Re: DRM/panel: Bringing Linux DRM Display Panel support in the modern age

On Thu, Jun 4, 2026 at 12:05 AM Dmitry Baryshkov
<[email protected]> wrote:

> > I agree, but on the Camera Sensor side they had the same issue and started
> > speaking directly to some vendors which actually accepted to provide docs
> > and even write sensors drivers themselv es.
>
> Unfortunately, for display panels you need two counter parties, the DDIC
> vendor and the glass / panel vendor, with the panel vendor usually
> having the NDA with the DDIC vendor.

This has been my impression as well, the two-layered structure
of the supply chain DDIC -> panel vendor -> system vendor
complicates things.

> >> Do we have any indication that there is interest from the companies
> >> actually doing display controllers?
> >
> > They mainly speak to panel makers so I don't think they really care.
>
> We have been going through this for all other classes of hardware. What
> would be the selling point that would make panel vendor learn about the
> upstream Linux process?

The unique selling point would be a vendor that deliver professional
equipment and which require full control over the display, i.e. full
gamma correction for example.

A typical such vendor would be Wacom.

These tablets have excellent input device support in Linux thanks
to Wacom working for years with the community, but most if not all
of their devices these days are panels that you draw directly onto,
so they are a panel and an input device.

I don't know how much control they have over the deep
aspects of the display today, I would expect at least factory
calibration but that may be done with separate (non-linux)
tooling. But certainly lifetime color correction is something
I think they already support albeit possibly with custom tools?

Cc to Jason & Ping to check if they have an interest in this.

Yours,
Linus Walleij