What: /sys/firmware/acpi/interrupts/ Date: February 2008 Contact: Len Brown Description: All ACPI interrupts are handled via a single IRQ, the System Control Interrupt (SCI), which appears as "acpi" in /proc/interrupts. However, one of the main functions of ACPI is to make the platform understand random hardware without special driver support. So while the SCI handles a few well known (fixed feature) interrupts sources, such as the power button, it can also handle a variable number of a "General Purpose Events" (GPE). A GPE vectors to a specified handler in AML, which can do a anything the BIOS writer wants from OS context. GPE 0x12, for example, would vector to a level or edge handler called _L12 or _E12. The handler may do its business and return. Or the handler may send send a Notify event to a Linux device driver registered on an ACPI device, such as a battery, or a processor. To figure out where all the SCI's are coming from, /sys/firmware/acpi/interrupts contains a file listing every possible source, and the count of how many times it has triggered. $ cd /sys/firmware/acpi/interrupts $ grep . * error:0 ff_gbl_lock:0 ff_pmtimer:0 ff_pwr_btn:0 ff_rt_clk:0 ff_slp_btn:0 gpe00:0 gpe01:0 gpe02:0 gpe03:0 gpe04:0 gpe05:0 gpe06:0 gpe07:0 gpe08:0 gpe09:174 gpe0A:0 gpe0B:0 gpe0C:0 gpe0D:0 gpe0E:0 gpe0F:0 gpe10:0 gpe11:60 gpe12:0 gpe13:0 gpe14:0 gpe15:0 gpe16:0 gpe17:0 gpe18:0 gpe19:7 gpe1A:0 gpe1B:0 gpe1C:0 gpe1D:0 gpe1E:0 gpe1F:0 gpe_all:241 sci:241 sci - The total number of times the ACPI SCI has claimed an interrupt. gpe_all - count of SCI caused by GPEs. gpeXX - count for individual GPE source ff_gbl_lock - Global Lock ff_pmtimer - PM Timer ff_pwr_btn - Power Button ff_rt_clk - Real Time Clock ff_slp_btn - Sleep Button error - an interrupt that can't be accounted for above. Root has permission to clear any of these counters. Eg. # echo 0 > gpe11 All counters can be cleared by clearing the total "sci": # echo 0 > sci None of these counters has an effect on the function of the system, they are simply statistics.