With the upcoming Linux 6.20~7.0 kernel cycle, the HP-WMI driver is slated to add manual fan control support for HP Victus S-Series gaming laptops as well as for some HP OMEN gaming laptops too.
A patch queued now into the x86 platform drivers’ “for-next” Git branch introduces manual fan control support for the HP OMEN/Victus aptops. Along with the fan speed control support is PWM reporting of the fan speeds via the HWMON interfaces. Useful for those using these HP gaming laptops and want to adjust the fan speed for a quieter gaming experience or opt for a higher fan speed to help allow for some additional thermal/performance headroom during your gaming sessions.
This patch is what provides that manual fan control support for the open-source HP WMI driver and was tested on an HP Omen 16-wf1xxx laptop.
Beyond that patch noting some HP firmware challenges around fan control, a second patch also is queued up for fan keep-alive support to workaround the system’s problematic behavior. The firmware on some HP laptops will automatically revert to the “auto” fan speed mode after a 120 second timeout window. So to allow the manual fan control support to persist on these HP laptops, a keep-alive mechanism is added via a kernel delayed workqueue to refresh the fan mode every 90 seconds.
