Merged during this second week of the Linux 6.19 feature merge window were the many x86 platform driver changes. As usual, much of the x86 platform driver activity surrounds bettering Linux hardware laptop support but also a growing number of handheld computers / gaming devices.
The x86 platform driver changes for Linux 6.19 include new drivers like for Uniwill OEM laptops as well as improving handheld support for ASUS ROG, Lenovo Legion, and Ayaneo, among other changes:
– The Acer WMI driver adds support for the PH16-72, PHN16-72, and PT14-51 laptop models.
– The ACPI Platform Profile code has added a “max-power” profile option. This is intended for devices like Lenovo Legion hardware where there is an “extreme” mode with the power draw maxing out the cooling hardware and may exceed internal battery draw limits when on AC power. In turn the Lenovo WMI GameZone driver has been updated for the “Extreme” performance mode to align with the new “max-power” profile option.
– The Lenovo WMI GameZone driver has also added new device quirks for the Legion Go 2 handheld.
– The ASUS Armoury driver has been merged for supporting new BIOS attributes and other features for ASUS gaming hardware like the ROG Ally gaming handhelds.
– The Ayaneo EC driver is introduced for embedded controller feature handling on Ayaneo handheld gaming consoles. This moves Ayaneo devcies out from the existing OneXPlayer platform driver into their own driver while adding hardware monitoring, charge controls, and other features.
– Rapid Charge support for Lenovo IdeaPad laptops.
– Intel Wildcat Lake support is added to the PMC driver. The Intel VSEC driver also added Wildcat Lake PMT telemetry support.
– The Unwill laptop driver is upstreamed for providing additional functionality for Uniwill laptops under Linux. Uniwill is also a popular OEM that makes many of the laptops for TUXEDO Computers and others. The Unwill Linux driver provides battery charge rate limiting, RGB light-bar controls, hardware monitoring, better hotkey handling, and other features. TUXEDO Computers is also working to further extend this mainline driver moving forward.
More details on all of these x86 platform driver changes merged to Linux 6.19 via this pull.
