0056 $ iasl minnowmax.asl
0057
0058 Intel ACPI Component Architecture
0059 ASL Optimizing Compiler version 20140214-64 [Mar 29 2014]
0060 Copyright (c) 2000 - 2014 Intel Corporation
0061
0062 ASL Input: minnomax.asl - 30 lines, 614 bytes, 7 keywords
0063 AML Output: minnowmax.aml - 165 bytes, 6 named objects, 1 executable opcodes
0064
0065 [1] https://www.elinux.org/Minnowboard:MinnowMax#Low_Speed_Expansion_.28Top.29
0066
0067 The resulting AML code can then be loaded by the kernel using one of the methods
0068 below.
0069
0070 Loading ACPI SSDTs from initrd
0071 ==============================
0072
0073 This option allows loading of user defined SSDTs from initrd and it is useful
0074 when the system does not support EFI or when there is not enough EFI storage.
0075
0076 It works in a similar way with initrd based ACPI tables override/upgrade: SSDT
0077 AML code must be placed in the first, uncompressed, initrd under the
0078 "kernel/firmware/acpi" path. Multiple files can be used and this will translate
0079 in loading multiple tables. Only SSDT and OEM tables are allowed. See
0080 initrd_table_override.txt for more details.
0081
0082 Here is an example::
0083
0084 # Add the raw ACPI tables to an uncompressed cpio archive.
0085 # They must be put into a /kernel/firmware/acpi directory inside the
0086 # cpio archive.
0087 # The uncompressed cpio archive must be the first.
0088 # Other, typically compressed cpio archives, must be
0089 # concatenated on top of the uncompressed one.
0090 mkdir -p kernel/firmware/acpi
0091 cp ssdt.aml kernel/firmware/acpi
0092
0093 # Create the uncompressed cpio archive and concatenate the original initrd
0094 # on top:
0095 find kernel | cpio -H newc --create > /boot/instrumented_initrd
0096 cat /boot/initrd >>/boot/instrumented_initrd
0097
0098 Loading ACPI SSDTs from EFI variables
0099 =====================================
0100
0101 This is the preferred method, when EFI is supported on the platform, because it
0102 allows a persistent, OS independent way of storing the user defined SSDTs. There
0103 is also work underway to implement EFI support for loading user defined SSDTs
0104 and using this method will make it easier to convert to the EFI loading
0105 mechanism when that will arrive. To enable it, the
0106 CONFIG_EFI_CUSTOM_SSDT_OVERLAYS shoyld be chosen to y.
0107
0108 In order to load SSDTs from an EFI variable the ``"efivar_ssdt=..."`` kernel
0109 command line parameter can be used (the name has a limitation of 16 characters).
0110 The argument for the option is the variable name to use. If there are multiple
0111 variables with the same name but with different vendor GUIDs, all of them will
0112 be loaded.
0113
0114 In order to store the AML code in an EFI variable the efivarfs filesystem can be
0115 used. It is enabled and mounted by default in /sys/firmware/efi/efivars in all
0116 recent distribution.
0117
0118 Creating a new file in /sys/firmware/efi/efivars will automatically create a new
0119 EFI variable. Updating a file in /sys/firmware/efi/efivars will update the EFI
0120 variable. Please note that the file name needs to be specially formatted as
0121 "Name-GUID" and that the first 4 bytes in the file (little-endian format)
0122 represent the attributes of the EFI variable (see EFI_VARIABLE_MASK in
0123 include/linux/efi.h). Writing to the file must also be done with one write
0124 operation.
0125
0126 For example, you can use the following bash script to create/update an EFI
0127 variable with the content from a given file::
0128
0129 #!/bin/sh -e
0130
0131 while [ -n "$1" ]; do
0132 case "$1" in
0133 "-f") filename="$2"; shift;;
0134 "-g") guid="$2"; shift;;
0135 *) name="$1";;
0136 esac
0137 shift
0138 done
0139
0140 usage()
0141 {
0142 echo "Syntax: ${0##*/} -f filename [ -g guid ] name"
0143 exit 1
0144 }
0145
0146 [ -n "$name" -a -f "$filename" ] || usage
0147
0148 EFIVARFS="/sys/firmware/efi/efivars"
0149
0150 [ -d "$EFIVARFS" ] || exit 2
0151
0152 if stat -tf $EFIVARFS | grep -q -v de5e81e4; then
0153 mount -t efivarfs none $EFIVARFS
0154 fi
0155
0156 # try to pick up an existing GUID
0157 [ -n "$guid" ] || guid=$(find "$EFIVARFS" -name "$name-*" | head -n1 | cut -f2- -d-)
0158
0159 # use a randomly generated GUID
0160 [ -n "$guid" ] || guid="$(cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid)"
0161
0162 # efivarfs expects all of the data in one write
0163 tmp=$(mktemp)
0164 /bin/echo -ne "\007\000\000\000" | cat - $filename > $tmp
0165 dd if=$tmp of="$EFIVARFS/$name-$guid" bs=$(stat -c %s $tmp)
0166 rm $tmp
0167
0168 Loading ACPI SSDTs from configfs
0169 ================================
0170
0171 This option allows loading of user defined SSDTs from user space via the configfs
0172 interface. The CONFIG_ACPI_CONFIGFS option must be select and configfs must be
0173 mounted. In the following examples, we assume that configfs has been mounted in
0174 /sys/kernel/config.
0175
0176 New tables can be loading by creating new directories in /sys/kernel/config/acpi/table
0177 and writing the SSDT AML code in the aml attribute::
0178
0179 cd /sys/kernel/config/acpi/table
0180 mkdir my_ssdt
0181 cat ~/ssdt.aml > my_ssdt/aml