How can a patch be merged upstream?

How can a patch be merged upstream?

[Joshua C.]

I (and others with acer aspire 5050series laptops) have a broken bios
which resulted in kernel panic. Reported the bug
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10237 and
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8953 and a patch was
written about it. Can/When will this be merged upstream? Any arguments
against this as a hardware/platform solution?

Here is the patch from Zhao Yakui <yakui.zhao@intel.com>

Signed-off-by: Zhao Yakui <yakui.zhao@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Lin Ming <ming.m.lin@intel.com>

---
 drivers/acpi/ec.c |   15 +++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Index: linux-2.6/drivers/acpi/ec.c
===================================================================
--- linux-2.6.orig/drivers/acpi/ec.c
+++ linux-2.6/drivers/acpi/ec.c
@@ -835,8 +835,19 @@ static int ec_install_handlers(struct ac
 						    &acpi_ec_space_handler,
 						    NULL, ec);
 	if (ACPI_FAILURE(status)) {
-		acpi_remove_gpe_handler(NULL, ec->gpe, &acpi_ec_gpe_handler);
-		return -ENODEV;
+		if (status == AE_NOT_FOUND) {
+			/*
+			 * Maybe OS fails in evaluating the _REG object.
+			 * The AE_NOT_FOUND error will be ignored and OS
+			 * continue to initialize EC.
+			 */
+			printk(KERN_ERR "Fail in evaluating _REG object."
+				" It is broken BIOS.\n");
+		} else {
+			acpi_remove_gpe_handler(NULL, ec->gpe,
+				&acpi_ec_gpe_handler);
+			return -ENODEV;
+		}
 	}

 	ec->handlers_installed = 1;

Re: How can a patch be merged upstream?

[Zhao Yakui]

On Mon, 2008-08-25 at 16:26 +0200, Joshua C. wrote:
> I (and others with acer aspire 5050series laptops) have a broken bios
> which resulted in kernel panic. Reported the bug
> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10237 and
> http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8953 and a patch was
> written about it. Can/When will this be merged upstream? Any arguments
> against this as a hardware/platform solution?
Linux can't work normally while Windows can work on such broken BIOS. Of
course the issue is related with the broken BIOS. The _REG object of EC
device is incorrect, which causes that EC device can't be initialized
correctly. 
After this workaround patch is applied, Linux can also work. IMO this
workaround patch is reasonable. 

Thanks.
   Yakui
> Here is the patch from Zhao Yakui <yakui.zhao@intel.com>
> 
> Signed-off-by: Zhao Yakui <yakui.zhao@intel.com>
> Signed-off-by: Lin Ming <ming.m.lin@intel.com>
> 
> ---
>  drivers/acpi/ec.c |   15 +++++++++++++--
>  1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> Index: linux-2.6/drivers/acpi/ec.c
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-2.6.orig/drivers/acpi/ec.c
> +++ linux-2.6/drivers/acpi/ec.c
> @@ -835,8 +835,19 @@ static int ec_install_handlers(struct ac
>  						    &acpi_ec_space_handler,
>  						    NULL, ec);
>  	if (ACPI_FAILURE(status)) {
> -		acpi_remove_gpe_handler(NULL, ec->gpe, &acpi_ec_gpe_handler);
> -		return -ENODEV;
> +		if (status == AE_NOT_FOUND) {
> +			/*
> +			 * Maybe OS fails in evaluating the _REG object.
> +			 * The AE_NOT_FOUND error will be ignored and OS
> +			 * continue to initialize EC.
> +			 */
> +			printk(KERN_ERR "Fail in evaluating _REG object."
> +				" It is broken BIOS.\n");
> +		} else {
> +			acpi_remove_gpe_handler(NULL, ec->gpe,
> +				&acpi_ec_gpe_handler);
> +			return -ENODEV;
> +		}
>  	}
> 
>  	ec->handlers_installed = 1;
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-acpi" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: How can a patch be merged upstream?

[Andi Kleen]

> Linux can't work normally while Windows can work on such broken BIOS. Of
> course the issue is related with the broken BIOS. The _REG object of EC
> device is incorrect, which causes that EC device can't be initialized
> correctly. 
> After this workaround patch is applied, Linux can also work. IMO this
> workaround patch is reasonable. 

Can you please submit it with proper description?

> > +		if (status == AE_NOT_FOUND) {
> > +			/*
> > +			 * Maybe OS fails in evaluating the _REG object.
> > +			 * The AE_NOT_FOUND error will be ignored and OS
> > +			 * continue to initialize EC.
> > +			 */
> > +			printk(KERN_ERR "Fail in evaluating _REG object."
> > +				" It is broken BIOS.\n");

The English could be improved.

"Failure in evaluation _REG object .... Broken BIOS suspected."

Also could you output the path to the object too for easier 
diagnosis?

-Andi

Re: How can a patch be merged upstream?

[Carlos Corbacho]

On Thursday 28 August 2008 00:09:39 Andi Kleen wrote:
> > Linux can't work normally while Windows can work on such broken BIOS. Of
> > course the issue is related with the broken BIOS. The _REG object of EC
> > device is incorrect, which causes that EC device can't be initialized
> > correctly.
> > After this workaround patch is applied, Linux can also work. IMO this
> > workaround patch is reasonable.
>
> Can you please submit it with proper description?

It might also be worth CC'ing this patch (in its final form) to stable@.

-Carlos
-- 
E-Mail: carlos@strangeworlds.co.uk
Web: strangeworlds.co.uk
GPG Key ID: 0x23EE722D

Re: How can a patch be merged upstream?

[Andi Kleen]

On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 12:11:23AM +0100, Carlos Corbacho wrote:
> On Thursday 28 August 2008 00:09:39 Andi Kleen wrote:
> > > Linux can't work normally while Windows can work on such broken BIOS. Of
> > > course the issue is related with the broken BIOS. The _REG object of EC
> > > device is incorrect, which causes that EC device can't be initialized
> > > correctly.
> > > After this workaround patch is applied, Linux can also work. IMO this
> > > workaround patch is reasonable.
> >
> > Can you please submit it with proper description?
> 
> It might also be worth CC'ing this patch (in its final form) to stable@.

I don't think it's stable material because it doesn't fix a serious Linux
bug.

-Andi

Re: How can a patch be merged upstream?

[Zhao Yakui]

On Thu, 2008-08-28 at 01:37 +0200, Andi Kleen wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 12:11:23AM +0100, Carlos Corbacho wrote:
> > On Thursday 28 August 2008 00:09:39 Andi Kleen wrote:
> > > > Linux can't work normally while Windows can work on such broken BIOS. Of
> > > > course the issue is related with the broken BIOS. The _REG object of EC
> > > > device is incorrect, which causes that EC device can't be initialized
> > > > correctly.
> > > > After this workaround patch is applied, Linux can also work. IMO this
> > > > workaround patch is reasonable.
> > >
> > > Can you please submit it with proper description?
> > 
> > It might also be worth CC'ing this patch (in its final form) to stable@.
> 
> I don't think it's stable material because it doesn't fix a serious Linux
> bug.
This workaround patch is meaning for the broken BIOS with the incorrect
the definition of EC _REG object. And it won't break other normal
laptop.

Maybe that Linux can't work on such broken BIOS is caused by that the
check on Linux is stricter than windows.


> 
> -Andi