PM: Allow drivers to allocate memory from .prepare() callbacks safely

If device drivers allocate substantial amounts of memory (above 1 MB)
in their hibernate .freeze() callbacks (or in their legacy suspend
callbcks during hibernation), the subsequent creation of hibernate
image may fail due to the lack of memory.  This is the case, because
the drivers' .freeze() callbacks are executed after the hibernate
memory preallocation has been carried out and the preallocated amount
of memory may be too small to cover the new driver allocations.
Unfortunately, the drivers' .prepare() callbacks also are executed
after the hibernate memory preallocation has completed, so they are
not suitable for allocating additional memory either.  Thus the only
way a driver can safely allocate memory during hibernation is to use
a hibernate/suspend notifier.  However, the notifiers are called
before the freezing of user space and the drivers wanting to use them
for allocating additional memory may not know how much memory needs
to be allocated at that point.

To let device drivers overcome this difficulty rework the hibernation
sequence so that the memory preallocation is carried out after the
drivers' .prepare() callbacks have been executed, so that the
.prepare() callbacks can be used for allocating additional memory
to be used by the drivers' .freeze() callbacks.  Update documentation
to match the new behavior of the code.

Signed-off-by: Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@sisk.pl>

1 files changed, 9 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/power/devices.txt b/Documentation/power/devices.txt
index 1971bcf..8888083 100644
--- a/Documentation/power/devices.txt
+++ b/Documentation/power/devices.txt
@@ -279,11 +279,15 @@ When the system goes into the standby or memory sleep state, the phases are:
 	time.)  Unlike the other suspend-related phases, during the prepare
 	phase the device tree is traversed top-down.
 
-	The prepare phase uses only a bus callback.  After the callback method
-	returns, no new children may be registered below the device.  The method
-	may also prepare the device or driver in some way for the upcoming
-	system power transition, but it should not put the device into a
-	low-power state.
+	In addition to that, if device drivers need to allocate additional
+	memory to be able to hadle device suspend correctly, that should be
+	done in the prepare phase.
+
+	After the prepare callback method returns, no new children may be
+	registered below the device.  The method may also prepare the device or
+	driver in some way for the upcoming system power transition (for
+	example, by allocating additional memory required for this purpose), but
+	it should not put the device into a low-power state.
 
     2.	The suspend methods should quiesce the device to stop it from performing
 	I/O.  They also may save the device registers and put it into the