The mei_me module creates a watchdog device, but produces no info statements to inform the administrator, neither is the module name obvious, neither is there any way to disable the watchdog functionality if it is now wanted (or doesn't work etc. so that they admin would like to use an alternative watchdog device also present on the systems).

It isn't possible to detect which module has created the watchdog device via sysfs either:

# udevadm info /dev/watchdog
Unknown device, --name=, --path=, or absolute path in /dev/ or /sys expected.
# modprobe mei_me
# udevadm info /dev/watchdog
P: /devices/virtual/misc/watchdog
N: watchdog
E: DEVNAME=/dev/watchdog
E: DEVPATH=/devices/virtual/misc/watchdog
E: MAJOR=10
E: MINOR=130
E: SUBSYSTEM=misc


The only mechanism available to users who need to disable this functionality at present is to blacklist the mei_me module entirely (which on some platforms appears to adversely impact battery life).

It would be nice if some or all the following changes were made:

. Log at info level the creation of the device
. Make device owner info available via sysfs
. Split the watchdog functionality out into a separate kernel module