Atomic mode-setting has been discussed and designed for literally years. Now it's finally there. Most of the prerequisites have been merged into the mainline kernel. The first drivers are being converted and the final versions of the user-space IOCTL are being drafted. With it come all sorts of new, exciting features. But there are also confusing aspects to it.

This talk will give a brief history of how kernel mode-setting (KMS) evolved, explain some of the shortcomings of the current KMS API and how atomic mode-setting will make everything better.

The focus of the talk will be on how to convert existing kernel drivers to support atomic mode-setting based on lessons learned from going through the conversion of the Tegra DRM driver.