hp_set_attribute(9)

💅 hp_set_attribute — the kernel API manual, bestie edition

ok so real talk: this is hp_set_attribute(9), and yes it's from the Kernel API Manual. Buckle up, it's a short one but it's iconic 💖

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✨ NAME ✨

hp_set_attribute — and honestly the original literally just trails off after the dash with nothing. no description. a mystery. main character energy but make it silent 🫥 so we're gonna find out what she does in a sec, iykyk.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int hp_set_attribute (const char *a_name , const char *a_value );

like, that's it. two strings in, one int out. she's simple, she's efficient, she's literally doing her job 🎀

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• a_name — the attribute name 🏷️ like, which attribute are we talking about
• a_value — the attribute value ✨ the new thing you're shoving into that attribute

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🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

okay so the whole vibe: sets an attribute to a new value. that's the sentence. that's the whole thing. lowkey iconic for how little it says while still being technically complete 💀

and it returns:

• zero on success — yay, slay, it worked 🎉
• -ENODEV if the device is not found 😭 like she looked around and there was just nobody there
• -EINVAL if the instance of 'Setup Admin' password is not found 🙈 yeah, that exact string, capital letters and all — it's giving "very specific requirement," periodt
• -ENOMEM when it's unable to allocate memory 😵‍💫 the classic "no thoughts, no RAM" moment

ngl that's genuinely the whole description. no extra lore. no hidden features. just vibes and error codes 🧚

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• kernel file ./drivers/platform/x86/hp/hp-bioscfg/biosattr-interface.c — that's where she lives, go say hi 🌈
• hp_wmi_perform_query(9)
• hp_ascii_to_utf16_unicode(9)
• hp_wmi_set_bios_setting(9)

all of them, linked together, fr fr — the whole friendship group 🫶

quick heads up bestie 💀 the original page never spells out a longer prose description in NAME, and the DESCRIPTION is literally one line plus the return codes. don't go expecting more, because there isn't more. what you see is what you get, no cap.

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and that's the page!! 🍓 this absolutely iconic little doc came out of ./drivers/platform/x86/hp/hp-b... (that's the source line, truncated exactly like that in the footer, no I'm not fixing it, we respect the original 💅) and it's dated October 2026 ✨ bye bestie, go set some attributes responsibly 💜