Steam Deck Platform Driver In No Apparent Rush For Upstreaming Into The Linux Kernel

Back in February 2022 prior to the Valve Steam Deck being released, a Steam Deck Platform Driver was posted for the Linux kernel. Sadly, more than two years later, this driver still hasn't been upstreamed into the mainline Linux kernel and it looks like it could still be months before it happens.

The Steam Deck platform driver for the Linux kernel is used for CPU/device fan controller, accessing the DDIC registers, battery temperature measurements, display-related settings, and USB Type-C event notifications.

Valve has been carrying a downstream version of this driver in their own kernel used by SteamOS and ships on the Steam Deck. But it's apparently not much of a priority for now getting it upstreamed.

After being quiet on the mailing list for over a year, finally in late April a user asked about the state:

"I want to run the latest mainline kernels on the Steam Deck and came across some newer patches of yours (and others) in Valve's steamOS kernel that may(?) replace the ones from this thread. They seem to be required for properly handling input, thermals, etc on this device. I rebased and used them successfully on 6.9-rc5, and was curious what the status is of upstreaming these (e.g. as a V2 here)? It would be wonderful to have support for this device upstreamed."

To which the response by developer Andrey Smirnov was:

"There's no particular timeline I can give you. I'll probably try to push a new version of the driver in the next couple of months, but that's as committal as I can be."

Andrey Smirnov has been working for Valve going back several years on various SteamOS kernel changes and upstreaming. It looks though like it will still be some months potentially before the Steam Deck platform driver makes it into the mainline kernel for enhancing the upstream kernel support.