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Documentation: admin-guide: laptops: Add documentation for alienware-wmi
Add driver admin-guide documentation for the alienware-wmi driver.
Reviewed-by: Armin Wolf <W_Armin@gmx.de>
Signed-off-by: Kurt Borja <kuurtb@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250329-hwm-v7-11-a14ea39d8a94@gmail.com
Reviewed-by: Ilpo Järvinen <ilpo.jarvinen@linux.intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Ilpo Järvinen <ilpo.jarvinen@linux.intel.com>
authored by
Kurt Borja
and committed by
Ilpo Järvinen
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Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/alienware-wmi.rst
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Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/alienware-wmi.rst
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.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
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====================
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Alienware WMI Driver
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====================
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Kurt Borja <kuurtb@gmail.com>
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This is a driver for the "WMAX" WMI device, which is found in most Dell gaming
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laptops and controls various special features.
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Before the launch of M-Series laptops (~2018), the "WMAX" device controlled
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basic RGB lighting, deep sleep mode, HDMI mode and amplifier status.
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Later, this device was completely repurpused. Now it mostly deals with thermal
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profiles, sensor monitoring and overclocking. This interface is named "AWCC" and
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is known to be used by the AWCC OEM application to control these features.
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The alienware-wmi driver controls both interfaces.
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AWCC Interface
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==============
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WMI device documentation: Documentation/wmi/devices/alienware-wmi.rst
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Supported devices
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-----------------
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- Alienware M-Series laptops
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- Alienware X-Series laptops
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- Alienware Aurora Desktops
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- Dell G-Series laptops
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If you believe your device supports the AWCC interface and you don't have any of
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the features described in this document, try the following alienware-wmi module
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parameters:
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- ``force_platform_profile=1``: Forces probing for platform profile support
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- ``force_hwmon=1``: Forces probing for HWMON support
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If the module loads successfully with these parameters, consider submitting a
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patch adding your model to the ``awcc_dmi_table`` located in
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``drivers/platform/x86/dell/alienware-wmi-wmax.c`` or contacting the maintainer
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for further guidance.
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Status
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------
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The following features are currently supported:
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- :ref:`Platform Profile <platform-profile>`:
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- Thermal profile control
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- G-Mode toggling
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- :ref:`HWMON <hwmon>`:
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- Sensor monitoring
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- Manual fan control
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.. _platform-profile:
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Platform Profile
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----------------
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The AWCC interface exposes various firmware defined thermal profiles. These are
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exposed to user-space through the Platform Profile class interface. Refer to
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:ref:`sysfs-class-platform-profile <abi_file_testing_sysfs_class_platform_profile>`
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for more information.
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The name of the platform-profile class device exported by this driver is
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"alienware-wmi" and it's path can be found with:
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::
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grep -l "alienware-wmi" /sys/class/platform-profile/platform-profile-*/name | sed 's|/[^/]*$||'
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If the device supports G-Mode, it is also toggled when selecting the
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``performance`` profile.
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.. note::
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You may set the ``force_gmode`` module parameter to always try to toggle this
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feature, without checking if your model supports it.
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.. _hwmon:
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HWMON
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-----
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The AWCC interface also supports sensor monitoring and manual fan control. Both
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of these features are exposed to user-space through the HWMON interface.
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The name of the hwmon class device exported by this driver is "alienware_wmi"
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and it's path can be found with:
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::
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grep -l "alienware_wmi" /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon*/name | sed 's|/[^/]*$||'
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Sensor monitoring is done through the standard HWMON interface. Refer to
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:ref:`sysfs-class-hwmon <abi_file_testing_sysfs_class_hwmon>` for more
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information.
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Manual fan control on the other hand, is not exposed directly by the AWCC
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interface. Instead it let's us control a fan `boost` value. This `boost` value
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has the following aproximate behavior over the fan pwm:
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::
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pwm = pwm_base + (fan_boost / 255) * (pwm_max - pwm_base)
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Due to the above behavior, the fan `boost` control is exposed to user-space
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through the following, custom hwmon sysfs attribute:
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=============================== ======= =======================================
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Name Perm Description
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=============================== ======= =======================================
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fan[1-4]_boost RW Fan boost value.
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Integer value between 0 and 255
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=============================== ======= =======================================
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.. note::
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In some devices, manual fan control only works reliably if the ``custom``
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platform profile is selected.
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Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/index.rst
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Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/index.rst
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MAINTAINERS
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MAINTAINERS