linux/Documentation/IPMI.txt
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   1=====================
   2The Linux IPMI Driver
   3=====================
   4
   5:Author: Corey Minyard <minyard@mvista.com> / <minyard@acm.org>
   6
   7The Intelligent Platform Management Interface, or IPMI, is a
   8standard for controlling intelligent devices that monitor a system.
   9It provides for dynamic discovery of sensors in the system and the
  10ability to monitor the sensors and be informed when the sensor's
  11values change or go outside certain boundaries.  It also has a
  12standardized database for field-replaceable units (FRUs) and a watchdog
  13timer.
  14
  15To use this, you need an interface to an IPMI controller in your
  16system (called a Baseboard Management Controller, or BMC) and
  17management software that can use the IPMI system.
  18
  19This document describes how to use the IPMI driver for Linux.  If you
  20are not familiar with IPMI itself, see the web site at
  21http://www.intel.com/design/servers/ipmi/index.htm.  IPMI is a big
  22subject and I can't cover it all here!
  23
  24Configuration
  25-------------
  26
  27The Linux IPMI driver is modular, which means you have to pick several
  28things to have it work right depending on your hardware.  Most of
  29these are available in the 'Character Devices' menu then the IPMI
  30menu.
  31
  32No matter what, you must pick 'IPMI top-level message handler' to use
  33IPMI.  What you do beyond that depends on your needs and hardware.
  34
  35The message handler does not provide any user-level interfaces.
  36Kernel code (like the watchdog) can still use it.  If you need access
  37from userland, you need to select 'Device interface for IPMI' if you
  38want access through a device driver.
  39
  40The driver interface depends on your hardware.  If your system
  41properly provides the SMBIOS info for IPMI, the driver will detect it
  42and just work.  If you have a board with a standard interface (These
  43will generally be either "KCS", "SMIC", or "BT", consult your hardware
  44manual), choose the 'IPMI SI handler' option.  A driver also exists
  45for direct I2C access to the IPMI management controller.  Some boards
  46support this, but it is unknown if it will work on every board.  For
  47this, choose 'IPMI SMBus handler', but be ready to try to do some
  48figuring to see if it will work on your system if the SMBIOS/APCI
  49information is wrong or not present.  It is fairly safe to have both
  50these enabled and let the drivers auto-detect what is present.
  51
  52You should generally enable ACPI on your system, as systems with IPMI
  53can have ACPI tables describing them.
  54
  55If you have a standard interface and the board manufacturer has done
  56their job correctly, the IPMI controller should be automatically
  57detected (via ACPI or SMBIOS tables) and should just work.  Sadly,
  58many boards do not have this information.  The driver attempts
  59standard defaults, but they may not work.  If you fall into this
  60situation, you need to read the section below named 'The SI Driver' or
  61"The SMBus Driver" on how to hand-configure your system.
  62
  63IPMI defines a standard watchdog timer.  You can enable this with the
  64'IPMI Watchdog Timer' config option.  If you compile the driver into
  65the kernel, then via a kernel command-line option you can have the
  66watchdog timer start as soon as it initializes.  It also have a lot
  67of other options, see the 'Watchdog' section below for more details.
  68Note that you can also have the watchdog continue to run if it is
  69closed (by default it is disabled on close).  Go into the 'Watchdog
  70Cards' menu, enable 'Watchdog Timer Support', and enable the option
  71'Disable watchdog shutdown on close'.
  72
  73IPMI systems can often be powered off using IPMI commands.  Select
  74'IPMI Poweroff' to do this.  The driver will auto-detect if the system
  75can be powered off by IPMI.  It is safe to enable this even if your
  76system doesn't support this option.  This works on ATCA systems, the
  77Radisys CPI1 card, and any IPMI system that supports standard chassis
  78management commands.
  79
  80If you want the driver to put an event into the event log on a panic,
  81enable the 'Generate a panic event to all BMCs on a panic' option.  If
  82you want the whole panic string put into the event log using OEM
  83events, enable the 'Generate OEM events containing the panic string'
  84option.  You can also enable these dynamically by setting the module
  85parameter named "panic_op" in the ipmi_msghandler module to "event"
  86or "string".  Setting that parameter to "none" disables this function.
  87
  88Basic Design
  89------------
  90
  91The Linux IPMI driver is designed to be very modular and flexible, you
  92only need to take the pieces you need and you can use it in many
  93different ways.  Because of that, it's broken into many chunks of
  94code.  These chunks (by module name) are:
  95
  96ipmi_msghandler - This is the central piece of software for the IPMI
  97system.  It handles all messages, message timing, and responses.  The
  98IPMI users tie into this, and the IPMI physical interfaces (called
  99System Management Interfaces, or SMIs) also tie in here.  This
 100provides the kernelland interface for IPMI, but does not provide an
 101interface for use by application processes.
 102
 103ipmi_devintf - This provides a userland IOCTL interface for the IPMI
 104driver, each open file for this device ties in to the message handler
 105as an IPMI user.
 106
 107ipmi_si - A driver for various system interfaces.  This supports KCS,
 108SMIC, and BT interfaces.  Unless you have an SMBus interface or your
 109own custom interface, you probably need to use this.
 110
 111ipmi_ssif - A driver for accessing BMCs on the SMBus. It uses the
 112I2C kernel driver's SMBus interfaces to send and receive IPMI messages
 113over the SMBus.
 114
 115ipmi_powernv - A driver for access BMCs on POWERNV systems.
 116
 117ipmi_watchdog - IPMI requires systems to have a very capable watchdog
 118timer.  This driver implements the standard Linux watchdog timer
 119interface on top of the IPMI message handler.
 120
 121ipmi_poweroff - Some systems support the ability to be turned off via
 122IPMI commands.
 123
 124bt-bmc - This is not part of the main driver, but instead a driver for
 125accessing a BMC-side interface of a BT interface.  It is used on BMCs
 126running Linux to provide an interface to the host.
 127
 128These are all individually selectable via configuration options.
 129
 130Much documentation for the interface is in the include files.  The
 131IPMI include files are:
 132
 133linux/ipmi.h - Contains the user interface and IOCTL interface for IPMI.
 134
 135linux/ipmi_smi.h - Contains the interface for system management interfaces
 136(things that interface to IPMI controllers) to use.
 137
 138linux/ipmi_msgdefs.h - General definitions for base IPMI messaging.
 139
 140
 141Addressing
 142----------
 143
 144The IPMI addressing works much like IP addresses, you have an overlay
 145to handle the different address types.  The overlay is::
 146
 147  struct ipmi_addr
 148  {
 149        int   addr_type;
 150        short channel;
 151        char  data[IPMI_MAX_ADDR_SIZE];
 152  };
 153
 154The addr_type determines what the address really is.  The driver
 155currently understands two different types of addresses.
 156
 157"System Interface" addresses are defined as::
 158
 159  struct ipmi_system_interface_addr
 160  {
 161        int   addr_type;
 162        short channel;
 163  };
 164
 165and the type is IPMI_SYSTEM_INTERFACE_ADDR_TYPE.  This is used for talking
 166straight to the BMC on the current card.  The channel must be
 167IPMI_BMC_CHANNEL.
 168
 169Messages that are destined to go out on the IPMB bus use the
 170IPMI_IPMB_ADDR_TYPE address type.  The format is::
 171
 172  struct ipmi_ipmb_addr
 173  {
 174        int           addr_type;
 175        short         channel;
 176        unsigned char slave_addr;
 177        unsigned char lun;
 178  };
 179
 180The "channel" here is generally zero, but some devices support more
 181than one channel, it corresponds to the channel as defined in the IPMI
 182spec.
 183
 184
 185Messages
 186--------
 187
 188Messages are defined as::
 189
 190  struct ipmi_msg
 191  {
 192        unsigned char netfn;
 193        unsigned char lun;
 194        unsigned char cmd;
 195        unsigned char *data;
 196        int           data_len;
 197  };
 198
 199The driver takes care of adding/stripping the header information.  The
 200data portion is just the data to be send (do NOT put addressing info
 201here) or the response.  Note that the completion code of a response is
 202the first item in "data", it is not stripped out because that is how
 203all the messages are defined in the spec (and thus makes counting the
 204offsets a little easier :-).
 205
 206When using the IOCTL interface from userland, you must provide a block
 207of data for "data", fill it, and set data_len to the length of the
 208block of data, even when receiving messages.  Otherwise the driver
 209will have no place to put the message.
 210
 211Messages coming up from the message handler in kernelland will come in
 212as::
 213
 214  struct ipmi_recv_msg
 215  {
 216        struct list_head link;
 217
 218        /* The type of message as defined in the "Receive Types"
 219           defines above. */
 220        int         recv_type;
 221
 222        ipmi_user_t      *user;
 223        struct ipmi_addr addr;
 224        long             msgid;
 225        struct ipmi_msg  msg;
 226
 227        /* Call this when done with the message.  It will presumably free
 228           the message and do any other necessary cleanup. */
 229        void (*done)(struct ipmi_recv_msg *msg);
 230
 231        /* Place-holder for the data, don't make any assumptions about
 232           the size or existence of this, since it may change. */
 233        unsigned char   msg_data[IPMI_MAX_MSG_LENGTH];
 234  };
 235
 236You should look at the receive type and handle the message
 237appropriately.
 238
 239
 240The Upper Layer Interface (Message Handler)
 241-------------------------------------------
 242
 243The upper layer of the interface provides the users with a consistent
 244view of the IPMI interfaces.  It allows multiple SMI interfaces to be
 245addressed (because some boards actually have multiple BMCs on them)
 246and the user should not have to care what type of SMI is below them.
 247
 248
 249Watching For Interfaces
 250^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 251
 252When your code comes up, the IPMI driver may or may not have detected
 253if IPMI devices exist.  So you might have to defer your setup until
 254the device is detected, or you might be able to do it immediately.
 255To handle this, and to allow for discovery, you register an SMI
 256watcher with ipmi_smi_watcher_register() to iterate over interfaces
 257and tell you when they come and go.
 258
 259
 260Creating the User
 261^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 262
 263To use the message handler, you must first create a user using
 264ipmi_create_user.  The interface number specifies which SMI you want
 265to connect to, and you must supply callback functions to be called
 266when data comes in.  The callback function can run at interrupt level,
 267so be careful using the callbacks.  This also allows to you pass in a
 268piece of data, the handler_data, that will be passed back to you on
 269all calls.
 270
 271Once you are done, call ipmi_destroy_user() to get rid of the user.
 272
 273From userland, opening the device automatically creates a user, and
 274closing the device automatically destroys the user.
 275
 276
 277Messaging
 278^^^^^^^^^
 279
 280To send a message from kernel-land, the ipmi_request_settime() call does
 281pretty much all message handling.  Most of the parameter are
 282self-explanatory.  However, it takes a "msgid" parameter.  This is NOT
 283the sequence number of messages.  It is simply a long value that is
 284passed back when the response for the message is returned.  You may
 285use it for anything you like.
 286
 287Responses come back in the function pointed to by the ipmi_recv_hndl
 288field of the "handler" that you passed in to ipmi_create_user().
 289Remember again, these may be running at interrupt level.  Remember to
 290look at the receive type, too.
 291
 292From userland, you fill out an ipmi_req_t structure and use the
 293IPMICTL_SEND_COMMAND ioctl.  For incoming stuff, you can use select()
 294or poll() to wait for messages to come in.  However, you cannot use
 295read() to get them, you must call the IPMICTL_RECEIVE_MSG with the
 296ipmi_recv_t structure to actually get the message.  Remember that you
 297must supply a pointer to a block of data in the msg.data field, and
 298you must fill in the msg.data_len field with the size of the data.
 299This gives the receiver a place to actually put the message.
 300
 301If the message cannot fit into the data you provide, you will get an
 302EMSGSIZE error and the driver will leave the data in the receive
 303queue.  If you want to get it and have it truncate the message, us
 304the IPMICTL_RECEIVE_MSG_TRUNC ioctl.
 305
 306When you send a command (which is defined by the lowest-order bit of
 307the netfn per the IPMI spec) on the IPMB bus, the driver will
 308automatically assign the sequence number to the command and save the
 309command.  If the response is not receive in the IPMI-specified 5
 310seconds, it will generate a response automatically saying the command
 311timed out.  If an unsolicited response comes in (if it was after 5
 312seconds, for instance), that response will be ignored.
 313
 314In kernelland, after you receive a message and are done with it, you
 315MUST call ipmi_free_recv_msg() on it, or you will leak messages.  Note
 316that you should NEVER mess with the "done" field of a message, that is
 317required to properly clean up the message.
 318
 319Note that when sending, there is an ipmi_request_supply_msgs() call
 320that lets you supply the smi and receive message.  This is useful for
 321pieces of code that need to work even if the system is out of buffers
 322(the watchdog timer uses this, for instance).  You supply your own
 323buffer and own free routines.  This is not recommended for normal use,
 324though, since it is tricky to manage your own buffers.
 325
 326
 327Events and Incoming Commands
 328^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 329
 330The driver takes care of polling for IPMI events and receiving
 331commands (commands are messages that are not responses, they are
 332commands that other things on the IPMB bus have sent you).  To receive
 333these, you must register for them, they will not automatically be sent
 334to you.
 335
 336To receive events, you must call ipmi_set_gets_events() and set the
 337"val" to non-zero.  Any events that have been received by the driver
 338since startup will immediately be delivered to the first user that
 339registers for events.  After that, if multiple users are registered
 340for events, they will all receive all events that come in.
 341
 342For receiving commands, you have to individually register commands you
 343want to receive.  Call ipmi_register_for_cmd() and supply the netfn
 344and command name for each command you want to receive.  You also
 345specify a bitmask of the channels you want to receive the command from
 346(or use IPMI_CHAN_ALL for all channels if you don't care).  Only one
 347user may be registered for each netfn/cmd/channel, but different users
 348may register for different commands, or the same command if the
 349channel bitmasks do not overlap.
 350
 351From userland, equivalent IOCTLs are provided to do these functions.
 352
 353
 354The Lower Layer (SMI) Interface
 355-------------------------------
 356
 357As mentioned before, multiple SMI interfaces may be registered to the
 358message handler, each of these is assigned an interface number when
 359they register with the message handler.  They are generally assigned
 360in the order they register, although if an SMI unregisters and then
 361another one registers, all bets are off.
 362
 363The ipmi_smi.h defines the interface for management interfaces, see
 364that for more details.
 365
 366
 367The SI Driver
 368-------------
 369
 370The SI driver allows KCS, BT, and SMIC interfaces to be configured
 371in the system.  It discovers interfaces through a host of different
 372methods, depending on the system.
 373
 374You can specify up to four interfaces on the module load line and
 375control some module parameters::
 376
 377  modprobe ipmi_si.o type=<type1>,<type2>....
 378       ports=<port1>,<port2>... addrs=<addr1>,<addr2>...
 379       irqs=<irq1>,<irq2>...
 380       regspacings=<sp1>,<sp2>,... regsizes=<size1>,<size2>,...
 381       regshifts=<shift1>,<shift2>,...
 382       slave_addrs=<addr1>,<addr2>,...
 383       force_kipmid=<enable1>,<enable2>,...
 384       kipmid_max_busy_us=<ustime1>,<ustime2>,...
 385       unload_when_empty=[0|1]
 386       trydmi=[0|1] tryacpi=[0|1]
 387       tryplatform=[0|1] trypci=[0|1]
 388
 389Each of these except try... items is a list, the first item for the
 390first interface, second item for the second interface, etc.
 391
 392The si_type may be either "kcs", "smic", or "bt".  If you leave it blank, it
 393defaults to "kcs".
 394
 395If you specify addrs as non-zero for an interface, the driver will
 396use the memory address given as the address of the device.  This
 397overrides si_ports.
 398
 399If you specify ports as non-zero for an interface, the driver will
 400use the I/O port given as the device address.
 401
 402If you specify irqs as non-zero for an interface, the driver will
 403attempt to use the given interrupt for the device.
 404
 405The other try... items disable discovery by their corresponding
 406names.  These are all enabled by default, set them to zero to disable
 407them.  The tryplatform disables openfirmware.
 408
 409The next three parameters have to do with register layout.  The
 410registers used by the interfaces may not appear at successive
 411locations and they may not be in 8-bit registers.  These parameters
 412allow the layout of the data in the registers to be more precisely
 413specified.
 414
 415The regspacings parameter give the number of bytes between successive
 416register start addresses.  For instance, if the regspacing is set to 4
 417and the start address is 0xca2, then the address for the second
 418register would be 0xca6.  This defaults to 1.
 419
 420The regsizes parameter gives the size of a register, in bytes.  The
 421data used by IPMI is 8-bits wide, but it may be inside a larger
 422register.  This parameter allows the read and write type to specified.
 423It may be 1, 2, 4, or 8.  The default is 1.
 424
 425Since the register size may be larger than 32 bits, the IPMI data may not
 426be in the lower 8 bits.  The regshifts parameter give the amount to shift
 427the data to get to the actual IPMI data.
 428
 429The slave_addrs specifies the IPMI address of the local BMC.  This is
 430usually 0x20 and the driver defaults to that, but in case it's not, it
 431can be specified when the driver starts up.
 432
 433The force_ipmid parameter forcefully enables (if set to 1) or disables
 434(if set to 0) the kernel IPMI daemon.  Normally this is auto-detected
 435by the driver, but systems with broken interrupts might need an enable,
 436or users that don't want the daemon (don't need the performance, don't
 437want the CPU hit) can disable it.
 438
 439If unload_when_empty is set to 1, the driver will be unloaded if it
 440doesn't find any interfaces or all the interfaces fail to work.  The
 441default is one.  Setting to 0 is useful with the hotmod, but is
 442obviously only useful for modules.
 443
 444When compiled into the kernel, the parameters can be specified on the
 445kernel command line as::
 446
 447  ipmi_si.type=<type1>,<type2>...
 448       ipmi_si.ports=<port1>,<port2>... ipmi_si.addrs=<addr1>,<addr2>...
 449       ipmi_si.irqs=<irq1>,<irq2>...
 450       ipmi_si.regspacings=<sp1>,<sp2>,...
 451       ipmi_si.regsizes=<size1>,<size2>,...
 452       ipmi_si.regshifts=<shift1>,<shift2>,...
 453       ipmi_si.slave_addrs=<addr1>,<addr2>,...
 454       ipmi_si.force_kipmid=<enable1>,<enable2>,...
 455       ipmi_si.kipmid_max_busy_us=<ustime1>,<ustime2>,...
 456
 457It works the same as the module parameters of the same names.
 458
 459If your IPMI interface does not support interrupts and is a KCS or
 460SMIC interface, the IPMI driver will start a kernel thread for the
 461interface to help speed things up.  This is a low-priority kernel
 462thread that constantly polls the IPMI driver while an IPMI operation
 463is in progress.  The force_kipmid module parameter will all the user to
 464force this thread on or off.  If you force it off and don't have
 465interrupts, the driver will run VERY slowly.  Don't blame me,
 466these interfaces suck.
 467
 468Unfortunately, this thread can use a lot of CPU depending on the
 469interface's performance.  This can waste a lot of CPU and cause
 470various issues with detecting idle CPU and using extra power.  To
 471avoid this, the kipmid_max_busy_us sets the maximum amount of time, in
 472microseconds, that kipmid will spin before sleeping for a tick.  This
 473value sets a balance between performance and CPU waste and needs to be
 474tuned to your needs.  Maybe, someday, auto-tuning will be added, but
 475that's not a simple thing and even the auto-tuning would need to be
 476tuned to the user's desired performance.
 477
 478The driver supports a hot add and remove of interfaces.  This way,
 479interfaces can be added or removed after the kernel is up and running.
 480This is done using /sys/modules/ipmi_si/parameters/hotmod, which is a
 481write-only parameter.  You write a string to this interface.  The string
 482has the format::
 483
 484   <op1>[:op2[:op3...]]
 485
 486The "op"s are::
 487
 488   add|remove,kcs|bt|smic,mem|i/o,<address>[,<opt1>[,<opt2>[,...]]]
 489
 490You can specify more than one interface on the line.  The "opt"s are::
 491
 492   rsp=<regspacing>
 493   rsi=<regsize>
 494   rsh=<regshift>
 495   irq=<irq>
 496   ipmb=<ipmb slave addr>
 497
 498and these have the same meanings as discussed above.  Note that you
 499can also use this on the kernel command line for a more compact format
 500for specifying an interface.  Note that when removing an interface,
 501only the first three parameters (si type, address type, and address)
 502are used for the comparison.  Any options are ignored for removing.
 503
 504The SMBus Driver (SSIF)
 505-----------------------
 506
 507The SMBus driver allows up to 4 SMBus devices to be configured in the
 508system.  By default, the driver will only register with something it
 509finds in DMI or ACPI tables.  You can change this
 510at module load time (for a module) with::
 511
 512  modprobe ipmi_ssif.o
 513        addr=<i2caddr1>[,<i2caddr2>[,...]]
 514        adapter=<adapter1>[,<adapter2>[...]]
 515        dbg=<flags1>,<flags2>...
 516        slave_addrs=<addr1>,<addr2>,...
 517        tryacpi=[0|1] trydmi=[0|1]
 518        [dbg_probe=1]
 519
 520The addresses are normal I2C addresses.  The adapter is the string
 521name of the adapter, as shown in /sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-<n>/name.
 522It is *NOT* i2c-<n> itself.  Also, the comparison is done ignoring
 523spaces, so if the name is "This is an I2C chip" you can say
 524adapter_name=ThisisanI2cchip.  This is because it's hard to pass in
 525spaces in kernel parameters.
 526
 527The debug flags are bit flags for each BMC found, they are:
 528IPMI messages: 1, driver state: 2, timing: 4, I2C probe: 8
 529
 530The tryxxx parameters can be used to disable detecting interfaces
 531from various sources.
 532
 533Setting dbg_probe to 1 will enable debugging of the probing and
 534detection process for BMCs on the SMBusses.
 535
 536The slave_addrs specifies the IPMI address of the local BMC.  This is
 537usually 0x20 and the driver defaults to that, but in case it's not, it
 538can be specified when the driver starts up.
 539
 540Discovering the IPMI compliant BMC on the SMBus can cause devices on
 541the I2C bus to fail. The SMBus driver writes a "Get Device ID" IPMI
 542message as a block write to the I2C bus and waits for a response.
 543This action can be detrimental to some I2C devices. It is highly
 544recommended that the known I2C address be given to the SMBus driver in
 545the smb_addr parameter unless you have DMI or ACPI data to tell the
 546driver what to use.
 547
 548When compiled into the kernel, the addresses can be specified on the
 549kernel command line as::
 550
 551  ipmb_ssif.addr=<i2caddr1>[,<i2caddr2>[...]]
 552        ipmi_ssif.adapter=<adapter1>[,<adapter2>[...]]
 553        ipmi_ssif.dbg=<flags1>[,<flags2>[...]]
 554        ipmi_ssif.dbg_probe=1
 555        ipmi_ssif.slave_addrs=<addr1>[,<addr2>[...]]
 556        ipmi_ssif.tryacpi=[0|1] ipmi_ssif.trydmi=[0|1]
 557
 558These are the same options as on the module command line.
 559
 560The I2C driver does not support non-blocking access or polling, so
 561this driver cannod to IPMI panic events, extend the watchdog at panic
 562time, or other panic-related IPMI functions without special kernel
 563patches and driver modifications.  You can get those at the openipmi
 564web page.
 565
 566The driver supports a hot add and remove of interfaces through the I2C
 567sysfs interface.
 568
 569Other Pieces
 570------------
 571
 572Get the detailed info related with the IPMI device
 573--------------------------------------------------
 574
 575Some users need more detailed information about a device, like where
 576the address came from or the raw base device for the IPMI interface.
 577You can use the IPMI smi_watcher to catch the IPMI interfaces as they
 578come or go, and to grab the information, you can use the function
 579ipmi_get_smi_info(), which returns the following structure::
 580
 581  struct ipmi_smi_info {
 582        enum ipmi_addr_src addr_src;
 583        struct device *dev;
 584        union {
 585                struct {
 586                        void *acpi_handle;
 587                } acpi_info;
 588        } addr_info;
 589  };
 590
 591Currently special info for only for SI_ACPI address sources is
 592returned.  Others may be added as necessary.
 593
 594Note that the dev pointer is included in the above structure, and
 595assuming ipmi_smi_get_info returns success, you must call put_device
 596on the dev pointer.
 597
 598
 599Watchdog
 600--------
 601
 602A watchdog timer is provided that implements the Linux-standard
 603watchdog timer interface.  It has three module parameters that can be
 604used to control it::
 605
 606  modprobe ipmi_watchdog timeout=<t> pretimeout=<t> action=<action type>
 607      preaction=<preaction type> preop=<preop type> start_now=x
 608      nowayout=x ifnum_to_use=n panic_wdt_timeout=<t>
 609
 610ifnum_to_use specifies which interface the watchdog timer should use.
 611The default is -1, which means to pick the first one registered.
 612
 613The timeout is the number of seconds to the action, and the pretimeout
 614is the amount of seconds before the reset that the pre-timeout panic will
 615occur (if pretimeout is zero, then pretimeout will not be enabled).  Note
 616that the pretimeout is the time before the final timeout.  So if the
 617timeout is 50 seconds and the pretimeout is 10 seconds, then the pretimeout
 618will occur in 40 second (10 seconds before the timeout). The panic_wdt_timeout
 619is the value of timeout which is set on kernel panic, in order to let actions
 620such as kdump to occur during panic.
 621
 622The action may be "reset", "power_cycle", or "power_off", and
 623specifies what to do when the timer times out, and defaults to
 624"reset".
 625
 626The preaction may be "pre_smi" for an indication through the SMI
 627interface, "pre_int" for an indication through the SMI with an
 628interrupts, and "pre_nmi" for a NMI on a preaction.  This is how
 629the driver is informed of the pretimeout.
 630
 631The preop may be set to "preop_none" for no operation on a pretimeout,
 632"preop_panic" to set the preoperation to panic, or "preop_give_data"
 633to provide data to read from the watchdog device when the pretimeout
 634occurs.  A "pre_nmi" setting CANNOT be used with "preop_give_data"
 635because you can't do data operations from an NMI.
 636
 637When preop is set to "preop_give_data", one byte comes ready to read
 638on the device when the pretimeout occurs.  Select and fasync work on
 639the device, as well.
 640
 641If start_now is set to 1, the watchdog timer will start running as
 642soon as the driver is loaded.
 643
 644If nowayout is set to 1, the watchdog timer will not stop when the
 645watchdog device is closed.  The default value of nowayout is true
 646if the CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT option is enabled, or false if not.
 647
 648When compiled into the kernel, the kernel command line is available
 649for configuring the watchdog::
 650
 651  ipmi_watchdog.timeout=<t> ipmi_watchdog.pretimeout=<t>
 652        ipmi_watchdog.action=<action type>
 653        ipmi_watchdog.preaction=<preaction type>
 654        ipmi_watchdog.preop=<preop type>
 655        ipmi_watchdog.start_now=x
 656        ipmi_watchdog.nowayout=x
 657        ipmi_watchdog.panic_wdt_timeout=<t>
 658
 659The options are the same as the module parameter options.
 660
 661The watchdog will panic and start a 120 second reset timeout if it
 662gets a pre-action.  During a panic or a reboot, the watchdog will
 663start a 120 timer if it is running to make sure the reboot occurs.
 664
 665Note that if you use the NMI preaction for the watchdog, you MUST NOT
 666use the nmi watchdog.  There is no reasonable way to tell if an NMI
 667comes from the IPMI controller, so it must assume that if it gets an
 668otherwise unhandled NMI, it must be from IPMI and it will panic
 669immediately.
 670
 671Once you open the watchdog timer, you must write a 'V' character to the
 672device to close it, or the timer will not stop.  This is a new semantic
 673for the driver, but makes it consistent with the rest of the watchdog
 674drivers in Linux.
 675
 676
 677Panic Timeouts
 678--------------
 679
 680The OpenIPMI driver supports the ability to put semi-custom and custom
 681events in the system event log if a panic occurs.  if you enable the
 682'Generate a panic event to all BMCs on a panic' option, you will get
 683one event on a panic in a standard IPMI event format.  If you enable
 684the 'Generate OEM events containing the panic string' option, you will
 685also get a bunch of OEM events holding the panic string.
 686
 687
 688The field settings of the events are:
 689
 690* Generator ID: 0x21 (kernel)
 691* EvM Rev: 0x03 (this event is formatting in IPMI 1.0 format)
 692* Sensor Type: 0x20 (OS critical stop sensor)
 693* Sensor #: The first byte of the panic string (0 if no panic string)
 694* Event Dir | Event Type: 0x6f (Assertion, sensor-specific event info)
 695* Event Data 1: 0xa1 (Runtime stop in OEM bytes 2 and 3)
 696* Event data 2: second byte of panic string
 697* Event data 3: third byte of panic string
 698
 699See the IPMI spec for the details of the event layout.  This event is
 700always sent to the local management controller.  It will handle routing
 701the message to the right place
 702
 703Other OEM events have the following format:
 704
 705* Record ID (bytes 0-1): Set by the SEL.
 706* Record type (byte 2): 0xf0 (OEM non-timestamped)
 707* byte 3: The slave address of the card saving the panic
 708* byte 4: A sequence number (starting at zero)
 709  The rest of the bytes (11 bytes) are the panic string.  If the panic string
 710  is longer than 11 bytes, multiple messages will be sent with increasing
 711  sequence numbers.
 712
 713Because you cannot send OEM events using the standard interface, this
 714function will attempt to find an SEL and add the events there.  It
 715will first query the capabilities of the local management controller.
 716If it has an SEL, then they will be stored in the SEL of the local
 717management controller.  If not, and the local management controller is
 718an event generator, the event receiver from the local management
 719controller will be queried and the events sent to the SEL on that
 720device.  Otherwise, the events go nowhere since there is nowhere to
 721send them.
 722
 723
 724Poweroff
 725--------
 726
 727If the poweroff capability is selected, the IPMI driver will install
 728a shutdown function into the standard poweroff function pointer.  This
 729is in the ipmi_poweroff module.  When the system requests a powerdown,
 730it will send the proper IPMI commands to do this.  This is supported on
 731several platforms.
 732
 733There is a module parameter named "poweroff_powercycle" that may
 734either be zero (do a power down) or non-zero (do a power cycle, power
 735the system off, then power it on in a few seconds).  Setting
 736ipmi_poweroff.poweroff_control=x will do the same thing on the kernel
 737command line.  The parameter is also available via the proc filesystem
 738in /proc/sys/dev/ipmi/poweroff_powercycle.  Note that if the system
 739does not support power cycling, it will always do the power off.
 740
 741The "ifnum_to_use" parameter specifies which interface the poweroff
 742code should use.  The default is -1, which means to pick the first one
 743registered.
 744
 745Note that if you have ACPI enabled, the system will prefer using ACPI to
 746power off.
 747