Re: [PATCH v6 0/7] HID: asus: Fix ASUS ROG Laptop's Keyboard backlight handling

[Antheas Kapenekakis <lkml@antheas.dev>]

On Thu, 16 Oct 2025 at 16:32, Denis Benato <benato.denis96@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 10/16/25 14:51, Antheas Kapenekakis wrote:
> > On Thu, 16 Oct 2025 at 14:46, Denis Benato <benato.denis96@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> On 10/16/25 14:28, Antheas Kapenekakis wrote:
> >>> On Thu, 16 Oct 2025 at 14:19, Denis Benato <benato.denis96@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> On 10/16/25 14:14, Antheas Kapenekakis wrote:
> >>>>> On Thu, 16 Oct 2025 at 13:57, Denis Benato <benato.denis96@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>> On 10/13/25 22:15, Antheas Kapenekakis wrote:
> >>>>>>> This is a two part series which does the following:
> >>>>>>>   - Clean-up init sequence
> >>>>>>>   - Unify backlight handling to happen under asus-wmi so that all Aura
> >>>>>>>     devices have synced brightness controls and the backlight button works
> >>>>>>>     properly when it is on a USB laptop keyboard instead of one w/ WMI.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> For more context, see cover letter of V1. Since V5, I removed some patches
> >>>>>>> to make this easier to merge.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> All comments with these patches had been addressed since V4.
> >>>>>> I have loaded this patchset for users of asus-linux project to try out.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> One of them opened a bug report about a kernel bug that happens
> >>>>>> consistently when closing the lid of his laptop [1].
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> He also sent another piece of kernel log, but didn't specify anything more
> >>>>>> about this [2].
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> [1] https://pastebin.com/akZx1w10
> >>>>>> [2] https://pastebin.com/sKdczPgf
> >>>>> Can you provide a link to the bug report? [2] seems unrelated.
> >>>> The log in [2] was posted without additional context in the same
> >>>> discord message as [1].
> >>> Link me the kernel sources. Is it linux-g14 in the AUR?
> >> Someone has replicated it on the AUR but it's just an out-of-sync replica.
> >>
> >> The true source code is here:
> >> https://gitlab.com/asus-linux/linux-g14 branch 6.17
> > Ok, lets wait for the user to replicate on a stock kernel
> >
> User said "yes I just confirmed it: it is only on the asus kernel, mainline doesn't have this issue".
>
> With "asus kernel" he is referring to -g14.
>
> I added him in CC.

If possible, try the bazzite kernel, its linux-bazzite-bin. It has
this series + another older armoury series. If it still happens with
that, we can cut a release with just this series to begin isolating
this issue

Antheas

> >>>> I think I will tell the user to open a proper bug report because
> >>>> I do agree on the fact that it's looking unrelated.
> >>>>> As for [1], it looks like a trace that stems from a sysfs write to
> >>>>> brightness stemming from userspace that follows the same chain it
> >>>>> would on a stock kernel and times out. Is it present on a stock
> >>>>> kernel?
> >>>> I have asked more details to the user. The user is not online ATM
> >>>> so I will get to you with more details when I can.
> >>>>> Ilpo should know more about this, could the spinlock be interfering?
> >>>>> My testing on devices that have WMI led controls is a bit limited
> >>>>> unfortunately. However, most of our asus users have been happy with
> >>>>> this series for around half a year now.
> >>>> Unless they have looked to kernel logs they won't be able to tell
> >>>> since apparently there are no visible consequences.
> >>>>> Antheas
> >>>>>
> >>>>>>> ---
> >>>>>>> V5: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250325184601.10990-1-lkml@antheas.dev/
> >>>>>>> V4: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250324210151.6042-1-lkml@antheas.dev/
> >>>>>>> V3: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250322102804.418000-1-lkml@antheas.dev/
> >>>>>>> V2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250320220924.5023-1-lkml@antheas.dev/
> >>>>>>> V1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250319191320.10092-1-lkml@antheas.dev/
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Changes since V5:
> >>>>>>>   - It's been a long time
> >>>>>>>   - Remove addition of RGB as that had some comments I need to work on
> >>>>>>>   - Remove folio patch (already merged)
> >>>>>>>   - Remove legacy fix patch 11 from V4. There is a small chance that
> >>>>>>>     without this patch, some old NKEY keyboards might not respond to
> >>>>>>>     RGB commands according to Luke, but the kernel driver does not do
> >>>>>>>     RGB currently. The 0x5d init is done by Armoury crate software in
> >>>>>>>     Windows. If an issue is found, we can re-add it or just remove patches
> >>>>>>>     1/2 before merging. However, init could use the cleanup.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Changes since V4:
> >>>>>>>   - Fix KConfig (reported by kernel robot)
> >>>>>>>   - Fix Ilpo's nits, if I missed anything lmk
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Changes since V3:
> >>>>>>>   - Add initializer for 0x5d for old NKEY keyboards until it is verified
> >>>>>>>     that it is not needed for their media keys to function.
> >>>>>>>   - Cover init in asus-wmi with spinlock as per Hans
> >>>>>>>   - If asus-wmi registers WMI handler with brightness, init the brightness
> >>>>>>>     in USB Asus keyboards, per Hans.
> >>>>>>>   - Change hid handler name to asus-UNIQ:rgb:peripheral to match led class
> >>>>>>>   - Fix oops when unregistering asus-wmi by moving unregister outside of
> >>>>>>>     the spin lock (but after the asus reference is set to null)
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Changes since V2:
> >>>>>>>   - Check lazy init succeds in asus-wmi before setting register variable
> >>>>>>>   - make explicit check in asus_hid_register_listener for listener existing
> >>>>>>>     to avoid re-init
> >>>>>>>   - rename asus_brt to asus_hid in most places and harmonize everything
> >>>>>>>   - switch to a spinlock instead of a mutex to avoid kernel ooops
> >>>>>>>   - fixup hid device quirks to avoid multiple RGB devices while still exposing
> >>>>>>>     all input vendor devices. This includes moving rgb init to probe
> >>>>>>>     instead of the input_configured callbacks.
> >>>>>>>   - Remove fan key (during retest it appears to be 0xae that is already
> >>>>>>>     supported by hid-asus)
> >>>>>>>   - Never unregister asus::kbd_backlight while asus-wmi is active, as that
> >>>>>>>   - removes fds from userspace and breaks backlight functionality. All
> >>>>>>>   - current mainline drivers do not support backlight hotplugging, so most
> >>>>>>>     userspace software (e.g., KDE, UPower) is built with that assumption.
> >>>>>>>     For the Ally, since it disconnects its controller during sleep, this
> >>>>>>>     caused the backlight slider to not work in KDE.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Changes since V1:
> >>>>>>>   - Add basic RGB support on hid-asus, (Z13/Ally) tested in KDE/Z13
> >>>>>>>   - Fix ifdef else having an invalid signature (reported by kernel robot)
> >>>>>>>   - Restore input arguments to init and keyboard function so they can
> >>>>>>>     be re-used for RGB controls.
> >>>>>>>   - Remove Z13 delay (it did not work to fix the touchpad) and replace it
> >>>>>>>     with a HID_GROUP_GENERIC quirk to allow hid-multitouch to load. Squash
> >>>>>>>     keyboard rename into it.
> >>>>>>>   - Unregister brightness listener before removing work queue to avoid
> >>>>>>>     a race condition causing corruption
> >>>>>>>   - Remove spurious mutex unlock in asus_brt_event
> >>>>>>>   - Place mutex lock in kbd_led_set after LED_UNREGISTERING check to avoid
> >>>>>>>     relocking the mutex and causing a deadlock when unregistering leds
> >>>>>>>   - Add extra check during unregistering to avoid calling unregister when
> >>>>>>>     no led device is registered.
> >>>>>>>   - Temporarily HID_QUIRK_INPUT_PER_APP from the ROG endpoint as it causes
> >>>>>>>     the driver to create 4 RGB handlers per device. I also suspect some
> >>>>>>>     extra events sneak through (KDE had the @@@@@@).
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Antheas Kapenekakis (7):
> >>>>>>>   HID: asus: refactor init sequence per spec
> >>>>>>>   HID: asus: prevent binding to all HID devices on ROG
> >>>>>>>   platform/x86: asus-wmi: Add support for multiple kbd RGB handlers
> >>>>>>>   HID: asus: listen to the asus-wmi brightness device instead of
> >>>>>>>     creating one
> >>>>>>>   platform/x86: asus-wmi: remove unused keyboard backlight quirk
> >>>>>>>   platform/x86: asus-wmi: add keyboard brightness event handler
> >>>>>>>   HID: asus: add support for the asus-wmi brightness handler
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>  drivers/hid/hid-asus.c                     | 235 +++++++++++----------
> >>>>>>>  drivers/platform/x86/asus-wmi.c            | 157 ++++++++++++--
> >>>>>>>  include/linux/platform_data/x86/asus-wmi.h |  69 +++---
> >>>>>>>  3 files changed, 291 insertions(+), 170 deletions(-)
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> base-commit: 3a8660878839faadb4f1a6dd72c3179c1df56787
>