Re: [PATCH v1 0/4] fbtft: Unorphan the driver for maintenance

From: Thomas Zimmermann
Date: Wed Jan 26 2022 - 06:51:25 EST


Hi

Am 26.01.22 um 12:31 schrieb Helge Deller:
On 1/26/22 12:18, Javier Martinez Canillas wrote:
On 1/26/22 11:59, Helge Deller wrote:
On 1/26/22 11:02, Andy Shevchenko wrote:

[snip]

P.S. For the record, I will personally NAK any attempts to remove that
driver from the kernel. And this is another point why it's better not
to be under the staging.

I agree. Same as for me to NAK the disabling of fbcon's acceleration
features or even attempting to remove fbdev altogether (unless all
relevant drivers are ported to DRM).


But that will never happen if we keep moving the goal post.

At some point new fbdev drivers should not be added anymore, otherwise
the number of existing drivers that need conversion will keep growing.

Good point, and yes you are right!

I think the rule should be something like:

New graphics devices (e.g. max. 3 years old from now) usually are
capable to be ported to DRM.
For those graphics cards we should put a hard stop and not include them
as new driver into the fbdev framework. Inclusion for those will only
happen as DRM driver.

In the same manner there are old graphic cards or very specific devices
(e.g. more than 3 years old or only used in niche-use cases)
which have limitations and thus can't easily be ported to DRM.
For those it's still acceptable to include them as legacy fbdev driver,
because the work needed in DRM to support such cards or to be able that
they run fast enough with DRM just doesn't pay off the efforts which are
needed to keep them as DRM driver.

Would that be acceptable?

No. As we've said several times, there's nothing stopping any device from being supported by DRM. If something's missing or slow, it's because no one has had that issue so far. We welcome patches patches to fix such problems.

Best regards
Thomas


Helge

--
Thomas Zimmermann
Graphics Driver Developer
SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH
Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany
(HRB 36809, AG Nürnberg)
Geschäftsführer: Ivo Totev

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