RE: Check for BIOS bugs - Original Subject: Re: [PATCH 23/70] ACPICA: Workaround for reversed _PRT entries from BIOS

[Brown, Len]

>>>> Some BIOSs erroneously reverse the _PRT SourceName and the
>>>> SourceIndex.  Detect and repair this problem. MS ACPI also allows
>>>> and repairs this problem, thus ACPICA must also.
>>> It would be great to have an interface to report this as a 
>BIOS defect.
>>>
>>> Something like:
>>>
>>> FIRMWARE_BUG_ON(FIRM_WARN, "erroneously reversed the _PRT 
>source_name", ACPI_ 
>>> Bug);
>>>
>>> FIRMWARE_BUG_ON(severity, description, component);
>> 
>> Yes, please.

I'm not excited about maintaining
maintaining linux-as-a-firmware-diagnostic --
particularly when...

1. it clutters the code for normail machines
2. finding the bug is pointless, because even
   if you fix one machine, you are guaranteed to
   not fix all machines and thus must maintain
   the workaround anyway.

>> I'd also like HARDWARE_BUG_ON(), with similar usage.
>> 
>> With all the preload-linux-on-foo project, we have some 
>> chance to make
>> BIOS vendors fix their stuff if we can easily diagnose errors in
>> there.

These customers should be running 
http://linuxfirmwarekit.org/

We do maintain some degree of "high-road ACPI spec checking"
with the "acpi=strict" boot option.  If we do more of this,
I think it should stay under that option.

thanks,
-Len
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