Merge branch 'master' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/linville/wirel...

[safe/jmp/linux-2.6] / Documentation / IPMI.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/IPMI.txt b/Documentation/IPMI.txt
index 24dc3fc..69dd29e 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/IPMI.txt
+++ b/Documentation/IPMI.txt
@@ -365,6 +365,7 @@ You can change this at module load time (for a module) with:
        regshifts=<shift1>,<shift2>,...
        slave_addrs=<addr1>,<addr2>,...
        force_kipmid=<enable1>,<enable2>,...
+       kipmid_max_busy_us=<ustime1>,<ustime2>,...
        unload_when_empty=[0|1]
 
 Each of these except si_trydefaults is a list, the first item for the
@@ -433,6 +434,7 @@ kernel command line as:
        ipmi_si.regshifts=<shift1>,<shift2>,...
        ipmi_si.slave_addrs=<addr1>,<addr2>,...
        ipmi_si.force_kipmid=<enable1>,<enable2>,...
+       ipmi_si.kipmid_max_busy_us=<ustime1>,<ustime2>,...
 
 It works the same as the module parameters of the same names.
 
@@ -441,17 +443,30 @@ ACPI, and if none of those then a KCS device at the spec-specified
 0xca2.  If you want to turn this off, set the "trydefaults" option to
 false.
 
-If you have high-res timers compiled into the kernel, the driver will
-use them to provide much better performance.  Note that if you do not
-have high-res timers enabled in the kernel and you don't have
-interrupts enabled, the driver will run VERY slowly.  Don't blame me,
+If your IPMI interface does not support interrupts and is a KCS or
+SMIC interface, the IPMI driver will start a kernel thread for the
+interface to help speed things up.  This is a low-priority kernel
+thread that constantly polls the IPMI driver while an IPMI operation
+is in progress.  The force_kipmid module parameter will all the user to
+force this thread on or off.  If you force it off and don't have
+interrupts, the driver will run VERY slowly.  Don't blame me,
 these interfaces suck.
 
+Unfortunately, this thread can use a lot of CPU depending on the
+interface's performance.  This can waste a lot of CPU and cause
+various issues with detecting idle CPU and using extra power.  To
+avoid this, the kipmid_max_busy_us sets the maximum amount of time, in
+microseconds, that kipmid will spin before sleeping for a tick.  This
+value sets a balance between performance and CPU waste and needs to be
+tuned to your needs.  Maybe, someday, auto-tuning will be added, but
+that's not a simple thing and even the auto-tuning would need to be
+tuned to the user's desired performance.
+
 The driver supports a hot add and remove of interfaces.  This way,
 interfaces can be added or removed after the kernel is up and running.
-This is done using /sys/modules/ipmi_si/hotmod, which is a write-only
-parameter.  You write a string to this interface.  The string has the
-format:
+This is done using /sys/modules/ipmi_si/parameters/hotmod, which is a
+write-only parameter.  You write a string to this interface.  The string
+has the format:
    <op1>[:op2[:op3...]]
 The "op"s are:
    add|remove,kcs|bt|smic,mem|i/o,<address>[,<opt1>[,<opt2>[,...]]]
@@ -581,9 +596,11 @@ The watchdog will panic and start a 120 second reset timeout if it
 gets a pre-action.  During a panic or a reboot, the watchdog will
 start a 120 timer if it is running to make sure the reboot occurs.
 
-Note that if you use the NMI preaction for the watchdog, you MUST
-NOT use nmi watchdog mode 1.  If you use the NMI watchdog, you
-must use mode 2.
+Note that if you use the NMI preaction for the watchdog, you MUST NOT
+use the nmi watchdog.  There is no reasonable way to tell if an NMI
+comes from the IPMI controller, so it must assume that if it gets an
+otherwise unhandled NMI, it must be from IPMI and it will panic
+immediately.
 
 Once you open the watchdog timer, you must write a 'V' character to the
 device to close it, or the timer will not stop.  This is a new semantic