Re: [PATCH v2 9/9] docs/system: add basic virtio-gpu documentation

[Akihiko Odaki <akihiko.odaki@gmail.com>]

On 2023/08/01 10:17, Gurchetan Singh wrote:
> This adds basic documentation for virtio-gpu.
> 
> Suggested-by: Akihiko Odaki <akihiko.odaki@daynix.com>
> Signed-off-by: Gurchetan Singh <gurchetansingh@chromium.org>
> 
> ---
> v2: - Incorporated suggestions by Akihiko Odaki
>      - Listed the currently supported capset_names (Bernard)
> 
>   docs/system/device-emulation.rst   |  1 +
>   docs/system/devices/virtio-gpu.rst | 98 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>   2 files changed, 99 insertions(+)
>   create mode 100644 docs/system/devices/virtio-gpu.rst
> 
> diff --git a/docs/system/device-emulation.rst b/docs/system/device-emulation.rst
> index 4491c4cbf7..1167f3a9f2 100644
> --- a/docs/system/device-emulation.rst
> +++ b/docs/system/device-emulation.rst
> @@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ Emulated Devices
>      devices/nvme.rst
>      devices/usb.rst
>      devices/vhost-user.rst
> +   devices/virtio-gpu.rst
>      devices/virtio-pmem.rst
>      devices/vhost-user-rng.rst
>      devices/canokey.rst
> diff --git a/docs/system/devices/virtio-gpu.rst b/docs/system/devices/virtio-gpu.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000000..f359584033
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/docs/system/devices/virtio-gpu.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
> +..
> +   SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
> +
> +virtio-gpu
> +==========
> +
> +This document explains the setup and usage of the virtio-gpu device.
> +The virtio-gpu device paravirtualizes the GPU and display controller.
> +
> +Linux kernel support
> +--------------------
> +
> +virtio-gpu requires a guest Linux kernel built with the
> +``CONFIG_DRM_VIRTIO_GPU`` option.
> +
> +QEMU virtio-gpu variants
> +------------------------
> +
> +QEMU provides a 2D virtio-gpu backend, and two accelerated backends:
> +virglrenderer ('gl' device label) and rutabaga_gfx ('rutabaga' device
> +label).  There is a vhost-user backend that runs the graphics stack in
> +a separate process for improved isolation.
> +
> +Theses backends can be further classified into VGA and non-VGA variants.

It's a bit unsound wording. virglrenderer and rutabaga_gfx are certainly 
backends, but "VGA" is not; it describes an interface exposed to the guest

> +The VGA ones are prefixed with virtio-vga or vhost-user-vga while the
> +non-VGA ones are prefixed with virtio-gpu or vhost-user-gpu.
> +
> +The VGA ones always use PCI interface, but for the non-VGA ones, you can
> +further pick simple MMIO or PCI. For MMIO, you can suffix the device
> +name with -device though vhost-user-gpu apparently does not support

You don't need the word "apparently" in the documentation.

> +MMIO. For PCI, you can suffix it with -pci. Without these suffixes, the
> +platform default will be chosen.  The syntax of  available combinations

Duplicate whitespaces between "of" and "available".

> +is listed below.
> +
> + * ``virtio-vga[-BACKEND]``
> + * ``virtio-gpu[-BACKEND][-INTERFACE]``
> + * ``vhost-user-vga``
> + * ``vhost-user-pci``

Probably this list should come first.

> +
> +This document uses the PCI variant in examples.
> +
> +virtio-gpu 2d
> +-------------
> +
> +The default 2D backend only performs 2D operations. The guest needs to
> +employ a software renderer for 3D graphics.
> +
> +Typically, the software renderer is provided by `Mesa`_ or `SwiftShader`_.
> +Mesa's implementations (LLVMpipe, Lavapipe and virgl below) work out of box
> +on typical modern Linux distributions.
> +
> +.. parsed-literal::
> +    -device virtio-gpu-pci
> +
> +.. _Mesa: https://www.mesa3d.org/
> +.. _SwiftShader: https://github.com/google/swiftshader
> +
> +virtio-gpu virglrenderer
> +------------------------
> +
> +When using virgl accelerated graphics mode, OpenGL API calls are translated
> +into an intermediate representation (see `Gallium3D`_). The intermediate

Add "on the guest" to the first sentence for clarification.

> +representation is communicated to the host and the `virglrenderer`_ library
> +on the host translates the intermediate representation back to OpenGL API
> +calls.
> +
> +.. parsed-literal::
> +    -device virtio-gpu-gl-pci
> +
> +.. _Gallium3D: https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/gallium/
> +.. _virglrenderer: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/virgl/virglrenderer/
> +
> +virtio-gpu rutabaga
> +-------------------
> +
> +virtio-gpu can also leverage `rutabaga_gfx`_ to provide `gfxstream`_ rendering
> +and `Wayland display passthrough`_.  With the gfxstream rendering mode, GLES
> +and Vulkan calls are forwarded directly to the host with minimal modification.

Nitpick: remove "directly". We already say "with minimal modification".

> +
> +The crosvm book provides directions on how to build a `gfxstream-enabled
> +rutabaga`_ and launch a `guest Wayland compositor`_.

It should be clarified it's not a conventional compositor but it's a proxy.

> +
> +This device does require host blob support (``hostmem`` field below), but not
> +all capsets (``capset_names`` below) have to enabled when starting the device.
> +
> +The currently supported ``capset_names`` are ``gfxstream-vulkan`` and
> +``cross-domain`` on Linux guests.  For Android guests, ``gfxstream-gles`` is
> +also supported.
> +
> +.. parsed-literal::
> +    -device virtio-gpu-rutabaga-pci,capset_names=gfxstream-vulkan:cross-domain,\\
> +      hostmem=8G,wayland_socket_path="$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/$WAYLAND_DISPLAY"
> +
> +.. _rutabaga_gfx: https://github.com/google/crosvm/blob/main/rutabaga_gfx/ffi/src/include/rutabaga_gfx_ffi.h
> +.. _gfxstream: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/hardware/google/gfxstream/
> +.. _Wayland display passthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJiHMtIQ2M
> +.. _gfxstream-enabled rutabaga: https://crosvm.dev/book/appendix/rutabaga_gfx.html
> +.. _guest Wayland compositor: https://crosvm.dev/book/devices/wayland.html