VFIO_DEVICE_GET_GFX_DMABUF(9)

💅 VFIO_DEVICE_GET_GFX_DMABUF 💅

okay so welcome to the Kernel API Manual, section 9, and today's main character is VFIO_DEVICE_GET_GFX_DMABUF — yes bestie, the name is giving very much "I am an ioctl and I know it" ✨

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🎀 NAME 🎀

VFIO_DEVICE_GET_GFX_DMABUF — and her whole entire personality is right there in the encoding, no cap:

_IOW(VFIO_TYPE, VFIO_BASE + 15, __u32)

that's the vibe check, that's the whole ID, she's VFIO_TYPE with VFIO_BASE + 15 energy and a __u32 payload 🫶

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

VFIO_DEVICE_GET_GFX_DMABUF

literally that's it. no arguments to memorise, no flags, nothing. she's lowkey effortless and we respect it 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so picture this: this ioctl returns a brand-new dma-buf file descriptor 🔥 for a guest framebuffer that's already been exposed — like, out there, visible, doing its little framebuffer thing.

and which framebuffer? the one described by the dmabuf_id you hand over. that's the token, that's the receipt, that's the little "yes, that one please" 🎀

and where does that dmabuf_id come from in the first place? it's returned by VFIO_DEVICE_QUERY_GFX_PLANE, as a token of the exposed guest framebuffer. so the flow is literally: query the plane, get the token, then come back here with it — iykyk, one hand washes the other 💖

no surprises here, babe. no hidden tricks. the id you got from the query is the id you feed to this call, and out pops a fresh fd for you 🦋

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go off, cross-references, we love a linked list of lore 🌈

• kernel file ./include/uapi/linux/vfio.h — the source of truth, the blueprint, the origin story 📜
• VFIO_GET_API_VERSION(9)
• VFIO_CHECK_EXTENSION(9)
• VFIO_SET_IOMMU(9)
• VFIO_GROUP_SET_CONTAINER(9)
• VFIO_GROUP_UNSET_CONTAINER(9)
• VFIO_GROUP_GET_DEVICE_FD(9)
• struct vfio_region_gfx_edid(9)
• VFIO_DEVICE_RESET(9)
• VFIO_IOMMU_SPAPR_UNREGISTER_MEMORY(9)

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 straight from ./include/uapi/linux, dated October 2026, filed under VFIO_DEVICE_GET_GFX_DMABUF(9) — periodt 💅✨