ACPI Warning: Converted Buffer to expected String

[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