[ltp] Workarounds and tips for thinkpads running 2.6.23/2.6.24

[Ashok Leyland]

On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 11:02:48AM -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> Here's a bunch of tips and workaround for issues plaguing thinkpads on
> 2.6.24 and possibly on 2.6.23.  Not all of them apply to every model of
> thinkpad.
> 
> 
> Bay and dock handling:
> 
> 1. You may need to give the kernel parameter libata.noacpi=1 to work around
> an issue in the ACPI subsystem.  Possible side-effects when you *use* that
> parameter are different behaviour when sleeping/hibernating/waking up, as
> Linux won't use ACPI information to set up the disks for sleep/resume
> anymore.  Most thinkpads won't really care or need this libata function
> anyway (if it worked in 2.6.22, chances are it doesn't need it at all).
> Test it first, especially if you use an HD password in BIOS or something
> like that.

On my X61s I find that it can take a while to come back from suspend; on
resume, the backlight comes on and blank screen with a blinking cursor
is visible, and then nothing for up to a minute perhaps, before the
resume completes ok. Seemingly relevant log info below. If this kernel
arg fixes this, are there any negative side effects (WRT power
management, for example)?

ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
ata1.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
ata1.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
ata1.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
ata1: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs
ata1: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0x80)
ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/02:00:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd f5/00:00:00:00:00:a0 filtered out
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/5f:00:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/10:03:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/02:00:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd f5/00:00:00:00:00:a0 filtered out
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/5f:00:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/10:03:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
ata1: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs
ata1: soft resetting link
ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 611 SControl 300)
ata1: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs
ata1: hard resetting link
ata1: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0x80)
ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
ata1: hard resetting link
ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/02:00:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd f5/00:00:00:00:00:a0 filtered out
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/5f:00:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/10:03:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/02:00:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd f5/00:00:00:00:00:a0 filtered out
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/5f:00:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: ACPI cmd ef/10:03:00:00:00:a0 succeeded
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
ata1: EH complete
hdaps: fake_data_mode set to 0
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 312581808 512-byte hardware sectors (160042 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA 
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 312581808 512-byte hardware sectors (160042 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA


running vanilla 2.6.24

> 
> 2. ACPI generic bay and dock are *MUCH* better than thinkpad-acpi's
> deprecated bay and dock handling.  Try them.  Bay/dock handling will be gone
> from thinkpad-acpi soon.  ACPI generic bay/dock send events over udev
> instead of over acpid, though.

docking and undocking work well here (as long as I remember to modprobe
-r ata_piix before echo-ing 1 > /sys/devices/platform/dock.0/undock ;)

[snip]


> Misc:
> 
> When you buy a thinkpad, get one with either Intel graphics, or ATI
> graphics.  ATI has opened the specs of *most* stuff in their newest chips,
> and proper drivers are on the works.  Intel has opened the specs of their
> chips a lot of time ago, and drivers are very good and mostly mature.
> nVidia is a lost case right now, please do the community a big favour and
> avoid them like the plague.  Besides, AFAIK ATIs are better at power
> conservation than nVidia anyway (wtf Lenovo switched to nVidia?!), and
> nobody can beat the slower Intel GPUs at power conservation, so if you don't
> require 3D speed that much, get Intel.

FWIW, WRT 3D accel, the X3100/Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 is quite capable of 
running compiz and stellarium at 1024x768, the only opengl things I run here.

Thanks for all this info.

> -- 
>   "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
>   them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
>   where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
>   Henrique Holschuh
> -- 
> The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
> http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad