Re: [PATCH v6 11/12] Documentation: admin-guide: laptops: Add documentation for alienware-wmi

Ilpo Järvinen
2025-03-28T16:22:56Z

On Thu, 13 Mar 2025, Kurt Borja wrote:

> Add driver admin-guide documentation for the alienware-wmi driver.
>
> Reviewed-by: Armin Wolf <W_Armin@gmx.de>
> Signed-off-by: Kurt Borja <kuurtb@gmail.com>
> ---
> .../admin-guide/laptops/alienware-wmi.rst | 128 +++++++++++++++++++++
> Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/index.rst | 1 +
> MAINTAINERS | 1 +
> 3 files changed, 130 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/alienware-wmi.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/alienware-wmi.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..fe7dec73706f8ec85040dc1cbaec38ffda70b563
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/alienware-wmi.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
> +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
> +
> +====================
> +Alienware WMI Driver
> +====================
> +
> +Kurt Borja <kuurtb@gmail.com>
> +
> +This is a driver for the "WMAX" WMI device, which is found in most Dell gaming
> +laptops and controls various special features.
> +
> +Before the launch of M-Series laptops (~2018), the "WMAX" device controlled
> +basic RGB lighting, deep sleep mode, HDMI mode and amplifier status.
> +
> +Later, this device was completely repurpused. Now it mostly deals with thermal

repurposed

> +profiles, sensor monitoring and overclocking. This interface is named "AWCC" and
> +is known to be used by the AWCC OEM application to control these features.
> +
> +The alienware-wmi driver controls both interfaces.
> +
> +AWCC Interface
> +==============
> +
> +WMI device documentation: Documentation/wmi/devices/alienware-wmi.rst
> +
> +Supported devices
> +-----------------
> +
> +- Alienware M-Series laptops
> +- Alienware X-Series laptops
> +- Alienware Aurora Desktops
> +- Dell G-Series laptops
> +
> +If you believe your device supports the AWCC interface and you don't have any of
> +the features described in this document, try the following alienware-wmi module
> +parameters:
> +
> +- ``force_platform_profile=1``: Forces probing for platform profile support
> +- ``force_hwmon=1``: Forces probing for HWMON support
> +
> +If the module loads successfully with these parameters, consider submitting a
> +patch adding your model to the ``awcc_dmi_table`` located in
> +``drivers/platform/x86/dell/alienware-wmi-wmax.c`` or contacting the maintainer
> +for further guidance.
> +
> +Status
> +------
> +
> +The following features are currently supported:
> +
> +- :ref:`Platform Profile <platform-profile>`:
> +
> + - Thermal profile control
> +
> + - G-Mode toggling
> +
> +- :ref:`HWMON <hwmon>`:
> +
> + - Sensor monitoring
> +
> + - Manual fan control
> +
> +.. _platform-profile:
> +
> +Platform Profile
> +----------------
> +
> +The AWCC interface exposes various firmware defined thermal profiles. We expose

Please don't use "We".

--
i.

> +these profiles to user-space through the Platform Profile class interface.
> +Refer to
> +:ref:`sysfs-class-platform-profile <abi_file_testing_sysfs_class_platform_profile>`
> +for more information.
> +
> +The name of the platform-profile class device exported by this driver is
> +"alienware-wmi" and it's path can be found with:
> +
> +::
> +
> + grep -l "alienware-wmi" /sys/class/platform-profile/platform-profile-*/name | sed 's|/[^/]*$||'
> +
> +If the device supports G-Mode, it is also toggled when selecting the
> +``performance`` profile.
> +
> +.. note::
> + You may set the ``force_gmode`` module parameter to always try to toggle this
> + feature, without checking if your model supports it.
> +
> +.. _hwmon:
> +
> +HWMON
> +-----
> +
> +The AWCC interface also supports sensor monitoring and manual fan control. Both
> +of these features are exposed to user-space through the HWMON interface.
> +
> +The name of the hwmon class device exported by this driver is "alienware_wmi"
> +and it's path can be found with:
> +
> +::
> +
> + grep -l "alienware_wmi" /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon*/name | sed 's|/[^/]*$||'
> +
> +Sensor monitoring is done through the standard HWMON interface. Refer to
> +:ref:`sysfs-class-hwmon <abi_file_testing_sysfs_class_hwmon>` for more
> +information.
> +
> +Manual fan control on the other hand, is not exposed directly by the AWCC
> +interface. Instead it let's us control a fan `boost` value. This `boost` value
> +has the following aproximate behavior over the fan pwm:
> +
> +::
> +
> + pwm = pwm_base + (fan_boost / 255) * (pwm_max - pwm_base)
> +
> +Due to the above behavior, we expose the fan `boost` control to user-space
> +through the following, custom hwmon sysfs attribute:
> +
> +=============================== ======= =======================================
> +Name Perm Description
> +=============================== ======= =======================================
> +fan[1-4]_boost RW Fan boost value.
> +
> + Integer value between 0 and 255
> +=============================== ======= =======================================
> +
> +.. note::
> + In some devices, manual fan control only works reliably if the ``custom``
> + platform profile is selected.
> diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/index.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/index.rst
> index e71c8984c23e43ca7cd6373b88803354dff6bc60..db842b629303c1bcf02646204d51938f9bd4043e 100644
> --- a/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/index.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/index.rst
> @@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ Laptop Drivers
> .. toctree::
> :maxdepth: 1
>
> + alienware-wmi
> asus-laptop
> disk-shock-protection
> laptop-mode
> diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
> index 1afd30d00aecf9a48f8c71e156affd5f329539bd..c609bc321b8dc3ab0e8d92b04e42483be8cc171c 100644
> --- a/MAINTAINERS
> +++ b/MAINTAINERS
> @@ -796,6 +796,7 @@ M: Kurt Borja <kuurtb@gmail.com>
> L: platform-driver-x86@vger.kernel.org
> L: Dell.Client.Kernel@dell.com
> S: Maintained
> +F: Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/alienware-wmi.rst
> F: Documentation/wmi/devices/alienware-wmi.rst
> F: drivers/platform/x86/dell/alienware-wmi*
>
>
>