Linux maintainer bans AMD driver code from kernel

The Linux kernel’s Direct Rendering Manager maintainer has refused to include 100,000 lines of AMD code in the kernel. According to him, the code contains too many hardware abstraction layers, which makes it difficult to maintain.

The AMD code must provide a driver with additional functions compared to the AMD GPU driver, allowing, for example, support for HDMI 2.0 and FreeSync. This was first known as DAL, but is now called DC. According to maintainer Dave Airlie, AMD’s code contains too many hardware abstraction layers, he writes in a mailing list. “This may make it worth the effort for AMD, but for the Linux kernel, it’s not an advantage and makes the code a lot more difficult to maintain,” Airlie said.

He adds that he does not want to add the code to the kernel for political reasons and that he does not want to risk the trust of Linus Torvalds. He adds that the Linux kernel will survive without the addition, even if “this will make some people angry.” Phoronix writes that AMD has included the abstractions in the code so that it can also be used on Windows systems, for example.

The site also reports that AMD is now in a difficult position, because the code is needed to support future GPUs. The company is therefore faced with the choice to remove all abstractions, for which it says it does not have the manpower. It is not yet clear how AMD intends to solve this problem.