Intel Driver Enabling HF-EEODB For Linux 6.3 As Part Of HDMI 2.1 Compliance

Another batch of Intel i915 DRM kernel graphics driver updates were sent out Friday to DRM-Next for queuing ahead of the Linux 6.3 merge window opening next month.

With the cut-off quickly approaching for new feature material to land in DRM-Next ahead of the next cycle, feature work is winding down and it's shifting over to more bug fixing. Prior pull requests for Linux 6.3 have readied additional Data Center GPU Max Series "Ponte Vecchio" enablement code, Meteor Lake display support and other MTL enablement work, DP MST DSC support, and other changes. (Outside of i915 proper but still in the Intel space, Linux 6.3 is also adding the new iVPU accelerator driver.)

As for Friday's feature work from drm-intel-next, there is enabling of HF-EEODB support and starting to use un-versioned DMC firmware paths for new platform enablement. The un-versioned DMC firmware files are useful and will help avoiding firmware version breakage issues like called out in the past.

The HF-EEODB support is for the HDMI Forum EDID Extension Override Data Block. This HF-EEODB addition is used for optionally exposing an extension count different than the base block claims, in order to expose more EDID data. Supporting the HF-EEODB extension block is said to be a requirement for HDMI 2.1 protocol compliance. The Intel driver supporting HF-EEODB is leveraging code added to common DRM core code around EDID parsing that can be used across drivers.

Aside from the minor feature work, today's Intel kernel graphics driver update has a refactoring to the ELD code, refactoring of other code files, and a variety of fixes. See this pull request for a full list of changes sent in today as part of the drm-intel-next changes slated for Linux 6.3.