* [Suspend2][ 3/4] [Suspend2] Suspend2 internals document.
2006-06-26 16:45 [Suspend2][ 0/4] Documentation patches Nigel Cunningham
2006-06-26 16:45 ` [Suspend2][ 1/4] [Suspend2] Add MAINTAINERS entry for Suspend2 Nigel Cunningham
2006-06-26 16:45 ` [Suspend2][ 2/4] [Suspend2] documentation/kernel-parameters entries Nigel Cunningham
@ 2006-06-26 16:45 ` Nigel Cunningham
2006-06-26 16:46 ` [Suspend2][ 4/4] [Suspend2] User documentation Nigel Cunningham
3 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread
From: Nigel Cunningham @ 2006-06-26 16:45 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: linux-kernel
Add Documentation/power/internals.txt, describing how suspend2 works.
Signed-off-by: Nigel Cunningham <nigel@suspend2.net>
Documentation/power/internals.txt | 362 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 files changed, 362 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/power/internals.txt b/Documentation/power/internals.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..424cab0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/power/internals.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,362 @@
+ Software Suspend 2.2 Internal Documentation.
+ Version 1
+
+1. Introduction.
+
+ Software Suspend 2.2 is an addition to the Linux Kernel, designed to
+ allow the user to quickly shutdown and quickly boot a computer, without
+ needing to close documents or programs. It is equivalent to the
+ hibernate facility in some laptops. This implementation, however,
+ requires no special BIOS or hardware support.
+
+ The code in these files is based upon the original implementation
+ prepared by Gabor Kuti and additional work by Pavel Machek and a
+ host of others. This code has been substantially reworked by Nigel
+ Cunningham, again with the help and testing of many others, not the
+ least of whom is Michael Frank, At its heart, however, the operation is
+ essentially the same as Gabor's version.
+
+2. Overview of operation.
+
+ The basic sequence of operations is as follows:
+
+ a. Quiesce all other activity.
+ b. Ensure enough memory and storage space are available, and attempt
+ to free memory/storage if necessary.
+ c. Allocate the required memory and storage space.
+ d. Write the image.
+ e. Power down.
+
+ There are a number of complicating factors which mean that things are
+ not as simple as the above would imply, however...
+
+ o The activity of each process must be stopped at a point where it will
+ not be holding locks necessary for saving the image, or unexpectedly
+ restart operations due to something like a timeout and thereby make
+ our image inconsistent.
+
+ o It is desirous that we sync outstanding I/O to disk before calculating
+ image statistics. This reduces corruption if one should suspend but
+ then not resume, and also makes later parts of the operation safer (see
+ below).
+
+ o We need to get as close as we can to an atomic copy of the data.
+ Inconsistencies in the image will result in inconsistent memory contents at
+ resume time, and thus in instability of the system and/or file system
+ corruption. This would appear to imply a maximum image size of one half of
+ the amount of RAM, but we have a solution... (again, below).
+
+ o In 2.6, we choose to play nicely with the other suspend-to-disk
+ implementations.
+
+3. Detailed description of internals.
+
+ a. Quiescing activity.
+
+ Safely quiescing the system is achieved using two methods.
+
+ First, we note that the vast majority of processes don't need to run during
+ suspend. They can be 'frozen'. We therefore implement a refrigerator
+ routine, which processes enter and in which they remain until the cycle is
+ complete. Processes enter the refrigerator via try_to_freeze() invocations
+ at appropriate places. A process cannot be frozen in any old place. It
+ must not be holding locks that will be needed for writing the image or
+ freezing other processes. For this reason, userspace processes generally
+ enter the refrigerator via the signal handling code, and kernel threads at
+ the place in their event loops where they drop locks and yield to other
+ processes or sleep.
+
+ The second part of our method for quisescing the system involves freezing
+ the filesystems. We use the standard freeze_bdev and thaw_bdev functions to
+ ensure that all of the user's data is synced to disk before we begin to
+ write the image.
+
+ Quiescing the system works most quickly and reliably when we add one more
+ element to the algorithm: separating the freezing of userspace processes
+ from the freezing of kernel space processes, and doing the filesystem freeze
+ in between. The filesystem freeze needs to be done while kernel threads such
+ as kjournald can still run.At the same time, though, everything will be less
+ racy and run more quickly if we stop userspace submitting more I/O work
+ while we're trying to quiesce.
+
+ Quiescing the system is therefore done in three steps:
+ - Freeze userspace
+ - Freeze filesystems
+ - Freeze kernel threads
+
+ If we need to free memory, we thaw kernel threads and filesystems, but not
+ userspace. We can then free caches without worrying about deadlocks due to
+ swap files being on frozen filesystems or such like.
+
+ b. Ensure enough memory & storage are available.
+
+ We have a number of constraints to meet to be able to successfully suspend
+ and resume.
+
+ First, the image will be written in two parts, described below. One of these
+ parts needs to have an atomic copy made, which of course implies a maximum
+ size of one half of the amount of system memory. The other part ('pageset')
+ is not atomically copied, and can therefore be as large or small as desired.
+
+ Second, we have constraints on the amount of storage available. In these
+ calculations, we may also consider any compression that will be done. The
+ cryptoapi module allows the user to configure an expected compression ratio.
+
+ Third, the user can specify an arbitrary limit on the image size, in
+ megabytes. This limit is treated as a soft limit, so that we don't fail the
+ attempt to suspend if we cannot meet this constraint.
+
+ c. Allocate the required memory and storage space.
+
+ Having done the initial freeze, we determine whether the above constraints
+ are met, and seek to allocate the metadata for the image. If the constraints
+ are not met, or we fail to allocate the required space for the metadata, we
+ seek to free the amount of memory that we calculate is needed and try again.
+ We allow up to four iterations of this loop before aborting the cycle. If we
+ do fail, it should only be because of a bug in Suspend's calculations.
+
+ These steps are merged together in the prepare_image function, found in
+ prepare_image.c. The functions are merged because of the cyclical nature
+ of the problem of calculating how much memory and storage is needed. Since
+ the data structures containing the information about the image must
+ themselves take memory and use storage, the amount of memory and storage
+ required changes as we prepare the image. Since the changes are not large,
+ only one or two iterations will be required to achieve a solution.
+
+ d. Write the image.
+
+ We previously mentioned the need to create an atomic copy of the data, and
+ the half-of-memory limitation that is implied in this. This limitation is
+ circumvented by dividing the memory to be saved into two parts, called
+ pagesets.
+
+ Pageset2 contains the page cache - the pages on the active and inactive
+ lists. These pages are saved first and reloaded last. While saving these
+ pages, the swapwriter module carefully ensures that the work of writing
+ the pages doesn't make the image inconsistent. Pages added to the LRU
+ lists are immediately shot down, and careful accounting for available
+ memory aids debugging. No atomic copy of these pages needs to be made.
+
+ Writing the image requires memory, of course, and at this point we have
+ also not yet suspended the drivers. To avoid the possibility of remaining
+ activity corrupting the image, we allocate a special memory pool. Calls
+ to __alloc_pages and __free_pages_ok are then diverted to use our memory
+ pool. Pages in the memory pool are saved as part of pageset1 regardless of
+ whether or not they are used.
+
+ Once pageset2 has been saved, we suspend the drivers and save the CPU
+ context before making an atomic copy of pageset1, resuming the drivers
+ and saving the atomic copy. After saving the two pagesets, we just need to
+ save our metadata before powering down.
+
+ Having saved pageset2 pages, we can safely overwrite their contents with
+ the atomic copy of pageset1. This is how we manage to overcome the half of
+ memory limitation. Pageset2 is normally far larger than pageset1, and
+ pageset1 is normally much smaller than half of the memory, with the result
+ that pageset2 pages can be safely overwritten with the atomic copy of
+ pageset1. This is where we need to be careful about syncing, however.
+ Pageset2 will probably contain filesystem meta data. If this is overwritten
+ with pageset1 and then a sync occurs, the filesystem will be corrupted -
+ at least until resume time and another sync of the restored data. Since
+ there is a possibility that the user might not resume or (may it never be!)
+ that suspend might oops, we do our utmost to avoid syncing filesystems after
+ copying pageset1.
+
+ e. Power down.
+
+ Powering down uses standard kernel routines. Prior to this, however, we
+ suspend drivers again, ensuring that write caches are flushed.
+
+4. The method of writing the image.
+
+ Suspend2 contains an internal API which is designed to simplify the
+ implementation of new methods of transforming the image to be written and
+ writing the image itself. In early versions of Suspend2, compression support
+ was inlined in the image writing code, and the data structures and code for
+ managing swap were intertwined with the rest of the code. A number of people
+ had expressed interest in implementing image encryption, and alternative
+ methods of storing the image. This internal API makes that possible by
+ implementing 'modules'.
+
+ A module is a single file which encapsulates the functionality needed
+ to transform a pageset of data (encryption or compression, for example),
+ or to write the pageset to a device. The former type of module is called
+ a 'page-transformer', the later a 'writer'.
+
+ Modules are linked together in pipeline fashion. There may be zero or more
+ page transformers in a pipeline, and there is always exactly one writer.
+ The pipeline follows this pattern:
+
+ ---------------------------------
+ | Suspend2 Core |
+ ---------------------------------
+ |
+ |
+ ---------------------------------
+ | Page transformer 1 |
+ ---------------------------------
+ |
+ |
+ ---------------------------------
+ | Page transformer 2 |
+ ---------------------------------
+ |
+ |
+ ---------------------------------
+ | Writer |
+ ---------------------------------
+
+ During the writing of an image, the core code feeds pages one at a time
+ to the first module. This module performs whatever transformations it
+ implements on the incoming data, completely consuming the incoming data and
+ feeding output in a similar manner to the next module. A module may buffer
+ its output.
+
+ During reading, the pipeline works in the reverse direction. The core code
+ calls the first module with the address of a buffer which should be filled.
+ (Note that the buffer size is always PAGE_SIZE at this time). This module
+ will in turn request data from the next module and so on down until the
+ writer is made to read from the stored image.
+
+ Part of definition of the structure of a module thus looks like this:
+
+ int (*rw_init) (int rw, int stream_number);
+ int (*rw_cleanup) (int rw);
+ int (*write_chunk) (struct page *buffer_page);
+ int (*read_chunk) (struct page *buffer_page, int sync);
+
+ It should be noted that the _cleanup routine may be called before the
+ full stream of data has been read or written. While writing the image,
+ the user may (depending upon settings) choose to abort suspending, and
+ if we are in the midst of writing the last portion of the image, a portion
+ of the second pageset may be reread.
+
+ In addition to the above routines for writing the data, all modules have a
+ number of other routines:
+
+ TYPE indicates whether the module is a page transformer or a writer.
+ #define TRANSFORMER_MODULE 1
+ #define WRITER_MODULE 2
+
+ NAME is the name of the module, used in generic messages.
+
+ MODULE_LIST is used to link the module into the list of all modules.
+
+ MEMORY_NEEDED returns the number of pages of memory required by the module
+ to do its work.
+
+ STORAGE_NEEDED returns the number of pages in the suspend header required
+ to store the module's configuration data.
+
+ PRINT_DEBUG_INFO fills a buffer with information to be displayed about the
+ operation or settings of the module.
+
+ SAVE_CONFIG_INFO returns a buffer of PAGE_SIZE or smaller (the size is the
+ return code), containing the module's configuration info. This information
+ will be written in the image header and restored at resume time. Since this
+ buffer is allocated after the atomic copy of the kernel is made, you don't
+ need to worry about the buffer being freed.
+
+ LOAD_CONFIG_INFO gives the module a pointer to the the configuration info
+ which was saved during suspending. Once again, the module doesn't need to
+ worry about freeing the buffer. The kernel will be overwritten with the
+ original kernel, so no memory leak will occur.
+
+ OPS contains the operations specific to transformers and writers. These are
+ described below.
+
+ The complete definition of struct suspend_module_ops is:
+
+ struct suspend_module_ops {
+ /* Functions common to all modules */
+ int type;
+ char *name;
+ struct module *module;
+ int disabled;
+ struct list_head module_list;
+
+ /* List of filters or writers */
+ struct list_head list, type_list;
+
+ /*
+ * Requirements for memory and storage in
+ * the image header..
+ */
+ unsigned long (*memory_needed) (void);
+ unsigned long (*storage_needed) (void);
+
+ /*
+ * Debug info
+ */
+ int (*print_debug_info) (char *buffer, int size);
+ int (*save_config_info) (char *buffer);
+ void (*load_config_info) (char *buffer, int len);
+
+ /*
+ * Initialise & cleanup - general routines called
+ * at the start and end of a cycle.
+ */
+ int (*initialise) (int starting_cycle);
+ void (*cleanup) (int finishing_cycle);
+
+ /*
+ * Calls for allocating storage (writers only).
+ *
+ * Header space is allocated separately. Note that allocation
+ * of space for the header might result in allocated space
+ * being stolen from the main pool if there is no unallocated
+ * space. We have to be able to allocate enough space for
+ * the header. We can eat memory to ensure there is enough
+ * for the main pool.
+ */
+
+ int (*storage_available) (void);
+ int (*allocate_header_space) (int space_requested);
+ int (*allocate_storage) (int space_requested);
+ int (*storage_allocated) (void);
+ int (*release_storage) (void);
+
+ /*
+ * Routines used in image I/O.
+ */
+ int (*rw_init) (int rw, int stream_number);
+ int (*rw_cleanup) (int rw);
+ int (*write_chunk) (struct page *buffer_page);
+ int (*read_chunk) (struct page *buffer_page, int sync);
+
+ /* Reset module if image exists but reading aborted */
+ void (*noresume_reset) (void);
+
+ /* Read and write the metadata */
+ int (*write_header_init) (void);
+ int (*write_header_cleanup) (void);
+
+ int (*read_header_init) (void);
+ int (*read_header_cleanup) (void);
+
+ int (*rw_header_chunk) (int rw, char *buffer_start, int buffer_size);
+
+ /* Attempt to parse an image location */
+ int (*parse_sig_location) (char *buffer, int only_writer);
+
+ /* Determine whether image exists that we can restore */
+ int (*image_exists) (void);
+
+ /* Mark the image as having tried to resume */
+ void (*mark_resume_attempted) (void);
+
+ /* Destroy image if one exists */
+ int (*invalidate_image) (void);
+ };
+
+
+ Expected compression returns the expected ratio between the amount of
+ data sent to this module and the amount of data it passes to the next
+ module. The value is used by the core code to calculate the amount of
+ space required to write the image. If the ratio is not achieved, the
+ writer will complain when it runs out of space with data still to
+ write, and the core code will abort the suspend.
+
+ transformer_list links together page transformers, in the order in
+ which they register, which is in turn determined by order in the
+ Makefile.
--
Nigel Cunningham nigel at suspend2 dot net
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread* [Suspend2][ 4/4] [Suspend2] User documentation
2006-06-26 16:45 [Suspend2][ 0/4] Documentation patches Nigel Cunningham
` (2 preceding siblings ...)
2006-06-26 16:45 ` [Suspend2][ 3/4] [Suspend2] Suspend2 internals document Nigel Cunningham
@ 2006-06-26 16:46 ` Nigel Cunningham
3 siblings, 0 replies; 5+ messages in thread
From: Nigel Cunningham @ 2006-06-26 16:46 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: linux-kernel
Add documentation/power/suspend2.txt, containing information for users on
using Suspend2.
Signed-off-by: Nigel Cunningham <nigel@suspend2.net>
Documentation/power/suspend2.txt | 673 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 files changed, 673 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/power/suspend2.txt b/Documentation/power/suspend2.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54b18a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/power/suspend2.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,673 @@
+ --- Suspend2, version 2.2 ---
+
+1. What is it?
+2. Why would you want it?
+3. What do you need to use it?
+4. Why not just use the version already in the kernel?
+5. How do you use it?
+6. What do all those entries in /proc/suspend2 do?
+7. How do you get support?
+8. I think I've found a bug. What should I do?
+9. When will XXX be supported?
+10 How does it work?
+11. Who wrote Suspend2?
+
+1. What is it?
+
+ Imagine you're sitting at your computer, working away. For some reason, you
+ need to turn off your computer for a while - perhaps it's time to go home
+ for the day. When you come back to your computer next, you're going to want
+ to carry on where you left off. Now imagine that you could push a button and
+ have your computer store the contents of its memory to disk and power down.
+ Then, when you next start up your computer, it loads that image back into
+ memory and you can carry on from where you were, just as if you'd never
+ turned the computer off. Far less time to start up, no reopening
+ applications and finding what directory you put that file in yesterday.
+ That's what Suspend2 does.
+
+ Suspend2 has a long heritage. It began life as work by Gabor Kuti, who,
+ with some help from Pavel Machek, got an early version going in 1999. The
+ project was then taken over by Florent Chabaud while still in alpha version
+ numbers. Nigel Cunningham came on the scene when Florent was unable to
+ continue, moving the project into betas, then 1.0, 2.0 and so on up to
+ the present 2.2 series. Pavel Machek's swsusp code, which was merged around
+ 2.5.17 retains the original name, and was essentially a fork of the beta
+ code until Rafael Wysocki came on the scene in 2005 and began to improve it
+ further.
+
+2. Why would you want it?
+
+ Why wouldn't you want it?
+
+ Being able to save the state of your system and quickly restore it improves
+ your productivity - you get a useful system in far less time than through
+ the normal boot process.
+
+3. What do you need to use it?
+
+ a. Kernel Support.
+
+ i) The Suspend2 patch.
+
+ Suspend2 is part of the Linux Kernel. This version is not part of Linus's
+ 2.6 tree at the moment, so you will need to download the kernel source and
+ apply the latest patch. Having done that, enable the appropriate options in
+ make [menu|x]config (under General Setup), compile and install your kernel.
+ Suspend2 works with SMP, Highmem, preemption, x86-32, PPC and x86_64.
+
+ Suspend2 patches are available from http://suspend2.net.
+
+ ii) Compression and encryption support.
+
+ Compression and encryption support are implemented via the
+ cryptoapi. You will therefore want to select any Cryptoapi transforms that
+ you want to use on your image from the Cryptoapi menu while configuring
+ your kernel.
+
+ You can also tell Suspend to write it's image to an encrypted and/or
+ compressed filesystem/swap partition. In that case, you don't need to do
+ anything special for Suspend2 when it comes to kernel configuration.
+
+ iii) Configuring other options.
+
+ While you're configuring your kernel, try to configure as much as possible
+ to build as modules. We recommend this because there are a number of drivers
+ that are still in the process of implementing proper power management
+ support. In those cases, the best way to work around their current lack is
+ to build them as modules and remove the modules while suspending. You might
+ also bug the driver authors to get their support up to speed, or even help!
+
+ b. Storage.
+
+ i) Swap.
+
+ Suspend2 can store the suspend image in your swap partition, a swap file or
+ a combination thereof. Whichever combination you choose, you will probably
+ want to create enough swap space to store the largest image you could have,
+ plus the space you'd normally use for swap. A good rule of thumb would be
+ to calculate the amount of swap you'd want without using Suspend2, and then
+ add the amount of memory you have. This swapspace can be arranged in any way
+ you'd like. It can be in one partition or file, or spread over a number. The
+ only requirement is that they be active when you start a suspend cycle.
+
+ There is one exception to this requirement. Suspend2 has the ability to turn
+ on one swap file or partition at the start of suspending and turn it back off
+ at the end. If you want to ensure you have enough memory to store a image
+ when your memory is fully used, you might want to make one swap partition or
+ file for 'normal' use, and another for Suspend2 to activate & deactivate
+ automatically. (Further details below).
+
+ ii) Normal files.
+
+ Suspend2 includes a 'filewriter'. The filewriter can store
+ your image in a simple file. Since Linux has the idea of everything being
+ a file, this is more powerful than it initially sounds. If, for example,
+ you were to set up a network block device file, you could suspend to a
+ network server. This has been tested and works to a point, but nbd itself
+ isn't stateless enough for our purposes.
+
+ Take extra care when setting up the filewriter. If you just type commands
+ without thinking and then try to suspend, you could cause irreversible
+ corruption on your filesystems! Make sure you have backups. Also, because
+ the filewriter is comparatively new, it's not as well tested as the
+ swapwriter. Be aware that there may be bugs that could cause damage to your
+ data even if you are careful! You have been warned!
+
+ Most people will only want to suspend to a local file. To achieve that, do
+ something along the lines of:
+
+ echo "Suspend2" > /suspend-file
+ dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=512 >> suspend-file
+
+ This will create a 512MB file called /suspend-file. To get Suspend2 to use
+ it:
+
+ echo /suspend-file > /proc/suspend2/filewriter_target
+
+ Then
+
+ cat /proc/suspend2/resume2
+
+ Put the results of this into your bootloader's configuration (see also step
+ C, below:
+
+ ---EXAMPLE-ONLY-DON'T-COPY-AND-PASTE---
+ # cat /proc/suspend2/resume2
+ file:/dev/hda2:0x1e001
+
+ In this example, we would edit the append= line of our lilo.conf|menu.lst
+ so that it included:
+
+ resume2=file:/dev/hda2:0x1e001
+ ---EXAMPLE-ONLY-DON'T-COPY-AND-PASTE---
+
+ For those who are thinking 'Could I make the file sparse?', the answer is
+ 'No!'. At the moment, there is no way for Suspend2 to fill in the holes in
+ a sparse file while suspending. In the longer term (post merge!), I'd like
+ to change things so that the file could be dynamically resized as needed.
+ Right now, however, that's not possible.
+
+ c. Bootloader configuration.
+
+ Using Suspend2 also requires that you add an extra parameter to
+ your lilo.conf or equivalent. Here's an example for a swap partition:
+
+ append="resume2=swap:/dev/hda1"
+
+ This would tell Suspend2 that /dev/hda1 is a swap partition you
+ have. Suspend2 will use the swap signature of this partition as a
+ pointer to your data when you suspend. This means that (in this example)
+ /dev/hda1 doesn't need to be _the_ swap partition where all of your data
+ is actually stored. It just needs to be a swap partition that has a
+ valid signature.
+
+ You don't need to have a swap partition for this purpose. Suspend2
+ can also use a swap file, but usage is a little more complex. Having made
+ your swap file, turn it on and do
+
+ cat /proc/suspend2/headerlocations
+
+ (this assumes you've already compiled your kernel with Suspend2
+ support and booted it). The results of the cat command will tell you
+ what you need to put in lilo.conf:
+
+ For swap partitions like /dev/hda1, simply use resume2=/dev/hda1.
+ For swapfile `swapfile`, use resume2=swap:/dev/hda2:0x242d@4096.
+
+ If the swapfile changes for any reason (it is moved to a different
+ location, it is deleted and recreated, or the filesystem is
+ defragmented) then you will have to check
+ /proc/suspend2/headerlocations for a new resume_block value.
+
+ Once you've compiled and installed the kernel, adjusted your lilo.conf
+ and rerun lilo, you should only need to reboot for the most basic part
+ of Suspend2 to be ready.
+
+ If you only compile in the swapwriter, or only compile in the filewriter,
+ you don't need to add the "swap:" part of the resume2= parameters above.
+ resume2=/dev/hda2:0x242d@4096 will work just as well.
+
+ d. The hibernate script.
+
+ Since the driver model in 2.6 kernels is still being developed, you may need
+ to do more, however. Users of Suspend2 usually start the process via a script
+ which prepares for the suspend, tells the kernel to do its stuff and then
+ restore things afterwards. This script might involve:
+
+ - Switching to a text console and back if X doesn't like the video card
+ status on resume.
+ - Un/reloading PCMCIA support since it doesn't play well with suspend.
+
+ Note that you might not be able to unload some drivers if there are
+ processes using them. You might have to kill off processes that hold
+ devices open. Hint: if your X server accesses an USB mouse, doing a
+ 'chvt' to a text console releases the device and you can unload the
+ module.
+
+ Check out the latest script (available on suspend2.net).
+
+4. Why not just use the version already in the kernel?
+
+ The version in the vanilla kernel has a number of drawbacks. Among these:
+ - it has a maximum image size of 1/2 total memory.
+ - it doesn't allocate storage until after it has snapshotted memory.
+ This means that you can't be sure suspending will work until you
+ see it start to write the image.
+ - it performs all of it's I/O synchronously.
+ - it does not allow you to press escape to cancel a cycle
+ - it does not allow you to automatically swapon a file when
+ starting a cycle.
+ - it does not allow you to use multiple swap partitions.
+ - it does not allow you to use swapfiles.
+ - it does not allow you to use ordinary files.
+ - it just invalidates an image and continues to boot if you
+ accidentally boot the wrong kernel after suspending.
+ - it doesn't support any sort of nice display while suspending
+ - it is moving toward requiring that you have an initrd/initramfs
+ to ever have a hope of resuming.
+
+5. How do you use it?
+
+ Once your script is properly set up, you should just be able to start it
+ and everything should go like clockwork. Of course things aren't always
+ that easy out of the box.
+
+ Check out (in the kernel source tree) include/linux/suspend2.h for
+ settings you can use to get detailed information about what suspend is doing.
+ The kernel parameters suspend_act, suspend_dbg and suspend_lvl allow you to
+ set the action and debugging parameters prior to starting a suspend and/or
+ at the lilo prompt before resuming. There is also a nice little program that
+ should be available from suspend2.net which makes it easier to turn these
+ debugging settings on and off. Note that to get any debugging output, you
+ need to enable CONFIG_PM_DEBUG when compiling the kernel.
+
+ A neat feature of Suspend2 is that you can press Escape at any time
+ during suspending, and the process will be aborted.
+
+ Due to the way suspend works, this means you'll have your system back and
+ perfectly usable almost instantly. The only exception is when it's at
+ the very end of writing the image. Then it will need to reload a small
+ (usually 4-50MBs, depending upon the image characteristics) portion first.
+
+ If you run into problems with resuming, adding the "noresume2" option to
+ the kernel command line will let you skip the resume step and recover your
+ system.
+
+6. What do all those entries in /proc/suspend2 do?
+
+ /proc/suspend2 is the directory which contains files you can use to
+ tune and configure Suspend2 to your liking. The exact contents of
+ the directory will depend upon the version of Suspend2 you're
+ running and the options you selected at compile time. In the following
+ descriptions, names in brackets refer to compile time options.
+ (Note that they're all dependant upon you having selected CONFIG_SUSPEND2
+ in the first place!)
+
+ Since the values of these settings can open potential security risks, they
+ are usually accessible only to the root user. You can, however, enable a
+ compile time option which makes all of these files world-accessible. This
+ should only be done if you trust everyone with shell access to this
+ computer!
+
+ - debug_info:
+
+ This file returns information about your configuration that may be helpful
+ in diagnosing problems with suspending.
+
+ - debug_sections (CONFIG_PM_DEBUG):
+
+ This value, together with the console log level, controls what debugging
+ information is displayed. The console log level determines the level of
+ detail, and this value determines what detail is displayed. This value is
+ a bit vector, and the meaning of the bits can be found in the kernel tree
+ in include/linux/suspend2.h. It can be overridden using the kernel's
+ command line option suspend_dbg.
+
+ - default_console_level (CONFIG_PM_DEBUG):
+
+ This determines the value of the console log level at the start of a
+ suspend cycle. If debugging is compiled in, the console log level can be
+ changed during a cycle by pressing the digit keys. Meanings are:
+
+ 0: Nice display.
+ 1: Nice display plus numerical progress.
+ 2: Errors only.
+ 3: Low level debugging info.
+ 4: Medium level debugging info.
+ 5: High level debugging info.
+ 6: Verbose debugging info.
+
+ This value can be overridden using the kernel command line option
+ suspend_lvl.
+
+ - disable_*
+
+ This option can be used to temporarily disable various parts of suspend.
+ Note that these flags can be set by restoring all_settings: If the saved
+ settings don't include any information about how a part of suspend should
+ be configured, that section will be disabled.
+
+ - do_resume:
+
+ When anything is written to this file suspend will attempt to read and
+ restore an image. If there is no image, it will return almost immediately.
+ If an image exists, the echo > will never return. Instead, the original
+ kernel context will be restored and the original echo > do_suspend will
+ return.
+
+ - do_suspend:
+
+ When anything is written to this file, the kernel side of Suspend2 will
+ begin to attempt to write an image to disk and power down. You'll normally
+ want to run the hibernate script instead, to get modules unloaded first.
+
+ - enable_escape:
+
+ Setting this to "1" will enable you abort a suspend by
+ pressing escape, "0" (default) disables this feature. Note that enabling
+ this option means that you cannot initiate a suspend and then walk away
+ from your computer, expecting it to be secure. With feature disabled,
+ you can validly have this expectation once Suspend begins to write the
+ image to disk. (Prior to this point, it is possible that Suspend might
+ about because of failure to freeze all processes or because constraints
+ on its ability to save the image are not met).
+
+ - expected_compression:
+
+ These values allow you to set an expected compression ratio, which Software
+ Suspend will use in calculating whether it meets constraints on the image
+ size. If this expected compression ratio is not attained, the suspend will
+ abort, so it is wise to allow some spare. You can see what compression
+ ratio is achieved in the logs after suspending.
+
+ - filewriter_target:
+
+ Read this value to get the current setting. Write to it to point Suspend
+ at a new storage location for the filewriter. See above for details of how
+ to set up the filewriter.
+
+ - headerlocations:
+
+ This option tells you the resume2= options to use for swap devices you
+ currently have activated. It is particularly useful when you only want to
+ use a swap file to store your image. See above for further details.
+
+ - image_exists:
+
+ Can be used in a script to determine whether a valid image exists at the
+ location currently pointed to by resume2=. Returns up to three lines.
+ The first is whether an image exists (-1 for unsure, otherwise 0 or 1).
+ If an image eixsts, additional lines will return the machine and version.
+ Echoing anything to this entry removes any current image.
+
+ - image_size_limit:
+
+ The maximum size of suspend image written to disk, measured in megabytes
+ (1024*1024).
+
+ - interface_version:
+
+ The value returned by this file can be used by scripts and configuration
+ tools to determine what entries should be looked for. The value is
+ incremented whenever an entry in /proc/suspend2 is obsoleted or
+ added.
+
+ - last_result:
+
+ The result of the last suspend, as defined in
+ include/linux/suspend-debug.h with the values SUSPEND_ABORTED to
+ SUSPEND_KEPT_IMAGE. This is a bitmask.
+
+ - log_everything (CONFIG_PM_DEBUG):
+
+ Setting this option results in all messages printed being logged. Normally,
+ only a subset are logged, so as to not slow the process and not clutter the
+ logs. Useful for debugging. It can be toggled during a cycle by pressing
+ 'L'.
+
+ - pause_between_steps (CONFIG_PM_DEBUG):
+
+ This option is used during debugging, to make Suspend2 pause between
+ each step of the process. It is ignored when the nice display is on.
+
+ - powerdown_method:
+
+ Used to select a method by which Suspend2 should powerdown after writing the
+ image. Currently:
+
+ 0: Don't use ACPI to power off.
+ 3: Attempt to enter Suspend-to-ram.
+ 4: Attempt to enter ACPI S4 mode.
+ 5: Attempt to power down via ACPI S5 mode.
+
+ Note that these options are highly dependant upon your hardware & software:
+
+ 3: When succesful, your machine suspends-to-ram instead of powering off.
+ The advantage of using this mode is that it doesn't matter whether your
+ battery has enough charge to make it through to your next resume. If it
+ lasts, you will simply resume from suspend to ram (and the image on disk
+ will be discarded). If the battery runs out, you will resume from disk
+ instead. The disadvantage is that it takes longer than a normal
+ suspend-to-ram to enter the state, since the suspend-to-disk image needs
+ to be written first.
+ 4/5: When successful, your machine will be off and comsume (almost) no power.
+ But it might still react to some external events like opening the lid or
+ trafic on a network or usb device. For the bios, resume is then the same
+ as warm boot, similar to a situation where you used the command `reboot'
+ to reboot your machine. If your machine has problems on warm boot or if
+ you want to protect your machine with the bios password, this is probably
+ not the right choice. Mode 4 may be necessary on some machines where ACPI
+ wake up methods need to be run to properly reinitialise hardware after a
+ suspend-to-disk cycle.
+ 0: Switch the machine completely off. The only possible wakeup is the power
+ button. For the bios, resume is then the same as a cold boot, in
+ particular you would have to provide your bios boot password if your
+ machine uses that feature for booting.
+
+ - progressbar_granularity_limit:
+
+ This option can be used to limit the granularity of the progress bar
+ displayed with a bootsplash screen. The value is the maximum number of
+ steps. That is, 10 will make the progress bar jump in 10% increments.
+
+ - reboot:
+
+ This option causes Suspend2 to reboot rather than powering down
+ at the end of saving an image. It can be toggled during a cycle by pressing
+ 'R'.
+
+ - resume_commandline:
+
+ This entry can be read after resuming to see the commandline that was used
+ when resuming began. You might use this to set up two bootloader entries
+ that are the same apart from the fact that one includes a extra append=
+ argument "at_work=1". You could then grep resume_commandline in your
+ post-resume scripts and configure networking (for example) differently
+ depending upon whether you're at home or work. resume_commandline can be
+ set to arbitrary text if you wish to remove sensitive contents.
+
+ - swapfile:
+
+ This entry is used to specify the swapfile or partition that
+ Suspend2 will attempt to swapon/swapoff automatically. Thus, if
+ I normally use /dev/hda1 for swap, and want to use /dev/hda2 for specifically
+ for my suspend image, I would
+
+ echo /dev/hda2 > /proc/suspend2/swapfile
+
+ /dev/hda2 would then be automatically swapon'd and swapoff'd. Note that the
+ swapon and swapoff occur while other processes are frozen (including kswapd)
+ so this swap file will not be used up when attempting to free memory. The
+ parition/file is also given the highest priority, so other swapfiles/partitions
+ will only be used to save the image when this one is filled.
+
+ The value of this file is used by headerlocations along with any currently
+ activated swapfiles/partitions.
+
+ - toggle_process_nofreeze
+
+ This entry can be used to toggle the NOFREEZE flag on a process, to allow it
+ to run during Suspending. It should be used with extreme caution. There are
+ strict limitations on what a process running during suspend can do. This is
+ really only intended for use by Suspend's helpers (userui in particular).
+
+ - userui_program
+
+ This entry is used to tell Suspend what userspace program to use for
+ providing a user interface while suspending. The program uses a netlink
+ socket to pass messages back and forward to the kernel, allowing all of the
+ functions formerly implemented in the kernel user interface components.
+
+ - version:
+
+ The version of suspend you have compiled into the currently running kernel.
+
+7. How do you get support?
+
+ Glad you asked. Suspend2 is being actively maintained and supported
+ by Nigel (the guy doing most of the kernel coding at the moment), Bernard
+ (who maintains the hibernate script and userspace user interface components)
+ and its users.
+
+ Resources availble include HowTos, FAQs and a Wiki, all available via
+ suspend2.net. You can find the mailing lists there.
+
+8. I think I've found a bug. What should I do?
+
+ By far and a way, the most common problems people have with suspend2
+ related to drivers not having adequate power management support. In this
+ case, it is not a bug with suspend2, but we can still help you. As we
+ mentioned above, such issues can usually be worked around by building the
+ functionality as modules and unloading them while suspending. Please visit
+ the Wiki for up-to-date lists of known issues and work arounds.
+
+ If this information doesn't help, try running:
+
+ hibernate --bug-report
+
+ ..and sending the output to the users mailing list.
+
+ Good information on how to provide us with useful information from an
+ oops is found in the file REPORTING-BUGS, in the top level directory
+ of the kernel tree. If you get an oops, please especially note the
+ information about running what is printed on the screen through ksymoops.
+ The raw information is useless.
+
+9. When will XXX be supported?
+
+ If there's a feature missing from Suspend2 that you'd like, feel free to
+ ask. We try to be obliging, within reason.
+
+ Patches are welcome. Please send to the list.
+
+10. How does it work?
+
+ Suspend2 does its work in a number of steps.
+
+ a. Freezing system activity.
+
+ The first main stage in suspending is to stop all other activity. This is
+ achieved in stages. Processes are considered in fours groups, which we will
+ describe in reverse order for clarity's sake: Threads with the PF_NOFREEZE
+ flag, kernel threads without this flag, userspace processes with the
+ PF_SYNCTHREAD flag and all other processes. The first set (PF_NOFREEZE) are
+ untouched by the refrigerator code. They are allowed to run during suspending
+ and resuming, and are used to support user interaction, storage access or the
+ like. Other kernel threads (those unneeded while suspending) are frozen last.
+ This leaves us with userspace processes that need to be frozen. When a
+ process enters one of the *_sync system calls, we set a PF_SYNCTHREAD flag on
+ that process for the duration of that call. Processes that have this flag are
+ frozen after processes without it, so that we can seek to ensure that dirty
+ data is synced to disk as quickly as possible in a situation where other
+ processes may be submitting writes at the same time. Freezing the processes
+ that are submitting data stops new I/O from being submitted. Syncthreads can
+ then cleanly finish their work. So the order is:
+
+ - Userspace processes without PF_SYNCTHREAD or PF_NOFREEZE;
+ - Userspace processes with PF_SYNCTHREAD (they won't have NOFREEZE);
+ - Kernel processes without PF_NOFREEZE.
+
+ b. Eating memory.
+
+ For a successful suspend, you need to have enough disk space to store the
+ image and enough memory for the various limitations of Suspend2's
+ algorithm. You can also specify a maximum image size. In order to attain
+ to those constraints, Suspend2 may 'eat' memory. If, after freezing
+ processes, the constraints aren't met, Suspend2 will thaw all the
+ other processes and begin to eat memory until its calculations indicate
+ the constraints are met. It will then freeze processes again and recheck
+ its calculations.
+
+ c. Allocation of storage.
+
+ Next, Suspend2 allocates the storage that will be used to save
+ the image.
+
+ The core of Suspend2 knows nothing about how or where pages are stored. We
+ therefore request the active writer (remember you might have compiled in
+ more than one!) to allocate enough storage for our expect image size. If
+ this request cannot be fulfilled, we eat more memory and try again. If it
+ is fulfiled, we seek to allocate additional storage, just in case our
+ expected compression ratio (if any) isn't achieved. This time, however, we
+ just continue if we can't allocate enough storage.
+
+ If these calls to our writer change the characteristics of the image such
+ that we haven't allocated enough memory, we also loop. (The writer may well
+ need to allocate space for its storage information).
+
+ d. Write the first part of the image.
+
+ Suspend2 stores the image in two sets of pages called 'pagesets'.
+ Pageset 2 contains pages on the active and inactive lists; essentially
+ the page cache. Pageset 1 contains all other pages, including the kernel.
+ We use two pagesets for one important reason: We need to make an atomic copy
+ of the kernel to ensure consistency of the image. Without a second pageset,
+ that would limit us to an image that was at most half the amount of memory
+ available. Using two pagesets allows us to store a full image. Since pageset
+ 2 pages won't be needed in saving pageset 1, we first save pageset 2 pages.
+ We can then make our atomic copy of the remaining pages using both pageset 2
+ pages and any other pages that are free. While saving both pagesets, we are
+ careful not to corrupt the image. Among other things, we use lowlevel block
+ I/O routines that don't change the pagecache contents.
+
+ The next step, then, is writing pageset 2.
+
+ e. Suspending drivers and storing processor context.
+
+ Having written pageset2, Suspend2 calls the power management functions to
+ notify drivers of the suspend, and saves the processor state in preparation
+ for the atomic copy of memory we are about to make.
+
+ f. Atomic copy.
+
+ At this stage, everything else but the Suspend2 code is halted. Processes
+ are frozen or idling, drivers are quiesced and have stored (ideally and where
+ necessary) their configuration in memory we are about to atomically copy.
+ In our lowlevel architecture specific code, we have saved the CPU state.
+ We can therefore now do our atomic copy before resuming drivers etc.
+
+ g. Save the atomic copy (pageset 1).
+
+ Suspend can then write the atomic copy of the remaining pages. Since we
+ have copied the pages into other locations, we can continue to use the
+ normal block I/O routines without fear of corruption our image.
+
+ f. Save the suspend header.
+
+ Nearly there! We save our settings and other parameters needed for
+ reloading pageset 1 in a 'suspend header'. We also tell our writer to
+ serialise its data at this stage, so that it can reread the image at resume
+ time. Note that the writer can write this data in any format - in the case
+ of the swapwriter, for example, it splits header pages in 4092 byte blocks,
+ using the last four bytes to link pages of data together. This is completely
+ transparent to the core.
+
+ g. Set the image header.
+
+ Finally, we edit the header at our resume2= location. The signature is
+ changed by the writer to reflect the fact that an image exists, and to point
+ to the start of that data if necessary (swapwriter).
+
+ h. Power down.
+
+ Or reboot if we're debugging and the appropriate option is selected.
+
+ Whew!
+
+ Reloading the image.
+ --------------------
+
+ Reloading the image is essentially the reverse of all the above. We load
+ our copy of pageset 1, being careful to choose locations that aren't going
+ to be overwritten as we copy it back (We start very early in the boot
+ process, so there are no other processes to quiesce here). We then copy
+ pageset 1 back to its original location in memory and restore the process
+ context. We are now running with the original kernel. Next, we reload the
+ pageset 2 pages, free the memory and swap used by Suspend2, restore
+ the pageset header and restart processes. Sounds easy in comparison to
+ suspending, doesn't it!
+
+ There is of course more to Suspend2 than this, but this explanation
+ should be a good start. If there's interest, I'll write further
+ documentation on range pages and the low level I/O.
+
+11. Who wrote Suspend2?
+
+ (Answer based on the writings of Florent Chabaud, credits in files and
+ Nigel's limited knowledge; apologies to anyone missed out!)
+
+ The main developers of Suspend2 have been...
+
+ Gabor Kuti
+ Pavel Machek
+ Florent Chabaud
+ Bernard Blackham
+ Nigel Cunningham
+
+ They have been aided in their efforts by a host of hundreds, if not thousands
+ of testers and people who have submitted bug fixes & suggestions. Of special
+ note are the efforts of Michael Frank, who had his computers repetitively
+ suspend and resume for literally tens of thousands of cycles and developed
+ scripts to stress the system and test Suspend2 far beyond the point
+ most of us (Nigel included!) would consider testing. His efforts have
+ contributed as much to Suspend2 as any of the names above.
--
Nigel Cunningham nigel at suspend2 dot net
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