amdgpu_vmid_grab_idle(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 amdgpu_vmid_grab_idle — grab idle VMID

okay bestie, so this little cutie lives in the Kernel API Manual and it's called amdgpu_vmid_grab_idle(9). yeah the name's a mouthful, i know. it's the function that goes "hiii, is there a VMID just sitting around doing nothing? no? okay wait then." 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int amdgpu_vmid_grab_idle (struct amdgpu_ring *ring , struct amdgpu_vmid
**idle , struct dma_fence **fence );

like, she takes three things and gives you back an int. slay.

🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

  • ring — the ring we want to submit a job to. that's her whole personality tbh, she's the target 💫
  • idle — the resulting idle VMID comes out through here. this is the part where you get your prize 🎁
  • fence — the fence to wait for if no id could be grabbed. so like, if nothing's free, you get a "wait here" ticket instead 😭

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what she does is: try to find an idle VMID. that's it, that's the mission. 🔥

if none is idle, she adds a fence to wait to the sync object — not me being dramatic, that's literally the documented behaviour, so you can chill and wait your turn like a good main character. ✨

and if we're out of memory? she returns -ENOMEM. periodt. 💀

ngl, when you see -ENOMEM it's giving "no thoughts, head empty, no memory" — but fr fr that's the actual return value, don't make up your own 💅

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

the kernel file, bestie:

./drivers/gpu/drm/amd/amdgpu/amdgpu_ids.c

and the whole friend group, in order, no skips:

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶 this edition is from ./drivers/gpu/drm/amd/amdgpu and it's dated October 2026 — yes, future girl autumn energy, we're iconically ahead of schedule 🍓✨ go grab those idle VMIDs, ily, bye!! 💖🧚

📦 where this page comes from