MSI Claw handheld looks like it may get better Linux support

A new draft patch series for the Linux kernel has been submitted, which should hopefully bring up expanded support for the MSI Claw handheld.

From developer Antheas Kapenekakis the draft patch series brings the msi-wmi-platform driver into parity with the MSI Center M for Windows for all models of the MSI Claw. So this should include fan curves, power controls and more.

As Kapenekakis explains:

This draft patch series brings into parity the msi-wmi-platform driver with the MSI Center M Windows application for the MSI Claw (all models). Unfortunately, MSI Center M and this interface do not have a discovery API, necessitating the introduction of a quirk system.

While this patch series is fully functional and tested, there are still some issues that need to be addressed:

• Armin notes we need to disable fan curve support by default and quirk it as well, as it is not supported on all models. However, the way PWM enable ops work, this makes it a bit difficult, so I would like some suggestions on how to rework this.
• It turns out that to fully disable the fan curve, we have to restore the default fan values. This is also what is done on the OEM software. For this, the last patch in the series is used, which is a bit dirty.

Sleep was tested with all values being preserved during S0iX (platform profile, fan curve, PL1/PL2), so we do not need suspend/resume hooks, at least for the Claw devices.

Since it's a draft there's still plenty that could change before it's accepted, merged and in a later Linux kernel release. Nice to see more work for various handhelds though, since it's a constantly expanding market. We also have work ongoing from the Manjaro team for the new ZOTAC ZONE with AMD and Valve with the Legion Go S with SteamOS.

Source: Phoronix