Re: [PATCH v4 1/1] asus-wmi: Add support for custom fan curves

From: Luke Jones <luke@ljones.dev>
To: Bastien Nocera <hadess@hadess.net>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, hdegoede@redhat.com,
	platform-driver-x86@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 1/1] asus-wmi: Add support for custom fan curves
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2021 23:26:40 +1200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <GGIAYQ.PS5EB67PH64N@ljones.dev> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <7a8a8d56c4e6addfc41b5dd5262968bd169f538f.camel@hadess.net>

On Mon, Aug 23 2021 at 12:28:21 +0200, Bastien Nocera 
<hadess@hadess.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 2021-08-21 at 09:30 +1200, Luke Jones wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>  On Fri, Aug 20 2021 at 13:39:02 +0200, Bastien Nocera
>>  <hadess@hadess.net> wrote:
>>  > On Fri, 2021-08-20 at 23:00 +1200, Luke Jones wrote:
>>  > >
>>  > >
>>  > >  On Fri, Aug 20 2021 at 12:51:08 +0200, Bastien Nocera
>>  > >  <hadess@hadess.net> wrote:
>>  > >  > On Fri, 2021-08-20 at 12:43 +0200, Bastien Nocera wrote:
>>  > >  > >  On Fri, 2021-08-20 at 22:33 +1200, Luke Jones wrote:
>>  > >  > >  > > Am I going to get bug reports from Asus users that 
>> will
>>  > >  > > complain
>>  > >  > >  > > that
>>  > >  > >  > > power-profiles-daemon doesn't work correctly, where I
>>  > > will
>>  > >  > > have
>>  > >  > >  > > to
>>  > >  > >  > > wearily ask if they're using an Asus Rog laptop?
>>  > >  > >  >
>>  > >  > >  > No. Definitely not. The changes to fan curves 
>> per-profile
>>  > > need
>>  > >  > > to
>>  > >  > >  > be
>>  > >  > >  > explicitly enabled and set. So a new user will be 
>> unaware
>>  > > that
>>  > >  > > this
>>  > >  > >  > control exists (until they look for it) and their laptop
>>  > > will
>>  > >  > >  > behave
>>  > >  > >  > exactly as default.
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >  "The user will need to change the fan curves manually so
>>  > > will
>>  > >  > >  definitely remember to mention it in bug reports" is a 
>> very
>>  > >  > > different
>>  > >  > >  thing to "the user can't change the fan curves to be
>>  > > nonsensical
>>  > >  > > and
>>  > >  > >  mean opposite things".
>>  > >  > >
>>  > >  > >  I can assure you that I will eventually get bug reports
>>  > > from
>>  > >  > > "power
>>  > >  > >  users" who break their setup and wonder why things don't
>>  > > work
>>  > >  > >  properly,
>>  > >  > >  without ever mentioning the changes they made changes to
>>  > > the
>>  > > fan
>>  > >  > >  curves, or anything else they might have changed.
>>  > >  >
>>  > >  > A way to taint the settings that power-profiles-daemon could
>>  > > catch
>>  > >  > would be fine by me. I absolutely don't want to have to
>>  > > support
>>  > >  > somebody's tweaks until they undo them.
>>  > >
>>  > >  Definitely understood. Do you have something in mind?
>>  >
>>  > A sysfs attribute with boolean data that shows whether custom fan
>>  > curves are used would be enough.
>> 
>>  The path /sys/devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/active_fan_curve_profiles
>>  should be usable like this? I added this as the method for
>>  controlling
>>  which fan curves for which profiles are active.
>> 
>>  If empty, then no custom fan curves are active at all. If it 
>> contains
>>  any combination of strings "quiet, balanced, performance" then those
>>  associated (named) platform_profiles have an active fan curve and 
>> you
>>  can throw up a general warning, maybe add the contents of that file
>>  too?
> 
> That works for me, although I would probably have preferred a way that
> wasn't specific to the asus-wmi module, I'm sure I can made do with
> that.

Oh I see, you were looking to get a more general solution implemented? 
Maybe something like 
"/sys/devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/platform_profile_tainted"? This 
could be an opportunity to maybe make a standardised naming scheme for 
it.

If you want something like that I'll get it done for asus-wmi.

> 
> Thanks
> 