1 files changed, 66 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/acpi/method-customizing.txt b/Documentation/acpi/method-customizing.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e628cd23ca80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/acpi/method-customizing.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+Linux ACPI Custom Control Method How To
+=======================================
+
+Written by Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>
+
+
+Linux supports customizing ACPI control methods at runtime.
+
+Users can use this to
+1. override an existing method which may not work correctly,
+   or just for debugging purposes.
+2. insert a completely new method in order to create a missing
+   method such as _OFF, _ON, _STA, _INI, etc.
+For these cases, it is far simpler to dynamically install a single
+control method rather than override the entire DSDT, because kernel
+rebuild/reboot is not needed and test result can be got in minutes.
+
+Note: Only ACPI METHOD can be overridden, any other object types like
+      "Device", "OperationRegion", are not recognized.
+Note: The same ACPI control method can be overridden for many times,
+      and it's always the latest one that used by Linux/kernel.
+
+1. override an existing method
+   a) get the ACPI table via ACPI sysfs I/F. e.g. to get the DSDT,
+      just run "cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT > /tmp/dsdt.dat"
+   b) disassemble the table by running "iasl -d dsdt.dat".
+   c) rewrite the ASL code of the method and save it in a new file,
+   d) package the new file (psr.asl) to an ACPI table format.
+      Here is an example of a customized \_SB._AC._PSR method,
+
+      DefinitionBlock ("", "SSDT", 1, "", "", 0x20080715)
+      {
+	External (ACON)
+
+	Method (\_SB_.AC._PSR, 0, NotSerialized)
+	{
+		Store ("In AC _PSR", Debug)
+		Return (ACON)
+	}
+      }
+      Note that the full pathname of the method in ACPI namespace
+      should be used.
+      And remember to use "External" to declare external objects.
+   e) assemble the file to generate the AML code of the method.
+      e.g. "iasl psr.asl" (psr.aml is generated as a result)
+   f) mount debugfs by "mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug"
+   g) override the old method via the debugfs by running
+      "cat /tmp/psr.aml > /sys/kernel/debug/acpi/custom_method"
+
+2. insert a new method
+   This is easier than overriding an existing method.
+   We just need to create the ASL code of the method we want to
+   insert and then follow the step c) ~ g) in section 1.
+
+3. undo your changes
+   The "undo" operation is not supported for a new inserted method
+   right now, i.e. we can not remove a method currently.
+   For an overrided method, in order to undo your changes, please
+   save a copy of the method original ASL code in step c) section 1,
+   and redo step c) ~ g) to override the method with the original one.
+
+
+Note: We can use a kernel with multiple custom ACPI method running,
+      But each individual write to debugfs can implement a SINGLE
+      method override. i.e. if we want to insert/override multiple
+      ACPI methods, we need to redo step c) ~ g) for multiple times.