Thermal backend replacement

[kuu-rt]

Hi tr1xem,

Do you plan on using the alienware-wmi upstream driver as a backend instead of acpi_call?

This has various benefits, as alienware-wmi already supports almost all AWCC models out of the box. It also reduces the maintenance load of this project as the upstream driver is externally maintained.

If this is in this project's plans I probably can help with that, either with PRs or code review.

Let me know what you think!

[tr1xem]

Hi Kurt,

Do you plan on using the Alienware WMI upstream driver as a backend instead of acpi_call?
This has various benefits, as Alienware-wmi already supports almost all AWCC models out of the box. It also reduces the maintenance load of this project as the upstream driver is externally maintained.

Yeah, I was thinking the same (so I could focus on LightFX more). If it's possible, it would be, but I have my fair share of doubts.

• By using the Alienware WMI driver as backend, do you mean the sysfs that WMI gives? If yes, then the WMI driver u made is for kernel 6.15+. Is there any way to support a lower kernel version? If no(probably using driver as a library??!!!), I would love to have a snippet on how I use Alienware-WMI in this program
• Alienware-WMI itself has device identification built in, which would more or less conflict with awcc's device database. What do u think the options we have(as adding a device to pd86x is so much slower than adding it to awcc's database.json)?
• Some devices do have weird stuff going on, like

  AWCC/src/AcpiUtils.cpp

  Line 21 in 865b372

  // NOTE: Dell is just doing some weird things with this device only it made

  and

  AWCC/src/Thermals.cpp

  Line 169 in 865b372

  if (deviceName.contains("Alienware Aurora R9")) {

  . Do u think we could make the driver cover all devices? (as I'm planning on extending it not only to laptops but also to desktops) I'm fine with contributing to drivers themselves too

Overall, this is quite a nice idea, looking forward to it if it's possible :>

[kuu-rt]

Means for aur its easy for other distro i guess we would need a install script

Maybe as a make target? I haven't dealt with DKMS, I will read about it.

yeah im force loading the module myself too

AFAIK your model is already whitelisted in stable. You can try to remove the force parameters.

just saw its great using sysfs could be a good idea Just have to figure out a way for quick installation for the kernel module on all distro would start working on once im done with my exams

GL!

I dont really understand xmp and tcc lol idk what they do I m planning on porting alienfx to linux :) lets see how it goes

XMP are memory overclock profiles and TCC limits the CPU temperature. Both are available to newer alienware laptops.

BTW, I checked on the Aurora issue, and it seems I already fixed it. The model is not whitelisted yet though, but that's easier.

[tr1xem]

Maybe as a make target? I haven't dealt with DKMS, I will read about it.

Yeah same here

AFAIK your model is already whitelisted in stable. You can try to remove the force parameters.

its in 6.18 while im on 6.17

XMP are memory overclock profiles and TCC limits the CPU temperature. Both are available to newer alienware laptops.

well that would be a great feature if u could add in driver would keep this in mind while gui rewrite

BTW, I checked on the Aurora issue, and it seems I already fixed it. The model is not whitelisted yet though, but that's easier.

GG!
https://github.com/tr1xem/AWCC/tree/wmi-interface would continue dev on this branch first thing is parser

[tr1xem]

Any pull requests are welcomed :>

[kuu-rt]

its in 6.18 while im on 6.17

Your patch was backported to 6.17. It should be available now.

GG! https://github.com/tr1xem/AWCC/tree/wmi-interface would continue dev on this branch first thing is parser

I'll get familiarized with the code and send a PR porting to the sysfs interface :)

[tr1xem]

Alright looking forward to it

[tr1xem]

@kuu-rt https://github.com/tr1xem/alienfx-linux/tree/main/AlienFan-SDK
here not much polished but yeah

[kuu-rt]

Hi Tr1xem,

The sysfs stuff looks fine but I'm not a big fan of the API. I haven't done C++ in years though.

Does it work? I'm going to try to get my hands on an alienware this weekend and test it.

[tr1xem]

I'm not a big fan of the API.

Its mostly a wrapper

Does it work? I'm going to try to get my hands on an alienware this weekend and test it.

Yeah it does its being used in alienfxcli(in same repo) just a test app