A New Era For Linux's Low-level Graphics

Slashdot reader mfilion writes: Over the past couple of years, Linux's low-level graphics infrastructure has undergone a quiet revolution. Since experimental core support for the atomic modesetting framework landed a couple of years ago, the DRM subsystem in the kernel has seen roughly 300,000 lines of code changed and 300,000 new lines added, when the new AMD driver (~2.5m lines) is excluded. Lately Weston has undergone the same revolution, albeit on a much smaller scale. Here, Daniel Stone, Graphics Lead at Collabora, puts the spotlight on the latest enhancements to Linux's low-level graphics infrastructure, including Atomic modesetting, Weston 4.0, and buffer modifiers.

Stuff it all in the Kernel.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what the kernel is there for. EVERYTHING.

Re:Stuff it all in the Kernel.

[Spazmania]

The kernel is there to interface with the hardware. The Direct Rendering Manager interfaces with the graphics hardware.

Re:

[thinkwaitfast]

Pretty sure (HOPE) that was sarcasm.

Re:

[gweihir]

You do not get it. At all. One primary task of the kernel is process isolation. Without controlling the graphics hardware (or any other hardware that can be shared among processes), that is not really possible. People these days really know nothing...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Oh boy

[ArchieBunker]

Who the hell thought that was a good idea? Next up we have the New Accelerated Micro Binary Launcher Assembly.

Re:

[Stormwatch]

Framerate-Accelerating General Graphics Operations Technology.

Re:Oh boy

[DeVilla]

DRM was a term a video interface in the Linux kernel before it became a euphemism for consumer abuse in the publishing industry.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Direct Rendering Manager

[Anonymous Coward]

A stupid name if there ever was one.

DRM rename

[Anonymous Coward]

They really need to rename the DRM subsystem.

Re: DRM rename

[Bing Tsher E]

The truth is, the 'Digital "Rights" Management' acronym is what needs to be replaced.

It's not my digital rights that it manages, nor yours.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I read it as "Digital Restrictions Management".

Re: DRM rename

[Lord Bitman]

That does nothing to help the problem. It isn't "management", either. It's just broken software.

True DRM, ie: something which actually tries to keep track of what I have the right to use, do, and consume, based on the often fickle nuances of intentional IP law, I would pay money for

Re:

[someoneOtherThanMe]

No, it's just fine. Read "to manage something" as "to lessen something" or "to lessen the consequences of something". Like weight management, anger management, crisis management...

Re:DRM rename

[Hognoxious]

How about systemDRM?

Text mode

[Spazmania]

How about letting me use the Direct Rendering Manager in X without disrupting my console text mode? Leave my text alone!

Kernel mode settings

[DrYak]

Leave my text alone!

That would require kernel-mode settings.
But very likely you have still a user-mode-setting driver, because you're using Nvidia GPUs.

Stop using Nvidia hardware with their proprietary blob that doesn't play nicely with the rest of the usual Linux stack.
(In a gross over simplification, Nvidia basically recompile their Windows driver for Linux. So if they need something that work differently, or if Linux some things being done differently, well too bad for you. Too bad for you if you have a laptop that goes int

light

[fluffernutter]

I've tried a lot of distributions over the years and I can't say I've ever found an interface that felt totally 'light' for linux. I'm not a big fan of OS/X but I can say that it is one thing they got right. Windows even feels light by comparison. I hope it is changing for the better.

Re:

[fluffernutter]

I meant 'full' windows managers. I did try DWM. It gets it's speed from pretty much forcing the users to configure it, too much tradeoff.

Re:

[execthts]

Try xfce.

Re:

[fluffernutter]

I have. It is obvious that XFCE gets it's lightness from being minimal.

Re:

[OneHundredAndTen]

What is it incapable of doing that you just can't do without?

jwm if you don't need desktop icons

[technosaurus]

jwm provides 90% of a desktop environment and is part of what makes Puppy Linux so fast/light, (disclaimer I've made a few contributions to Puppy and jwm)
Switching to Wayland+Weston-alikes won't be much lighter (maybe faster due to GPU acceleration) and since decorations are handled by the apps it looks like a shinier version of the old mismatched motif/tcl-tk/gtk/kde UI days. Many of the problems with X that wayland was developed to solve have been quietly mitigated in the kernel, but not implemented in

Re:

[fluffernutter]

I don't typically run linux on systems with GPU acceleration.

Re:

[jon3k]

https://dwm.suckless.org/ [suckless.org]

Re:

[EzInKy]

Because just about everyone wants killer graphics instead of just good enough?

Re:

[Gavagai80]

Making an X11 killer is easy. The problem is nobody will install that because it won't work with everyone's X11 stuff, so the developers have to go back and make their X11 killer do everything exactly like X11 does so that it works with decades of legacy software and workflows.

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

decades of legacy software and workflows.

Legacy, n. Something distinguished from the competition by actually working.

I like remote windowing and I like middle click to paste.

Re:

[Monster_user]

Or, alternatively, be something worth porting to or developing for. If you want to be an X11 killer, then be something that kills the X11 software library.

Re:

[guruevi]

X works and is great as a windowing system. Leaving the dressup to the client is good and with modern IPC is fast enough. Combine X with a good typesetting system (eg. LaTeX or Postscript) a la NeXT and what eventually evolved into Mac OS X and it is perfect - you can make pixel-perfect documents from screen to print or make any screen copy-pastable without the program requiring you to implement a custom menu or data export routine.

In modern days, I would say a rendering engine (XML/HTML) may be better from

Actual tech news on Slashdot?? And it’s hidd

[Anonymous Coward]

Meanwhile, political bullshit drama and meaningless crapticles populate the homepage ...

This site does not deserve the name "Slashdot". The tagline should be "News for 'tards, stuff that saddens."

Re:

[AHuxley]

A free to pay game will look as pretty on Linux. Just like Windows and OS X and the cell phone.

Re:

[OneHundredAndTen]

So, if you are not into games, this does nothing for you?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

A free to pay game will look as pretty on Linux. Just like Windows and OS X and the cell phone.

Your average free to pay game isn't available on Linux, even if the engine it's developed on is supported there. I play Armored Warfare, which is for PS4 and Windows only, even though it's based on Cryengine. Games are literally the only reason I still run Windows, and I both dual-boot and have a dedicated Linux box (plus various other small Linux systems, mostly ARM-based.)