Merge tag 'acpi-video-3.11' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rafael/linux-pm
Pull ACPI video support fixes from Rafael Wysocki:
"I'm sending a separate pull request for this as it may be somewhat
controversial. The breakage addressed here is not really new and the
fixes may not satisfy all users of the affected systems, but we've had
so much back and forth dance in this area over the last several weeks
that I think it's time to actually make some progress.
The source of the problem is that about a year ago we started to tell
BIOSes that we're compatible with Windows 8, which we really need to
do, because some systems shipping with Windows 8 are tested with it
and nothing else, so if we tell their BIOSes that we aren't compatible
with Windows 8, we expose our users to untested BIOS/AML code paths.
However, as it turns out, some Windows 8-specific AML code paths are
not tested either, because Windows 8 actually doesn't use the ACPI
methods containing them, so if we declare Windows 8 compatibility and
attempt to use those ACPI methods, things break. That occurs mostly
in the backlight support area where in particular the _BCM and _BQC
methods are plain unusable on some systems if the OS declares Windows
8 compatibility.
[ The additional twist is that they actually become usable if the OS
says it is not compatible with Windows 8, but that may cause
problems to show up elsewhere ]
Investigation carried out by Matthew Garrett indicates that what
Windows 8 does about backlight is to leave backlight control up to
individual graphics drivers. At least there's evidence that it does
that if the Intel graphics driver is used, so we've decided to follow
Windows 8 in that respect and allow i915 to control backlight (Daniel
likes that part).
The first commit from Aaron Lu makes ACPICA export the variable from
which we can infer whether or not the BIOS believes that we are
compatible with Windows 8.
The second commit from Matthew Garrett prepares the ACPI video driver
by making it initialize the ACPI backlight even if it is not going to
be used afterward (that is needed for backlight control to work on
Thinkpads).
The third commit implements the actual workaround making i915 take
over backlight control if the firmware thinks it's dealing with
Windows 8 and is based on the work of multiple developers, including
Matthew Garrett, Chun-Yi Lee, Seth Forshee, and Aaron Lu.
The final commit from Aaron Lu makes us follow Windows 8 by informing
the firmware through the _DOS method that it should not carry out
automatic brightness changes, so that brightness can be controlled by
GUI.
Hopefully, this approach will allow us to avoid using blacklists of
systems that should not declare Windows 8 compatibility just to avoid
backlight control problems in the future.
- Change from Aaron Lu makes ACPICA export a variable which can be
used by driver code to determine whether or not the BIOS believes
that we are compatible with Windows 8.
- Change from Matthew Garrett makes the ACPI video driver initialize
the ACPI backlight even if it is not going to be used afterward
(that is needed for backlight control to work on Thinkpads).
- Fix from Rafael J Wysocki implements Windows 8 backlight support
workaround making i915 take over bakclight control if the firmware
thinks it's dealing with Windows 8. Based on the work of multiple
developers including Matthew Garrett, Chun-Yi Lee, Seth Forshee,
and Aaron Lu.
- Fix from Aaron Lu makes the kernel follow Windows 8 by informing
the firmware through the _DOS method that it should not carry out
automatic brightness changes, so that brightness can be controlled
by GUI"
* tag 'acpi-video-3.11' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rafael/linux-pm:
ACPI / video: no automatic brightness changes by win8-compatible firmware
ACPI / video / i915: No ACPI backlight if firmware expects Windows 8
ACPI / video: Always call acpi_video_init_brightness() on init
ACPICA: expose OSI version
projects / kernel.git / commit