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| 1 | +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later |
| 2 | +
|
| 3 | +==================== |
| 4 | +Alienware WMI Driver |
| 5 | +==================== |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +This is a driver for the "WMAX" WMI device, which is found in most Dell gaming |
| 10 | +laptops and controls various special features. |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +Before the launch of M-Series laptops (~2018), the "WMAX" device controlled |
| 13 | +basic RGB lighting, deep sleep mode, HDMI mode and amplifier status. |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +Later, this device was completely repurpused. Now it mostly deals with thermal |
| 16 | +profiles, sensor monitoring and overclocking. This interface is named "AWCC" and |
| 17 | +is known to be used by the AWCC OEM application to control these features. |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +The alienware-wmi driver controls both interfaces. |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +AWCC Interface |
| 22 | +============== |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +WMI device documentation: Documentation/wmi/devices/alienware-wmi.rst |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +Supported devices |
| 27 | +----------------- |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +- Alienware M-Series laptops |
| 30 | +- Alienware X-Series laptops |
| 31 | +- Alienware Aurora Desktops |
| 32 | +- Dell G-Series laptops |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +If you believe your device supports the AWCC interface and you don't have any of |
| 35 | +the features described in this document, try the following alienware-wmi module |
| 36 | +parameters: |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +- ``force_platform_profile=1``: Forces probing for platform profile support |
| 39 | +- ``force_hwmon=1``: Forces probing for HWMON support |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +If the module loads successfully with these parameters, consider submitting a |
| 42 | +patch adding your model to the ``awcc_dmi_table`` located in |
| 43 | +``drivers/platform/x86/dell/alienware-wmi-wmax.c`` or contacting the maintainer |
| 44 | +for further guidance. |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +Status |
| 47 | +------ |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | +The following features are currently supported: |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +- :ref:`Platform Profile <platform-profile>`: |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | + - Thermal profile control |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | + - G-Mode toggling |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +- :ref:`HWMON <hwmon>`: |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | + - Sensor monitoring |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | + - Manual fan control |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +.. _platform-profile: |
| 64 | + |
| 65 | +Platform Profile |
| 66 | +---------------- |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | +The AWCC interface exposes various firmware defined thermal profiles. These are |
| 69 | +exposed to user-space through the Platform Profile class interface. Refer to |
| 70 | +:ref:`sysfs-class-platform-profile <abi_file_testing_sysfs_class_platform_profile>` |
| 71 | +for more information. |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +The name of the platform-profile class device exported by this driver is |
| 74 | +"alienware-wmi" and it's path can be found with: |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | +:: |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | + grep -l "alienware-wmi" /sys/class/platform-profile/platform-profile-*/name | sed 's|/[^/]*$||' |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | +If the device supports G-Mode, it is also toggled when selecting the |
| 81 | +``performance`` profile. |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | +.. note:: |
| 84 | + You may set the ``force_gmode`` module parameter to always try to toggle this |
| 85 | + feature, without checking if your model supports it. |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +.. _hwmon: |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | +HWMON |
| 90 | +----- |
| 91 | + |
| 92 | +The AWCC interface also supports sensor monitoring and manual fan control. Both |
| 93 | +of these features are exposed to user-space through the HWMON interface. |
| 94 | + |
| 95 | +The name of the hwmon class device exported by this driver is "alienware_wmi" |
| 96 | +and it's path can be found with: |
| 97 | + |
| 98 | +:: |
| 99 | + |
| 100 | + grep -l "alienware_wmi" /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon*/name | sed 's|/[^/]*$||' |
| 101 | + |
| 102 | +Sensor monitoring is done through the standard HWMON interface. Refer to |
| 103 | +:ref:`sysfs-class-hwmon <abi_file_testing_sysfs_class_hwmon>` for more |
| 104 | +information. |
| 105 | + |
| 106 | +Manual fan control on the other hand, is not exposed directly by the AWCC |
| 107 | +interface. Instead it let's us control a fan `boost` value. This `boost` value |
| 108 | +has the following aproximate behavior over the fan pwm: |
| 109 | + |
| 110 | +:: |
| 111 | + |
| 112 | + pwm = pwm_base + (fan_boost / 255) * (pwm_max - pwm_base) |
| 113 | + |
| 114 | +Due to the above behavior, the fan `boost` control is exposed to user-space |
| 115 | +through the following, custom hwmon sysfs attribute: |
| 116 | + |
| 117 | +=============================== ======= ======================================= |
| 118 | +Name Perm Description |
| 119 | +=============================== ======= ======================================= |
| 120 | +fan[1-4]_boost RW Fan boost value. |
| 121 | + |
| 122 | + Integer value between 0 and 255 |
| 123 | +=============================== ======= ======================================= |
| 124 | + |
| 125 | +.. note:: |
| 126 | + In some devices, manual fan control only works reliably if the ``custom`` |
| 127 | + platform profile is selected. |
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