DP HELPERS(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

🦋 dp helpers 🦋

okay so real talk, this is from the Kernel API Manual, section 9, and it's genuinely one of the most useful little pages ever, no cap.

✨ so what even IS this ✨

The DisplayPort AUX channel is an abstraction — and like, an abstraction in the bestie sense, meaning it lets you get at AUX functionality in a generic, driver-independent way instead of every driver re-inventing the whole thing from scratch. 😭

Drivers can 100% take advantage of this by filling in the fields of the drm_dp_aux structure. That's it. That's the whole move. Fill in the struct, slay, done. 💅

Transactions are described using a hardware-independent drm_dp_aux_msg structure, which gets passed into a driver's .transfer implementation. Hardware-independent meaning it doesn't care what your specific hardware vibe is, it just shows up and does the job. Iconic behaviour honestly. ✨

Both native and I2C-over-AUX transactions are supported. Both!! 🫶

💖 SEE ALSO 💖

The kernel file lives right here, bestie:

./drivers/gpu/drm/display/drm_dp_helper.c

and here's the entire squad, in order, nobody gets left behind, I would never do that to you:

go read them all, i'll wait 💜

ngl if you're writing a DisplayPort driver and you skipped this page, that's a vibe check you're failing bestie 😭 go fill in your drm_dp_aux and come back 🎀

later bestie, mwah 💖 this one ships out of ./drivers/gpu/drm/display, dated October 2026 — see you in the next man page, muah 🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from