The modular/upgradeable Framework Laptops employ an open-source embedded controller (EC) firmware derived from Google's Chrome OS EC project. This is great for open-source fans and allows re-using much of the same Chrome OS EC software support that already exists. But there is also vendor-specific commands supported by the Framework Laptop EC and thus a dedicated Linux kernel driver is now being worked on for handling those vendor/device-specific features.

It's been a delight that the latest Framework Laptops have an open-source embedded controller. In addition to the upstream commands supported by the Chrome OS EC firmware, Framework has also begun implementing some vendor-specific commands to which a Linux kernel driver is now needed for support rather than just relying on Google's standard driver.

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Linux developer Thomas Weißschuh posted a set of patches on Sunday for introducing the "cros_ec_framework_laptop" driver as a kernel driver specifically designed for supporting the Framework Laptop EC. The initial vendor-specific commands supported by this driver are for battery charging thresholds.

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With this driver, battery charging thresholds can be configured by the user with the standardized "charge_control_end_threshold" sysfs attribute.

Those interested in this new Framework Laptop EC Linux driver can find the initial patches on [3]the kernel mailing list where it's now undergoing review.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/review/framework-13-amd

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/review/framework-laptop-16

[3] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20240505-cros_ec-framework-v1-0-402662d6276b@weissschuh.net/