ACPI errors

[ali]

i keep seeing these messages and they are getting really annoying, can anyone tell me what i have to do to fix the conflict between pixx4 and smr1?

ACPI: I/O resource piix4_smbus [0xb00-0xb07] conflicts with ACPI region SMR1 [0xb00-0xb0f]
ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver

[danielibarnes]

A similar message about ACPI I/O resource conflict between piix4_smbus and ACPI region SOR1 indicates this may be by design:

This conflict is designed into the driver.  Linux is simply
recognizing that the BIOS AML is accessing the same resources
and thus automatically dis-allowing the driver to load.

If it is important that you run i2c_piix4,
you can disable ACPI via BIOS SETUP or cmdline "acpi=off".
You will likely lose more by disabling ACPI
than you will by disabling i2c_piix4, but it is technically your choice...

and

Basically, you use whole hwmon infrastructure on your own risk. The conflict
you see was added exactly to prevent users from shooting their feet. Without
this check hwmon will try to use SMBUS and devices connected to it (most
probably temperature control IC), thus making ACPI to read garbage from these
same devices.
If ACPI reads critical temperature (and it often does in such situation), it
will simply shut machine down.

[ali]

i don't get it?

[danielibarnes]

The conflict may be SMBUS and ACPI trying to use the same device. By default, ACPI wins this contest. If you disable ACPI with "acpi=off" then the message will go away, but so will the functionality provided by ACPI.

You didn't mention the hardware. Is it a netbook?

[ali]

i understood that they're both trying to use the same thing
should i worry about it?
i'm running a asus laptop

[danielibarnes]

I would say don't worry about digging deeper unless you notice something not working. Some ASUS motherboards require this behavior to work properly, your laptop might as well.

[ali]

is there a way of finding out whether or not i need that functionality?

[tinypoodle]

FWIW, having myself a box featuring piix4_smbus which would not even boot with TC stock kernel without 'acpi=off', the major functionalities I miss are temperature and software battery indication [hardware battery indication being less detailed]. cpufreq scaling seems not to be affected.

Same box would boot with acpi in the past with Linux 2.6.16 and a different distro, but buggy behavior throughout operation led me to prefer apm.