Linux 5.2 Ups Laptop Support From A New Intel Power Button Driver To Better Ryzen Input

Written by Michael Larabel in Hardware on 13 May 2019 at 02:52 AM EDT. 8 Comments
HARDWARE
Both Intel and AMD laptop hardware are seeing various improvements coming with the in-development Linux 5.2 kernel.

First up, Linux 5.2 will finally offer better compatibility with many AMD Ryzen laptops out there... In particular, as previously covered, the new AMD PCIe MP2 I2C controller driver has been merged and allows many laptop touchpads / touchscreens to finally function accordingly under Linux. It has taken a long time for this AMD driver to get into shape for mainline but it's here with Linux 5.2 to finally provide out-of-the-box/working touchpad/touchscreen support without requiring an out-of-tree DKMS module or hitting other snags.

The AMD PCIe MP2 I2C controller driver is the headlining feature of the I2C pull request for the ongoing Linux 5.2 merge window.

Meanwhile on the Intel laptop front, the platform-drivers-x86 pull has a few goodies. There is a new "intel_mrfld_pwrbtn" driver providing Intel Basin Cove power button support as found on some Merrifield-based devices. It's about time on that front with the Atom Merrifield products having come out back in 2014.

Other laptop work includes the ASUS WMI driver now having Fn lock mode switch support, switching from a blacklist to whitelist for dealing with non-working WiFi on newer Lenovo IdeaPad systems, EC information on newer Lenovo ThnkPads is now properly recognized, and various other quirks/fixes.

Plus the tons of Linux 5.2 improvements in general will surely please many Intel/AMD laptop owners once switching over to this new kernel that will debut as stable in July.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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