Re: [PATCH v5 0/1] platform/x86: Add wmi driver for Casper Excalibur laptops

[Mustafa Ekşi]

On 7.04.2024 03:57, Stella Bloom wrote:
>> From: Mustafa Ekşi <mustafa.eskieksi@xxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> Hi,
>> I want to note that moving mutex_init to the bottom of the function
>> crashes the driver when mutex_lock is called. I didn't investigate it
>> further but I wanted to say that since Ai Chao also did it like that.
>>
>> Driver sets all leds to white on start. Before that, when a led's
>> brightness is changed, that led's color gets set to white but others
>> keep their old colors which creates a bad user experience (at least for
>> me). Please inform me if this is a bad approach.
>> Also, this driver still lacks support for changing modes and I seek
>> advise for that.
>>
>> Mustafa Ekşi (1):
>>    platform/x86: Add wmi driver for Casper Excalibur laptops
>>
>>   MAINTAINERS                       |   6 +
>>   drivers/platform/x86/Kconfig      |  14 +
>>   drivers/platform/x86/Makefile     |   1 +
>>   drivers/platform/x86/casper-wmi.c | 641 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>   4 files changed, 662 insertions(+)
>>   create mode 100644 drivers/platform/x86/casper-wmi.c
>>
> Hi there,
>
> I just wanted to pitch in by testing the driver on the kernel I use
> on my Arch install on an Excalibur G770.1245, namely xdevs23's
> linux-nitrous (https://gitlab.com/xdevs23/linux-nitrous), but trying to
> compile the driver using LLVM, which is the default compilation behavior
> in this kernel's AUR package, spits out the following error;
> ```
> drivers/platform/x86/casper-wmi.c:633:3: error: field designator 'no_singleton' does not refer to any field in type 'struct wmi_driver'
>   633 |         .no_singleton = true,
>       |         ~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 1 error generated.
> make[5]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:243: drivers/platform/x86/casper-wmi.o] Error 1
> make[4]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:481: drivers/platform/x86] Error 2
> make[3]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:481: drivers/platform] Error 2
> make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:481: drivers] Error 2
> make[1]: *** [/home/stella/.cache/yay/linux-nitrous/src/linux-nitrous/Makefile:1919: .] Error 2
> make: *** [Makefile:240: __sub-make] Error 2
> ```
>
> I want to help debug this somehow, but I'm more of an Android custom
> ROM developer than a Linux kernel maintainer, so my knowledge on the
> programming and build system languages other than Java, Makefile, Bash,
> etc is pretty much limited if not outright non-existent.
Hi,
This is because of a newly merged patch from Armin Wolf:
https://lore.kernel.org/platform-driver-x86/20240226193557.2888-2-W_Armin@xxxxxx/
You can comment that line or apply that patch to your tree to make it
compile. Also, you'll probablyneed to change the call to wmidev_block_set in
casper_query function with wmi_set_block (which is now deprecated).
> I would *love* to see this driver actually hit mainline repos, and
> eventually the upcoming kernel releases, given how much I need to use
> this laptop of mine as a computer engineering student.
>
> Asking just for the case I manage to get this driver up and going on
> my end somehow: Is there a tool made for controlling the LED colors yet?
> I can still use CLI tools much like on ASUS ROG series laptops, but it
> would be much easier and more appreciated to have a GUI provided
> Excalibur series laptops' LED lights can virtually take any color in
> the RGB space - At least that's how I interpreted with the
> configurations I used to do on mine using Excalibur Control Center
> on Windows 10/11.
No, there isn't a tool yet but controlling leds via sysfs ispretty easy.
For example, if you wanted to change the left led zone's color to red:
```
# echo 0xff0000 > /sys/class/leds/casper\:\:kbd_zoned_backlight-left/multi_intensity
```
And don't forget that all leds' initial brightnesses are 0.
Also, I'm planning to add support for this API in OpenRGB.
> And as for the profiles, let me make sure we're talking about the same
> thing in this term: You're talking about the "Office", "Gaming" and
> "High Performance" modes as seen in Excalibur Control Center, right?
For laptops with 11th gen processors or newer: yes.
For laptops with 10th gen processors or older: no, there are 4 power
profiles for these laptops (High Performance, Gaming, Text Mode andPower
save).
> If so, can this be somehow integrated into `power-profiles-daemon`
> SystemD service for easier controlling with GNOME and other DEs that
> use it? It's fine if it can't be, this was just a thought struck on my
> mind for whatever reason.
Yes, power-profiles-daemon is already integrated with platform_profile.
> Please do CC me and the people I've added to the CC list with this email
> of mine on the upcoming revisions, if any. We would love to keep track
> of this driver and I personally would love to contribute into testing
> as a power user.
>
> Cc: Alviro Iskandar Setiawan <alviro.iskandar@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Ammar Faizi <ammarfaizi2@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: GNU/Weeb Mailing List <gwml@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Also adding my organizational and school email addresses to the CC list
> so I can still be notified while I stay offline on this email address.
> GNOME Evolution doesn't run in the background and periodically check
> for emails sadly, and I switch ROMs every now and then on my phone as a
> source maintainer of 3 different custom ROMs. :/
>
> Cc: Stella Bloom <stelbl@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Bedirhan KURT <bedirhan_kurt22@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> --
> Stella Bloom
Thanks for your interest,
Mustafa Ekşi