Re: [RFC][PATCH] Documentation: Ask driver writers to provide suspend/resume support

From: Rafael J. Wysocki
Date: Sat Feb 17 2007 - 06:38:42 EST


Hi,

On Saturday, 17 February 2007 11:59, Pavel Machek wrote:
> Hi!
>
> > Add a paragraph in Documentation/SubmittingDrivers requesting that the
> > susped/resume support be provided by new device drivers.
> >
> > Add the document Documentation/power/drivers-testing.txt giving general
> > instructions for the testing of suspend/resume support in device drivers.
> >
> > ---
> > Documentation/SubmittingDrivers | 10 ++
> > Documentation/power/drivers-testing.txt | 146 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > 2 files changed, 156 insertions(+)
> >
> > Index: linux-2.6.20-git13/Documentation/SubmittingDrivers
> > ===================================================================
> > --- linux-2.6.20-git13.orig/Documentation/SubmittingDrivers
> > +++ linux-2.6.20-git13/Documentation/SubmittingDrivers
> > @@ -87,6 +87,16 @@ Clarity: It helps if anyone can see how
> > driver that intentionally obfuscates how the hardware works
> > it will go in the bitbucket.
> >
> > +PM support: Since Linux is used on many portable and desktop systems, your
> > + driver is likely to be used on such a system and therefore it
> > + should support basic power management by implementing, if
> > + necessary, the .suspend and .resume methods used during the
> > + system-wide suspend and resume transitions. You should verify
> > + that your driver correctly handles the suspend and resume, but
> > + if you are unable to ensure that, please at least define the
> > + .suspend method returning the -ENOSYS ("Function not
> > + implemented") error.
>
> Perhaps pointer to Documentation/power/drivers-testing.txt would be
> useful here?

Okay, maybe something like this:

"Please see Documentation/power/drivers-testing.txt for the driver testing
instructions."

as the last sentence?

> > Control: In general if there is active maintainance of a driver by
> > the author then patches will be redirected to them unless
> > they are totally obvious and without need of checking.
> > Index: linux-2.6.20-git13/Documentation/power/drivers-testing.txt
> > ===================================================================
> > --- /dev/null
> > +++ linux-2.6.20-git13/Documentation/power/drivers-testing.txt
> > @@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
> > +Testing suspend and resume support in drivers
> > + (C) 2007 Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@xxxxxxx>
>
> If you add copyright, maybe specify license, too? (", GPL" should be enough).

OK

> > +Unfortunately, to effectively test the support for the system-wide suspend and
> > +resume transitions in a driver, it is necessary to suspend and resume a fully
> > +functional system with this driver loaded. Moreover, that should be done many
> > +times, preferably many times in a row, and separately for the suspend to disk
> > +(STD) and the suspend to RAM (STR) transitions, because each of these cases
> > +involves different ordering of operations and different interactions with the
> > +machine's BIOS.
>
> Hmm, actually it is nice to mix STR + STD, too... and not sure if
> "many" is right word... It sounds scary :-).

"a couple of"?

> > +To verify that the STD works, you can try to suspend in the "reboot" mode:
> > +
> > +# echo reboot > /sys/power/disk
> > +# echo disk > /sys/power/state
> > +
> > +and the system should suspend, reboot, resume and get back to the command prompt
> > +where you have started the transition. If that happens, the STD is most likely
> > +to work correctly, but you need to repeat the test at least a couple of times in
> > +a row for confidence. This is necessary because some problems only
>
> , because?

OK

> > +c) Advanced debugging
>
> Actually, those debugging instructions look really cool. Perhaps we
> should split them into separate file, as it is also interesting for
> users trying to get suspend working on their machine?

OK

basic-pm-debugging.txt and driver-testing.txt ?

> > +II. Testing the driver
> > +
> > +Once you have resolved the suspend/resume-related problems with your test system
> > +without the new driver, you are ready to test it:
> > +
> > +1. Build the driver as a module, load it and try the STD in the test mode
> > +(cf. 1a)).
> > +
> > +2. Compile the driver directly into the kernel and try the STD in the test mode
> > +(cf. 1a)).
> > +
> > +3. Build the driver as a module, load it and attempt to suspend to disk in the
> > +"reboot", "shutdown" and "platform" modes (cf. 1).
> > +
> > +4. Compile the driver directly into the kernel and attempt to suspend to disk in
> > +the "reboot", "shutdown" and "platform" modes (cf. 1).
> > +
> > +5. Build the driver as a module, load it and attempt to run s2ram (cf. 2).
> > +
> > +6. Compile the driver directly into the kernel and attempt to run s2ram (cf. 2).
> > +
> > +Each of the above tests should be repeated several times and if any of them
> > +fails, the driver cannot be regarded as suspend/resume-safe.
>
> Maybe reorder the tests so that poor submitter will not have to do 3
> kernel compiles?

I thought he would figure out that there's more efficient way. ;-)

Greetings,
Rafael
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