Intel Begins Queuing Graphics Driver Improvements For Linux 4.19

While the Linux 4.18 kernel merge window isn't even over until the end of the week followed by about eight weeks worth of testing before that kernel version will debut as stable, Intel open-source developers have already sent in their first pull request to DRM-Next of material they would like to begin staging for Linux 4.19.

Intel's OTC developers are usually quite punctual in queuing up their tested work in DRM-Next for the next kernel cycle while even for their standards this is quite early with there being several days left to the current merge window.

A big theme for the i915 Intel DRM driver improvements for Linux 4.19 are continuing to enable the Icelake "Gen 11" graphics support that was just initially queued in Linux 4.18. With Linux 4.19 there is now Icelake display support, various workarounds for Gen11, fixes for interrupt registers, and other upbringing of this generation that will succeed Cannonlake in one year or more.

This first DRM-Next pull request for Linux 4.19 also has GPU reset fixes/improvements, execlist improvements, improving voltage swing handling for Haswell/Broadwell, faster GPU idle detection, eDP (embedded DisplayPort) improvements, various LVDS laptop fixes, suspend fixes, and a range of other code fixes and cleanups.

Overall it's quite a big stack of changes to begin queue for Linux 4.19 with being just a few weeks out of 4.18 feature development for DRM-Next. The complete list of this material can be found via this pull request.