Linux 5.13 Merge Window Kicks Off With Microsoft Surface Improvements, Gigabyte WMI Driver

Following yesterday's Linux 5.12 release the merge window for Linux 5.13 is officially open. One of the first pull requests of this new merge window is for the platform-drivers-x86 updates, which primarily encompass Intel/AMD Linux laptop driver support improvements and other related x86 platform drivers.

Hans de Goede of Red Hat has submitted the x86 platform drivers work for Linux 5.13. Notably this pull request includes a lot of work on Microsoft Surface laptops. There is now the Microsoft DTX driver for the Surface "Detachment System" for the laptop/tablet handling. Notably is now working keyboard and touchpad support on newer Microsoft Surface laptops. To now getting the working touchpad/keyboard on newer Microsoft Surface devices under Linux has required out-of-tree code but now all should be working well with Linux 5.13+.

Also significant is Platform Profile support for Microsoft Surface laptops so users can set their power/performance preference for altering the system behavior whether they are after best performance or battery life. These Microsoft Surface improvements for Linux continue to be hacked on by the community with the effort led by Maximilian Luz.

In addition to platform profile support for Microsoft Surface devices with Linux 5.13, this kernel also now supports HP Platform Profile support too for newer HP laptops. This support builds off the platform-profile code added in Linux 5.12 and now increasingly supported by the different laptop vendors.

Another notable addition with this pull request for the 5.13 kernel is the Gigabyte WMI temperature driver is there for allowing temperature sensors to work on newer Gigabyte consumer motherboard.

Rounding out this platform-drivers-x86 pull are Intel PMC driver improvements for Tiger Lake and Alder Lake along with various other bug fixes. The full list of patches can be found within this pull request.