In my case with an ancient Dell Inspiron 3500 laptop, the DSDT is so
broken that it doesn't even have a datecode, so the kernel ignores it.
Using acpi=force makes it hang hard.  With no ACPI or APM pretty much
everything is broken.  I'd like to try a simple dumped dissasembled and
recompiled DSDT with no mods (known to fix many issues on ancient
hardware, or bugs caused by the Microsoft ACPI compiler) but now I get
to rebuild a custom package to even try it.  At this point it might be
easier to hack the BIOS image to inject a proper DSDT which is even more
dangerous than having the kernel option to do it.

Old hardware is never going to be repaired by the manufacturer, it has
been out of support lifecycle for years.  I am not even sure how to
report a bug about this DSDT or how anyone would patch it - detecting
the model string in the DSDT and automatically overriding the safety
check for the ACPI date, and then tweaking everything else to override
or ignore the bits and pieces that are completely broken?  Seems like
supplying a good custom DSDT would be a more elegant fix than mucking
with all that code just for some ancient laptop that most people
wouldn't even try to use anymore.

Also a new user isn't going to accidentally drop a random DSDT file in
the initramfs, and it should be clear enough from the outset to any user
that meddling with initramfs can and probably will lead to severe issues
if you don't know exactly what you're doing.

Recompiling a custom kernel package every update cycle is ridiculous,
just to get this needed feature back.  Stuff like this leads to people
using various third party repositories which usually causes even more
problems than the one this new posture intends to avoid.  I know if
there was a repo I could add that had a non-neutered yet current kernel
package I would do it immediately.  Maybe Ubuntu should run an official
"I'm not an idiot" repo that power users could add in order to get non-
neutered "unsafe" packages that go against the mainstream "protect you
from yourself" grain, yet still actually work properly alongside the
normal repo packages.  Maybe put up a web page so you have to sign up
for access to the repo and take an online quiz to prove you actually
aren't an idiot, even, to keep out the dumb average user riff-raff.  Or
at least a bunch of disclaimer checkboxes that force the user to confirm
their computer might light on fire or become an expensive paperweight if
they so much as dare to use the repo.

-- 
[karmic] 2.6.31 kernel does not load custom DSDT
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/395239
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