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⇱ Linux's Power Sequencing PCIe M.2 Driver To Support M.2 Key-E Connectors - Phoronix


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Linux's Power Sequencing PCIe M.2 Driver To Support M.2 Key-E Connectors

Written by Michael Larabel in Hardware on 13 April 2026 at 05:03 AM EDT. Add A Comment
Merged for the Linux 7.0 kernel was a power sequencing driver for PCIe M.2 connectors as part of an effort to allow describing PCIe M.2 connectors in Device Tree files. For Linux 7.1, that driver is extending support for PCIe M.2 Key E connectors.

Qualcomm engineers worked through the support for extending the "pwrseq-pcie-m2" drivers to also support PCIe M.2 Key E connectors, such as is used commonly for wireless WiFi/Bluetooth adapters, some NFC devices, and more.

👁 Qualcomm Key E wireless adapter


Manivannan Sadhasivam of Qualcomm explained in enabling the Key E connectors in this power sequencing driver:
"Add support for handling the power sequence of the PCIe M.2 Key E connectors. These connectors are used to attach the Wireless Connectivity devices to the host machine including combinations of WiFi, BT, NFC using interfaces such as PCIe/SDIO for WiFi, USB/UART for BT and I2C for NFC.

Currently, this driver supports only the PCIe interface for WiFi and UART interface for BT. The driver also only supports driving the 3.3v/1.8v power supplies and W_DISABLE{1/2}# GPIOs. The optional signals of the Key E connectors are not currently supported."

This support is the heart of the power sequencing pull request already sent out for the now-open Linux 7.1 merge window.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.