A new proposal aims to standardize the reporting of video memory statistics under the Linux kernel, addressing a long-standing issue of inconsistent data across different graphics drivers. The initiative, spearheaded by Igalia developer Tvrtko Ursulin, seeks to provide a vendor-agnostic interface for accessing video RAM (vRAM) and Graphics Transformation Table (GTT) information.
Ursulin’s proposal stems from a need to accurately determine swap space requirements during operating system installation, based on the available video memory. Currently, such functionality lacks standardization, despite previous discussions. The proposed solution involves exposing memory statistics through the sysfs interface, specifically under a directory like `/sys/class/drm/card1/memstat/`. This directory would display the total and used memory for various regions, including vRAM and GTT, in megabytes.
Implementation requires integration within each Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) driver. Each driver would need to implement a simple callback to report the list of memory regions and their associated statistics, which would then be presented in a standardized format. As a demonstration, Ursulin has submitted a patch implementing the interface for the AMDGPU kernel driver. The proposal is currently under discussion via the dri-devel mailing list.
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