The Linux 6.16 kernel is expected to be released as a stable release in July, and with it comes a wide assortment of x86 platform driver updates. These updates primarily focus on improving support for laptops and other devices from major OEMs/ODMs.
Driver Updates for Alienware Laptops
The Alienware WMI driver has been updated to add support for hardware monitoring, manual fan controls, and “custom” thermal profile support. These features are particularly useful for Alienware laptops, which are known for their high-performance capabilities.
- Hardware monitoring “HWMON” subsystem integration
- Support for manual fan controls on compatible Alienware laptops
- “Custom” thermal profile support
Driver Updates for ASUS ROG Ally Handheld Devices
The ASUS WMI driver has been updated to improve suspend-and-resume support for the ASUS ROG Ally handheld devices on older versions of the ASUS system firmware. Additionally, the driver now warns users of old versions of the ROG Ally MCU firmware.
- Improved suspend-and-resume support
- Warning for old versions of the ROG Ally MCU firmware
Driver Updates for OneXPlayer Gaming Handheld Devices
The OneXPlayer driver has been updated to support OneXFly variants and now provides features such as charge limits, charge thresholds, and turbo LED controls.
- Support for OneXFly variants
- Charge limits/charge thresholds
- Turbo LED controls
Driver Updates for Dell Laptops
The Dell DDV driver has been updated to expose battery health and manufacturing data to user-space, and the driver is now hooked up to the Linux kernel’s faux bus. Additionally, the driver has improved error propagation.
- Exposure of battery health and manufacturing data to user-space
- Hookup to the Linux kernel’s faux bus
- Improved error propagation
Driver Updates for ThinkPad Laptops
The ThinkPad ACPI driver has been updated to support the camera shutter switch hotkey.
Driver Updates for Dasharo ACPI Driver
The Dasharo driver is a new driver added to the Linux 6.16 kernel x86 platform driver area. This driver enables fan and temperature monitoring for those using this downstream version of Coreboot.
- Fan and temperature monitoring support
Driver Updates for AMD HSMP Driver
The AMD HSMP driver has been updated to add sysfs files for showing HSMP telemetry information. AMD HSMP is a system management driver for EPYC CPUs.
- Sysfs files for HSMP telemetry information
Driver Updates for AMD ISP Driver
The AMD ISP driver has been updated to add an AMD image signal processor (ISP) platform configuration for the OV05C10.
Driver Updates for Intel Speed Select Technology Driver
The Intel Speed Select Technology driver has been updated to add support for SST-TF v2 and SST-PP v2. Intel SST-TF plays an important role in the newest Intel Xeon 6 CPU models.
- Support for SST-TF v2
- Support for SST-PP v2
Driver Updates for Intel PMC Driver
The Intel PMC driver has been updated to split some of its code into a separate Intel SSRAM Telemetry driver. The SSRAM Telemetry driver can be enabled via the new INTEL_PMC_SSRAM_TELEMETRY Kconfig switch.
- Splitting of code into Intel SSRAM Telemetry driver
Driver Updates for NVIDIA Mellanox Platform Drivers
The NVIDIA Mellanox platform drivers have been updated to add support for the SN2201, SN4280, SN5610, and SN5640 hardware.
More Details on the x86 Platform Driver Updates
For more information on the many platform driver x86 updates, please refer to this pull request that has already been merged to Linux 6.16 Git. About The Author
Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.
“The Linux kernel is a powerful and flexible operating system that continues to evolve and improve with each new release.
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