There are no dragons: porting fbdev drivers to DRM/KMS

5 Oct 2022, 14:45
45m
201 (Opus Hall)

201

Opus Hall

30 S 10th Street, Minneapolis, MN
Talk (full slot, Wineconf and FOSS XR only) Main Track

Speaker

Javier Martinez Canillas

Description

Two common misconceptions about DRM/KMS are pervasive when compared against the fbdev subsystem.

The first one is that it is tailored to complex graphic devices and that it does not scale down well to support very simple display controllers. The second one is that it is complicated and not easy to delve into for writing graphic drivers. The argument is that fbdev on the other hand is simpler and easier to understand.

This talk shares my experience, as someone with no previous experience writing DRM/KMS drivers, when porting fbdev drivers for the simplest displays I could find. The purpose is to debunk these myths and explain how straightforward that process was, thanks to the plethora of reusable and composable helper libraries that the subsystem provides to developers.

Porting fbdev drivers to DRM/KMS not only allows devices to be used with modern graphical stacks but also leads to drivers that are more maintainable.

For which conference do you send the proposal? X.Org Developers Conference 2022
Code of Conduct Yes
GSoC, EVoC or Outreachy No

Primary author

Presentation Materials

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