PCI config space sanity checking

[Colin Ian King]

Hi there,

While discussing some boot speed issues with the kernel with Andy 
Whitcroft we spotted that that the PCI config space is being set up by 
the BIOS and this can be sub-optimally configuring things like the SATA 
capabilities.

For example, bit 27 in HBA Capabilities for SATA devices controls the 
"Staggered Spin-up (SSS)" setting - this really makes sense on servers 
and hence should be set to zero for netbooks, laptops etc.  However, we 
observed it being incorrectly set on particular platform which can only 
have one drive in it, so SSS makes no sense.

So, perhaps we should add this to the next round of fwts blueprints - 
check for incorrect or sub-optimal incorrectly configured PCI config 
space settings for wide range of devices.

Any thoughts?

Colin