Proposal: Make CONFIG_DRM_TTM_HELPER a user-configurable option

Proposal: Make CONFIG_DRM_TTM_HELPER a user-configurable option

[David C. Manuelda]

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Hi all,

I'm working with external DRM drivers (such as NVIDIA's proprietary 
module), and I've noticed that `CONFIG_DRM_TTM_HELPER` is currently not 
user-selectable—it gets pulled in only when enabling other drivers like 
`nouveau`, `amdgpu`, etc.

This creates a situation where, in order to build support for external 
drivers that depend on `DRM_TTM_HELPER`, one must also enable unrelated 
DRM drivers, which may not be desired in certain setups.

In my humble opinion, it would be beneficial to make `DRM_TTM_HELPER` a 
directly selectable option in `menuconfig`. This would allow users to 
enable it independently, without dragging in other drivers.

Thanks for your attention and for all the work you do on the kernel.

Best regards,
David C. Manuelda

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Re: Proposal: Make CONFIG_DRM_TTM_HELPER a user-configurable option

[Jani Nikula]

On Thu, 14 Aug 2025, "David C. Manuelda" <stormbyte@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm working with external DRM drivers (such as NVIDIA's proprietary 
> module), and I've noticed that `CONFIG_DRM_TTM_HELPER` is currently not 
> user-selectable—it gets pulled in only when enabling other drivers like 
> `nouveau`, `amdgpu`, etc.
>
> This creates a situation where, in order to build support for external 
> drivers that depend on `DRM_TTM_HELPER`, one must also enable unrelated 
> DRM drivers, which may not be desired in certain setups.
>
> In my humble opinion, it would be beneficial to make `DRM_TTM_HELPER` a 
> directly selectable option in `menuconfig`. This would allow users to 
> enable it independently, without dragging in other drivers.

You can either enable it in your .config directly, or add "select
DRM_TTM_HELPER" in the out-of-tree module.

IMO convenience for out-of-tree modules is not really a consideration,
because adding new user selectable kconfig options is an inconvenience
for in-tree users.

BR,
Jani.

-- 
Jani Nikula, Intel