GPD Win Max (2020)

Device	Status
Video	Working
Wireless	Working
Ethernet	Working
Bluetooth	Working
Audio	Working
Keyboard	Working
Controller	Working
Touchscreen	Working
MicroSD Slot	Working
Function/Multimedia Keys	Working
Suspend/Resume	Working

Notes for the GPD Win Max (2020 model), a hybrid UMPC and portable gaming device.

Fixes

Screen

EDID

The screen configuration is not correctly read, therefore the EDID has to be supplied and loaded separately.

Copy the EDID from Windows, or generate the EDID binary (data supplied by the GPD community), e.g. WinMaxEDID.bin:

# echo "AP///////wAJ5QMAAwAAAAEdAQOACxF4LwAAoFdJmyYQSE8AAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBwhogUDAAEFAQEDIAbKwAAAAYAAAA/ABUVjA4MFdVTS1OTDAKAAAA/QA8PBAQBwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMM=" | base64 --decode > WinMaxEDID.bin

Then copy the binary to /usr/lib/firmware/edid. As root:

# mkdir /usr/lib/firmware/edid
# cp WinMaxEDID.bin /usr/lib/firmware/edid/

Make it available on early boot, e.g. by editing the FILES section in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf if mkinitcpio is used.

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf

[...]
FILES=(/usr/lib/firmware/edid/WinMaxEDID.bin)
[...]

Finally, add drm.edid_firmware=eDP-1:edid/WinMaxEDID.bin to the Kernel parameters.

Screen rotation

This device uses a portrait screen.

To rotate the virtual console, add fbcon:rotate=1 to the Kernel parameters.

To rotate the login manager or graphical session, refer to the respective configuration files and/or applications.

Example: To rotate GDM, see here: GDM#Setup default monitor settings

Keyboard

Mute Key

The mute key does not send a release code. To fix it, create a new udev hwdb file under /etc/udev/hwdb.d/, and configure the key to trigger an automatic release event.

/etc/udev/hwdb.d/90-gpd-rules.hwdb

evdev:atkbd:dmi:bvn*:bvr*:bd*:svnGPD:pnG1619-01:pvr*
 KEYBOARD_KEY_a0=!mute

Notes

Custom fixed Arch ISO

If you want to make an Arch ISO image fixed to work on the Win Max, this is the way to do it on Arch. Take note on how you named and where you placed your EDID binary, in this example it is found under /usr/lib/firmware/edid/WinMaxEDID.bin.

Install the archiso package, then run:

# mkdir -p /opt/archiso/isos
# cp -r /usr/share/archiso/configs/releng /opt/archiso/
# mkdir -p /opt/archiso/releng/airootfs/usr/lib/firmware/edid
# cp /usr/lib/firmware/edid/WinMaxEDID.bin /opt/archiso/releng/airootfs/usr/lib/firmware/edid/

Now edit /opt/archiso/releng/airootfs/etc/mkinitcpio.conf so that the FILES section looks like this:

FILES=(/usr/lib/firmware/edid/WinMaxEDID.bin)

Also edit the files in /opt/archiso/releng/efiboot/loader/entries/ so that the "options" line includes

drm.edid_firmware=eDP-1:edid/WinMaxEDID.bin fbcon=rotate:1

Finally build the file:

# mkarchiso -v -w /tmp/archiso -o /opt/archiso/isos /opt/archiso/releng

This can take a few minutes, depending on the system. The resulting WinMax-fixed official Arch image will then be under /opt/archiso/isos.