[PATCH] drm/doc: Clarify the dumb object interfaces

Laurent Pinchart laurent.pinchart at ideasonboard.com
Sun Jan 26 14:59:35 PST 2014


Hi Daniel,

Thank you for the patch.

On Friday 24 January 2014 17:58:40 Daniel Vetter wrote:
> - This is _not_ a generic interface to create gem objects, but just an
>   interface to make early boot services (like boot splash) with a
>   generic KMS userspace driver possible. Hence it's better to move
>   the documentation for this from the GEM section to the KMS section,
>   next to the creation of framebuffer objects.
> 
> - Make it really clear that the returned handle isn't necessarily a
>   GEM object (it can also be e.g. a TTM handle when running on top of
>   vmwgfx).
> 
> - Add a paragraph to make it clear that this is just for unaccelarated
>   userspace - gpu drivers need to have their own buffer object
>   creation ioctl which is hardware specific.
> 
> v2: Clarify that the documentation doesn't just apply to GEM-based
> drivers only but is now generally valid, as suggested by David.
> 
> v3: Polish the intro sentence a bit and one s/objects/handles/ for
> clarification, both suggested by Laurent.
> 
> v4: More text polish from Laurent's review.
> 
> Cc: David Herrmann <dh.herrmann at gmail.com>
> Cc: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart at ideasonboard.com>
> Signed-off-by: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter at ffwll.ch>

Acked-by: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart at ideasonboard.com>

> ---
>  Documentation/DocBook/drm.tmpl | 131 ++++++++++++++++++++------------------
> 1 file changed, 71 insertions(+), 60 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/drm.tmpl b/Documentation/DocBook/drm.tmpl
> index ed1d6d289022..67cfe184749c 100644
> --- a/Documentation/DocBook/drm.tmpl
> +++ b/Documentation/DocBook/drm.tmpl
> @@ -830,62 +830,6 @@ char *date;</synopsis>
>          </para>
>        </sect3>
>        <sect3>
> -        <title>Dumb GEM Objects</title>
> -        <para>
> -          The GEM API doesn't standardize GEM objects creation and leaves
> it to -          driver-specific ioctls. While not an issue for
> full-fledged graphics -          stacks that include device-specific
> userspace components (in libdrm for -          instance), this limit makes
> DRM-based early boot graphics unnecessarily -          complex.
> -        </para>
> -        <para>
> -          Dumb GEM objects partly alleviate the problem by providing a
> standard -          API to create dumb buffers suitable for scanout, which
> can then be used -          to create KMS frame buffers.
> -        </para>
> -        <para>
> -          To support dumb GEM objects drivers must implement the
> -          <methodname>dumb_create</methodname>,
> -          <methodname>dumb_destroy</methodname> and
> -          <methodname>dumb_map_offset</methodname> operations.
> -        </para>
> -        <itemizedlist>
> -          <listitem>
> -            <synopsis>int (*dumb_create)(struct drm_file *file_priv, struct
> drm_device *dev, -                     struct drm_mode_create_dumb
> *args);</synopsis> -            <para>
> -              The <methodname>dumb_create</methodname> operation creates a
> GEM -              object suitable for scanout based on the width, height
> and depth -              from the struct
> <structname>drm_mode_create_dumb</structname> -              argument. It
> fills the argument's <structfield>handle</structfield>, -             
> <structfield>pitch</structfield> and <structfield>size</structfield> -     
>         fields with a handle for the newly created GEM object and its line
> -              pitch and size in bytes.
> -            </para>
> -          </listitem>
> -          <listitem>
> -            <synopsis>int (*dumb_destroy)(struct drm_file *file_priv,
> struct drm_device *dev, -                      uint32_t handle);</synopsis>
> -            <para>
> -              The <methodname>dumb_destroy</methodname> operation destroys
> a dumb -              GEM object created by
> <methodname>dumb_create</methodname>. -            </para>
> -          </listitem>
> -          <listitem>
> -            <synopsis>int (*dumb_map_offset)(struct drm_file *file_priv,
> struct drm_device *dev, -                         uint32_t handle, uint64_t
> *offset);</synopsis> -            <para>
> -              The <methodname>dumb_map_offset</methodname> operation
> associates an -              mmap fake offset with the GEM object given by
> the handle and returns -              it. Drivers must use the
> -              <function>drm_gem_create_mmap_offset</function> function to
> -              associate the fake offset as described in
> -              <xref linkend="drm-gem-objects-mapping"/>.
> -            </para>
> -          </listitem>
> -        </itemizedlist>
> -      </sect3>
> -      <sect3>
>          <title>Memory Coherency</title>
>          <para>
>            When mapped to the device or used in a command buffer, backing
> pages @@ -968,9 +912,11 @@ int max_width, max_height;</synopsis>
>          Frame buffers rely on the underneath memory manager for low-level
> memory operations. When creating a frame buffer applications pass a memory
> handle (or a list of memory handles for multi-planar formats) through -    
>    the <parameter>drm_mode_fb_cmd2</parameter> argument. This document -   
>     assumes that the driver uses GEM, those handles thus reference GEM -   
>     objects.
> +	the <parameter>drm_mode_fb_cmd2</parameter> argument. For drivers using
> +	GEM as their userspace buffer management interface this would be a GEM
> +	handle.  Drivers are however free to use their own backing storage object
> +	handles, e.g. vmwgfx directly exposes special TTM handles to userspace
> +	and so expects TTM handles in the create ioctl and not GEM handles.
>        </para>
>        <para>
>          Drivers must first validate the requested frame buffer parameters
> passed @@ -992,7 +938,7 @@ int max_width, max_height;</synopsis>
>        </para>
> 
>        <para>
> -	The initailization of the new framebuffer instance is finalized with a
> +	The initilization of the new framebuffer instance is finalized with a
>  	call to <function>drm_framebuffer_init</function> which takes a pointer
>  	to DRM frame buffer operations (struct
>  	<structname>drm_framebuffer_funcs</structname>). Note that this function
> @@ -1052,6 +998,71 @@ int max_width, max_height;</synopsis>
>  	<function>drm_framebuffer_unregister_private</function>.
>      </sect2>
>      <sect2>
> +      <title>Dumb Buffer Objects</title>
> +      <para>
> +	The KMS API doesn't standardize backing storage object creation and
> +	leaves it to driver-specific ioctls. Furthermore actually creating a
> +	buffer object even for GEM-based drivers is done through a
> +	driver-specific ioctl - GEM only has a common userspace interface for
> +	sharing and destroying objects. While not an issue for full-fledged
> +	graphics stacks that include device-specific userspace components (in
> +	libdrm for instance), this limit makes DRM-based early boot graphics
> +	unnecessarily complex.
> +      </para>
> +      <para>
> +        Dumb objects partly alleviate the problem by providing a standard
> +        API to create dumb buffers suitable for scanout, which can then be
> used +        to create KMS frame buffers.
> +      </para>
> +      <para>
> +        To support dumb objects drivers must implement the
> +        <methodname>dumb_create</methodname>,
> +        <methodname>dumb_destroy</methodname> and
> +        <methodname>dumb_map_offset</methodname> operations.
> +      </para>
> +      <itemizedlist>
> +        <listitem>
> +          <synopsis>int (*dumb_create)(struct drm_file *file_priv, struct
> drm_device *dev, +                   struct drm_mode_create_dumb
> *args);</synopsis> +          <para>
> +            The <methodname>dumb_create</methodname> operation creates a
> driver +	    object (GEM or TTM handle) suitable for scanout based on the
> +	    width, height and depth from the struct
> +	    <structname>drm_mode_create_dumb</structname> argument. It fills the
> +	    argument's <structfield>handle</structfield>,
> +	    <structfield>pitch</structfield> and <structfield>size</structfield>
> +	    fields with a handle for the newly created object and its line
> +            pitch and size in bytes.
> +          </para>
> +        </listitem>
> +        <listitem>
> +          <synopsis>int (*dumb_destroy)(struct drm_file *file_priv, struct
> drm_device *dev, +                    uint32_t handle);</synopsis>
> +          <para>
> +            The <methodname>dumb_destroy</methodname> operation destroys a
> dumb +            object created by <methodname>dumb_create</methodname>. +
>          </para>
> +        </listitem>
> +        <listitem>
> +          <synopsis>int (*dumb_map_offset)(struct drm_file *file_priv,
> struct drm_device *dev, +                       uint32_t handle, uint64_t
> *offset);</synopsis> +          <para>
> +            The <methodname>dumb_map_offset</methodname> operation
> associates an +            mmap fake offset with the object given by the
> handle and returns +            it. Drivers must use the
> +            <function>drm_gem_create_mmap_offset</function> function to
> +            associate the fake offset as described in
> +            <xref linkend="drm-gem-objects-mapping"/>.
> +          </para>
> +        </listitem>
> +      </itemizedlist>
> +      <para>
> +        Note that dumb objects may not be used for gpu accelaration, as has
> been +	attempted on some ARM embedded platforms. Such drivers really must
> have +	a hardware-specific ioctl to allocate suitable buffer objects.
> +      </para>
> +    </sect2>
> +    <sect2>
>        <title>Output Polling</title>
>        <synopsis>void (*output_poll_changed)(struct drm_device
> *dev);</synopsis> <para>

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart



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