Intel Has Good DRM Driver Changes In Linux 3.9

The Intel DRM graphics driver will feature a number of user-facing improvements within the Linux 3.9 kernel.

Going back to last month I've been talking about Intel DRM driver changes for Linux 3.9 that have been queuing up for this future kernel release. This work includes improved Intel Haswell support and KMS locking.

This weekend Daniel Vetter of Intel's Open-Source Technology Center posted a recap of the prominent Intel DRM driver changes for Linux 3.9.

- Kernel mode-setting locking to avoid stalling when probing outputs.

- Stolen memory support from the Fastboot patch-set. This work is to ultimately try to avoid mode-setting unnecessarily by the Intel DRM driver when it's loaded if the BIOS-configured mode is in good shape.

- VT/Switchless resume support for a cleaner experience when restoring your system from a suspended state.

- Improvements to GEM's GPU reset state transitions.

- Page-flipping across GPU hangs support.

- RBG broadcast range/reduced color range support for HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.

- Haswell Linux support includes handling the display power well, which allows for greater power savings when only the embedded DisplayPort (eDP) display is enabled.

- Improved Intel ValleyView support.

- No-relocations and execbuffer LUT extensions for better performance as buffers are no longer uselessly moved around between execbuffer calls thereby lowering the in-kernel relocation overhead. However, due to shortcomings in the DRM library, this feature is only used within the Intel DDX driver by the SNA 2D acceleration back-end.

- Massive GTT clean-ups.

- Improvements to Intel "Ironlake" Gen4 support by taking care of the relocation regression.

- The usual amount of small clean-ups and bug-fixes.

Daniel shared this list via his blog that also has more details about these forthcoming Intel Linux desktop changes.