drm_atomic_check_only(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 drm_atomic_check_only — a vibe check for your atomic config

okay so bestie, this one's from the Kernel API Manual, and it's genuinely iconic: it's the "will this even work tho" function. No cap. 👑

✨ NAME ✨

drm_atomic_check_only — check whether a given config would work 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int drm_atomic_check_only (struct drm_atomic_commit *state );

🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

  • state — the atomic configuration you want to check. that's it, that's the whole argument, she's lowkey simple 💅

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

So like, real talk: this function can return -EDEADLK 😭 and that happens when the driver needed to grab more locks but hit a deadlock. Not the fun kind of deadlock, the kernel kind.

When that happens, the caller must then do the usual w/w backoff dance and restart. the w/w backoff dance is a whole thing, but it's the standard move — you back off, you retry, you slay 💃

⚠️ Every other error is fatal. not "oops retry" fatal — actually fatal. so if you get anything that isn't -EDEADLK, do not come for the retry, because it's not giving second chances 💀

🌈 RETURN 🌈

  • 0 on success — we ate, no notes ✨
  • a negative error code on failure — she's not okay, bestie 🙈

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Kernel file ./drivers/gpu/drm/drm_atomic.c, plus the whole friend group:

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this one lives in the kernel docs under ./drivers/gpu/drm, it's tagged October 2026, and it's part of the Kernel API Manual. periodt. 🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from