i915_request_started(9)

🎀 NAME 🎀

Okay bestie, you're reading the Kernel API Manual page for i915_request_started(9) — and the whole point of this icon is to check if the request has begun being executed. 💅

i915_request_started — check if the request has begun being executed.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

bool i915_request_started (const struct i915_request *rq );

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• rq — the request. Literally the request we're checking, no cap. ✨

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🧚 DESCRIPTION 🧚

So here's the vibe check: if the timeline is not using initial breadcrumbs, a request is considered started if the previous request on its timeline (i.e. context) has been signaled.

If the timeline is using semaphores, it will also be emitting an "initial breadcrumb" after the semaphores are complete and just before it began executing the user payload. That means a request can therefore be active on the HW and not yet started, because it is still busywaiting on its dependencies (via HW semaphores). 🫶

If the request has started, its dependencies will have been signaled (either by fences or by semaphores) and it will have begun processing the user payload. Slay.

However — and this is the important plot twist — even if a request has started, it may have been preempted and so no longer active, or it may have already completed. 😭

See also i915_request_is_active.

Returns true if the request has begun executing the user payload, or has completed:

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• Kernel file ./drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_request.h — hwsp_seqno(9), i915_request_is_running(9), i915_request_is_ready(9)

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Okay bestie, cute sign-off time: this page is from the source/path ./drivers/gpu/drm/i915, dated October 2026, and yes it's still the i915_request_started(9) manual page. Periodt. 💖✨