Noncompliant ACPI implementation causes kernel spam

[anh0516]

I have updated the firmware to the latest version. On Linux, the following code in drivers/acpi/acpica/exsystem.c produces repetitive warning messages "ACPI Warning: Time parameter 255 us > 100 us violating ACPI spec, please fix the firmware.":

acpi_status acpi_ex_system_do_stall(u32 how_long_us)
{
	acpi_status status = AE_OK;

	ACPI_FUNCTION_ENTRY();

	if (how_long_us > 255) {
		/*
		* Longer than 255 microseconds, this is an error
		*
		* (ACPI specifies 100 usec as max, but this gives some slack in
		* order to support existing BIOSs)
		*/
		ACPI_ERROR((AE_INFO,
			   "Time parameter is too large (%u)", how_long_us));
		status = AE_AML_OPERAND_VALUE;
	} else {
		if (how_long_us > 100) {
			ACPI_WARNING((AE_INFO,
				     "Time parameter %u us > 100 us violating ACPI spec, please fix the firmware.",
				     how_long_us));
		}
		acpi_os_stall(how_long_us);
	}

	return (status);
}

Similar code in FreeBSD, NetBSD, Haiku (which sadly doesn't support eMMC so isn't a good option for this slow laptop), and probably more operating systems I haven't tried produces the same warning. I don't know if Windows cares; I got this from someone and immediately installed a new OS because this laptop is not capable of running Windows. Either way, the firmware is clearly not ACPI-compliant and this is a firmware bug.

From the code it doesn't look like it is possible to supress this warning in order to keep the kernel message buffer clean, so the only option is to comment out the warning and compile your own kernel (which I'm doing anyways to maximize performance, but not everyone is going to want to do that).

Where should I report such a firmware issue? Should I expect it to get fixed?

[WAWood]

Apart from a few Workstations that come with Linux distro preloaded, HP provides no support for Linux.

I mention this because with Windows, we can provide links to videos and HP Documents. We can provide links to HP diagnostic apps you can download and run on your PC. We can provide links to HP drivers and to HP BIOS updates, which you can also download and run on your PC. And, nearly everything useful can be done using an application or utility that HP will provide you for free.

For the general population of HP customers trying to use or install Linux, we have NONE of that. No diagnostics. No videos. No downloadable utilities or tools. And, once you get into Linux, you discover that you have to become VERY familiar with the command line to do anything complicated. We have no command line scripts or examples to provide you.

So when I recommend going to the support forum for your Linux distro, it is because THERE is where you will get the amount and kind of support you need.

[anh0516]

It sounds like you saw "Linux" and immediately ignored everything.

I explained that this isn't a Linux issue, this is a firmware bug. I mentioned that Haiku, FreeBSD, and NetBSD also complain, using the same code from ACPICA https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/topic-technology/open/acpica/overview.html. None of those operating systems are Linux-based. I also reproduced this issue on Debian, Ubuntu, Alpine Linux, and Gentoo with gentoo-kernel-bin. So which distro forum should I go to?

As I said, I already updated the BIOS and it is still not ACPI compliant. This proves you really didn't read. Is it a canned response?

I quoted the relevant code from the Linux kernel and explained how commenting out the check supresses the warning. I run Gentoo on my main systems. I don't care if it's CLI, in fact CLI is usually easier; I went to sysfs to find the model name.

I have no idea if Windows will complain, nor will I spend time checking, because this issue is clearly not OS-specific.