Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753939Ab0GAW5H (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 Jul 2010 18:57:07 -0400 Received: from mail-iw0-f174.google.com ([209.85.214.174]:50184 "EHLO mail-iw0-f174.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751031Ab0GAW5D (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 Jul 2010 18:57:03 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=eiL/e8narJ0kRxzwPa+fsTdG/lhkiMKE0ZKb8JOT5N9uvvgaBvp1xsnlVikUXT4/Wk UmHBkZaYhiuhi+/hqJ9NK/8KB3cW6EsIGDz66D6ARmciI2Ga/Hnmb0N7GXSKU5Ef5jrz ZBFuLwDu9zGt13jnujSicADXg19N/GbFT7Tns= MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <1278024678.7738.54.camel@c-dwalke-linux.qualcomm.com> References: <1278024678.7738.54.camel@c-dwalke-linux.qualcomm.com> Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 08:57:02 +1000 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Closed source userspace graphics drivers with an open source kernel component From: Dave Airlie To: Daniel Walker Cc: LKML , dri-devel Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1921 Lines: 39 On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 8:51 AM, Daniel Walker wrote: > On Fri, 2010-07-02 at 08:36 +1000, Dave Airlie wrote: >> On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 8:10 AM, Dave Airlie wrote: >> > Now this is just my opinion as maintainer of the drm, and doesn't >> > reflect anyone or any official policy, I've also no idea if Linus >> > agrees or not. >> > >> > We are going to start to see a number of companies in the embedded >> > space submitting 3D drivers for mobile devices to the kernel. I'd like >> > to clarify my position once so they don't all come asking the same >> > questions. >> > >> > If you aren't going to create an open userspace driver (either MIT or >> > LGPL) then don't waste time submitting a kernel driver to me. > > If , for whatever reason, you changed you mind on this what sort of > connection between kernel and userspace would these components use? > > I ask only because I think UIO hold most (if not all) the driver in > userspace .. So you would have to use some other interface if you wanted > a more half and half solution .. > The thing is UIO doesn't solve the problem 3D graphics drivers need to solve. Which is we need to let unprivileged users access the graphics device in an efficient manner, hence why DRI/DRM exists. Now I think the tegra guys have done some evil hacks with a userspace daemon to replace the kernel functionality, so all they have in-kernel is a framebuffer device, since they can't really get away with shipping the binary nvidia driver linked to the kernel in a real device. So all their userspace closed bits talk to the daemon running as root with direct access to the lowlevel hw. Dave. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/