On Mon, Dec 02, 2019 at 09:07:10AM -0800, Corey Ashford wrote: > On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 6:32 AM Guenter Roeck <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > On 11/29/19 8:48 PM, Corey Ashford wrote: > > > On Fri, Nov 29, 2019 at 8:17 PM Guenter Roeck <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > >> > > >> On 11/29/19 6:11 PM, Corey Ashford wrote: > > >>> Hello folks. I am running a newly-built system that uses an IT8686E > > >>> chip. Currently, the latest kernel from kernel.org doesn't have code > > >>> in drivers/hwmon/it87.c to support it, however, I found some source on > > >>> the net which has added support for quite a few more variants of that > > >>> brand of Super I/O chip: > > >>> https://github.com/xdarklight/hwmon-it87/blob/master/it87.c > > >>> I tried it out by building the module and "insmod"ing it into my > > >>> running system, and it appears to work fine. > > >>> > > >>> It seems the original developer had a difficult time pushing the > > >>> changes upstream, so he abandoned the project. > > >>> > > >> > > >> I abandoned the project (and dropped the driver from my github page) > > >> because people started _demanding_ that I push the driver from github > > >> upstream, without offering any assistance whatsoever. > > >> > > >>> My thought was that I could add support for just the IT8686E chip as a > > >>> single patch, and since I can test it locally I would have a better > > >>> chance of getting the patch accepted. The changes to the source at > > >>> the above git tree have quite a number of changes that aren't really > > >>> necessary for supporting the IT8686E chip, so I think the patch could > > >>> be pretty small, but will still credit the original author. > > >>> > > >> > > >> IT8686 is a multi-page chip, meaning you'll need the entire protection > > >> against multi-page accesses by the EC in the system. It also supports > > >> the new temperature map. I don't think it is that simple. > > >> > > >> Guenter > > > > > > Thanks for the quick reply! > > > > > > When you said they didn't offer any assistance, do you mean assistance > > > with testing? If so, how about if the support is trimmed out for the > > > newly-added chips that have no available test system volunteers, and > > > then slowly add those back as people make test systems and testing > > > time available. Should I presume that you have access to one or more > > > systems with the added ITnnnn chips? I volunteer my system for > > > testing the IT8686E support. > > > > > > > Testing and, more importantly, detailed code review. No one but me has > > seriously (if at all) scrutinized that code for years. Just picking it > > into mainline and hope that it won't cause trouble is, by itself, troublesome. > > > > On top of that, the multi-page access problems are well known by board vendors > > using this chip as well as by the chip vendor. Yet, neither board vendors nor > > ITE talk with kernel developers. The workarounds I implemented are based on > > information I got from one of the Windows tools developers, and are not > > validated by any board vendor nor by ITE. Every board vendor I tried to contact > > tells me that they don't support Linux, and I never got any reply from ITE. > > I do know that the code causes problems on early Gigabyte board using the 8686 > > and similar multi-page chips. Just accessing the chip from Linux may cause trouble > > because the built-in EC tries to access it as well in parallel (I suspect this > > causes the board to reset because that access is turned off for a while by > > the driver). This is all fine for an out-of-tree driver, but it would be > > unacceptable in the upstream kernel. > > > > In summary, you'll not only need to port the code, you'll also need to establish > > contact to ITE and/or to board vendors to ensure that the code works as intended > > with the EC on the affected boards. > > > > Guenter > > Ah, thank you for your detailed explanation. How you did as much as > you did is beyond me. ITE's web site seems to lack any usable > information, and doesn't even list the IT8686 as one of their chips. > Other "supported" chips don't appear to have any documentation easily > available, other than a very generic-y description of the chip. Quite > an uphill battle for marginal gain. > Exactly. The only real recommendation I have at this time is for anyone running Linux to stay away from boards with ITE chips. > Is it possible there's a way to access the sensors by using the EC as > a proxy, rather than trying to gain direct and exclusive access to the > sensors? Just a thought. I have no idea of the architecture of these > things. Your mention of EC was the first I had heard of it :/ > Not that I know of, sorry. The EC is actually running inside the Super-IO chip(s). I have no idea if and how it is accessible from Linux. Either case, that would be even worse, since EC programming is board vendor specific. Guenter
