Re: Offering to take a TODO item in i915

Re: Offering to take a TODO item in i915

[Jani Nikula]

On Mon, 03 Aug 2026, Parth Kamani <parthvipulkamani@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jani,
>
> I was looking through drivers/gpu/drm/i915/TODO.txt and noticed that there
> are still a number of outstanding items. One that caught my attention was *"for
> discrete memory manager, merge enough dg1 to be able to refactor it to ..."*.
> I also saw items such as *"Come up with a plan what to do with
> drm/scheduler and how to get there"* and *"Roll out dma_fence critical
> section annotations"*, so it looks like there are several areas that still
> need work.
>
> From the TODO, some of these items appear more involved than others, so
> before I dive in I wanted to check with you. Is the discrete memory manager
> item still something that would be appropriate to work on, or would you
> recommend a different task for someone making a first contribution to i915?
>
> My preference is to keep patches small enough to review comfortably,
> run checkpatch
> --strict, test against current mainline, and submit them via git send-email.
>
> I'm currently in my final year of B.Tech in Computer Engineering at K J
> Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai (graduating mid-2027), and I have a
> meaningful amount of time to contribute before graduation. I'd much rather
> spend that time contributing to a live upstream codebase than working only
> on coursework. If there's a better first task than the TODO item above, I'd
> really appreciate your recommendation and would be happy to work on that
> instead.

Thanks for your interest!

The TODO was added in commit 6ab61ad5c1d8 ("drm/i915: add gem/gt TODO")
and has barely been touched since. The primary reason is migrating to
the xe driver for new platforms. If you're looking to work on a "live
upstream codebase", seeking tasks in the xe driver, or the display
driver under i915/display, shared between the xe and i915 drivers, is
probably more rewarding.


HTH,
Jani.


-- 
Jani Nikula, Intel

Re: Offering to take a TODO item in i915

[Parth Kamani]

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Hi Jani,

Thank you for the explanation and for pointing me in the right direction.
That makes sense, and I appreciate the advice.

I'll shift my focus to the xe driver and the shared display code instead of
the older GEM/GT TODO items. I'll spend some time getting familiar with the
codebase and look for smaller issues that would make suitable first
contributions.

I also wanted to ask one additional question. I'm currently looking for a
paid internship or a student opportunity where I can contribute to Linux
kernel development while continuing to work upstream.

Would you happen to know of any teams, companies, or programs working on
the xe or DRM subsystem that are open to hiring or mentoring students? If
there's someone else I should reach out to, I'd be grateful for any
recommendations.

Thank you again for your guidance.

Best regards,

Parth Kamani
Final-year B.Tech Computer Engineering
K J Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai
Email: parthvipulkamani@gmail.com
Phone: +91 9820081318

On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 5:11 PM Jani Nikula <jani.nikula@linux.intel.com>
wrote:

> On Mon, 03 Aug 2026, Parth Kamani <parthvipulkamani@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi Jani,
> >
> > I was looking through drivers/gpu/drm/i915/TODO.txt and noticed that
> there
> > are still a number of outstanding items. One that caught my attention
> was *"for
> > discrete memory manager, merge enough dg1 to be able to refactor it to
> ..."*.
> > I also saw items such as *"Come up with a plan what to do with
> > drm/scheduler and how to get there"* and *"Roll out dma_fence critical
> > section annotations"*, so it looks like there are several areas that
> still
> > need work.
> >
> > From the TODO, some of these items appear more involved than others, so
> > before I dive in I wanted to check with you. Is the discrete memory
> manager
> > item still something that would be appropriate to work on, or would you
> > recommend a different task for someone making a first contribution to
> i915?
> >
> > My preference is to keep patches small enough to review comfortably,
> > run checkpatch
> > --strict, test against current mainline, and submit them via git
> send-email.
> >
> > I'm currently in my final year of B.Tech in Computer Engineering at K J
> > Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai (graduating mid-2027), and I have
> a
> > meaningful amount of time to contribute before graduation. I'd much
> rather
> > spend that time contributing to a live upstream codebase than working
> only
> > on coursework. If there's a better first task than the TODO item above,
> I'd
> > really appreciate your recommendation and would be happy to work on that
> > instead.
>
> Thanks for your interest!
>
> The TODO was added in commit 6ab61ad5c1d8 ("drm/i915: add gem/gt TODO")
> and has barely been touched since. The primary reason is migrating to
> the xe driver for new platforms. If you're looking to work on a "live
> upstream codebase", seeking tasks in the xe driver, or the display
> driver under i915/display, shared between the xe and i915 drivers, is
> probably more rewarding.
>
>
> HTH,
> Jani.
>
>
> --
> Jani Nikula, Intel
>

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Re: Offering to take a TODO item in i915

[Rodrigo Vivi]

Hi Parth,

Sorry for the delay, response inline below:

On Mon, Aug 03, 2026 at 02:16:48AM +0530, Parth Kamani wrote:
>    Hi Rodrigo,                                                                  
>                                                                                 
>    I was looking through drivers/gpu/drm/i915/TODO.txt and noticed that there   
>    are still a number of outstanding items. One that caught my attention was    
>    "for discrete memory manager, merge enough dg1 to be able to refactor it     
>    to ...". I also saw items such as "Come up with a plan what to do with       
>    drm/scheduler and how to get there" and "Roll out dma_fence critical         
>    section annotations", so it looks like there are several areas that still    
>    need work.                                                                   

Oh, I believe this TODO list is so outdated.

I'd say that the core part of i915 is pretty much under maintenance mode.
We are focusing on adding new features on xe driver that supports the new
platforms.

>                                                                                 
>    From the TODO, some of these items appear more involved than others, so      
>    before I dive in I wanted to check with you. Is the discrete memory          
>    manager item still something that would be appropriate to work on, or        
>    would you recommend a different task for someone making a first              
>    contribution to i915?                                                        

Honestly, one of the big reasons that we started the new driver was the
difficulty of this task :)

>                                                                                 
>    My preference is to keep patches small enough to review comfortably, run     
>    checkpatch --strict, test against current mainline, and submit them via      
>    git send-email.                                                              

That is mandatory! :)
Please always do this no matter what patch you are sending.

Perhaps a good and very easy initial patch is to remove this TODO file hehe :)
At least this might trigger a public discussion in our mailing list if we
have anything valid there or if we should kill it entirely.

>                                                                                 
>    I'm currently in my final year of B.Tech in Computer Engineering at K J      
>    Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai (graduating mid-2027), and I have a   
>    meaningful amount of time to contribute before graduation. I'd much rather   
>    spend that time contributing to a live upstream codebase than working only   
>    on coursework. If there's a better first task than the TODO item above,      
>    I'd really appreciate your recommendation and would be happy to work on      
>    that instead.                                                                

That is very exciting! I'm so glad to see students volunteering to take the
next steps and contributing to open source drivers. It is so refreshing to see!

Keep up with this great spirit!

What machine do you have? what is your integrated intel gpu? Something local
is always better.

If it is a not very old intel hardware perhaps it already has support
from our new driver and you could see if there's any issue that you could take:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/xe/kernel/-/work_items/?sort=created_date&state=opened&first_page_size=20

or perhaps even i915 driver:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/i915/kernel/-/work_items?sort=created_date&state=opened&first_page_size=20

>                                                                                 
>    Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.             

I'm sorry for the delay and welcome to the community!

>                                                                                 
>    Best regards,                                                                
>                                                                                 
>    Parth Kamani                                                                 
>    Final-year B.Tech Computer Engineering                                       
>    K J Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai                                   
>    Email: [1]parthvipulkamani@gmail.com                                         
>    Phone: +91 9820081318                                                        
> 
> References
> 
>    Visible links
>    1. mailto:parthvipulkamani@gmail.com

Re: Offering to take a TODO item in i915

[Parth Kamani]

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Hi Rodrigo,

Thank you for getting back to me and for the guidance.

That makes sense regarding the i915 TODO being outdated. I agree that
removing the TODO file would be a good first patch, and I'm happy to start
with that while following the workflow you suggested—keeping the patch
small, running checkpatch --strict, testing against current mainline, and
submitting it via git send-email.

I'm currently using a Dell Inspiron 15 with an Intel Core i7 processor and
integrated Intel graphics, so I'll also look through the open xe work items
and see if there's something suitable that I can test locally.

I'm very interested in contributing consistently to upstream driver
development. If there are any internship with the team in the future, I'd
also be very interested in exploring them. I'd be happy to demonstrate my
commitment through upstream contributions first.

Thanks again for your guidance. I'm looking forward to getting started!

Best regards,
Parth Kamani
Final-year B.Tech, Computer Engineering
K J Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai

On Wed, 5 Aug, 2026, 7:22 am Rodrigo Vivi, <rodrigo.vivi@intel.com> wrote:

> Hi Parth,
>
> Sorry for the delay, response inline below:
>
> On Mon, Aug 03, 2026 at 02:16:48AM +0530, Parth Kamani wrote:
> >    Hi Rodrigo,
>
> >
>
> >    I was looking through drivers/gpu/drm/i915/TODO.txt and noticed that
> there
> >    are still a number of outstanding items. One that caught my attention
> was
> >    "for discrete memory manager, merge enough dg1 to be able to refactor
> it
> >    to ...". I also saw items such as "Come up with a plan what to do
> with
> >    drm/scheduler and how to get there" and "Roll out dma_fence critical
>
> >    section annotations", so it looks like there are several areas that
> still
> >    need work.
>
>
> Oh, I believe this TODO list is so outdated.
>
> I'd say that the core part of i915 is pretty much under maintenance mode.
> We are focusing on adding new features on xe driver that supports the new
> platforms.
>
> >
>
> >    From the TODO, some of these items appear more involved than others,
> so
> >    before I dive in I wanted to check with you. Is the discrete memory
>
> >    manager item still something that would be appropriate to work on,
> or
> >    would you recommend a different task for someone making a first
>
> >    contribution to i915?
>
>
> Honestly, one of the big reasons that we started the new driver was the
> difficulty of this task :)
>
> >
>
> >    My preference is to keep patches small enough to review comfortably,
> run
> >    checkpatch --strict, test against current mainline, and submit them
> via
> >    git send-email.
>
>
> That is mandatory! :)
> Please always do this no matter what patch you are sending.
>
> Perhaps a good and very easy initial patch is to remove this TODO file
> hehe :)
> At least this might trigger a public discussion in our mailing list if we
> have anything valid there or if we should kill it entirely.
>
> >
>
> >    I'm currently in my final year of B.Tech in Computer Engineering at K
> J
> >    Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai (graduating mid-2027), and I
> have a
> >    meaningful amount of time to contribute before graduation. I'd much
> rather
> >    spend that time contributing to a live upstream codebase than working
> only
> >    on coursework. If there's a better first task than the TODO item
> above,
> >    I'd really appreciate your recommendation and would be happy to work
> on
> >    that instead.
>
>
> That is very exciting! I'm so glad to see students volunteering to take the
> next steps and contributing to open source drivers. It is so refreshing to
> see!
>
> Keep up with this great spirit!
>
> What machine do you have? what is your integrated intel gpu? Something
> local
> is always better.
>
> If it is a not very old intel hardware perhaps it already has support
> from our new driver and you could see if there's any issue that you could
> take:
>
>
> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/xe/kernel/-/work_items/?sort=created_date&state=opened&first_page_size=20
>
> or perhaps even i915 driver:
>
>
> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/i915/kernel/-/work_items?sort=created_date&state=opened&first_page_size=20
>
> >
>
> >    Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.
>
>
> I'm sorry for the delay and welcome to the community!
>
> >
>
> >    Best regards,
>
> >
>
> >    Parth Kamani
>
> >    Final-year B.Tech Computer Engineering
>
> >    K J Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai
>
> >    Email: [1]parthvipulkamani@gmail.com
>
> >    Phone: +91 9820081318
>
> >
> > References
> >
> >    Visible links
> >    1. mailto:parthvipulkamani@gmail.com
>

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