Queued yesterday into the platform-drivers-x86.git's "for-next" branch are the patches for the Lenovo ThinkPad ACPI driver to begin reporting damaged device detection. This code being in the "for-next" branch makes it material for the next version of the Linux kernel and initially will be able to report to the user on damaged USB-C ports.

A month ago I wrote about patches being under review for [1]detecting hardware damage under Linux for ThinkPads . This is based on functionality baked into newer ThinkPads and initially is tailored around reporting on damage to USB-C replaceable connectors. With time we'll see if this damaged hardware detection is rolled out to more components within ThinkPad laptops.

With the initial patches last month there was just a simple hardware damage status of damaged / not damaged. With this code in the x86 platform driver's for-next branch, /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/hwdd_status is added for indicating the hardware damage "HWDD" status of damaged or not damaged. Via /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/hwdd_detail is then for providing more details on any hardware damage, such as the the physical location of the damaged USB-C port on the laptop, such as " TYPE-C: Base, Right side, Center port "

[2]

Useful information to know if the USB-C damage may not be so physically visible to the end-user. With [3]this patch and [4]that patch making it into the for-next branch at this time, it should be submitted as material for the upcoming Linux 6.20~7.0 kernel cycle.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/ThinkPad-Hardware-Damage-Linux

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=2026&image=thinkpad_usbc_lrg

[3] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/pdx86/platform-drivers-x86.git/commit/?h=for-next&id=28c43bddd0fa8999533feba8be9dc0583eaed281

[4] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/pdx86/platform-drivers-x86.git/commit/?h=for-next&id=a85503d541eafce9b4d73d509c1e341401a86d85