wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQBC data block query control method not found

[Md Ayquassar]

I run the kernel 5.4.0-42-generic on a fully up-to-date Ubuntu "focal" on Dell Latitude E6440.
While scrolling through the output of `journalctl -b` I came across a warning (marked yellow):

[ 0.659825] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQBC data block query control method not found

Now, since this is a warning, I get, ergo, warned. What is it that I get warned about? Is it just a printf or is some action required? As every computer, the laptop suffers from various problems from time to time (e.g., boot or wakeup silently hangs up while the manufacturer splash screen is displayed), so, I don't know whether this message could be related to any of such problems.

Here is the context of this warning in dmesg:

# dmesg | grep -B 10 -A 5 "method not found"
[ 0.518379] rtc_cmos 00:02: setting system clock to 2020-08-05T15:23:54 UTC (1596641034)
[ 0.519455] Freeing unused decrypted memory: 2040K
[ 0.520119] Freeing unused kernel image memory: 2712K
[ 0.531430] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 22528k
[ 0.532242] Freeing unused kernel image memory: 2008K
[ 0.532805] Freeing unused kernel image memory: 1192K
[ 0.540186] x86/mm: Checked W+X mappings: passed, no W+X pages found.
[ 0.540514] x86/mm: Checking user space page tables
[ 0.547468] x86/mm: Checked W+X mappings: passed, no W+X pages found.
[ 0.547786] Run /init as init process
[ 0.659825] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQBC data block query control method not found
[ 0.659921] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001828-0x000000000000182F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001800-0x000000000000183F (\_SB.PCI0.EHC2.E1PM) (20190816/utaddress-204)
[ 0.661768] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001828-0x000000000000182F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001800-0x000000000000183F (\_SB.PCI0.EHC1.E1PM) (20190816/utaddress-204)
[ 0.663121] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001828-0x000000000000182F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001800-0x000000000000187F (\PMIO) (20190816/utaddress-204)
[ 0.664516] ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
[ 0.666167] e1000e: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - 3.2.6-k

Some more info:

# ls -la /sys/devices/platform/PNP0C14:00
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Aug 5 17:23 .
drwxr-xr-x 29 root root 0 Aug 5 17:23 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Aug 5 17:23 driver -> ../../../bus/platform/drivers/acpi-wmi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 5 18:09 driver_override
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Aug 5 18:09 firmware_node -> ../../LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C14:00
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 5 18:09 modalias
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Aug 5 18:09 power
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Aug 5 17:23 subsystem -> ../../../bus/platform
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug 5 17:23 uevent
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Aug 5 17:23 wmi_bus
#

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1890467

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Md Ayquassar (mdayquassar)]

I won't run the suggested command (apport-collect 1890467), as is doesn't anonymize or pseudonymize my data or the data of the laptop sufficiently. If given an opportunity to do so manually and paste the result using the Web interface, I will gladly proceed.

[Alex Hung (alexhung)]

These ACPI warnings are harmless most of time, but that also depends on what ACPI BIOS does on your systems.
=====================================
[ 0.659825] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQBC data block query control method not found

WQBC is required according to WMI spec and implementation on this system but this is missing. This can cause some OEM features from working; however, many OEM WMI features (like hotkeys) aren't implemented on Linux in the first place.

=====================================
[ 0.659921] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001828-0x000000000000182F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001800-0x000000000000183F (\_SB.PCI0.EHC2.E1PM) (20190816/utaddress-204)
[ 0.661768] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001828-0x000000000000182F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001800-0x000000000000183F (\_SB.PCI0.EHC1.E1PM) (20190816/utaddress-204)
[ 0.663121] ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000001828-0x000000000000182F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000001800-0x000000000000187F (\PMIO) (20190816/utaddress-204)
[ 0.664516] ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver

These complains that ACPI BIOS wants to access hardware registers, and OS never likes BIOS to access without going through device drivers. Without BIOS's ACPI code (sudo acpidump > acpi.log), it is not possible to do further analysis; however, it may be the same or similar to https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops/Dell_Latitude_E7240_i5-4310U. If this is the case, it is for USB2 power management.

Unless you have USB 2 problems you don't need to worry about them either.

[Alex Hung (alexhung)]

For waking up unexpected issues, you can try to disable wakeup devices via /proc/acpi/wakeup interfaces.

See examples @ https://askubuntu.com/questions/148481/how-do-i-prevent-immediate-wake-up-from-suspend-and-or-hibernation

[Md Ayquassar (mdayquassar)]

Result of `sudo acpidump > acpi.log` attached.

As for USB issues:

1. I sometimes experience bad contact to my iPhone when I charge it using a USB port. This seems to be a physically bad contact to me, however, but I cannot tell for sure.

2. Another issue is that after a USB thumb drive has been unmounted via the `unmount` command, the written data may be yet in the process of being transferred, so simply taking the drive out immediately after unmounting would probably damage the file system or the drive itself or both. I need to say `udisksctl power-off -b /dev/sdb` and wait for termination to make sure that the device is really safe to unplug.

As for wake-up, the laptop seldom refuses to wake up and freezes instead. I simply gave the issue as an example of what goes wrong (there are dozens of such small issues).

[Md Ayquassar (mdayquassar)]

By the way, I know the BIOS is outdated (A21 instead of A24), but I failed to update it via FreeDOS process. (The manual https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/BIOS_aktualisieren is partially out of date in this point or I do something wrong, but it's a different issue anyway, having little to do with this very bug report.)

[Alex Hung (alexhung)]

You can try "sync" to force writing cache to USB drive. It is easier to remember.

[Gannet (ken20001)]

The same on my Latitude E6230. And Latest BIOS/UEFI A20.
Kubuntu 21.04. Linux 5.11.0-11-generic

[Paul Menzel (paulmenzel)]

I am also seeing this on a the AMD Ryzen desktop system Dell OptiPlex 5055 with Linux 5.13-rc7.

    [ 0.000000] DMI: Dell Inc. OptiPlex 5055 Ryzen CPU/0P03DX, BIOS 1.1.25 05/03/2021
    […]
    [ 12.810715] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQBC data block query control method not found
    [ 12.820176] acpi PNP0C14:01: duplicate WMI GUID 05901221-D566-11D1-B2F0-00A0C9062910 (first instance was on PNP0C14:00)

Alex, to summarize, this is a firmware bug, so needs to be reported to Dell?

Is there any way to check, what features do not work? Then it’d be easier to verify that and talk to the Dell support.

Lastly, the Dell Linux maintainers could be contacted too.

    DELL SMBIOS WMI DRIVER
    L: <email address hidden>
    L: <email address hidden>
    S: Maintained
    F: drivers/platform/x86/dell/dell-smbios-wmi.c
    F: tools/wmi/dell-smbios-example.c

[thedoctar (thedoctar)]

I also have this message. I use a Dell XPS 9360 with Lubuntu 22.04. Here is my dmesg (note that I don't get any acpi warnings afterwards):

[ +0.000996] Freeing unused decrypted memory: 2036K
[ +0.000353] Freeing unused kernel image (initmem) memory: 3228K
[ +0.018111] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 30720k
[ +0.000635] Freeing unused kernel image (text/rodata gap) memory: 2036K
[ +0.000337] Freeing unused kernel image (rodata/data gap) memory: 1476K
[ +0.044160] x86/mm: Checked W+X mappings: passed, no W+X pages found.
[ +0.000002] x86/mm: Checking user space page tables
[ +0.042023] x86/mm: Checked W+X mappings: passed, no W+X pages found.
[ +0.000004] Run /init as init process
[ +0.000001] with arguments:
[ +0.000001] /init
[ +0.000001] splash
[ +0.000001] with environment:
[ +0.000001] HOME=/
[ +0.000000] TERM=linux
[ +0.000001] BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.15.0-52-generic
[ +0.139363] hid: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
[ +0.005127] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:01: WQBC data block query control method not found