ACPI Warning: Converted Buffer to expected String

[Ulrich Spörlein-3]

Just FYI,

Dell Inspiron 8600c laptop, semi-recent CURRENT, latest BIOS (A14), machine
is 5 years old and producing these warnings when inserting a battery (or
booting with one inserted)

ACPI Warning for \\_SB_.BAT0._BIF: Converted Buffer to expected String at index 9 (20090903/nsrepair-215)
ACPI Warning for \\_SB_.BAT0._BIF: Converted Buffer to expected String at index 10 (20090903/nsrepair-215)
ACPI Warning for \\_SB_.BAT0._BIF: Converted Buffer to expected String at index 11 (20090903/nsrepair-215)
ACPI Warning for \\_SB_.BAT0._BIF: Converted Buffer to expected String at index 12 (20090903/nsrepair-215)

Everything works just before the ACPI import, there's also another bunch
of (harmless) errors during boot.

acpi0: <DELL CPi R  > on motherboard
acpi0: [ITHREAD]
acpi0: reservation of 0, 9fc00 (3) failed
acpi0: reservation of 100000, 3fef0000 (3) failed

This is just for reference, perhaps someone wants to know.

Cheers,
Uli
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[Jung-uk Kim]

On Sunday 11 October 2009 10:22 am, Ulrich Spörlein wrote:

> Just FYI,
>
> Dell Inspiron 8600c laptop, semi-recent CURRENT, latest BIOS (A14),
> machine is 5 years old and producing these warnings when inserting
> a battery (or booting with one inserted)
>
> ACPI Warning for \\_SB_.BAT0._BIF: Converted Buffer to expected
> String at index 9 (20090903/nsrepair-215) ACPI Warning for
> \\_SB_.BAT0._BIF: Converted Buffer to expected String at index 10
> (20090903/nsrepair-215) ACPI Warning for \\_SB_.BAT0._BIF:
> Converted Buffer to expected String at index 11
> (20090903/nsrepair-215) ACPI Warning for \\_SB_.BAT0._BIF:
> Converted Buffer to expected String at index 12
> (20090903/nsrepair-215)

These are just informational.  FYI, new ACPICA checks predefined
method/object types per spec. and tries to correct common DSDT
errors.  Previously these "quirks" were handled by OS layer case by
case.  The warning message is telling you that _BIF method (get
battery information) returned Buffer object instead of String object
and ACPICA corrected the errors.  In fact, this is a very common
mistake by laptop BIOS writers.  Thus, it is automatically corrected
by new ACPICA.  However, if you see "ACPI Error", that's something to
worry about, e.g., cannot convert predefined types.

> Everything works just before the ACPI import, there's also another
> bunch of (harmless) errors during boot.
>
> acpi0: <DELL CPi R  > on motherboard
> acpi0: [ITHREAD]
> acpi0: reservation of 0, 9fc00 (3) failed
> acpi0: reservation of 100000, 3fef0000 (3) failed
>
> This is just for reference, perhaps someone wants to know.

It is harmless.

Jung-uk Kim
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[Lawrence Stewart-3]

Jung-uk Kim wrote:

[snip]

> by new ACPICA.  However, if you see "ACPI Error", that's something to
> worry about, e.g., cannot convert predefined types.
>

So I should be worried about this line from my Toshiba R600 laptop's dmesg?

ACPI Error: Package List length (0xC) larger than NumElements count
(0x4), truncated

Cheers,
Lawrence
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[Jung-uk Kim]

On Tuesday 13 October 2009 05:50 pm, Lawrence Stewart wrote:

> Jung-uk Kim wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > by new ACPICA.  However, if you see "ACPI Error", that's
> > something to worry about, e.g., cannot convert predefined types.
>
> So I should be worried about this line from my Toshiba R600
> laptop's dmesg?
>
> ACPI Error: Package List length (0xC) larger than NumElements count
> (0x4), truncated

Strictly speaking, it is an error because ACPI specification says so
(hence the error message).  However, no exception is returned because
of Windows compatibility according to the comments in the source.

If everything is working fine, just ignore it. :-)

Jung-uk Kim
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[Moore, Robert]

Probably should be dropped down to a warning.

This is usually caused by the BIOS modifying the package length on the fly. No ASL compiler would do this.

>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-freebsd-acpi@... [mailto:owner-freebsd-
>acpi@...] On Behalf Of Jung-uk Kim
>Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 3:16 PM
>To: freebsd-current@...
>Cc: Lawrence Stewart; freebsd-acpi@...
>Subject: Re: ACPI Warning: Converted Buffer to expected String
>
>On Tuesday 13 October 2009 05:50 pm, Lawrence Stewart wrote:
>> Jung-uk Kim wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> > by new ACPICA.  However, if you see "ACPI Error", that's
>> > something to worry about, e.g., cannot convert predefined types.
>>
>> So I should be worried about this line from my Toshiba R600
>> laptop's dmesg?
>>
>> ACPI Error: Package List length (0xC) larger than NumElements count
>> (0x4), truncated
>
>Strictly speaking, it is an error because ACPI specification says so
>(hence the error message).  However, no exception is returned because
>of Windows compatibility according to the comments in the source.
>
>If everything is working fine, just ignore it. :-)
>
>Jung-uk Kim
>_______________________________________________
>freebsd-acpi@... mailing list
>http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-acpi
>To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-acpi-unsubscribe@..."

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[Lawrence Stewart-3]

Jung-uk Kim wrote:

> On Tuesday 13 October 2009 05:50 pm, Lawrence Stewart wrote:
>> Jung-uk Kim wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>> by new ACPICA.  However, if you see "ACPI Error", that's
>>> something to worry about, e.g., cannot convert predefined types.
>> So I should be worried about this line from my Toshiba R600
>> laptop's dmesg?
>>
>> ACPI Error: Package List length (0xC) larger than NumElements count
>> (0x4), truncated
>
> Strictly speaking, it is an error because ACPI specification says so
> (hence the error message).  However, no exception is returned because
> of Windows compatibility according to the comments in the source.
>

Ok thanks for explaining.

> If everything is working fine, just ignore it. :-)

When I boot this particular laptop into windows and then back into
FreeBSD (even after a power down in between), I get a reproducible panic
while the kernel is booting and probing devices which can only be fixed
by going into the BIOS config screen and restoring to defaults. I
suspect the Windows drivers are leaving the hardware in some fancy state
the FreeBSD kernel doesn't like. I have a hunch it is ACPI related. Is
there some way I can tell? The panic/backtrace is always the same as
follows:

Slab at 0xffffff00025d5b18, freei 3 = 0.
panic: Duplicate free of item 0xffffff00025f8c00 from zone
0xffffff00b697d400(1024)


Backtrace at the ddb prompt looks like this:

db> bt
kdb_enter()+0x3d
panic()+0x17b
uma_dbg_free()+0x171
uma_zfree_arg()+0x68
free()+0xbd
device_set_driver()+0x8e
device_attach()+0x19b
bus_generic_attach()+0x1a
acpi_pci_attach()+0x147
device_attach()+0x69
bus_generic_attach()+0x1a
acpi_pcib_attach()+0x1a7
acpi_pcib_acpi_attach()+0x1a5
device_attach()+0x69
bus_generic_attach()+0x1a
acpi_attach()+0x9e4
device_attach()+0x69
bus_generic_attach()+0x1a
device_attach()+0x69
root_bus_configure()+0x28
configure()+0xa
mi_startup()+0x59
btext()+0x2c

Cheers,
Lawrence
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