[PATCH] drm/amd/display: Force PWM backlight on Lenovo Legion 5 15ARH05

From: Alessandro Rinaldi

Date: Fri Jun 26 2026 - 11:23:49 EST


The Lenovo Legion 5 15ARH05 (Renoir) ships a BOE 0x08DF eDP panel that
advertises AUX/DPCD backlight control, so amdgpu's automatic detection
(amdgpu_backlight == -1) selects AUX. On this panel the AUX backlight
path has no effect: brightness writes are accepted but the panel level
never changes, the display is stuck at a fixed brightness and
max_brightness is reported as a bogus 511000. As a result neither the
desktop brightness slider nor the brightness hotkeys do anything.

Forcing PWM backlight (amdgpu.backlight=0) restores working control:
max_brightness becomes 65535 and the level tracks writes. This has long
been applied by users as a manual kernel-parameter workaround.

Extend the generic panel backlight quirk with a force_pwm flag, add an
entry for the Legion 5 15ARH05 / BOE 0x08DF panel, and have amdgpu
disable AUX backlight (use PWM) when the quirk matches and the user
lets the driver auto-select the backlight type.

Signed-off-by: Alessandro Rinaldi <ale@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Tested-by: Alessandro Rinaldi <ale@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
This overlaps with the "force backlight type" patches for TUXEDO devices
(amd and i915). If a single shared mechanism for forcing PWM is preferred,
I'm happy to respin on top of it.

.../gpu/drm/amd/display/amdgpu_dm/amdgpu_dm_backlight.c | 7 +++++--
drivers/gpu/drm/drm_panel_backlight_quirks.c | 9 +++++++++
include/drm/drm_utils.h | 1 +
3 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/amd/display/amdgpu_dm/amdgpu_dm_backlight.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/amd/display/amdgpu_dm/amdgpu_dm_backlight.c
index f19092a32..9ae1c1b0f 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/amd/display/amdgpu_dm/amdgpu_dm_backlight.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/amd/display/amdgpu_dm/amdgpu_dm_backlight.c
@@ -486,6 +486,8 @@ void amdgpu_dm_update_connector_ext_caps(struct amdgpu_dm_connector *aconnector)
caps->ext_caps = &aconnector->dc_link->dpcd_sink_ext_caps;
caps->aux_support = false;

+ panel_backlight_quirk = drm_get_panel_backlight_quirk(aconnector->drm_edid);
+
if (caps->ext_caps->bits.oled == 1
/*
* ||
@@ -498,6 +500,9 @@ void amdgpu_dm_update_connector_ext_caps(struct amdgpu_dm_connector *aconnector)
caps->aux_support = false;
else if (amdgpu_backlight == 1)
caps->aux_support = true;
+ else if (!IS_ERR_OR_NULL(panel_backlight_quirk) &&
+ panel_backlight_quirk->force_pwm)
+ caps->aux_support = false;
if (caps->aux_support)
aconnector->dc_link->backlight_control_type = BACKLIGHT_CONTROL_AMD_AUX;

@@ -513,8 +518,6 @@ void amdgpu_dm_update_connector_ext_caps(struct amdgpu_dm_connector *aconnector)
else
caps->aux_min_input_signal = 1;

- panel_backlight_quirk =
- drm_get_panel_backlight_quirk(aconnector->drm_edid);
if (!IS_ERR_OR_NULL(panel_backlight_quirk)) {
if (panel_backlight_quirk->min_brightness) {
caps->min_input_signal =
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_panel_backlight_quirks.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_panel_backlight_quirks.c
index 537dc6dd0..2d0238382 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_panel_backlight_quirks.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_panel_backlight_quirks.c
@@ -21,6 +21,15 @@ struct drm_get_panel_backlight_quirk {
};

static const struct drm_get_panel_backlight_quirk drm_panel_min_backlight_quirks[] = {
+ /* Lenovo Legion 5 15ARH05, AUX backlight non-functional, force PWM */
+ {
+ .dmi_match.field = DMI_SYS_VENDOR,
+ .dmi_match.value = "LENOVO",
+ .dmi_match_other.field = DMI_PRODUCT_VERSION,
+ .dmi_match_other.value = "Lenovo Legion 5 15ARH05",
+ .ident.panel_id = drm_edid_encode_panel_id('B', 'O', 'E', 0x08df),
+ .quirk = { .force_pwm = true, },
+ },
/* 13 inch matte panel */
{
.dmi_match.field = DMI_BOARD_VENDOR,
diff --git a/include/drm/drm_utils.h b/include/drm/drm_utils.h
index 6a46f755d..7e077484c 100644
--- a/include/drm/drm_utils.h
+++ b/include/drm/drm_utils.h
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ int drm_get_panel_orientation_quirk(int width, int height);
struct drm_panel_backlight_quirk {
u16 min_brightness;
u32 brightness_mask;
+ bool force_pwm;
};

const struct drm_panel_backlight_quirk *
--
2.53.0