[PATCH v3] apple-gmux: preserve brightness using EFI

From: Atharva Tiwari

Date: Wed Feb 11 2026 - 04:27:12 EST


Make apple-gmux save the current backlight brightness to EFI on shutdown,
so the brightness level is preserved across reboots.

(tested on iMac20,1)

Signed-off-by: Atharva Tiwari <atharvatiwarilinuxdev@xxxxxxxxx>
---
v3:
- Only save the brightness when it differs from the boot brightness.
v2:
- Used correct size for efi_data
---
drivers/platform/x86/apple-gmux.c | 61 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 61 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/platform/x86/apple-gmux.c b/drivers/platform/x86/apple-gmux.c
index 1417e230edbd..08b9f48c11b8 100644
--- a/drivers/platform/x86/apple-gmux.c
+++ b/drivers/platform/x86/apple-gmux.c
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
#include <linux/pci.h>
#include <linux/vga_switcheroo.h>
#include <linux/debugfs.h>
+#include <linux/efi.h>
#include <acpi/video.h>
#include <asm/io.h>

@@ -78,6 +79,11 @@ struct apple_gmux_data {
/* debugfs data */
u8 selected_port;
struct dentry *debug_dentry;
+
+ /* efi data */
+ efi_status_t efi_status;
+ u32 efi_attr;
+ u16 efi_data;
};

static struct apple_gmux_data *apple_gmux_data;
@@ -107,6 +113,9 @@ struct apple_gmux_config {

# define MMIO_GMUX_MAX_BRIGHTNESS 0xffff

+#define EFI_BRIGHTNESS_NAME L"backlight-level"
+#define EFI_BRIGHTNESS_GUID EFI_GUID(0x7c436110, 0xab2a, 0x4bbb, 0xa8, 0x80, 0xfe, 0x41, 0x99, 0x5c, 0x9f, 0x82)
+
static u8 gmux_pio_read8(struct apple_gmux_data *gmux_data, int port)
{
return inb(gmux_data->iostart + port);
@@ -751,6 +760,35 @@ static void gmux_fini_debugfs(struct apple_gmux_data *gmux_data)
debugfs_remove_recursive(gmux_data->debug_dentry);
}

+#ifdef CONFIG_EFI
+MODULE_IMPORT_NS("EFIVAR");
+static void gmux_init_efi(struct apple_gmux_data *gmux_data)
+{
+ unsigned long size = sizeof(gmux_data->efi_data);
+
+ gmux_data->efi_status = EFI_UNSUPPORTED;
+
+ if (!efi_rt_services_supported(EFI_RT_SUPPORTED_SET_VARIABLE))
+ return;
+
+ if (efivar_lock())
+ return;
+
+ gmux_data->efi_status = efivar_get_variable(EFI_BRIGHTNESS_NAME, &EFI_BRIGHTNESS_GUID,
+ &gmux_data->efi_attr, &size, &gmux_data->efi_data);
+
+ efivar_unlock();
+}
+
+#else /* CONFIG_EFI */
+
+static void gmux_init_efi(struct apple_gmux_data *gmux_data)
+{
+ return;
+}
+
+#endif /* CONFIG_EFI */
+
static int gmux_suspend(struct device *dev)
{
struct pnp_dev *pnp = to_pnp_dev(dev);
@@ -960,6 +998,8 @@ static int gmux_probe(struct pnp_dev *pnp, const struct pnp_device_id *id)
}

gmux_init_debugfs(gmux_data);
+ gmux_init_efi(gmux_data);
+
return 0;

err_register_handler:
@@ -1012,6 +1052,26 @@ static void gmux_remove(struct pnp_dev *pnp)
kfree(gmux_data);
}

+static void gmux_shutdown(struct pnp_dev *pnp)
+{
+ struct apple_gmux_data *gmux_data = pnp_get_drvdata(pnp);
+ u16 brightness = (u16)gmux_get_brightness(gmux_data->bdev);
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_EFI
+ if (gmux_data->efi_status == EFI_SUCCESS && gmux_data->efi_data != brightness) {
+ gmux_data->efi_status = efivar_set_variable(EFI_BRIGHTNESS_NAME,
+ &EFI_BRIGHTNESS_GUID,
+ gmux_data->efi_attr,
+ sizeof(brightness),
+ &brightness);
+ if (gmux_data->efi_status != EFI_SUCCESS)
+ pr_info("Unable to save brightness: 0x%lx\n", gmux_data->efi_status);
+ }
+#endif /* CONFIG_EFI */
+
+ gmux_remove(pnp);
+}
+
static const struct pnp_device_id gmux_device_ids[] = {
{GMUX_ACPI_HID, 0},
{"", 0}
@@ -1026,6 +1086,7 @@ static struct pnp_driver gmux_pnp_driver = {
.name = "apple-gmux",
.probe = gmux_probe,
.remove = gmux_remove,
+ .shutdown = gmux_shutdown,
.id_table = gmux_device_ids,
.driver = {
.pm = &gmux_dev_pm_ops,
--
2.43.0