112 lines
5.0 KiB
ReStructuredText
112 lines
5.0 KiB
ReStructuredText
===================
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Userland interfaces
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===================
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The DRM core exports several interfaces to applications, generally
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intended to be used through corresponding libdrm wrapper functions. In
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addition, drivers export device-specific interfaces for use by userspace
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drivers & device-aware applications through ioctls and sysfs files.
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External interfaces include: memory mapping, context management, DMA
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operations, AGP management, vblank control, fence management, memory
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management, and output management.
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Cover generic ioctls and sysfs layout here. We only need high-level
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info, since man pages should cover the rest.
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libdrm Device Lookup
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====================
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/drm/drm_ioctl.c
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:doc: getunique and setversion story
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Primary Nodes, DRM Master and Authentication
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============================================
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/drm/drm_auth.c
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:doc: master and authentication
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.. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/drm/drm_auth.c
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:export:
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.. kernel-doc:: include/drm/drm_auth.h
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:internal:
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Render nodes
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============
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DRM core provides multiple character-devices for user-space to use.
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Depending on which device is opened, user-space can perform a different
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set of operations (mainly ioctls). The primary node is always created
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and called card<num>. Additionally, a currently unused control node,
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called controlD<num> is also created. The primary node provides all
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legacy operations and historically was the only interface used by
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userspace. With KMS, the control node was introduced. However, the
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planned KMS control interface has never been written and so the control
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node stays unused to date.
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With the increased use of offscreen renderers and GPGPU applications,
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clients no longer require running compositors or graphics servers to
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make use of a GPU. But the DRM API required unprivileged clients to
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authenticate to a DRM-Master prior to getting GPU access. To avoid this
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step and to grant clients GPU access without authenticating, render
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nodes were introduced. Render nodes solely serve render clients, that
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is, no modesetting or privileged ioctls can be issued on render nodes.
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Only non-global rendering commands are allowed. If a driver supports
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render nodes, it must advertise it via the DRIVER_RENDER DRM driver
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capability. If not supported, the primary node must be used for render
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clients together with the legacy drmAuth authentication procedure.
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If a driver advertises render node support, DRM core will create a
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separate render node called renderD<num>. There will be one render node
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per device. No ioctls except PRIME-related ioctls will be allowed on
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this node. Especially GEM_OPEN will be explicitly prohibited. Render
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nodes are designed to avoid the buffer-leaks, which occur if clients
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guess the flink names or mmap offsets on the legacy interface.
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Additionally to this basic interface, drivers must mark their
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driver-dependent render-only ioctls as DRM_RENDER_ALLOW so render
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clients can use them. Driver authors must be careful not to allow any
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privileged ioctls on render nodes.
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With render nodes, user-space can now control access to the render node
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via basic file-system access-modes. A running graphics server which
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authenticates clients on the privileged primary/legacy node is no longer
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required. Instead, a client can open the render node and is immediately
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granted GPU access. Communication between clients (or servers) is done
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via PRIME. FLINK from render node to legacy node is not supported. New
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clients must not use the insecure FLINK interface.
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Besides dropping all modeset/global ioctls, render nodes also drop the
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DRM-Master concept. There is no reason to associate render clients with
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a DRM-Master as they are independent of any graphics server. Besides,
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they must work without any running master, anyway. Drivers must be able
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to run without a master object if they support render nodes. If, on the
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other hand, a driver requires shared state between clients which is
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visible to user-space and accessible beyond open-file boundaries, they
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cannot support render nodes.
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VBlank event handling
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=====================
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The DRM core exposes two vertical blank related ioctls:
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DRM_IOCTL_WAIT_VBLANK
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This takes a struct drm_wait_vblank structure as its argument, and
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it is used to block or request a signal when a specified vblank
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event occurs.
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DRM_IOCTL_MODESET_CTL
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This was only used for user-mode-settind drivers around modesetting
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changes to allow the kernel to update the vblank interrupt after
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mode setting, since on many devices the vertical blank counter is
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reset to 0 at some point during modeset. Modern drivers should not
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call this any more since with kernel mode setting it is a no-op.
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This second part of the GPU Driver Developer's Guide documents driver
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code, implementation details and also all the driver-specific userspace
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interfaces. Especially since all hardware-acceleration interfaces to
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userspace are driver specific for efficiency and other reasons these
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interfaces can be rather substantial. Hence every driver has its own
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chapter.
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