1 Power Management for USB
3 Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
5 Last-updated: February 2014
10 * What is Power Management?
11 * What is Remote Wakeup?
12 * When is a USB device idle?
14 * The user interface for dynamic PM
15 * Changing the default idle-delay time
17 * The driver interface for Power Management
18 * The driver interface for autosuspend and autoresume
19 * Other parts of the driver interface
21 * Interaction between dynamic PM and system PM
22 * xHCI hardware link PM
23 * USB Port Power Control
24 * User Interface for Port Power Control
25 * Suggested Userspace Port Power Policy
28 What is Power Management?
29 -------------------------
31 Power Management (PM) is the practice of saving energy by suspending
32 parts of a computer system when they aren't being used. While a
33 component is "suspended" it is in a nonfunctional low-power state; it
34 might even be turned off completely. A suspended component can be
35 "resumed" (returned to a functional full-power state) when the kernel
36 needs to use it. (There also are forms of PM in which components are
37 placed in a less functional but still usable state instead of being
38 suspended; an example would be reducing the CPU's clock rate. This
39 document will not discuss those other forms.)
41 When the parts being suspended include the CPU and most of the rest of
42 the system, we speak of it as a "system suspend". When a particular
43 device is turned off while the system as a whole remains running, we
44 call it a "dynamic suspend" (also known as a "runtime suspend" or
45 "selective suspend"). This document concentrates mostly on how
46 dynamic PM is implemented in the USB subsystem, although system PM is
47 covered to some extent (see Documentation/power/*.txt for more
48 information about system PM).
50 System PM support is present only if the kernel was built with CONFIG_SUSPEND
51 or CONFIG_HIBERNATION enabled. Dynamic PM support for USB is present whenever
52 the kernel was built with CONFIG_PM enabled.
54 [Historically, dynamic PM support for USB was present only if the
55 kernel had been built with CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND enabled (which depended on
56 CONFIG_PM_RUNTIME). Starting with the 3.10 kernel release, dynamic PM support
57 for USB was present whenever the kernel was built with CONFIG_PM_RUNTIME
58 enabled. The CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND option had been eliminated.]
61 What is Remote Wakeup?
62 ----------------------
64 When a device has been suspended, it generally doesn't resume until
65 the computer tells it to. Likewise, if the entire computer has been
66 suspended, it generally doesn't resume until the user tells it to, say
67 by pressing a power button or opening the cover.
69 However some devices have the capability of resuming by themselves, or
70 asking the kernel to resume them, or even telling the entire computer
71 to resume. This capability goes by several names such as "Wake On
72 LAN"; we will refer to it generically as "remote wakeup". When a
73 device is enabled for remote wakeup and it is suspended, it may resume
74 itself (or send a request to be resumed) in response to some external
75 event. Examples include a suspended keyboard resuming when a key is
76 pressed, or a suspended USB hub resuming when a device is plugged in.
79 When is a USB device idle?
80 --------------------------
82 A device is idle whenever the kernel thinks it's not busy doing
83 anything important and thus is a candidate for being suspended. The
84 exact definition depends on the device's driver; drivers are allowed
85 to declare that a device isn't idle even when there's no actual
86 communication taking place. (For example, a hub isn't considered idle
87 unless all the devices plugged into that hub are already suspended.)
88 In addition, a device isn't considered idle so long as a program keeps
89 its usbfs file open, whether or not any I/O is going on.
91 If a USB device has no driver, its usbfs file isn't open, and it isn't
92 being accessed through sysfs, then it definitely is idle.
98 Dynamic suspends occur when the kernel decides to suspend an idle
99 device. This is called "autosuspend" for short. In general, a device
100 won't be autosuspended unless it has been idle for some minimum period
101 of time, the so-called idle-delay time.
103 Of course, nothing the kernel does on its own initiative should
104 prevent the computer or its devices from working properly. If a
105 device has been autosuspended and a program tries to use it, the
106 kernel will automatically resume the device (autoresume). For the
107 same reason, an autosuspended device will usually have remote wakeup
108 enabled, if the device supports remote wakeup.
110 It is worth mentioning that many USB drivers don't support
111 autosuspend. In fact, at the time of this writing (Linux 2.6.23) the
112 only drivers which do support it are the hub driver, kaweth, asix,
113 usblp, usblcd, and usb-skeleton (which doesn't count). If a
114 non-supporting driver is bound to a device, the device won't be
115 autosuspended. In effect, the kernel pretends the device is never
118 We can categorize power management events in two broad classes:
119 external and internal. External events are those triggered by some
120 agent outside the USB stack: system suspend/resume (triggered by
121 userspace), manual dynamic resume (also triggered by userspace), and
122 remote wakeup (triggered by the device). Internal events are those
123 triggered within the USB stack: autosuspend and autoresume. Note that
124 all dynamic suspend events are internal; external agents are not
125 allowed to issue dynamic suspends.
128 The user interface for dynamic PM
129 ---------------------------------
131 The user interface for controlling dynamic PM is located in the power/
132 subdirectory of each USB device's sysfs directory, that is, in
133 /sys/bus/usb/devices/.../power/ where "..." is the device's ID. The
134 relevant attribute files are: wakeup, control, and
135 autosuspend_delay_ms. (There may also be a file named "level"; this
136 file was deprecated as of the 2.6.35 kernel and replaced by the
137 "control" file. In 2.6.38 the "autosuspend" file will be deprecated
138 and replaced by the "autosuspend_delay_ms" file. The only difference
139 is that the newer file expresses the delay in milliseconds whereas the
140 older file uses seconds. Confusingly, both files are present in 2.6.37
141 but only "autosuspend" works.)
145 This file is empty if the device does not support
146 remote wakeup. Otherwise the file contains either the
147 word "enabled" or the word "disabled", and you can
148 write those words to the file. The setting determines
149 whether or not remote wakeup will be enabled when the
150 device is next suspended. (If the setting is changed
151 while the device is suspended, the change won't take
152 effect until the following suspend.)
156 This file contains one of two words: "on" or "auto".
157 You can write those words to the file to change the
160 "on" means that the device should be resumed and
161 autosuspend is not allowed. (Of course, system
162 suspends are still allowed.)
164 "auto" is the normal state in which the kernel is
165 allowed to autosuspend and autoresume the device.
167 (In kernels up to 2.6.32, you could also specify
168 "suspend", meaning that the device should remain
169 suspended and autoresume was not allowed. This
170 setting is no longer supported.)
172 power/autosuspend_delay_ms
174 This file contains an integer value, which is the
175 number of milliseconds the device should remain idle
176 before the kernel will autosuspend it (the idle-delay
177 time). The default is 2000. 0 means to autosuspend
178 as soon as the device becomes idle, and negative
179 values mean never to autosuspend. You can write a
180 number to the file to change the autosuspend
183 Writing "-1" to power/autosuspend_delay_ms and writing "on" to
184 power/control do essentially the same thing -- they both prevent the
185 device from being autosuspended. Yes, this is a redundancy in the
188 (In 2.6.21 writing "0" to power/autosuspend would prevent the device
189 from being autosuspended; the behavior was changed in 2.6.22. The
190 power/autosuspend attribute did not exist prior to 2.6.21, and the
191 power/level attribute did not exist prior to 2.6.22. power/control
192 was added in 2.6.34, and power/autosuspend_delay_ms was added in
193 2.6.37 but did not become functional until 2.6.38.)
196 Changing the default idle-delay time
197 ------------------------------------
199 The default autosuspend idle-delay time (in seconds) is controlled by
200 a module parameter in usbcore. You can specify the value when usbcore
201 is loaded. For example, to set it to 5 seconds instead of 2 you would
204 modprobe usbcore autosuspend=5
206 Equivalently, you could add to a configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d
209 options usbcore autosuspend=5
211 Some distributions load the usbcore module very early during the boot
212 process, by means of a program or script running from an initramfs
213 image. To alter the parameter value you would have to rebuild that
216 If usbcore is compiled into the kernel rather than built as a loadable
219 usbcore.autosuspend=5
221 to the kernel's boot command line.
223 Finally, the parameter value can be changed while the system is
226 echo 5 >/sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend
228 then each new USB device will have its autosuspend idle-delay
229 initialized to 5. (The idle-delay values for already existing devices
230 will not be affected.)
232 Setting the initial default idle-delay to -1 will prevent any
233 autosuspend of any USB device. This has the benefit of allowing you
234 then to enable autosuspend for selected devices.
240 The USB specification states that all USB devices must support power
241 management. Nevertheless, the sad fact is that many devices do not
242 support it very well. You can suspend them all right, but when you
243 try to resume them they disconnect themselves from the USB bus or
244 they stop working entirely. This seems to be especially prevalent
245 among printers and scanners, but plenty of other types of device have
248 For this reason, by default the kernel disables autosuspend (the
249 power/control attribute is initialized to "on") for all devices other
250 than hubs. Hubs, at least, appear to be reasonably well-behaved in
253 (In 2.6.21 and 2.6.22 this wasn't the case. Autosuspend was enabled
254 by default for almost all USB devices. A number of people experienced
255 problems as a result.)
257 This means that non-hub devices won't be autosuspended unless the user
258 or a program explicitly enables it. As of this writing there aren't
259 any widespread programs which will do this; we hope that in the near
260 future device managers such as HAL will take on this added
261 responsibility. In the meantime you can always carry out the
262 necessary operations by hand or add them to a udev script. You can
263 also change the idle-delay time; 2 seconds is not the best choice for
266 If a driver knows that its device has proper suspend/resume support,
267 it can enable autosuspend all by itself. For example, the video
268 driver for a laptop's webcam might do this (in recent kernels they
269 do), since these devices are rarely used and so should normally be
272 Sometimes it turns out that even when a device does work okay with
273 autosuspend there are still problems. For example, the usbhid driver,
274 which manages keyboards and mice, has autosuspend support. Tests with
275 a number of keyboards show that typing on a suspended keyboard, while
276 causing the keyboard to do a remote wakeup all right, will nonetheless
277 frequently result in lost keystrokes. Tests with mice show that some
278 of them will issue a remote-wakeup request in response to button
279 presses but not to motion, and some in response to neither.
281 The kernel will not prevent you from enabling autosuspend on devices
282 that can't handle it. It is even possible in theory to damage a
283 device by suspending it at the wrong time. (Highly unlikely, but
284 possible.) Take care.
287 The driver interface for Power Management
288 -----------------------------------------
290 The requirements for a USB driver to support external power management
291 are pretty modest; the driver need only define
297 methods in its usb_driver structure, and the reset_resume method is
298 optional. The methods' jobs are quite simple:
300 The suspend method is called to warn the driver that the
301 device is going to be suspended. If the driver returns a
302 negative error code, the suspend will be aborted. Normally
303 the driver will return 0, in which case it must cancel all
304 outstanding URBs (usb_kill_urb()) and not submit any more.
306 The resume method is called to tell the driver that the
307 device has been resumed and the driver can return to normal
308 operation. URBs may once more be submitted.
310 The reset_resume method is called to tell the driver that
311 the device has been resumed and it also has been reset.
312 The driver should redo any necessary device initialization,
313 since the device has probably lost most or all of its state
314 (although the interfaces will be in the same altsettings as
317 If the device is disconnected or powered down while it is suspended,
318 the disconnect method will be called instead of the resume or
319 reset_resume method. This is also quite likely to happen when
320 waking up from hibernation, as many systems do not maintain suspend
321 current to the USB host controllers during hibernation. (It's
322 possible to work around the hibernation-forces-disconnect problem by
323 using the USB Persist facility.)
325 The reset_resume method is used by the USB Persist facility (see
326 Documentation/usb/persist.txt) and it can also be used under certain
327 circumstances when CONFIG_USB_PERSIST is not enabled. Currently, if a
328 device is reset during a resume and the driver does not have a
329 reset_resume method, the driver won't receive any notification about
330 the resume. Later kernels will call the driver's disconnect method;
331 2.6.23 doesn't do this.
333 USB drivers are bound to interfaces, so their suspend and resume
334 methods get called when the interfaces are suspended or resumed. In
335 principle one might want to suspend some interfaces on a device (i.e.,
336 force the drivers for those interface to stop all activity) without
337 suspending the other interfaces. The USB core doesn't allow this; all
338 interfaces are suspended when the device itself is suspended and all
339 interfaces are resumed when the device is resumed. It isn't possible
340 to suspend or resume some but not all of a device's interfaces. The
341 closest you can come is to unbind the interfaces' drivers.
344 The driver interface for autosuspend and autoresume
345 ---------------------------------------------------
347 To support autosuspend and autoresume, a driver should implement all
348 three of the methods listed above. In addition, a driver indicates
349 that it supports autosuspend by setting the .supports_autosuspend flag
350 in its usb_driver structure. It is then responsible for informing the
351 USB core whenever one of its interfaces becomes busy or idle. The
352 driver does so by calling these six functions:
354 int usb_autopm_get_interface(struct usb_interface *intf);
355 void usb_autopm_put_interface(struct usb_interface *intf);
356 int usb_autopm_get_interface_async(struct usb_interface *intf);
357 void usb_autopm_put_interface_async(struct usb_interface *intf);
358 void usb_autopm_get_interface_no_resume(struct usb_interface *intf);
359 void usb_autopm_put_interface_no_suspend(struct usb_interface *intf);
361 The functions work by maintaining a usage counter in the
362 usb_interface's embedded device structure. When the counter is > 0
363 then the interface is deemed to be busy, and the kernel will not
364 autosuspend the interface's device. When the usage counter is = 0
365 then the interface is considered to be idle, and the kernel may
366 autosuspend the device.
368 Drivers need not be concerned about balancing changes to the usage
369 counter; the USB core will undo any remaining "get"s when a driver
370 is unbound from its interface. As a corollary, drivers must not call
371 any of the usb_autopm_* functions after their disconnect() routine has
374 Drivers using the async routines are responsible for their own
375 synchronization and mutual exclusion.
377 usb_autopm_get_interface() increments the usage counter and
378 does an autoresume if the device is suspended. If the
379 autoresume fails, the counter is decremented back.
381 usb_autopm_put_interface() decrements the usage counter and
382 attempts an autosuspend if the new value is = 0.
384 usb_autopm_get_interface_async() and
385 usb_autopm_put_interface_async() do almost the same things as
386 their non-async counterparts. The big difference is that they
387 use a workqueue to do the resume or suspend part of their
388 jobs. As a result they can be called in an atomic context,
389 such as an URB's completion handler, but when they return the
390 device will generally not yet be in the desired state.
392 usb_autopm_get_interface_no_resume() and
393 usb_autopm_put_interface_no_suspend() merely increment or
394 decrement the usage counter; they do not attempt to carry out
395 an autoresume or an autosuspend. Hence they can be called in
398 The simplest usage pattern is that a driver calls
399 usb_autopm_get_interface() in its open routine and
400 usb_autopm_put_interface() in its close or release routine. But other
401 patterns are possible.
403 The autosuspend attempts mentioned above will often fail for one
404 reason or another. For example, the power/control attribute might be
405 set to "on", or another interface in the same device might not be
406 idle. This is perfectly normal. If the reason for failure was that
407 the device hasn't been idle for long enough, a timer is scheduled to
408 carry out the operation automatically when the autosuspend idle-delay
411 Autoresume attempts also can fail, although failure would mean that
412 the device is no longer present or operating properly. Unlike
413 autosuspend, there's no idle-delay for an autoresume.
416 Other parts of the driver interface
417 -----------------------------------
419 Drivers can enable autosuspend for their devices by calling
421 usb_enable_autosuspend(struct usb_device *udev);
423 in their probe() routine, if they know that the device is capable of
424 suspending and resuming correctly. This is exactly equivalent to
425 writing "auto" to the device's power/control attribute. Likewise,
426 drivers can disable autosuspend by calling
428 usb_disable_autosuspend(struct usb_device *udev);
430 This is exactly the same as writing "on" to the power/control attribute.
432 Sometimes a driver needs to make sure that remote wakeup is enabled
433 during autosuspend. For example, there's not much point
434 autosuspending a keyboard if the user can't cause the keyboard to do a
435 remote wakeup by typing on it. If the driver sets
436 intf->needs_remote_wakeup to 1, the kernel won't autosuspend the
437 device if remote wakeup isn't available. (If the device is already
438 autosuspended, though, setting this flag won't cause the kernel to
439 autoresume it. Normally a driver would set this flag in its probe
440 method, at which time the device is guaranteed not to be
443 If a driver does its I/O asynchronously in interrupt context, it
444 should call usb_autopm_get_interface_async() before starting output and
445 usb_autopm_put_interface_async() when the output queue drains. When
446 it receives an input event, it should call
448 usb_mark_last_busy(struct usb_device *udev);
450 in the event handler. This tells the PM core that the device was just
451 busy and therefore the next autosuspend idle-delay expiration should
452 be pushed back. Many of the usb_autopm_* routines also make this call,
453 so drivers need to worry only when interrupt-driven input arrives.
455 Asynchronous operation is always subject to races. For example, a
456 driver may call the usb_autopm_get_interface_async() routine at a time
457 when the core has just finished deciding the device has been idle for
458 long enough but not yet gotten around to calling the driver's suspend
459 method. The suspend method must be responsible for synchronizing with
460 the I/O request routine and the URB completion handler; it should
461 cause autosuspends to fail with -EBUSY if the driver needs to use the
464 External suspend calls should never be allowed to fail in this way,
465 only autosuspend calls. The driver can tell them apart by applying
466 the PMSG_IS_AUTO() macro to the message argument to the suspend
467 method; it will return True for internal PM events (autosuspend) and
468 False for external PM events.
474 For external events -- but not necessarily for autosuspend or
475 autoresume -- the device semaphore (udev->dev.sem) will be held when a
476 suspend or resume method is called. This implies that external
477 suspend/resume events are mutually exclusive with calls to probe,
478 disconnect, pre_reset, and post_reset; the USB core guarantees that
479 this is true of autosuspend/autoresume events as well.
481 If a driver wants to block all suspend/resume calls during some
482 critical section, the best way is to lock the device and call
483 usb_autopm_get_interface() (and do the reverse at the end of the
484 critical section). Holding the device semaphore will block all
485 external PM calls, and the usb_autopm_get_interface() will prevent any
486 internal PM calls, even if it fails. (Exercise: Why?)
489 Interaction between dynamic PM and system PM
490 --------------------------------------------
492 Dynamic power management and system power management can interact in
495 Firstly, a device may already be autosuspended when a system suspend
496 occurs. Since system suspends are supposed to be as transparent as
497 possible, the device should remain suspended following the system
498 resume. But this theory may not work out well in practice; over time
499 the kernel's behavior in this regard has changed. As of 2.6.37 the
500 policy is to resume all devices during a system resume and let them
501 handle their own runtime suspends afterward.
503 Secondly, a dynamic power-management event may occur as a system
504 suspend is underway. The window for this is short, since system
505 suspends don't take long (a few seconds usually), but it can happen.
506 For example, a suspended device may send a remote-wakeup signal while
507 the system is suspending. The remote wakeup may succeed, which would
508 cause the system suspend to abort. If the remote wakeup doesn't
509 succeed, it may still remain active and thus cause the system to
510 resume as soon as the system suspend is complete. Or the remote
511 wakeup may fail and get lost. Which outcome occurs depends on timing
512 and on the hardware and firmware design.
515 xHCI hardware link PM
516 ---------------------
518 xHCI host controller provides hardware link power management to usb2.0
519 (xHCI 1.0 feature) and usb3.0 devices which support link PM. By
520 enabling hardware LPM, the host can automatically put the device into
521 lower power state(L1 for usb2.0 devices, or U1/U2 for usb3.0 devices),
522 which state device can enter and resume very quickly.
524 The user interface for controlling hardware LPM is located in the
525 power/ subdirectory of each USB device's sysfs directory, that is, in
526 /sys/bus/usb/devices/.../power/ where "..." is the device's ID. The
527 relevant attribute files are usb2_hardware_lpm and usb3_hardware_lpm.
529 power/usb2_hardware_lpm
531 When a USB2 device which support LPM is plugged to a
532 xHCI host root hub which support software LPM, the
533 host will run a software LPM test for it; if the device
534 enters L1 state and resume successfully and the host
535 supports USB2 hardware LPM, this file will show up and
536 driver will enable hardware LPM for the device. You
537 can write y/Y/1 or n/N/0 to the file to enable/disable
538 USB2 hardware LPM manually. This is for test purpose mainly.
540 power/usb3_hardware_lpm
542 When a USB 3.0 lpm-capable device is plugged in to a
543 xHCI host which supports link PM, it will check if U1
544 and U2 exit latencies have been set in the BOS
545 descriptor; if the check is is passed and the host
546 supports USB3 hardware LPM, USB3 hardware LPM will be
547 enabled for the device and this file will be created.
548 The file holds a string value (enable or disable)
549 indicating whether or not USB3 hardware LPM is
550 enabled for the device.
552 USB Port Power Control
553 ----------------------
555 In addition to suspending endpoint devices and enabling hardware
556 controlled link power management, the USB subsystem also has the
557 capability to disable power to ports under some conditions. Power is
558 controlled through Set/ClearPortFeature(PORT_POWER) requests to a hub.
559 In the case of a root or platform-internal hub the host controller
560 driver translates PORT_POWER requests into platform firmware (ACPI)
561 method calls to set the port power state. For more background see the
562 Linux Plumbers Conference 2012 slides [1] and video [2]:
564 Upon receiving a ClearPortFeature(PORT_POWER) request a USB port is
565 logically off, and may trigger the actual loss of VBUS to the port [3].
566 VBUS may be maintained in the case where a hub gangs multiple ports into
567 a shared power well causing power to remain until all ports in the gang
568 are turned off. VBUS may also be maintained by hub ports configured for
569 a charging application. In any event a logically off port will lose
570 connection with its device, not respond to hotplug events, and not
571 respond to remote wakeup events*.
573 WARNING: turning off a port may result in the inability to hot add a device.
574 Please see "User Interface for Port Power Control" for details.
576 As far as the effect on the device itself it is similar to what a device
577 goes through during system suspend, i.e. the power session is lost. Any
578 USB device or driver that misbehaves with system suspend will be
579 similarly affected by a port power cycle event. For this reason the
580 implementation shares the same device recovery path (and honors the same
581 quirks) as the system resume path for the hub.
583 [1]: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/96820575/sarah-sharp-lpt-port-power-off2-mini.pdf
584 [2]: http://linuxplumbers.ubicast.tv/videos/usb-port-power-off-kerneluserspace-api/
585 [3]: USB 3.1 Section 10.12
586 * wakeup note: if a device is configured to send wakeup events the port
587 power control implementation will block poweroff attempts on that
591 User Interface for Port Power Control
592 -------------------------------------
594 The port power control mechanism uses the PM runtime system. Poweroff is
595 requested by clearing the power/pm_qos_no_power_off flag of the port device
596 (defaults to 1). If the port is disconnected it will immediately receive a
597 ClearPortFeature(PORT_POWER) request. Otherwise, it will honor the pm runtime
598 rules and require the attached child device and all descendants to be suspended.
599 This mechanism is dependent on the hub advertising port power switching in its
600 hub descriptor (wHubCharacteristics logical power switching mode field).
602 Note, some interface devices/drivers do not support autosuspend. Userspace may
603 need to unbind the interface drivers before the usb_device will suspend. An
604 unbound interface device is suspended by default. When unbinding, be careful
605 to unbind interface drivers, not the driver of the parent usb device. Also,
606 leave hub interface drivers bound. If the driver for the usb device (not
607 interface) is unbound the kernel is no longer able to resume the device. If a
608 hub interface driver is unbound, control of its child ports is lost and all
609 attached child-devices will disconnect. A good rule of thumb is that if the
610 'driver/module' link for a device points to /sys/module/usbcore then unbinding
611 it will interfere with port power control.
613 Example of the relevant files for port power control. Note, in this example
614 these files are relative to a usb hub device (prefix).
616 prefix=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1
618 attached child device +
620 hub interface device + | |
622 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device
624 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/power/pm_qos_no_power_off
625 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/power/control
626 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/3-1.1:<intf0>/driver/unbind
627 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/3-1.1:<intf1>/driver/unbind
629 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/3-1.1:<intfN>/driver/unbind
631 In addition to these files some ports may have a 'peer' link to a port on
632 another hub. The expectation is that all superspeed ports have a
635 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/peer -> ../../../../usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/2-1-port1
636 ../../../../usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/2-1-port1/peer -> ../../../../usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1
638 Distinct from 'companion ports', or 'ehci/xhci shared switchover ports'
639 peer ports are simply the hi-speed and superspeed interface pins that
640 are combined into a single usb3 connector. Peer ports share the same
641 ancestor XHCI device.
643 While a superspeed port is powered off a device may downgrade its
644 connection and attempt to connect to the hi-speed pins. The
645 implementation takes steps to prevent this:
647 1/ Port suspend is sequenced to guarantee that hi-speed ports are powered-off
648 before their superspeed peer is permitted to power-off. The implication is
649 that the setting pm_qos_no_power_off to zero on a superspeed port may not cause
650 the port to power-off until its highspeed peer has gone to its runtime suspend
651 state. Userspace must take care to order the suspensions if it wants to
652 guarantee that a superspeed port will power-off.
654 2/ Port resume is sequenced to force a superspeed port to power-on prior to its
657 3/ Port resume always triggers an attached child device to resume. After a
658 power session is lost the device may have been removed, or need reset.
659 Resuming the child device when the parent port regains power resolves those
660 states and clamps the maximum port power cycle frequency at the rate the child
661 device can suspend (autosuspend-delay) and resume (reset-resume latency).
663 Sysfs files relevant for port power control:
664 <hubdev-portX>/power/pm_qos_no_power_off:
665 This writable flag controls the state of an idle port.
666 Once all children and descendants have suspended the
667 port may suspend/poweroff provided that
668 pm_qos_no_power_off is '0'. If pm_qos_no_power_off is
669 '1' the port will remain active/powered regardless of
670 the stats of descendants. Defaults to 1.
672 <hubdev-portX>/power/runtime_status:
673 This file reflects whether the port is 'active' (power is on)
674 or 'suspended' (logically off). There is no indication to
675 userspace whether VBUS is still supplied.
677 <hubdev-portX>/connect_type:
678 An advisory read-only flag to userspace indicating the
679 location and connection type of the port. It returns
680 one of four values 'hotplug', 'hardwired', 'not used',
681 and 'unknown'. All values, besides unknown, are set by
684 "hotplug" indicates an externally connectable/visible
685 port on the platform. Typically userspace would choose
686 to keep such a port powered to handle new device
689 "hardwired" refers to a port that is not visible but
690 connectable. Examples are internal ports for USB
691 bluetooth that can be disconnected via an external
692 switch or a port with a hardwired USB camera. It is
693 expected to be safe to allow these ports to suspend
694 provided pm_qos_no_power_off is coordinated with any
695 switch that gates connections. Userspace must arrange
696 for the device to be connected prior to the port
697 powering off, or to activate the port prior to enabling
698 connection via a switch.
700 "not used" refers to an internal port that is expected
701 to never have a device connected to it. These may be
702 empty internal ports, or ports that are not physically
703 exposed on a platform. Considered safe to be
704 powered-off at all times.
706 "unknown" means platform firmware does not provide
707 information for this port. Most commonly refers to
708 external hub ports which should be considered 'hotplug'
709 for policy decisions.
711 NOTE1: since we are relying on the BIOS to get this ACPI
712 information correct, the USB port descriptions may be
715 NOTE2: Take care in clearing pm_qos_no_power_off. Once
716 power is off this port will
717 not respond to new connect events.
719 Once a child device is attached additional constraints are
720 applied before the port is allowed to poweroff.
722 <child>/power/control:
723 Must be 'auto', and the port will not
724 power down until <child>/power/runtime_status
725 reflects the 'suspended' state. Default
726 value is controlled by child device driver.
728 <child>/power/persist:
729 This defaults to '1' for most devices and indicates if
730 kernel can persist the device's configuration across a
731 power session loss (suspend / port-power event). When
732 this value is '0' (quirky devices), port poweroff is
735 <child>/driver/unbind:
736 Wakeup capable devices will block port poweroff. At
737 this time the only mechanism to clear the usb-internal
738 wakeup-capability for an interface device is to unbind
741 Summary of poweroff pre-requisite settings relative to a port device:
743 echo 0 > power/pm_qos_no_power_off
744 echo 0 > peer/power/pm_qos_no_power_off # if it exists
745 echo auto > power/control # this is the default value
746 echo auto > <child>/power/control
747 echo 1 > <child>/power/persist # this is the default value
749 Suggested Userspace Port Power Policy
750 -------------------------------------
752 As noted above userspace needs to be careful and deliberate about what
753 ports are enabled for poweroff.
755 The default configuration is that all ports start with
756 power/pm_qos_no_power_off set to '1' causing ports to always remain
759 Given confidence in the platform firmware's description of the ports
760 (ACPI _PLD record for a port populates 'connect_type') userspace can
761 clear pm_qos_no_power_off for all 'not used' ports. The same can be
762 done for 'hardwired' ports provided poweroff is coordinated with any
763 connection switch for the port.
765 A more aggressive userspace policy is to enable USB port power off for
766 all ports (set <hubdev-portX>/power/pm_qos_no_power_off to '0') when
767 some external factor indicates the user has stopped interacting with the
768 system. For example, a distro may want to enable power off all USB
769 ports when the screen blanks, and re-power them when the screen becomes
770 active. Smart phones and tablets may want to power off USB ports when
771 the user pushes the power button.