Linux Prepping For "Extreme" Mode On Lenovo Legion Devices
Derek Clark who has been leading the efforts around Lenovo Legion gaming drivers for Linux and ensuring good support for the Lenovo Legion Go handheld on Linux sent out a new Linux patch series this weekend.
This new patch series preps the Lenovo WMI GameZone driver for an "Extreme" platform profile but one that isn't currently reliable with existing Lenovo devices/firmware. However, plumbing this mode does ultimately address some unexpected "Performance" mode behavior for devices on Linux. With some devices when users have run Linux and switched to the performance platform profile it hasn't matched expectations. Derek Clark explained with the patch series:
And further adding within the last patch of the series:
The patch series is now out for review of this latest improvement to the Lenovo WMI GameZone driver.
This new patch series preps the Lenovo WMI GameZone driver for an "Extreme" platform profile but one that isn't currently reliable with existing Lenovo devices/firmware. However, plumbing this mode does ultimately address some unexpected "Performance" mode behavior for devices on Linux. With some devices when users have run Linux and switched to the performance platform profile it hasn't matched expectations. Derek Clark explained with the patch series:
"This series adds a new "extreme" platform profile mode and uses it for the lenovo-wmi-gamezone driver. It also prevents bugs that are being reported by some users by switching the current deny list to an allow list. Currently there are no validated models, so I've removeed the unused quirk until something is added to avoid the warning.
On some Lenovo Legion devices there is a thermal mode called extreme that corresponds to setting ppt/spl vlaues to the maximum achievable by the cooling solution. This correlates strongly with an overall power draw that exceeds the DC power draw capability of the internal battery. This mode is stubbed in multiple devices that incorrectly report the capability as supported. Previously this mode was quirked out for known problem models, but I've since got multiple bug reports of additional models that cause issues. Additionally, this mode being mapped to performance when extreme mode is detected as supported, with the actual performance mode being set to balanced-performance, has led to some misinformation being promulgated that performance is always a bad setting in Linux for these devices. There is also some confusion that the mode labeled performance in userspace, which corresponds to a red LED in Windows, shows as purple when set using the hardware extreme mode."
And further adding within the last patch of the series:
"The stubbed extreme mode issue seems to be more prevalent than previously thought with multiple users having reported BIOS bugs from setting "performance" when using userspace tools such as PPD. To avoid this ever being possible, make enabling extreme mode an explicit allow list instead. These users will still be able to set extreme mode using the Fn+Q keyboard chord, so no functionality is lost. Currently no models have been validated with extreme mode."
The patch series is now out for review of this latest improvement to the Lenovo WMI GameZone driver.