Back during the Linux 6.13 kernel cycle [1]initial support for many (pre-M1) Apple devices were upstreamed including various iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices. That though was the very preliminary support and continuing to work their way upstream are various drivers/patches to further enhance the support. Now for the Linux 6.15 kernel is a new Apple backlight driver for controlling the backlight on various mobile Apple devices.

Being worked on for a while has been the [2]Apple DWI backlight driver for supporting different iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad devices that feature LCD panels. That driver was sent out today as part of the Linux 6.15 backlight driver pull request.

This new driver implements the support for the Apple DWI 2-wire interface. The initial DeviceTree files for the Apple DWI backlight driver add it for the s5l8960x, t7000, s8000, t8010, and t8015.

The introduction of this Apple DWI backlight driver is the main highlight of today's [3]v6.15 backlight pull request .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.13-Better-Apple-Pre-M1

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Apple-DWI-Backlight-Linux-v4

[3] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20250328141215.GC7190@google.com/