Re: [PATCH 0/2] platform/x86: asus-armoury: add Whisper Mode support

[Denis Benato]

On 7/29/26 09:32, Hans de Goede wrote:
> Hi Marco,
>
> On 28-Jul-26 15:56, Marco Scardovi wrote:
>> In data martedì 28 luglio 2026 13:39:39 Ora legale dell’Europa centrale, Hans 
>> de Goede ha scritto:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Thank you for your patch.
>>>
>>> On 28-Jul-26 09:18, Marco Scardovi wrote:
>>>> This series introduces support for ASUS WMI Whisper Mode hardware controls
>>>> in the asus-wmi header and asus-armoury driver.
>>>>
>>>> Background & Findings:
>>>> ----------------------
>>>> After talking with Denis and thanks to NeuroMarshal reverse engineering
>>>> and
>>>> firmware trace analysis on modern ASUS laptops, three specific WMI Device
>>>> IDs were identified that manage acoustic profiles and thermal regulation
>>>> under ASUS Whisper Mode:
>>>>
>>>> 1. ASUS_WMI_DEVID_WHISPER_MODE (0x0012007A):
>>>>    - Controls the BIOS-level Whisper Mode acoustic profile toggle
>>>>    (read/write boolean).> 
>>>> 2. ASUS_WMI_DEVID_WHISPER_ENABLE (0x00090022):
>>>>    - Enables or disables Dynamic Whisper acoustic regulation (read/write
>>>>    boolean).> 
>>>> 3. ASUS_WMI_DEVID_WHISPER_STATUS (0x00090023):
>>>>    - Reports status and allows runtime control over Dynamic Whisper state
>>>>    (read/write boolean).
>>> I wonder how this interacts with the platform_profile stuff ?
>>>
>>> I would expect enabling whisper mode to lower the max performance,
>>> so does this automatically change the platform_profile away
>>> from performance when it is set to performance ?
>>>
>>> Note the platform_profile API is extensible. To me it seems more
>>> logical to expose this as a whisper mode platform-profile ?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Hans
>> Hi Hans,
>>
>> Thanks for the feedback!
>> Here you can find my opinions on your questions.
>>
>> 1. Interaction with platform_profile:
>> In ASUS laptops, where presents, Whisper Mode operates as an
>> independent boolean toggle/feature controlling fan acoustic target limits in
>> firmware/EC, rather than acting as a global thermal profile. Setting 
>> WHISPER_MODE or WHISPER_ENABLE via WMI sends a direct call to the EC/BIOS, 
>> which adjusts acoustic thresholds internally without altering the active 
>> platform_profile state (throttle_thermal_policy) in asus-wmi. IIRC on Windows 
>> it even permits to "hear" the ambient to make the fans run in a way to blend 
>> with the ambient noise.
>>
>> 2. platform_profile vs firmware_attributes (asus-armoury):
>> platform_profile is designed for mutually exclusive global power/thermal
>> modes (Quiet, Balanced, Performance). Whisper Mode, on the other hand, 
>> consists of independent BIOS feature toggles (0/1 controls for BIOS Whisper 
>> Mode, Dynamic Whisper Enable, and Status).
>> Since asus-armoury is dedicated to exposing BIOS/Armoury Crate firmware
>> attributes via fw_attributes_class (similar to nv_dynamic_boost,
>> nv_temp_target, panel_od, etc.), exposing these three WMI controls as
>> sysfs firmware attributes fits the overall design of asus-armoury much
>> better than extending platform_profile.
>>
>> I hope I've been of help. Feel free to let me know if you have more 
>> questions: I'll try to answer the best of my capacities.
> Thank you for clarifying things. Since the EC/BIOS interface sees this
> as 2 independent settings, I agree that exposing this as a firmware
> attr is the best way to expose this.
>
> Its a bit weird that one can select Performance profile and enable
> whisper mode at the same time. But if that is how the Asus firmware
> interfaces work, then that is how it is.
Hello Hans and Marco,

I agree that this is weird and we don't have a device with whisper mode,
but there is the possibility of the official windows app allowing whisper mode
only on certain modes: we would need to find someone with windows
to confirm this, but I also don't think binding whisper to quiet/low performance
is a bad idea.

My opinion is that either whisper gets its own profile and is a combination of
quiet + whisper set to 1 or we check what windows does since I don't want
to have hardware running in configurations that ASUS never intended to.

Best regards,
Denis
> Regards,
>
> Hans
>
>