Guide to contribute to kernel video drivers
Jean-Sébastien Pédron
dumbbell at FreeBSD.org
Fri Feb 19 12:22:17 UTC 2016
Hi!
As promised a (too) long time ago, here are some instructions to get you
started with kernel video drivers.
First, don't be afraid by the kernel. In the kernel, you have to live
with some constraints and debugging is more challenging, but it's not an
order of magnitude harder than userland. Moreover, we are porting
existing working code.
== Requirements ==
o You need to run CURRENT on the test computer. I recommend you work
from another computer. You only need to copy the built kernel to the
test computer.
o You need to setup kernel core dumps on the test computer. This is
step #1 here:
https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics/Update%20i915%20GPU%20driver%20to%20Linux%203.8#Testing_Instructions_.2F_How_To
To test core dumps work:
sysctl debug.kdb.panic=1
o You need a clone of Linux. I use the following Git remotes:
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git
The second one is useful to get the patch releases, such as
"v3.8.13". The former only provides "v3.8".
o You need a clone of FreeBSD. You can fork this repository:
https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-base-graphics
I recommend you add this one as a second remote (in addition to your
fork), as well as the FreeBSD official Git mirror:
https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd.git
== Source code locations ==
In Linux, DRM is located in three places:
drivers/gpu/drm
include/drm
include/uapi/drm
In FreeBSD, DRM is located in sys/dev/drm2, with the Makefiles in
sys/modules/drm2.
== Targets ==
During the discussion, some wanted to work on Linux 3.9, some on Linux
4.3/4.4.
That said, I believe we should start by moving to linuxkpi before
anything. It would consist of modifying DRM to use sys/compat/linuxkpi
instead of its own drm_os_freebsd.[ch] files. This would help a *lot*
next updates.
== Workflow ==
The workflow was discussed in previous threads:
https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-x11/2015-December/017056.html
The conslusion is here:
https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-x11/2016-January/017109.html
The file-by-file workflow, which was more popular in the discussion, was
explained in the link above.
As for the branches, we are going to use drm-next-$target (eg.
drm-next-3.9). Please send pull requests to these branches. At least in
freebsd-base-graphics, "master" will remain the same code as
Subversion's HEAD so we have a point of comparison.
Let's take drm-next-3.9 as an example. We want to update the entire DRM
to Linux 3.9: DRM core (the device-independent code), the i915 driver
and the Radeon driver.
As we are testing the file-by-file approach, we need to coordinate who
does what. And before the task is finished, the kernel won't compile
(that's the risk with the file-by-file approach).
I would like to record all the contributors on the wiki or on GitHub,
I'm not sure yet. Maybe it should take the form of issues on GitHub (ie.
one issue per file to update and an assignee). The issue even let us
discuss specific details about the file.
DRM core should be updated first, then the drivers.
== How to build ==
I usually build a full kernel with "make buildkernel". Then, I can
rebuild the DRM part with:
make buildkernel -DKERNFAST DEBUG_FLAGS="-g -O0"
Add -j$N to accelerate the build.
You can't use "-O0" for the entire kernel otherwise the kernel will
overflow the stack. However, use it for subsequent rebuilds (ie. when
using -DKERNFAST), otherwise, you'll get a lot of "<optimized out>"
variables in gdb.
When working on the update of a single file, you should move that file
to the top of $(SRCS) in the Makefile (eg.
sys/modules/drm2/drm2/Makefile) so other files don't prevent you from
build-testing your work.
I (re)install the new kernel in /tmp, because I use tmpfs there (I don't
care about the installed kernel on my working computer):
make (re)installkernel DESTDIR=/tmp
From the test computer, I rsync the new kernel.
== How to test ==
Do not load the driver from /boot/loader.conf or /etc/rc.conf. Load it
manually after boot.
You can set drm.debug=7 in /boot/loader.conf to have more debug
informations during kldload. To lower the log level afterward (in case
it's too verbose), the corresponding sysctl is hw.dri.debug.
Play with several applications and use cases. I use:
o glxinfo/glxgears
o clinfo
o Some of the games listed in the following page:
https://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/Benchmarking/
(OpenArena and Xonotic in my case)
o WebGL, I use this demo: http://www.david.li/waves/
o Desktop environments (GNOME 3, KDE 4) and compositors such as
compton. I use compton to have a tearfree environment:
compton -CG --backend glx -b
o Some video players with the GL and XVideo backends.
o HTML5 videos. I watched this video which is exposes tearing a
lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpHknKaq_M0
o Stellarium
o xrandr(1) to manage output connectors
o Suspend/resume
o Piglit (from our development Ports tree; we should definitely
commit it)
If you find a problem, try to reduce it to the minimum, then:
1. From a remote computer, use tmux or screen for your session (not
mandatory, but quite handy)
2. From one tab, start a plain X server:
Xorg
3. From another tab, start the bad, bad program:
DISPLAY=:0 bad_application
4. Use other tabs to look at log files, run dtrace scripts, etc.
By doing so, you limit the number of calls to the video drivers to the
minmum. Running a full desktop environment will spam a lot of unrelated
messages.
If the computer doesn't crash and you want to load a newer driver, you can:
1. Close all applications and the X server
2. kldunload the driver (note that it doesn't work for i915kms in
HEAD, the update will fix that)
3. kldload the new one.
It saves you a reboot. Again, do this from a remote computer because
after kldunloading, you may not get a console back (it works with the
Radeon driver, but so far, not with the updated i915 driver).
If you get a core dump, it will be available in /var/crash after the
reboot. Usually, core.txt.$N has enough informations. If not, you can
start gdb (either the one in base or the one from Ports):
gdb /boot/kernel/kernel /var/crash/vmcore.last
(change /boot/kernel/kernel to match the kernel you used)
Thanks for reading! :) If something is missing, please ask! I will put
this information on the wiki.
--
Jean-Sébastien Pédron
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