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

Antheas Kapenekakis
2025-10-16T14:45:05Z

On Thu, 16 Oct 2025 at 16:44, Antheas Kapenekakis <lkml@antheas.dev> wrote:
>
> 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

To that end, using the previous version of that kernel without this
series is also a possibility.

> > >>>> 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
> >