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authorAndré Fabian Silva Delgado <emulatorman@parabola.nu>2015-08-05 17:04:01 -0300
committerAndré Fabian Silva Delgado <emulatorman@parabola.nu>2015-08-05 17:04:01 -0300
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+ Power Management for USB
+
+ Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
+
+ Last-updated: February 2014
+
+
+ Contents:
+ ---------
+ * What is Power Management?
+ * What is Remote Wakeup?
+ * When is a USB device idle?
+ * Forms of dynamic PM
+ * The user interface for dynamic PM
+ * Changing the default idle-delay time
+ * Warnings
+ * The driver interface for Power Management
+ * The driver interface for autosuspend and autoresume
+ * Other parts of the driver interface
+ * Mutual exclusion
+ * Interaction between dynamic PM and system PM
+ * xHCI hardware link PM
+ * USB Port Power Control
+ * User Interface for Port Power Control
+ * Suggested Userspace Port Power Policy
+
+
+ What is Power Management?
+ -------------------------
+
+Power Management (PM) is the practice of saving energy by suspending
+parts of a computer system when they aren't being used. While a
+component is "suspended" it is in a nonfunctional low-power state; it
+might even be turned off completely. A suspended component can be
+"resumed" (returned to a functional full-power state) when the kernel
+needs to use it. (There also are forms of PM in which components are
+placed in a less functional but still usable state instead of being
+suspended; an example would be reducing the CPU's clock rate. This
+document will not discuss those other forms.)
+
+When the parts being suspended include the CPU and most of the rest of
+the system, we speak of it as a "system suspend". When a particular
+device is turned off while the system as a whole remains running, we
+call it a "dynamic suspend" (also known as a "runtime suspend" or
+"selective suspend"). This document concentrates mostly on how
+dynamic PM is implemented in the USB subsystem, although system PM is
+covered to some extent (see Documentation/power/*.txt for more
+information about system PM).
+
+System PM support is present only if the kernel was built with CONFIG_SUSPEND
+or CONFIG_HIBERNATION enabled. Dynamic PM support for USB is present whenever
+the kernel was built with CONFIG_PM enabled.
+
+[Historically, dynamic PM support for USB was present only if the
+kernel had been built with CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND enabled (which depended on
+CONFIG_PM_RUNTIME). Starting with the 3.10 kernel release, dynamic PM support
+for USB was present whenever the kernel was built with CONFIG_PM_RUNTIME
+enabled. The CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND option had been eliminated.]
+
+
+ What is Remote Wakeup?
+ ----------------------
+
+When a device has been suspended, it generally doesn't resume until
+the computer tells it to. Likewise, if the entire computer has been
+suspended, it generally doesn't resume until the user tells it to, say
+by pressing a power button or opening the cover.
+
+However some devices have the capability of resuming by themselves, or
+asking the kernel to resume them, or even telling the entire computer
+to resume. This capability goes by several names such as "Wake On
+LAN"; we will refer to it generically as "remote wakeup". When a
+device is enabled for remote wakeup and it is suspended, it may resume
+itself (or send a request to be resumed) in response to some external
+event. Examples include a suspended keyboard resuming when a key is
+pressed, or a suspended USB hub resuming when a device is plugged in.
+
+
+ When is a USB device idle?
+ --------------------------
+
+A device is idle whenever the kernel thinks it's not busy doing
+anything important and thus is a candidate for being suspended. The
+exact definition depends on the device's driver; drivers are allowed
+to declare that a device isn't idle even when there's no actual
+communication taking place. (For example, a hub isn't considered idle
+unless all the devices plugged into that hub are already suspended.)
+In addition, a device isn't considered idle so long as a program keeps
+its usbfs file open, whether or not any I/O is going on.
+
+If a USB device has no driver, its usbfs file isn't open, and it isn't
+being accessed through sysfs, then it definitely is idle.
+
+
+ Forms of dynamic PM
+ -------------------
+
+Dynamic suspends occur when the kernel decides to suspend an idle
+device. This is called "autosuspend" for short. In general, a device
+won't be autosuspended unless it has been idle for some minimum period
+of time, the so-called idle-delay time.
+
+Of course, nothing the kernel does on its own initiative should
+prevent the computer or its devices from working properly. If a
+device has been autosuspended and a program tries to use it, the
+kernel will automatically resume the device (autoresume). For the
+same reason, an autosuspended device will usually have remote wakeup
+enabled, if the device supports remote wakeup.
+
+It is worth mentioning that many USB drivers don't support
+autosuspend. In fact, at the time of this writing (Linux 2.6.23) the
+only drivers which do support it are the hub driver, kaweth, asix,
+usblp, usblcd, and usb-skeleton (which doesn't count). If a
+non-supporting driver is bound to a device, the device won't be
+autosuspended. In effect, the kernel pretends the device is never
+idle.
+
+We can categorize power management events in two broad classes:
+external and internal. External events are those triggered by some
+agent outside the USB stack: system suspend/resume (triggered by
+userspace), manual dynamic resume (also triggered by userspace), and
+remote wakeup (triggered by the device). Internal events are those
+triggered within the USB stack: autosuspend and autoresume. Note that
+all dynamic suspend events are internal; external agents are not
+allowed to issue dynamic suspends.
+
+
+ The user interface for dynamic PM
+ ---------------------------------
+
+The user interface for controlling dynamic PM is located in the power/
+subdirectory of each USB device's sysfs directory, that is, in
+/sys/bus/usb/devices/.../power/ where "..." is the device's ID. The
+relevant attribute files are: wakeup, control, and
+autosuspend_delay_ms. (There may also be a file named "level"; this
+file was deprecated as of the 2.6.35 kernel and replaced by the
+"control" file. In 2.6.38 the "autosuspend" file will be deprecated
+and replaced by the "autosuspend_delay_ms" file. The only difference
+is that the newer file expresses the delay in milliseconds whereas the
+older file uses seconds. Confusingly, both files are present in 2.6.37
+but only "autosuspend" works.)
+
+ power/wakeup
+
+ This file is empty if the device does not support
+ remote wakeup. Otherwise the file contains either the
+ word "enabled" or the word "disabled", and you can
+ write those words to the file. The setting determines
+ whether or not remote wakeup will be enabled when the
+ device is next suspended. (If the setting is changed
+ while the device is suspended, the change won't take
+ effect until the following suspend.)
+
+ power/control
+
+ This file contains one of two words: "on" or "auto".
+ You can write those words to the file to change the
+ device's setting.
+
+ "on" means that the device should be resumed and
+ autosuspend is not allowed. (Of course, system
+ suspends are still allowed.)
+
+ "auto" is the normal state in which the kernel is
+ allowed to autosuspend and autoresume the device.
+
+ (In kernels up to 2.6.32, you could also specify
+ "suspend", meaning that the device should remain
+ suspended and autoresume was not allowed. This
+ setting is no longer supported.)
+
+ power/autosuspend_delay_ms
+
+ This file contains an integer value, which is the
+ number of milliseconds the device should remain idle
+ before the kernel will autosuspend it (the idle-delay
+ time). The default is 2000. 0 means to autosuspend
+ as soon as the device becomes idle, and negative
+ values mean never to autosuspend. You can write a
+ number to the file to change the autosuspend
+ idle-delay time.
+
+Writing "-1" to power/autosuspend_delay_ms and writing "on" to
+power/control do essentially the same thing -- they both prevent the
+device from being autosuspended. Yes, this is a redundancy in the
+API.
+
+(In 2.6.21 writing "0" to power/autosuspend would prevent the device
+from being autosuspended; the behavior was changed in 2.6.22. The
+power/autosuspend attribute did not exist prior to 2.6.21, and the
+power/level attribute did not exist prior to 2.6.22. power/control
+was added in 2.6.34, and power/autosuspend_delay_ms was added in
+2.6.37 but did not become functional until 2.6.38.)
+
+
+ Changing the default idle-delay time
+ ------------------------------------
+
+The default autosuspend idle-delay time (in seconds) is controlled by
+a module parameter in usbcore. You can specify the value when usbcore
+is loaded. For example, to set it to 5 seconds instead of 2 you would
+do:
+
+ modprobe usbcore autosuspend=5
+
+Equivalently, you could add to a configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d
+a line saying:
+
+ options usbcore autosuspend=5
+
+Some distributions load the usbcore module very early during the boot
+process, by means of a program or script running from an initramfs
+image. To alter the parameter value you would have to rebuild that
+image.
+
+If usbcore is compiled into the kernel rather than built as a loadable
+module, you can add
+
+ usbcore.autosuspend=5
+
+to the kernel's boot command line.
+
+Finally, the parameter value can be changed while the system is
+running. If you do:
+
+ echo 5 >/sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend
+
+then each new USB device will have its autosuspend idle-delay
+initialized to 5. (The idle-delay values for already existing devices
+will not be affected.)
+
+Setting the initial default idle-delay to -1 will prevent any
+autosuspend of any USB device. This has the benefit of allowing you
+then to enable autosuspend for selected devices.
+
+
+ Warnings
+ --------
+
+The USB specification states that all USB devices must support power
+management. Nevertheless, the sad fact is that many devices do not
+support it very well. You can suspend them all right, but when you
+try to resume them they disconnect themselves from the USB bus or
+they stop working entirely. This seems to be especially prevalent
+among printers and scanners, but plenty of other types of device have
+the same deficiency.
+
+For this reason, by default the kernel disables autosuspend (the
+power/control attribute is initialized to "on") for all devices other
+than hubs. Hubs, at least, appear to be reasonably well-behaved in
+this regard.
+
+(In 2.6.21 and 2.6.22 this wasn't the case. Autosuspend was enabled
+by default for almost all USB devices. A number of people experienced
+problems as a result.)
+
+This means that non-hub devices won't be autosuspended unless the user
+or a program explicitly enables it. As of this writing there aren't
+any widespread programs which will do this; we hope that in the near
+future device managers such as HAL will take on this added
+responsibility. In the meantime you can always carry out the
+necessary operations by hand or add them to a udev script. You can
+also change the idle-delay time; 2 seconds is not the best choice for
+every device.
+
+If a driver knows that its device has proper suspend/resume support,
+it can enable autosuspend all by itself. For example, the video
+driver for a laptop's webcam might do this (in recent kernels they
+do), since these devices are rarely used and so should normally be
+autosuspended.
+
+Sometimes it turns out that even when a device does work okay with
+autosuspend there are still problems. For example, the usbhid driver,
+which manages keyboards and mice, has autosuspend support. Tests with
+a number of keyboards show that typing on a suspended keyboard, while
+causing the keyboard to do a remote wakeup all right, will nonetheless
+frequently result in lost keystrokes. Tests with mice show that some
+of them will issue a remote-wakeup request in response to button
+presses but not to motion, and some in response to neither.
+
+The kernel will not prevent you from enabling autosuspend on devices
+that can't handle it. It is even possible in theory to damage a
+device by suspending it at the wrong time. (Highly unlikely, but
+possible.) Take care.
+
+
+ The driver interface for Power Management
+ -----------------------------------------
+
+The requirements for a USB driver to support external power management
+are pretty modest; the driver need only define
+
+ .suspend
+ .resume
+ .reset_resume
+
+methods in its usb_driver structure, and the reset_resume method is
+optional. The methods' jobs are quite simple:
+
+ The suspend method is called to warn the driver that the
+ device is going to be suspended. If the driver returns a
+ negative error code, the suspend will be aborted. Normally
+ the driver will return 0, in which case it must cancel all
+ outstanding URBs (usb_kill_urb()) and not submit any more.
+
+ The resume method is called to tell the driver that the
+ device has been resumed and the driver can return to normal
+ operation. URBs may once more be submitted.
+
+ The reset_resume method is called to tell the driver that
+ the device has been resumed and it also has been reset.
+ The driver should redo any necessary device initialization,
+ since the device has probably lost most or all of its state
+ (although the interfaces will be in the same altsettings as
+ before the suspend).
+
+If the device is disconnected or powered down while it is suspended,
+the disconnect method will be called instead of the resume or
+reset_resume method. This is also quite likely to happen when
+waking up from hibernation, as many systems do not maintain suspend
+current to the USB host controllers during hibernation. (It's
+possible to work around the hibernation-forces-disconnect problem by
+using the USB Persist facility.)
+
+The reset_resume method is used by the USB Persist facility (see
+Documentation/usb/persist.txt) and it can also be used under certain
+circumstances when CONFIG_USB_PERSIST is not enabled. Currently, if a
+device is reset during a resume and the driver does not have a
+reset_resume method, the driver won't receive any notification about
+the resume. Later kernels will call the driver's disconnect method;
+2.6.23 doesn't do this.
+
+USB drivers are bound to interfaces, so their suspend and resume
+methods get called when the interfaces are suspended or resumed. In
+principle one might want to suspend some interfaces on a device (i.e.,
+force the drivers for those interface to stop all activity) without
+suspending the other interfaces. The USB core doesn't allow this; all
+interfaces are suspended when the device itself is suspended and all
+interfaces are resumed when the device is resumed. It isn't possible
+to suspend or resume some but not all of a device's interfaces. The
+closest you can come is to unbind the interfaces' drivers.
+
+
+ The driver interface for autosuspend and autoresume
+ ---------------------------------------------------
+
+To support autosuspend and autoresume, a driver should implement all
+three of the methods listed above. In addition, a driver indicates
+that it supports autosuspend by setting the .supports_autosuspend flag
+in its usb_driver structure. It is then responsible for informing the
+USB core whenever one of its interfaces becomes busy or idle. The
+driver does so by calling these six functions:
+
+ int usb_autopm_get_interface(struct usb_interface *intf);
+ void usb_autopm_put_interface(struct usb_interface *intf);
+ int usb_autopm_get_interface_async(struct usb_interface *intf);
+ void usb_autopm_put_interface_async(struct usb_interface *intf);
+ void usb_autopm_get_interface_no_resume(struct usb_interface *intf);
+ void usb_autopm_put_interface_no_suspend(struct usb_interface *intf);
+
+The functions work by maintaining a usage counter in the
+usb_interface's embedded device structure. When the counter is > 0
+then the interface is deemed to be busy, and the kernel will not
+autosuspend the interface's device. When the usage counter is = 0
+then the interface is considered to be idle, and the kernel may
+autosuspend the device.
+
+Drivers need not be concerned about balancing changes to the usage
+counter; the USB core will undo any remaining "get"s when a driver
+is unbound from its interface. As a corollary, drivers must not call
+any of the usb_autopm_* functions after their disconnect() routine has
+returned.
+
+Drivers using the async routines are responsible for their own
+synchronization and mutual exclusion.
+
+ usb_autopm_get_interface() increments the usage counter and
+ does an autoresume if the device is suspended. If the
+ autoresume fails, the counter is decremented back.
+
+ usb_autopm_put_interface() decrements the usage counter and
+ attempts an autosuspend if the new value is = 0.
+
+ usb_autopm_get_interface_async() and
+ usb_autopm_put_interface_async() do almost the same things as
+ their non-async counterparts. The big difference is that they
+ use a workqueue to do the resume or suspend part of their
+ jobs. As a result they can be called in an atomic context,
+ such as an URB's completion handler, but when they return the
+ device will generally not yet be in the desired state.
+
+ usb_autopm_get_interface_no_resume() and
+ usb_autopm_put_interface_no_suspend() merely increment or
+ decrement the usage counter; they do not attempt to carry out
+ an autoresume or an autosuspend. Hence they can be called in
+ an atomic context.
+
+The simplest usage pattern is that a driver calls
+usb_autopm_get_interface() in its open routine and
+usb_autopm_put_interface() in its close or release routine. But other
+patterns are possible.
+
+The autosuspend attempts mentioned above will often fail for one
+reason or another. For example, the power/control attribute might be
+set to "on", or another interface in the same device might not be
+idle. This is perfectly normal. If the reason for failure was that
+the device hasn't been idle for long enough, a timer is scheduled to
+carry out the operation automatically when the autosuspend idle-delay
+has expired.
+
+Autoresume attempts also can fail, although failure would mean that
+the device is no longer present or operating properly. Unlike
+autosuspend, there's no idle-delay for an autoresume.
+
+
+ Other parts of the driver interface
+ -----------------------------------
+
+Drivers can enable autosuspend for their devices by calling
+
+ usb_enable_autosuspend(struct usb_device *udev);
+
+in their probe() routine, if they know that the device is capable of
+suspending and resuming correctly. This is exactly equivalent to
+writing "auto" to the device's power/control attribute. Likewise,
+drivers can disable autosuspend by calling
+
+ usb_disable_autosuspend(struct usb_device *udev);
+
+This is exactly the same as writing "on" to the power/control attribute.
+
+Sometimes a driver needs to make sure that remote wakeup is enabled
+during autosuspend. For example, there's not much point
+autosuspending a keyboard if the user can't cause the keyboard to do a
+remote wakeup by typing on it. If the driver sets
+intf->needs_remote_wakeup to 1, the kernel won't autosuspend the
+device if remote wakeup isn't available. (If the device is already
+autosuspended, though, setting this flag won't cause the kernel to
+autoresume it. Normally a driver would set this flag in its probe
+method, at which time the device is guaranteed not to be
+autosuspended.)
+
+If a driver does its I/O asynchronously in interrupt context, it
+should call usb_autopm_get_interface_async() before starting output and
+usb_autopm_put_interface_async() when the output queue drains. When
+it receives an input event, it should call
+
+ usb_mark_last_busy(struct usb_device *udev);
+
+in the event handler. This tells the PM core that the device was just
+busy and therefore the next autosuspend idle-delay expiration should
+be pushed back. Many of the usb_autopm_* routines also make this call,
+so drivers need to worry only when interrupt-driven input arrives.
+
+Asynchronous operation is always subject to races. For example, a
+driver may call the usb_autopm_get_interface_async() routine at a time
+when the core has just finished deciding the device has been idle for
+long enough but not yet gotten around to calling the driver's suspend
+method. The suspend method must be responsible for synchronizing with
+the I/O request routine and the URB completion handler; it should
+cause autosuspends to fail with -EBUSY if the driver needs to use the
+device.
+
+External suspend calls should never be allowed to fail in this way,
+only autosuspend calls. The driver can tell them apart by applying
+the PMSG_IS_AUTO() macro to the message argument to the suspend
+method; it will return True for internal PM events (autosuspend) and
+False for external PM events.
+
+
+ Mutual exclusion
+ ----------------
+
+For external events -- but not necessarily for autosuspend or
+autoresume -- the device semaphore (udev->dev.sem) will be held when a
+suspend or resume method is called. This implies that external
+suspend/resume events are mutually exclusive with calls to probe,
+disconnect, pre_reset, and post_reset; the USB core guarantees that
+this is true of autosuspend/autoresume events as well.
+
+If a driver wants to block all suspend/resume calls during some
+critical section, the best way is to lock the device and call
+usb_autopm_get_interface() (and do the reverse at the end of the
+critical section). Holding the device semaphore will block all
+external PM calls, and the usb_autopm_get_interface() will prevent any
+internal PM calls, even if it fails. (Exercise: Why?)
+
+
+ Interaction between dynamic PM and system PM
+ --------------------------------------------
+
+Dynamic power management and system power management can interact in
+a couple of ways.
+
+Firstly, a device may already be autosuspended when a system suspend
+occurs. Since system suspends are supposed to be as transparent as
+possible, the device should remain suspended following the system
+resume. But this theory may not work out well in practice; over time
+the kernel's behavior in this regard has changed. As of 2.6.37 the
+policy is to resume all devices during a system resume and let them
+handle their own runtime suspends afterward.
+
+Secondly, a dynamic power-management event may occur as a system
+suspend is underway. The window for this is short, since system
+suspends don't take long (a few seconds usually), but it can happen.
+For example, a suspended device may send a remote-wakeup signal while
+the system is suspending. The remote wakeup may succeed, which would
+cause the system suspend to abort. If the remote wakeup doesn't
+succeed, it may still remain active and thus cause the system to
+resume as soon as the system suspend is complete. Or the remote
+wakeup may fail and get lost. Which outcome occurs depends on timing
+and on the hardware and firmware design.
+
+
+ xHCI hardware link PM
+ ---------------------
+
+xHCI host controller provides hardware link power management to usb2.0
+(xHCI 1.0 feature) and usb3.0 devices which support link PM. By
+enabling hardware LPM, the host can automatically put the device into
+lower power state(L1 for usb2.0 devices, or U1/U2 for usb3.0 devices),
+which state device can enter and resume very quickly.
+
+The user interface for controlling USB2 hardware LPM is located in the
+power/ subdirectory of each USB device's sysfs directory, that is, in
+/sys/bus/usb/devices/.../power/ where "..." is the device's ID. The
+relevant attribute files is usb2_hardware_lpm.
+
+ power/usb2_hardware_lpm
+
+ When a USB2 device which support LPM is plugged to a
+ xHCI host root hub which support software LPM, the
+ host will run a software LPM test for it; if the device
+ enters L1 state and resume successfully and the host
+ supports USB2 hardware LPM, this file will show up and
+ driver will enable hardware LPM for the device. You
+ can write y/Y/1 or n/N/0 to the file to enable/disable
+ USB2 hardware LPM manually. This is for test purpose mainly.
+
+
+ USB Port Power Control
+ ----------------------
+
+In addition to suspending endpoint devices and enabling hardware
+controlled link power management, the USB subsystem also has the
+capability to disable power to ports under some conditions. Power is
+controlled through Set/ClearPortFeature(PORT_POWER) requests to a hub.
+In the case of a root or platform-internal hub the host controller
+driver translates PORT_POWER requests into platform firmware (ACPI)
+method calls to set the port power state. For more background see the
+Linux Plumbers Conference 2012 slides [1] and video [2]:
+
+Upon receiving a ClearPortFeature(PORT_POWER) request a USB port is
+logically off, and may trigger the actual loss of VBUS to the port [3].
+VBUS may be maintained in the case where a hub gangs multiple ports into
+a shared power well causing power to remain until all ports in the gang
+are turned off. VBUS may also be maintained by hub ports configured for
+a charging application. In any event a logically off port will lose
+connection with its device, not respond to hotplug events, and not
+respond to remote wakeup events*.
+
+WARNING: turning off a port may result in the inability to hot add a device.
+Please see "User Interface for Port Power Control" for details.
+
+As far as the effect on the device itself it is similar to what a device
+goes through during system suspend, i.e. the power session is lost. Any
+USB device or driver that misbehaves with system suspend will be
+similarly affected by a port power cycle event. For this reason the
+implementation shares the same device recovery path (and honors the same
+quirks) as the system resume path for the hub.
+
+[1]: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/96820575/sarah-sharp-lpt-port-power-off2-mini.pdf
+[2]: http://linuxplumbers.ubicast.tv/videos/usb-port-power-off-kerneluserspace-api/
+[3]: USB 3.1 Section 10.12
+* wakeup note: if a device is configured to send wakeup events the port
+ power control implementation will block poweroff attempts on that
+ port.
+
+
+ User Interface for Port Power Control
+ -------------------------------------
+
+The port power control mechanism uses the PM runtime system. Poweroff is
+requested by clearing the power/pm_qos_no_power_off flag of the port device
+(defaults to 1). If the port is disconnected it will immediately receive a
+ClearPortFeature(PORT_POWER) request. Otherwise, it will honor the pm runtime
+rules and require the attached child device and all descendants to be suspended.
+This mechanism is dependent on the hub advertising port power switching in its
+hub descriptor (wHubCharacteristics logical power switching mode field).
+
+Note, some interface devices/drivers do not support autosuspend. Userspace may
+need to unbind the interface drivers before the usb_device will suspend. An
+unbound interface device is suspended by default. When unbinding, be careful
+to unbind interface drivers, not the driver of the parent usb device. Also,
+leave hub interface drivers bound. If the driver for the usb device (not
+interface) is unbound the kernel is no longer able to resume the device. If a
+hub interface driver is unbound, control of its child ports is lost and all
+attached child-devices will disconnect. A good rule of thumb is that if the
+'driver/module' link for a device points to /sys/module/usbcore then unbinding
+it will interfere with port power control.
+
+Example of the relevant files for port power control. Note, in this example
+these files are relative to a usb hub device (prefix).
+
+ prefix=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-1
+
+ attached child device +
+ hub port device + |
+ hub interface device + | |
+ v v v
+ $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device
+
+ $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/power/pm_qos_no_power_off
+ $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/power/control
+ $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/3-1.1:<intf0>/driver/unbind
+ $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/3-1.1:<intf1>/driver/unbind
+ ...
+ $prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/device/3-1.1:<intfN>/driver/unbind
+
+In addition to these files some ports may have a 'peer' link to a port on
+another hub. The expectation is that all superspeed ports have a
+hi-speed peer.
+
+$prefix/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1/peer -> ../../../../usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/2-1-port1
+../../../../usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/2-1-port1/peer -> ../../../../usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/3-1-port1
+
+Distinct from 'companion ports', or 'ehci/xhci shared switchover ports'
+peer ports are simply the hi-speed and superspeed interface pins that
+are combined into a single usb3 connector. Peer ports share the same
+ancestor XHCI device.
+
+While a superspeed port is powered off a device may downgrade its
+connection and attempt to connect to the hi-speed pins. The
+implementation takes steps to prevent this:
+
+1/ Port suspend is sequenced to guarantee that hi-speed ports are powered-off
+ before their superspeed peer is permitted to power-off. The implication is
+ that the setting pm_qos_no_power_off to zero on a superspeed port may not cause
+ the port to power-off until its highspeed peer has gone to its runtime suspend
+ state. Userspace must take care to order the suspensions if it wants to
+ guarantee that a superspeed port will power-off.
+
+2/ Port resume is sequenced to force a superspeed port to power-on prior to its
+ highspeed peer.
+
+3/ Port resume always triggers an attached child device to resume. After a
+ power session is lost the device may have been removed, or need reset.
+ Resuming the child device when the parent port regains power resolves those
+ states and clamps the maximum port power cycle frequency at the rate the child
+ device can suspend (autosuspend-delay) and resume (reset-resume latency).
+
+Sysfs files relevant for port power control:
+ <hubdev-portX>/power/pm_qos_no_power_off:
+ This writable flag controls the state of an idle port.
+ Once all children and descendants have suspended the
+ port may suspend/poweroff provided that
+ pm_qos_no_power_off is '0'. If pm_qos_no_power_off is
+ '1' the port will remain active/powered regardless of
+ the stats of descendants. Defaults to 1.
+
+ <hubdev-portX>/power/runtime_status:
+ This file reflects whether the port is 'active' (power is on)
+ or 'suspended' (logically off). There is no indication to
+ userspace whether VBUS is still supplied.
+
+ <hubdev-portX>/connect_type:
+ An advisory read-only flag to userspace indicating the
+ location and connection type of the port. It returns
+ one of four values 'hotplug', 'hardwired', 'not used',
+ and 'unknown'. All values, besides unknown, are set by
+ platform firmware.
+
+ "hotplug" indicates an externally connectable/visible
+ port on the platform. Typically userspace would choose
+ to keep such a port powered to handle new device
+ connection events.
+
+ "hardwired" refers to a port that is not visible but
+ connectable. Examples are internal ports for USB
+ bluetooth that can be disconnected via an external
+ switch or a port with a hardwired USB camera. It is
+ expected to be safe to allow these ports to suspend
+ provided pm_qos_no_power_off is coordinated with any
+ switch that gates connections. Userspace must arrange
+ for the device to be connected prior to the port
+ powering off, or to activate the port prior to enabling
+ connection via a switch.
+
+ "not used" refers to an internal port that is expected
+ to never have a device connected to it. These may be
+ empty internal ports, or ports that are not physically
+ exposed on a platform. Considered safe to be
+ powered-off at all times.
+
+ "unknown" means platform firmware does not provide
+ information for this port. Most commonly refers to
+ external hub ports which should be considered 'hotplug'
+ for policy decisions.
+
+ NOTE1: since we are relying on the BIOS to get this ACPI
+ information correct, the USB port descriptions may be
+ missing or wrong.
+
+ NOTE2: Take care in clearing pm_qos_no_power_off. Once
+ power is off this port will
+ not respond to new connect events.
+
+ Once a child device is attached additional constraints are
+ applied before the port is allowed to poweroff.
+
+ <child>/power/control:
+ Must be 'auto', and the port will not
+ power down until <child>/power/runtime_status
+ reflects the 'suspended' state. Default
+ value is controlled by child device driver.
+
+ <child>/power/persist:
+ This defaults to '1' for most devices and indicates if
+ kernel can persist the device's configuration across a
+ power session loss (suspend / port-power event). When
+ this value is '0' (quirky devices), port poweroff is
+ disabled.
+
+ <child>/driver/unbind:
+ Wakeup capable devices will block port poweroff. At
+ this time the only mechanism to clear the usb-internal
+ wakeup-capability for an interface device is to unbind
+ its driver.
+
+Summary of poweroff pre-requisite settings relative to a port device:
+
+ echo 0 > power/pm_qos_no_power_off
+ echo 0 > peer/power/pm_qos_no_power_off # if it exists
+ echo auto > power/control # this is the default value
+ echo auto > <child>/power/control
+ echo 1 > <child>/power/persist # this is the default value
+
+ Suggested Userspace Port Power Policy
+ -------------------------------------
+
+As noted above userspace needs to be careful and deliberate about what
+ports are enabled for poweroff.
+
+The default configuration is that all ports start with
+power/pm_qos_no_power_off set to '1' causing ports to always remain
+active.
+
+Given confidence in the platform firmware's description of the ports
+(ACPI _PLD record for a port populates 'connect_type') userspace can
+clear pm_qos_no_power_off for all 'not used' ports. The same can be
+done for 'hardwired' ports provided poweroff is coordinated with any
+connection switch for the port.
+
+A more aggressive userspace policy is to enable USB port power off for
+all ports (set <hubdev-portX>/power/pm_qos_no_power_off to '0') when
+some external factor indicates the user has stopped interacting with the
+system. For example, a distro may want to enable power off all USB
+ports when the screen blanks, and re-power them when the screen becomes
+active. Smart phones and tablets may want to power off USB ports when
+the user pushes the power button.