Re: A desktop environment[1] kernel wishlist

Bastien Nocera
2014-10-21T17:14:43Z

Hey,

On Tue, 2014-10-21 at 10:04 -0700, John Stultz wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 1:49 AM, Bastien Nocera <hadess@hadess.net> wrote:
> > Hey,
> >
> > GNOME has had discussions with kernel developers in the past, and,
> > fortunately, in some cases we were able to make headway.
> >
> > There are however a number of items that we still don't have solutions
> > for, items that kernel developers might not realise we'd like to rely
> > on, or don't know that we'd make use of if merged.
> >
> > I've posted this list at:
> > https://wiki.gnome.org/BastienNocera/KernelWishlist
> >
> > Let me know on-list or off-list if you have any comments about those, so
> > I can update the list.
>
> As for: 'Export of "wake reason" when the system wakes up (rtc alarm,
> lid open, etc.) and wakealarm (/sys/class/rtc/foo/wakealarm)
> documentation'
>
> Can you expand more on the rational for the need here? Is this for UI
> for power debugging, or something else?

No, it would be used for automating backups, or implementing
suspend->hibernation transitions. For example, right before the machine
suspends, I would schedule it to wake up in a hour. If I get woken up by
the rtc alarm (and not by the user through a lid open), I might:
- check that I'm plugged into the AC, it's night, and in the vicinity of
the server that handles my backups and so backup the system.
- check whether the battery is low, and hibernate the machine (if it
supports it, obviously).

We cannot do that if we can't make out whether the wake-up came from a
user action, or the alarm we set.

Cheers