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 must be careful to balance their overall changes to the usage
369 counter. Unbalanced "get"s will remain in effect when a driver is
370 unbound from its interface, preventing the device from going into
371 runtime suspend should the interface be bound to a driver again. On
372 the other hand, drivers are allowed to achieve this balance by calling
373 the ``usb_autopm_*`` functions even after their ``disconnect`` routine
374 has returned -- say from within a work-queue routine -- provided they
375 retain an active reference to the interface (via ``usb_get_intf`` and
378 Drivers using the async routines are responsible for their own
379 synchronization and mutual exclusion.
381 usb_autopm_get_interface() increments the usage counter and
382 does an autoresume if the device is suspended. If the
383 autoresume fails, the counter is decremented back.
385 usb_autopm_put_interface() decrements the usage counter and
386 attempts an autosuspend if the new value is = 0.
388 usb_autopm_get_interface_async() and
389 usb_autopm_put_interface_async() do almost the same things as
390 their non-async counterparts. The big difference is that they
391 use a workqueue to do the resume or suspend part of their
392 jobs. As a result they can be called in an atomic context,
393 such as an URB's completion handler, but when they return the
394 device will generally not yet be in the desired state.
396 usb_autopm_get_interface_no_resume() and
397 usb_autopm_put_interface_no_suspend() merely increment or
398 decrement the usage counter; they do not attempt to carry out
399 an autoresume or an autosuspend. Hence they can be called in
402 The simplest usage pattern is that a driver calls
403 usb_autopm_get_interface() in its open routine and
404 usb_autopm_put_interface() in its close or release routine. But other
405 patterns are possible.
407 The autosuspend attempts mentioned above will often fail for one
408 reason or another. For example, the power/control attribute might be
409 set to "on", or another interface in the same device might not be
410 idle. This is perfectly normal. If the reason for failure was that
411 the device hasn't been idle for long enough, a timer is scheduled to
412 carry out the operation automatically when the autosuspend idle-delay
415 Autoresume attempts also can fail, although failure would mean that
416 the device is no longer present or operating properly. Unlike
417 autosuspend, there's no idle-delay for an autoresume.
420 Other parts of the driver interface
421 -----------------------------------
423 Drivers can enable autosuspend for their devices by calling
425 usb_enable_autosuspend(struct usb_device *udev);
427 in their probe() routine, if they know that the device is capable of
428 suspending and resuming correctly. This is exactly equivalent to
429 writing "auto" to the device's power/control attribute. Likewise,
430 drivers can disable autosuspend by calling
432 usb_disable_autosuspend(struct usb_device *udev);
434 This is exactly the same as writing "on" to the power/control attribute.
436 Sometimes a driver needs to make sure that remote wakeup is enabled
437 during autosuspend. For example, there's not much point
438 autosuspending a keyboard if the user can't cause the keyboard to do a
439 remote wakeup by typing on it. If the driver sets
440 intf->needs_remote_wakeup to 1, the kernel won't autosuspend the
441 device if remote wakeup isn't available. (If the device is already
442 autosuspended, though, setting this flag won't cause the kernel to
443 autoresume it. Normally a driver would set this flag in its probe
444 method, at which time the device is guaranteed not to be
447 If a driver does its I/O asynchronously in interrupt context, it
448 should call usb_autopm_get_interface_async() before starting output and
449 usb_autopm_put_interface_async() when the output queue drains. When
450 it receives an input event, it should call
452 usb_mark_last_busy(struct usb_device *udev);
454 in the event handler. This tells the PM core that the device was just
455 busy and therefore the next autosuspend idle-delay expiration should
456 be pushed back. Many of the usb_autopm_* routines also make this call,
457 so drivers need to worry only when interrupt-driven input arrives.
459 Asynchronous operation is always subject to races. For example, a
460 driver may call the usb_autopm_get_interface_async() routine at a time
461 when the core has just finished deciding the device has been idle for
462 long enough but not yet gotten around to calling the driver's suspend
463 method. The suspend method must be responsible for synchronizing with
464 the I/O request routine and the URB completion handler; it should
465 cause autosuspends to fail with -EBUSY if the driver needs to use the
468 External suspend calls should never be allowed to fail in this way,
469 only autosuspend calls. The driver can tell them apart by applying
470 the PMSG_IS_AUTO() macro to the message argument to the suspend
471 method; it will return True for internal PM events (autosuspend) and
472 False for external PM events.
478 For external events -- but not necessarily for autosuspend or
479 autoresume -- the device semaphore (udev->dev.sem) will be held when a
480 suspend or resume method is called. This implies that external
481 suspend/resume events are mutually exclusive with calls to probe,
482 disconnect, pre_reset, and post_reset; the USB core guarantees that
483 this is true of autosuspend/autoresume events as well.
485 If a driver wants to block all suspend/resume calls during some
486 critical section, the best way is to lock the device and call
487 usb_autopm_get_interface() (and do the reverse at the end of the
488 critical section). Holding the device semaphore will block all
489 external PM calls, and the usb_autopm_get_interface() will prevent any
490 internal PM calls, even if it fails. (Exercise: Why?)
493 Interaction between dynamic PM and system PM
494 --------------------------------------------
496 Dynamic power management and system power management can interact in
499 Firstly, a device may already be autosuspended when a system suspend
500 occurs. Since system suspends are supposed to be as transparent as
501 possible, the device should remain suspended following the system
502 resume. But this theory may not work out well in practice; over time
503 the kernel's behavior in this regard has changed. As of 2.6.37 the
504 policy is to resume all devices during a system resume and let them
505 handle their own runtime suspends afterward.
507 Secondly, a dynamic power-management event may occur as a system
508 suspend is underway. The window for this is short, since system
509 suspends don't take long (a few seconds usually), but it can happen.
510 For example, a suspended device may send a remote-wakeup signal while
511 the system is suspending. The remote wakeup may succeed, which would
512 cause the system suspend to abort. If the remote wakeup doesn't
513 succeed, it may still remain active and thus cause the system to
514 resume as soon as the system suspend is complete. Or the remote
515 wakeup may fail and get lost. Which outcome occurs depends on timing
516 and on the hardware and firmware design.
519 xHCI hardware link PM
520 ---------------------
522 xHCI host controller provides hardware link power management to usb2.0
523 (xHCI 1.0 feature) and usb3.0 devices which support link PM. By
524 enabling hardware LPM, the host can automatically put the device into
525 lower power state(L1 for usb2.0 devices, or U1/U2 for usb3.0 devices),
526 which state device can enter and resume very quickly.
528 The user interface for controlling hardware LPM is located in the
529 power/ subdirectory of each USB device's sysfs directory, that is, in
530 /sys/bus/usb/devices/.../power/ where "..." is the device's ID. The
531 relevant attribute files are usb2_hardware_lpm and usb3_hardware_lpm.
533 power/usb2_hardware_lpm
535 When a USB2 device which support LPM is plugged to a
536 xHCI host root hub which support software LPM, the
537 host will run a software LPM test for it; if the device
538 enters L1 state and resume successfully and the host
539 supports USB2 hardware LPM, this file will show up and
540 driver will enable hardware LPM for the device. You
541 can write y/Y/1 or n/N/0 to the file to enable/disable
542 USB2 hardware LPM manually. This is for test purpose mainly.
544 power/usb3_hardware_lpm_u1
545 power/usb3_hardware_lpm_u2
547 When a USB 3.0 lpm-capable device is plugged in to a
548 xHCI host which supports link PM, it will check if U1
549 and U2 exit latencies have been set in the BOS
550 descriptor; if the check is is passed and the host
551 supports USB3 hardware LPM, USB3 hardware LPM will be
552 enabled for the device and these files will be created.
553 The files hold a string value (enable or disable)
554 indicating whether or not USB3 hardware LPM U1 or U2
555 is enabled for the device.
557 USB Port Power Control
558 ----------------------
560 In addition to suspending endpoint devices and enabling hardware
561 controlled link power management, the USB subsystem also has the
562 capability to disable power to ports under some conditions. Power is
563 controlled through Set/ClearPortFeature(PORT_POWER) requests to a hub.
564 In the case of a root or platform-internal hub the host controller
565 driver translates PORT_POWER requests into platform firmware (ACPI)
566 method calls to set the port power state. For more background see the
567 Linux Plumbers Conference 2012 slides [1] and video [2]:
569 Upon receiving a ClearPortFeature(PORT_POWER) request a USB port is
570 logically off, and may trigger the actual loss of VBUS to the port [3].
571 VBUS may be maintained in the case where a hub gangs multiple ports into
572 a shared power well causing power to remain until all ports in the gang
573 are turned off. VBUS may also be maintained by hub ports configured for
574 a charging application. In any event a logically off port will lose
575 connection with its device, not respond to hotplug events, and not
576 respond to remote wakeup events*.
578 WARNING: turning off a port may result in the inability to hot add a device.
579 Please see "User Interface for Port Power Control" for details.
581 As far as the effect on the device itself it is similar to what a device
582 goes through during system suspend, i.e. the power session is lost. Any
583 USB device or driver that misbehaves with system suspend will be
584 similarly affected by a port power cycle event. For this reason the
585 implementation shares the same device recovery path (and honors the same
586 quirks) as the system resume path for the hub.
588 [1]: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/96820575/sarah-sharp-lpt-port-power-off2-mini.pdf
589 [2]: http://linuxplumbers.ubicast.tv/videos/usb-port-power-off-kerneluserspace-api/
590 [3]: USB 3.1 Section 10.12
591 * wakeup note: if a device is configured to send wakeup events the port
592 power control implementation will block poweroff attempts on that
596 User Interface for Port Power Control
597 -------------------------------------
599 The port power control mechanism uses the PM runtime system. Poweroff is
600 requested by clearing the power/pm_qos_no_power_off flag of the port device
601 (defaults to 1). If the port is disconnected it will immediately receive a
602 ClearPortFeature(PORT_POWER) request. Otherwise, it will honor the pm runtime
603 rules and require the attached child device and all descendants to be suspended.
604 This mechanism is dependent on the hub advertising port power switching in its
605 hub descriptor (wHubCharacteristics logical power switching mode field).
607 Note, some interface devices/drivers do not support autosuspend. Userspace may
608 need to unbind the interface drivers before the usb_device will suspend. An
609 unbound interface device is suspended by default. When unbinding, be careful
610 to unbind interface drivers, not the driver of the parent usb device. Also,
611 leave hub interface drivers bound. If the driver for the usb device (not
612 interface) is unbound the kernel is no longer able to resume the device. If a
613 hub interface driver is unbound, control of its child ports is lost and all
614 attached child-devices will disconnect. A good rule of thumb is that if the
615 'driver/module' link for a device points to /sys/module/usbcore then unbinding
616 it will interfere with port power control.
618 Example of the relevant files for port power control. Note, in this example
619 these files are relative to a usb hub device (prefix).
621 prefix=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1
623 attached child device +
625 hub interface device + | |
627 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device
629 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/power/pm_qos_no_power_off
630 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/power/control
631 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/3-1.1:<intf0>/driver/unbind
632 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/3-1.1:<intf1>/driver/unbind
634 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/3-1.1:<intfN>/driver/unbind
636 In addition to these files some ports may have a 'peer' link to a port on
637 another hub. The expectation is that all superspeed ports have a
640 $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/peer -> ../../../../usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/2-1-port1
641 ../../../../usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/2-1-port1/peer -> ../../../../usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1
643 Distinct from 'companion ports', or 'ehci/xhci shared switchover ports'
644 peer ports are simply the hi-speed and superspeed interface pins that
645 are combined into a single usb3 connector. Peer ports share the same
646 ancestor XHCI device.
648 While a superspeed port is powered off a device may downgrade its
649 connection and attempt to connect to the hi-speed pins. The
650 implementation takes steps to prevent this:
652 1/ Port suspend is sequenced to guarantee that hi-speed ports are powered-off
653 before their superspeed peer is permitted to power-off. The implication is
654 that the setting pm_qos_no_power_off to zero on a superspeed port may not cause
655 the port to power-off until its highspeed peer has gone to its runtime suspend
656 state. Userspace must take care to order the suspensions if it wants to
657 guarantee that a superspeed port will power-off.
659 2/ Port resume is sequenced to force a superspeed port to power-on prior to its
662 3/ Port resume always triggers an attached child device to resume. After a
663 power session is lost the device may have been removed, or need reset.
664 Resuming the child device when the parent port regains power resolves those
665 states and clamps the maximum port power cycle frequency at the rate the child
666 device can suspend (autosuspend-delay) and resume (reset-resume latency).
668 Sysfs files relevant for port power control:
669 <hubdev-portX>/power/pm_qos_no_power_off:
670 This writable flag controls the state of an idle port.
671 Once all children and descendants have suspended the
672 port may suspend/poweroff provided that
673 pm_qos_no_power_off is '0'. If pm_qos_no_power_off is
674 '1' the port will remain active/powered regardless of
675 the stats of descendants. Defaults to 1.
677 <hubdev-portX>/power/runtime_status:
678 This file reflects whether the port is 'active' (power is on)
679 or 'suspended' (logically off). There is no indication to
680 userspace whether VBUS is still supplied.
682 <hubdev-portX>/connect_type:
683 An advisory read-only flag to userspace indicating the
684 location and connection type of the port. It returns
685 one of four values 'hotplug', 'hardwired', 'not used',
686 and 'unknown'. All values, besides unknown, are set by
689 "hotplug" indicates an externally connectable/visible
690 port on the platform. Typically userspace would choose
691 to keep such a port powered to handle new device
694 "hardwired" refers to a port that is not visible but
695 connectable. Examples are internal ports for USB
696 bluetooth that can be disconnected via an external
697 switch or a port with a hardwired USB camera. It is
698 expected to be safe to allow these ports to suspend
699 provided pm_qos_no_power_off is coordinated with any
700 switch that gates connections. Userspace must arrange
701 for the device to be connected prior to the port
702 powering off, or to activate the port prior to enabling
703 connection via a switch.
705 "not used" refers to an internal port that is expected
706 to never have a device connected to it. These may be
707 empty internal ports, or ports that are not physically
708 exposed on a platform. Considered safe to be
709 powered-off at all times.
711 "unknown" means platform firmware does not provide
712 information for this port. Most commonly refers to
713 external hub ports which should be considered 'hotplug'
714 for policy decisions.
716 NOTE1: since we are relying on the BIOS to get this ACPI
717 information correct, the USB port descriptions may be
720 NOTE2: Take care in clearing pm_qos_no_power_off. Once
721 power is off this port will
722 not respond to new connect events.
724 Once a child device is attached additional constraints are
725 applied before the port is allowed to poweroff.
727 <child>/power/control:
728 Must be 'auto', and the port will not
729 power down until <child>/power/runtime_status
730 reflects the 'suspended' state. Default
731 value is controlled by child device driver.
733 <child>/power/persist:
734 This defaults to '1' for most devices and indicates if
735 kernel can persist the device's configuration across a
736 power session loss (suspend / port-power event). When
737 this value is '0' (quirky devices), port poweroff is
740 <child>/driver/unbind:
741 Wakeup capable devices will block port poweroff. At
742 this time the only mechanism to clear the usb-internal
743 wakeup-capability for an interface device is to unbind
746 Summary of poweroff pre-requisite settings relative to a port device:
748 echo 0 > power/pm_qos_no_power_off
749 echo 0 > peer/power/pm_qos_no_power_off # if it exists
750 echo auto > power/control # this is the default value
751 echo auto > <child>/power/control
752 echo 1 > <child>/power/persist # this is the default value
754 Suggested Userspace Port Power Policy
755 -------------------------------------
757 As noted above userspace needs to be careful and deliberate about what
758 ports are enabled for poweroff.
760 The default configuration is that all ports start with
761 power/pm_qos_no_power_off set to '1' causing ports to always remain
764 Given confidence in the platform firmware's description of the ports
765 (ACPI _PLD record for a port populates 'connect_type') userspace can
766 clear pm_qos_no_power_off for all 'not used' ports. The same can be
767 done for 'hardwired' ports provided poweroff is coordinated with any
768 connection switch for the port.
770 A more aggressive userspace policy is to enable USB port power off for
771 all ports (set <hubdev-portX>/power/pm_qos_no_power_off to '0') when
772 some external factor indicates the user has stopped interacting with the
773 system. For example, a distro may want to enable power off all USB
774 ports when the screen blanks, and re-power them when the screen becomes
775 active. Smart phones and tablets may want to power off USB ports when
776 the user pushes the power button.