Re: [PATCH 0/2] platform/x86: asus-armoury: add Whisper Mode support

["Ilpo Järvinen" <ilpo.jarvinen@linux.intel.com>]

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On Wed, 29 Jul 2026, Marco Scardovi wrote:

> In data mercoledì 29 luglio 2026 15:34:28 Ora legale dell’Europa centrale, Denis Benato ha scritto:
> > 
> > On 7/29/26 15:22, Marco Scardovi wrote:
> > > In data mercoledì 29 luglio 2026 15:10:56 Ora legale dell’Europa centrale, Denis Benato ha scritto:
> > >> On 7/29/26 09:32, Hans de Goede wrote:
> > >>> Hi Marco,
> > >>>
> > >>> On 28-Jul-26 15:56, Marco Scardovi wrote:
> > >>>> In data martedì 28 luglio 2026 13:39:39 Ora legale dell’Europa centrale, Hans 
> > >>>> de Goede ha scritto:
> > >>>>> Hi,
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Thank you for your patch.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> On 28-Jul-26 09:18, Marco Scardovi wrote:
> > >>>>>> This series introduces support for ASUS WMI Whisper Mode hardware controls
> > >>>>>> in the asus-wmi header and asus-armoury driver.
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Background & Findings:
> > >>>>>> ----------------------
> > >>>>>> After talking with Denis and thanks to NeuroMarshal reverse engineering
> > >>>>>> and
> > >>>>>> firmware trace analysis on modern ASUS laptops, three specific WMI Device
> > >>>>>> IDs were identified that manage acoustic profiles and thermal regulation
> > >>>>>> under ASUS Whisper Mode:
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> 1. ASUS_WMI_DEVID_WHISPER_MODE (0x0012007A):
> > >>>>>>    - Controls the BIOS-level Whisper Mode acoustic profile toggle
> > >>>>>>    (read/write boolean).> 
> > >>>>>> 2. ASUS_WMI_DEVID_WHISPER_ENABLE (0x00090022):
> > >>>>>>    - Enables or disables Dynamic Whisper acoustic regulation (read/write
> > >>>>>>    boolean).> 
> > >>>>>> 3. ASUS_WMI_DEVID_WHISPER_STATUS (0x00090023):
> > >>>>>>    - Reports status and allows runtime control over Dynamic Whisper state
> > >>>>>>    (read/write boolean).
> > >>>>> I wonder how this interacts with the platform_profile stuff ?
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> I would expect enabling whisper mode to lower the max performance,
> > >>>>> so does this automatically change the platform_profile away
> > >>>>> from performance when it is set to performance ?
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Note the platform_profile API is extensible. To me it seems more
> > >>>>> logical to expose this as a whisper mode platform-profile ?
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Regards,
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Hans
> > >>>> Hi Hans,
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Thanks for the feedback!
> > >>>> Here you can find my opinions on your questions.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> 1. Interaction with platform_profile:
> > >>>> In ASUS laptops, where presents, Whisper Mode operates as an
> > >>>> independent boolean toggle/feature controlling fan acoustic target limits in
> > >>>> firmware/EC, rather than acting as a global thermal profile. Setting 
> > >>>> WHISPER_MODE or WHISPER_ENABLE via WMI sends a direct call to the EC/BIOS, 
> > >>>> which adjusts acoustic thresholds internally without altering the active 
> > >>>> platform_profile state (throttle_thermal_policy) in asus-wmi. IIRC on Windows 
> > >>>> it even permits to "hear" the ambient to make the fans run in a way to blend 
> > >>>> with the ambient noise.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> 2. platform_profile vs firmware_attributes (asus-armoury):
> > >>>> platform_profile is designed for mutually exclusive global power/thermal
> > >>>> modes (Quiet, Balanced, Performance). Whisper Mode, on the other hand, 
> > >>>> consists of independent BIOS feature toggles (0/1 controls for BIOS Whisper 
> > >>>> Mode, Dynamic Whisper Enable, and Status).
> > >>>> Since asus-armoury is dedicated to exposing BIOS/Armoury Crate firmware
> > >>>> attributes via fw_attributes_class (similar to nv_dynamic_boost,
> > >>>> nv_temp_target, panel_od, etc.), exposing these three WMI controls as
> > >>>> sysfs firmware attributes fits the overall design of asus-armoury much
> > >>>> better than extending platform_profile.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I hope I've been of help. Feel free to let me know if you have more 
> > >>>> questions: I'll try to answer the best of my capacities.
> > >>> Thank you for clarifying things. Since the EC/BIOS interface sees this
> > >>> as 2 independent settings, I agree that exposing this as a firmware
> > >>> attr is the best way to expose this.
> > >>>
> > >>> Its a bit weird that one can select Performance profile and enable
> > >>> whisper mode at the same time. But if that is how the Asus firmware
> > >>> interfaces work, then that is how it is.
> > >> Hello Hans and Marco,
> > >>
> > >> I agree that this is weird and we don't have a device with whisper mode,
> > >> but there is the possibility of the official windows app allowing whisper mode
> > >> only on certain modes: we would need to find someone with windows
> > >> to confirm this, but I also don't think binding whisper to quiet/low performance
> > >> is a bad idea.
> > >>
> > >> My opinion is that either whisper gets its own profile and is a combination of
> > >> quiet + whisper set to 1 or we check what windows does since I don't want
> > >> to have hardware running in configurations that ASUS never intended to.
> > >>
> > >> Best regards,
> > >> Denis
> > >>> Regards,
> > >>>
> > >>> Hans
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > > Hi Denis,
> > > I made more checks on Whisper Mode and find out why it isn't under a single
> > > power profile: it works the contrary of power profiles.
> > >
> > > To be more specific: while power profiles tends to match the fans with the
> > > TDP, in Whisper Mode it sets the max power (if under performance) but cut
> > > it if the dB/RPMs are too high to respect the Whisper Mode. So it basically
> > > works for any power profiles but instead of pushing up the fans to cool the
> > > CPU/GPU, it kills the power to maintain the loudness in check
> > Alright, perfect.
> > > Let me know if it is a feature you want or not. If we end up deciding to kill
> > > it feel free to let me know.
> > Yes I want this to be in the kernel: I simply don't want to do things that
> > were never intended to be done, other than that I have no reservations.
> > 
> > So you have my OK with these.
> > 
> > 
> > Thank you,
> > Denis
> > 
> > > Best regards,
> > > Marco
> > >
> > >
> > 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I've made more and more studies about Whisper Mode and dumped my own laptop
> to set my mind straight about Whisper Mode, because I had some more doubts
> about it.
> 
> TL;DR: Adding Whisper Mode is not useful for our drivers.
> TL;DR 2: Whisper Mode enables only when power profile Quiet is set.
> 
> Whole version:
> After dumping the ACPI DSDT tables and testing runtime calls via a diagnostic 
> module on real hardware, I verified that the Embedded Controller (EC) automatically 
> manages Whisper Mode acoustic capping whenever `platform_profile` is set to "quiet" 
> (thermal policy 0x00120075 = 2).
> 
> This behavior applies to both internal hardware and connected eGPUs. Because the 
> EC handles Whisper Mode natively within the quiet profile, discrete queries/writes 
> to WMI IDs 0x0012007A and 0x00090022 return 0xFFFFFFFE (unsupported). 
> 
> Therefore, exposing standalone Whisper Mode sysfs attributes is unnecessary, 
> as `platform_profile = quiet` already provides full Whisper Mode functionality.

Okay. Nevermind my other email, I wrote it before noticing this (I finally 
have time to clear my long backlog of unanswered things after the Summer).

-- 
 i.