News: 0001466235

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Steam Deck Platform Driver In No Apparent Rush For Upstreaming Into The Linux Kernel

([Valve] 4 Hours Ago Steam Deck Platform Driver)


Back in February 2022 prior to the Valve Steam Deck being released, [1]a Steam Deck Platform Driver was posted for the Linux kernel. Sadly, more than two years later, this driver still hasn't been upstreamed into the mainline Linux kernel and it looks like it could still be months before it happens.

The Steam Deck platform driver for the Linux kernel is used for CPU/device fan controller, accessing the DDIC registers, battery temperature measurements, display-related settings, and USB Type-C event notifications.

Valve has been carrying a downstream version of this driver in their own kernel used by SteamOS and ships on the Steam Deck. But it's apparently not much of a priority for now getting it upstreamed.

[2]

After being quiet on the mailing list for over a year, finally in late April a user [3]asked about the state:

"I want to run the latest mainline kernels on the Steam Deck and came across some newer patches of yours (and others) in Valve's steamOS kernel that may(?) replace the ones from this thread. They seem to be required for properly handling input, thermals, etc on this device. I rebased and used them successfully on 6.9-rc5, and was curious what the status is of upstreaming these (e.g. as a V2 here)? It would be wonderful to have support for this device upstreamed."

To which the [4]response by developer Andrey Smirnov was:

"There's no particular timeline I can give you. I'll probably try to push a new version of the driver in the next couple of months, but that's as committal as I can be."

Andrey Smirnov has been working for Valve going back several years on various [5]SteamOS kernel changes and upstreaming . It looks though like it will still be some months potentially before the Steam Deck platform driver makes it into the mainline kernel for enhancing the upstream kernel support.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-Deck-Platform-Driver

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=2024&image=steam_deck_platform_lrg

[3] https://lore.kernel.org/platform-driver-x86/20240424084024.GC5670@craftyguy.net/

[4] https://lore.kernel.org/platform-driver-x86/CAHQ1cqEbc9kQOanHs=0Vir=yJpY_PnjUvAWV5LdeDoJn5XrXJQ@mail.gmail.com/

[5] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-HID-4.20-Xbox-Logitech



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The seven eyes of Ningauble the Wizard floated back to his hood as he
reported to Fafhrd: "I have seen much, yet cannot explain all. The Gray
Mouser is exactly twenty-five feet below the deepest cellar in the palace
of Gilpkerio Kistomerces. Even though twenty-four parts in twenty-five of
him are dead, he is alive.
"Now about Lankhmar. She's been invaded, her walls breached
everywhere and desperate fighting is going on in the streets, by a fierce
host which out-numbers Lankhamar's inhabitants by fifty to one -- and
equipped with all modern weapons. Yet you can save the city."
"How?" demanded Fafhrd.
Ningauble shrugged. "You're a hero. You should know."
-- Fritz Leiber, "The Swords of Lankhmar"