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

[Denis Benato]

On 7/29/26 15:22, Marco Scardovi wrote:
> In data mercoledì 29 luglio 2026 15:10:56 Ora legale dell’Europa centrale, Denis Benato ha scritto:
>> 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
>>>
>>>
> Hi Denis,
> I made more checks on Whisper Mode and find out why it isn't under a single
> power profile: it works the contrary of power profiles.
>
> To be more specific: while power profiles tends to match the fans with the
> TDP, in Whisper Mode it sets the max power (if under performance) but cut
> it if the dB/RPMs are too high to respect the Whisper Mode. So it basically
> works for any power profiles but instead of pushing up the fans to cool the
> CPU/GPU, it kills the power to maintain the loudness in check
Alright, perfect.
> Let me know if it is a feature you want or not. If we end up deciding to kill
> it feel free to let me know.
Yes I want this to be in the kernel: I simply don't want to do things that
were never intended to be done, other than that I have no reservations.

So you have my OK with these.


Thank you,
Denis

> Best regards,
> Marco
>
>