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 15:10:56 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

Thus, it effectively makes it yet another profile in between the others 
and blocks higher-end profiles from operating "normally". Either whisper 
mode does something or doesn't.

Some (low-end) platform profiles will never need any cutting and for the 
profiles towards the high-end whisper mode behavior as described above 
inhibits the actual profile set and uses the whisper "profile" somewhere 
in between instead.

(The wildcard here is if it actually senses/records ambient noise level 
and adapts the in-between profile somehow but it's still an in-between 
mode, just the cut-off point will vary.)

This is not to suggest we diverge from how it is represented as a 
separate configurable but it still, on fundamendal level, looks just 
another profile to me.

> 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.

-- 
 i.