The hearty set of Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel graphics/display driver changes were merged today for the in-development [1]Linux 6.16 kernel. Most notable is preliminary NVIDIA Blackwell and Hopper GPU support atop the mainline kernel with an open-source driver but there are also big ticket items added for the AMD Radeon/Instinct and Intel graphics drivers too as well as the other smaller drivers.

Some of the key highlights to find from the Linux 6.16 DRM driver updates include:

- [2]Adding the Asahi user-space API header file into the kernel tree for Apple Silicon . As stated, this is just the user-space header file and not the actual Rust-based Asahi DRM driver yet... That will come later but now at least having this header file in the mainline Linux kernel source tree simplifies building the Mesa code against it.

- For preparing for the Asahi Rust driver, the NOVA driver, and other Rust-based Direct Rendering Manager drivers, various new Rust abstractions and other bits have been added.

- [3]The Nouveau driver has landed initial support for NVIDIA Blackwell and Hopper GPUs . This requires the NVIDIA GSP firmware binaries and the Mesa-side support Blackwell is still pending but will hopefully be merged soon. This is a stepping stone on the Nouveau driver until the NOVA driver is ready for the future Rust open-source NVIDIA kernel driver.

- NOVA with Linux 6.16 has built further onto the NOVA-Core code, added the initial NOVA-DRM Skeleton, and other slow building for that eventual Nouveau driver successor.

- The Intel driver code has continued [4]preparations for Xe3 integrated graphics with Panther Lake .

- [5]The Intel driver has refactored its Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) code .

- The modern Intel Xe driver now has preliminary Shared Virtual Memory (SVM) multi-device work.

- Additional Intel Battlemage PCI IDs added for future graphics cards.

- [6]The Intel Xe driver will finally report graphics card fan speeds .

- [7]Intel Link Off Between Frames (LOBF) support.

- GC9.5 updates and other preparations for next-gen AMD Instinct accelerators.

- [8]AMDGPU user queue support , SR-IOV updates, and various other AMDGPU driver changes.

- DMA-BUF support for the AMDXDNA accelerator driver for the Ryzen AI NPUs.

- Allow attaching more displays with the VKMS driver.

- A panel rotation quirk for the ZOTAC Gaming Zone handheld gaming device.

- The MSM DRM driver for Qualcomm Adreno GPUs added Adaptive Clock Distribution for the Snapdragon X1 series X1-85.

- The Imagination DRM driver now [9]supports the TI AM68 GPU .

- DRM Panic handler support for the VirtIO DRM driver.

- Rockchip RK3588 SoC support within the Rockchip DRM driver.

The full list of DRM display/graphics driver changes merged today for Linux 6.16 via [10]this pull .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/search/Linux+6.16

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.16-Ashai-UAPI-Header

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-Blackwell-Hopper-616

[4] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-DRM-Next-Linux-6.16-1

[5] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-DRM-Next-Linux-6.16-1

[6] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Xe-Linux-6.16-Fan-Speeds

[7] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-LOBF-For-Linux-6.16

[8] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.16-AMDGPU-User-Queues

[9] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.16-DRM-Misc-Next

[10] https://lore.kernel.org/dri-devel/CAPM=9tyv4CODKMbTW0Xwx4xYWgKPA0rMgThLgCy8OkF-DvVTNg@mail.gmail.com/