an acpi menace to linux in some uefi-ed computers

[TJ Hoye]

.
I have a new Dell Inspiron 5570 which I like a lot, but i think it has an ACPI system that probably
works well with a Dell Windows 10 uefi setup, but which shows about 32 complaints in dmesg
when booting MX-Linux booting in either legacy or uefi, and/or using one of several different kernels.

At a minimum it would be nice to have a boot option acpi=off for MX-18 Linux.
There are a few loaded modules in MX-18.2 which grep to acpi, but not enough, apparently.

Here's the typical dmesg evidence:

demo@mx1:~
$ alias dmx; dmx | grep -i acpi
alias dmx='dmesg | grep -i --color " bug\|warn\|fail\|error\|corrupt"'
[ 0.284218] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.284565] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 00000000280dc3bd (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.284696] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 0000000028d6fd57 (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.285257] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.285551] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 00000000280dc3bd (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.285613] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 0000000028d6fd57 (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.288528] ACPI: [Firmware Bug]: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
[ 0.293338] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.293355] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 00000000280dc3bd (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.293362] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 0000000028d6fd57 (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.294283] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.294300] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 00000000280dc3bd (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.294307] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 0000000028d6fd57 (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.294566] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.294583] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 00000000280dc3bd (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.294589] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 0000000028d6fd57 (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.294811] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.294827] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 00000000280dc3bd (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.294833] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 0000000028d6fd57 (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.295664] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.295681] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 00000000280dc3bd (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.295687] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 0000000028d6fd57 (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.295979] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.295995] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 00000000280dc3bd (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.296002] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 0000000028d6fd57 (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.296300] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.296317] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 00000000280dc3bd (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.296323] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 0000000028d6fd57 (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 0.304001] PCI: Using host bridge windows from ACPI; if necessary, use "pci=nocrs" and report a bug
[ 7.049840] ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package 000000000677283f (20181003/dsargs-303)
[ 7.049847] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_SB.PCI0.B0D4.PPCC, AE_AML_INTERNAL (20181003/psparse-516)
[ 7.051924] ACPI Warning: \_SB.IETM._TRT: Return Package has no elements (empty) (20181003/nsprepkg-96)
demo@mx1:~

[Stevo]

There were some acpi tweaks one could apply at boot for Dells, like the one in the troubleshooting section in the Debian wiki:

- If your laptop locks up during boot when starting the graphical display you may need to add a kernel parameter to set acpi_osi="!Windows 2015" or some variant.

This is a known ACPI problem with 2017 Dell XPS 15 and others

[JayM]

At a minimum it would be nice to have a boot option acpi=off for MX-18 Linux.

If you run MX Tools/MX Boot Options you can add acpi=off to your boot parameters. That utility will update grub for you when you click Apply.

Welcome to the forum.

[Stevo]

I would manually add boot commands like that in GRUB and make sure they worked before making them permanent. But that's me.

[JayM]

I would manually add boot commands like that in GRUB and make sure they worked before making them permanent. But that's me.

Good point.

[BitJam]

There should be an "acpi=off" option in the "F4 Options" menu in the live legacy bootloader. If it is not there, I will try to make sure it gets back in.

I believe TJ Hoye is always running live so the instructions for changing the bootloader parameters are a little different. Terry (TJ) was one of the early adopters of the MX-14.x live system. I believe he has been running MX live ever since. IIRC Terry came to MX from Knoppix (the running live grand-daddy) because of our live system.

A Google(ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package) shows there have been some kernel patches to get rid of these messages. Maybe the patches didn't make it into the main branch or maybe there was a reversion. Maybe the fix only works on certain hardware.

[JayM]

There should be an "acpi=off" option in the "F4 Options" menu in the live legacy bootloader. If it is not there, I will try to make sure it gets back in.

I believe TJ Hoye is always running live so the instructions for changing the bootloader parameters are a little different. Terry (TJ) was one of the early adopters of the MX-14.x live system. I believe he has been running MX live ever since. IIRC Terry came to MX from Knoppix (the running live grand-daddy) because of our live system.

A Google(ACPI Error: No pointer back to namespace node in package) shows there have been some kernel patches to get rid of these messages. Maybe the patches didn't make it into the main branch or maybe there was a reversion. Maybe the fix only works on certain hardware.

A patch was issued in May 2018: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=199413 I wonder what kernel TJ is using? Perhaps one from before the patch?

Other search results suggest that those ACPI warning messages during boot can be safely ignored. However, they do kind of clutter up the boot progress if you're booting nosplash to try to spot other messages so it would be nice to be rid of them.

[TJ Hoye]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

As usual, I'm learning as I go, so I'll fill you in on a few more important details.
First, as BitJam already knows, I'm exclusively MX and exclusive LiveUSB.
Second, I have an older 1545 Inspiron that is failing, and a new 5570 Inspiron that has some Linux
ailments. I'm hoping to use a 64-bit MX 18.2 LiveUSB or its clone on both.
Third, the 1545 is only legacy mode. I originally thought I could use the 5570 in a legacy mode.
I now think that's not currently possible; the 5570 only works uefi AFAICS.

@ Stevo, thanks. No lock-ups AFAICT, but using acpi=off, I have to hit the power button to shut down.
I don't know how to wok on grub to fix anything.

@ JayM, thanks. I don't know how to change grub. I don't like ignoring warnings, maybe this
behavior is exploitable. I've only used 4.19.0 and 4.20.12 kernels myself on MX-18.2 Live.

@ BitJam, thanks also for PM tutoring. I don't have the F4 & F8 options on the 5570 since I don't
find a way to boot legacy except on the 1545. Still looking for a way to save the boot
command acpi=off.

TJH

[BitJam]

Still looking for a way to save the boot command acpi=off.

As I said in the PM, highlight the entry you want to boot from and then press 'e' to edit it. Add "acpi=off" and also add "menus=s" to the line that starts with "linux" then press <F10> to boot. You will be asked if you want to save these settings. Select "yes".

You can also directly edit the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file. If you are booting from a live-usb then you need to edit the file on the small fat32 partition on the live-usb. Starting with antiX-19, fehlix improved our live boot system so you will be able to edit the grub.cfg on the main live-usb partition mounted at /live/boot-dev/ to make changes like this.

IIRC, for a number of years the need to use "acpi=off" had decreased drastically but then the need shot up recently. It was usually older systems that needed it. Until now there has been very little (or no) demand for acpi=off when booting UEFI. If this problem isn't fixed upstream then we may need to add another grub entry with "acpi=off" but I hope it won't come to this.

[TJ Hoye]

Still looking for a way to save the boot command acpi=off.
{/quote}

As I said in the PM, highlight the entry you want to boot from and then press 'e' to edit it. Add "acpi=off" and also add "menus=s" to the line that starts with "linux" then press <F10> to boot. You will be asked if you want to save these settings. Select "yes".
[ /quote]

Thanks, BitJam.
I just tried this again and it works fine. I must have mis-typed. menus=s; I didn't get a choice to select "yes" earlier.

I'm no longer sure I can find any boot combination that allows me to legacy boot get a my 5570 with my MX LiveUSB. Does that seem reasonable?
I would like to get both uefi and acpi out of the equation here if I can. I don't want to just turn off the warnings, unless that's all I can do.

Using the 1545 and legacy boot there are fewer acpi errors and these seem to be a bug in 1545 which shuts down aspm automatically.
I think this says fix the 1545 or don't worry about the errors.

Using the 5570 and uefi there are 32 acpi errors, and i wonder if maybe some drivers are missing or if MX's uefi might be part of the problem.
I think this says either find out how to boot 5570 in legacy or get smarter about using uefi on acpi. Too many errors to ignore here.
So should I be able to find a way to boot 5570 in legacy mode?