ACPICA version 20091112 released

[Moore, Robert]

12 November 2009. Summary of changes for version 20091112:

This release is available at www.acpica.org/downloads

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Implemented a post-order callback to AcpiWalkNamespace. The existing interface only has a pre-order callback. This change adds an additional parameter for a post-order callback which will be more useful for bus scans. ACPICA BZ 779. Lin Ming. Updated the ACPICA Programmer Reference.

Modified the behavior of the operation region memory mapping cache for SystemMemory. Ensure that the memory mappings created for operation regions do not cross 4K page boundaries. Crossing a page boundary while mapping regions can cause kernel warnings on some hosts if the pages have different attributes. Such regions are probably BIOS bugs, and this is the workaround. Linux BZ 14445. Lin Ming.

Implemented an automatic repair for predefined methods that must return sorted lists. This change will repair (by sorting) packages returned by _ALR, _PSS, and _TSS. Drivers can now assume that the packages are correctly sorted and do not contain NULL package elements. Adds one new file, namespace/nsrepair2.c. ACPICA BZ 784. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Fixed a possible fault during predefined name validation if a return Package object contains NULL elements. Also adds a warning if a NULL element is followed by any non-null elements. ACPICA BZ 813, 814. Future enhancement may include repair or removal of all such NULL elements where possible.

Implemented additional module-level executable AML code support. This change will execute module-level code that is not at the root of the namespace (under a Device object, etc.) at table load time. Module-level executable AML code has been illegal since ACPI 2.0. ACPICA BZ 762. Lin Ming.

Implemented a new internal function to create Integer objects. This function simplifies miscellaneous object creation code. ACPICA BZ 823.

Reduced the severity of predefined repair messages, Warning to Info. Since the object was successfully repaired, a warning is too severe. Reduced to an info message for now. These messages may eventually be changed to debug-only. ACPICA BZ 812.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  85.8K Code, 18.0K Data, 103.8K Total
    Debug Version:     161.8K Code, 50.6K Data, 212.4K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  86.6K Code, 18.2K Data, 104.8K Total
    Debug Version:     162.7K Code, 50.8K Data, 213.5K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented Switch() with While(1) so that Break works correctly. This change correctly implements the Switch operator with a surrounding While(1) so that the Break operator works as expected. ACPICA BZ 461. Lin Ming.

iASL: Added a message if a package initializer list is shorter than package length. Adds a new remark for a Package() declaration if an initializer list exists, but is shorter than the declared length of the package. Although technically legal, this is probably a coding error and it is seen in the field. ACPICA BZ 815. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

iASL: Fixed a problem where the compiler could fault after the maximum number of errors was reached (200).

acpixtract: Fixed a possible warning for pointer cast if the compiler warning level set very high.