AMLDB(8) BSD System Manager's Manual AMLDB(8)NAMEamldb — executing and debugging AML interpreter (with DSDT files)
SYNOPSISamldb [-dhst] dsdt_file ...
DESCRIPTION
The amldb utility parses the DSDT (Differentiated System Description Ta‐
ble) files, which usually are acquired from ACPI BIOS, and executes the
sequence of ACPI Control Methods described in AML (ACPI Machine Language)
with its AML interpreter. The amldb utility also has a simple ACPI vir‐
tual machine. During execution of the Control Methods each access to the
region, such as SystemMemory, SystemIO, PCI_Config, does not affect the
real hardware but only the virtual machine. Because the sequence of vir‐
tual accesses is maintained in user space, AML interpreter developers
need not worry about any effect on hardware when they analyze DSDT data
files. They can develop and debug the interpreter, even if the machine
has no ACPI BIOS.
The developer will need to acquire a DSDT data file from any machine with
ACPI BIOS through acpidump(8). The DSDT is a table, a part of the whole
ACPI memory table located in somewhere in the BIOS area (0xa0000 -
0x100000). It includes such information as the detailed hardware infor‐
mation for PnP, and the set of procedures which perform power management
from the OS. The information is stored in AML format.
The AML interpreter can execute any of the Control Methods specified by
users. When executed, it interprets the byte sequence in the Control
Method of DSDT, and disassembles the opcodes that it recognizes into ASL
(ACPI Source Language) format to be displayed.
If it encounters one of more accesses to the region such as SystemMemory
in executing the Control Methods, its ACPI Virtual Machine simulates the
input/output operations to the resources in the region. In writing to a
certain region, the ACPI Virtual Machine prepares a piece of memory cor‐
responding to its address, if necessary, and holds the specified value in
the memory as the region contents. In reading from a certain region, it
fetches the value in the memory (region contents), prompts with it as the
following:
DEBUG[read(0, 0x100b6813)&mask:0x1](default: 0x1 / 1) >>
for users to have the opportunity to modify it, and hands it to the AML
interpreter. In case that there is no corresponding region in the AML
Virtual Machine, the value zero is handed.
The interpreter continues to maintain all of the region contents until
amldb terminates. You can specify their initial values with the file
region.ini in the current directory. If it is executed with -d option,
it dumps the final status of all of its region contents to the file
region.dmp when it terminates. Each line of there files consists of the
following fields, separated by tabs; region type, address, and value.
Region types are specified as follows;
Value Region type
0 SystemMemory
1 SystemIO
2 PCI_Config
3 EmbeddedControl
4 SMBus
Interactive commands are described below:
s Single step: Performs single-step execution of the current Con‐
trol Method. If the next instruction is an invocation of another
Control Method, the step execution will continue in the following
Control Method.
n Step program: Performs single-step execution of the current Con‐
trol Method. Even if the next instruction is an invocation of
another Control Method, the step execution will not continue.
c Continue program being debugged: Resumes execution of the AML
interpreter. Because the current amldb has no way of breakpoint,
this command might not so much useful.
q Quit method execution: Terminates execution of the current Con‐
trol Method. If amldb is not in execution, this command causes
to input the next DSDT data file. If there are no next DSDT data
files, it terminates amldb itself.
t Show local name space tree and variables: Displays the structure
of the ACPI namespace tree. If amldb is in execution, this com‐
mand displays the structure that relates to the objects, argu‐
ments, and local variables below the scope of the current Control
Method.
i Toggle region input prompt: Switches whether the prompt for modi‐
fying the value read from the region contents be showed or not.
Default is On.
o Toggle region output prompt: Switches whether the prompt for mod‐
ifying the value to be written to the region contents will be
shown or not. The default is Off.
m Show memory management statistics: Displays the current statis‐
tics of the memory management system on the AML interpreter.
r method
Run specified method: Executes the specified Control Method. If
it requires one or more arguments, a prompt such as the following
appears;
Method: Arg 1 From 0x280626ce To 0x28062775
Enter argument values (ex. number 1 / string foo). 'q' to quit.
Arg0 ?
For each argument, a pair of type string and value delimited by
one or more spaces can be entered. Now only number and string
can be specified as the type string. In the current implementa‐
tion, only the first character of the type string, such as n or
s, is identified. For example, we can enter as follows:
Arg0 ? n 1
f string
Find named objects from namespace: Lists the named objects that
includes the specified string as the terminate elements searching
from the ACPI namespace. For the namespace is expressed as the
sequence of four-character elements, appropriate number of addi‐
tional underscore (‘_’) characters are necessary for specifying
objects which have less than four character string. Unless addi‐
tional underscores specified, matching occurs as the beginning of
word with the specified number of characters.
h Show help messsage: Displays the command summary of amldb.
OPTIONS
Exactly one of the following options must be specified. Otherwise, amldb
shows its usage and terminates.
-d Dump the final status of all of the region contents in the ACPI
Virtual Machine to the file region.dmp.
-h Terminate with the usage of this command.
-s Display the statistics of the memory management system on the AML
interpreter when amldb terminates.
-t Display the tree structure of ACPI namespace after the DSDT data
file is read.
FILES
region.ini
region.dmp
EXAMPLES
The following is an example including, invoking the amldb, searching _PRS
(Possible Resource Settings) objects, and executing the _PTS (Prepare To
Sleep) Control Method by the AML interpreter.
% amldb p2b.dsdt.dat
Loading p2b.dsdt.dat...done
AML>f _PRS
\_SB_.PCI0.ISA_.PS2M._PRS.
\_SB_.PCI0.ISA_.IRDA._PRS.
\_SB_.PCI0.ISA_.UAR2._PRS.
\_SB_.PCI0.ISA_.UAR1._PRS.
\_SB_.PCI0.ISA_.ECP_._PRS.
\_SB_.PCI0.ISA_.LPT_._PRS.
\_SB_.PCI0.ISA_.FDC0._PRS.
\_SB_.LNKD._PRS.
\_SB_.LNKC._PRS.
\_SB_.LNKB._PRS.
\_SB_.LNKA._PRS.
AML>r _PTS
Method: Arg 1 From 0x2805f0a3 To 0x2805f0db
Enter argument values (ex. number 1 / string foo). 'q' to quit.
Arg0 ? n 5
==== Running _PTS. ====
AML>s
[\_PTS. START]
If(LNot(LEqual(Arg0, 0x5)))
AML>
If(LEqual(Arg0, 0x1))
AML>
If(LEqual(Arg0, 0x2))
AML>
Store(One, TO12)
[aml_region_write(1, 1, 0x1, 0xe42c, 0x18, 0x1)]
amldb: region.ini: No such file or directory
[1:0x00@0xe42f]->[1:0x01@0xe42f]
[write(1, 0x1, 0xe42f)]
[aml_region_read(1, 1, 0xe42c, 0x18, 0x1)]
[1:0x01@0xe42f]
DEBUG[read(1, 0xe42f)&mask:0x1](default: 0x1 / 1) >>
[read(1, 0xe42f)->0x1]
AML>
Or(Arg0, 0xf0, Local2)[Copy number 0xf5]
AML>t
_PTS Method: Arg 1 From 0x2805f0a3 To 0x2805f0db
Arg0 Num:0x5
Local2 Num:0xf5
AML>s
Store(Local2, DBG1)
[aml_region_write(1, 1, 0xf5, 0x80, 0x0, 0x8)]
[1:0x00@0x80]->[1:0xf5@0x80]
[write(1, 0xf5, 0x80)]
[aml_region_read(1, 1, 0x80, 0x0, 0x8)]
[1:0xf5@0x80]
DEBUG[read(1, 0x80)&mask:0xf5](default: 0xf5 / 245) >>
[read(1, 0x80)->0xf5]
AML>
[\_PTS. END]
_PTS Method: Arg 1 From 0x2805f0a3 To 0x2805f0db
NO object
==== _PTS finished. ====
AML>q
%
SEE ALSOacpi(4), acpidump(8)HISTORY
The amldb utility appeared in FreeBSD 5.0.
AUTHORS
Takanori Watanabe ⟨takawata@FreeBSD.org⟩
Mitsuru IWASAKI ⟨iwasaki@FreeBSD.org⟩
Yasuo YOKOYAMA ⟨yokoyama@jp.FreeBSD.org⟩
Some contributions made by
Chitoshi Ohsawa ⟨ohsawa@catv1.ccn-net.ne.jp⟩,
Takayasu IWANASHI ⟨takayasu@wendy.a.perfect-liberty.or.jp⟩,
Norihiro KUMAGAI ⟨kumagai@home.com⟩,
Kenneth Ingham ⟨ingham@I-pi.com⟩, and
Michael Lucas ⟨mwlucas@blackhelicopters.org⟩.
BUGS
The ACPI virtual machine does not completely simulate the behavior of a
machine with an ACPI BIOS. In the current implementation, the ACPI vir‐
tual machine only reads or writes the stored values by emulating access
to regions such as SystemMemory.
Because the AML interpreter interprets and disassembles simultaneously,
it is impossible to implement such features as setting breakpoints with
the specified line number in ASL. Setting breakpoints at certain Control
Methods, which is not very difficult, has not yet implemented because
nobody has ever needed it.
BSD August 31, 2000 BSD
