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I don't know a lot about hardware. I've got a Yoga Slim 7 and the Performance settings can't be set for know from Linux. I've disassembled the DSDT tables to look at even if I don't understand anything beside the tree hierarchy and the bitwise maths/control structure.

My question is: is it really risky to try methods that would look close to what I seek, without understanding the DSDT table, just to see what happens?

What are the consequences? Can the ACPI methods unset deep things in the firmware settings, things that wouldn't be in the BIOS menu and would affect other OSes?

Hashim Aziz
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Arnaud Feldmann
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Running through the ACPI is very dangerous if you don't understand what you are doing. You may change voltage and temperature settings beyond their safe limits and fry some components, or other damage.

Without knowing which methods you wish to play with, it's impossible to evaluate the danger level. Some methods have built-in safeguards, but it's impossible to say how well they protect your hardware.

You will find more information about ACPI methods in the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Specification version 6.3 from January 2019.

Read also The ArchWiki article DSDT, which contains some good advice about modifying these tables.

If you ever start on this path, make sure that you have a way to flash the BIOS if you need to reinitialize it. Note that any change you do will not survive the next BIOS/UEFI update.

(Personally I don't think that this is a good idea.)

harrymc
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  • Thanks. I'll pass then. But then I've got another question : how do people learn things on stuff close to hardware if they can't do try and fail like for anything else ? How do people reverse engineer things if they don't know anyone in the society that made the hardware ? Basically, how are the Arch Wikis made if it's so dangerous to try ? – Arnaud Feldmann Mar 28 '22 at 18:55
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    These people do try and fail, but have the knowledge and the hardware needed to recover from the failure, and sometimes they just have the means to replace the failed equipment with new one. – harrymc Mar 28 '22 at 18:59