Linux 7.1 Lands The Apple SMC Power Driver For Reporting Battery Metrics On MacBooks

The Linux Multi-Function Device "MFD" subsystem changes were merged this week for Linux 7.1 ahead of the merge window closing on Sunday.

With this merge, the Apple SMC power driver is now wired up. The Apple SMC power driver has been coming together in recent months for the mainline kernel after originally being worked on by Hector Martin for Asahi Linux.

The patch wiring up the macsmc-power driver to the MFD core is now in place for in turn being able to report the AC status, battery charging status, and power metrics of Apple Silicon MacBooks under the mainline kernel. It was during the power supply merge for the Linux 7.1 cycle last week where the actual macsmc-power driver code was merged to then be enabled with this MFD pull.

While this driver has been available under Asahi Linux, for getting it into the mainline kernel required refactoring the code for making it upstream acceptable as well as adding support for newer SMC firmware versions and making other improvements.

Meanwhile for the Intel Low Power Subsystem "LPSS" the new PCI device IDs are added for next-gen Nova Lake H platforms.

See the MFD pull for the full list of merged multi-function device driver changes now part of the Linux 7.1 kernel.