Danilo Krummrich, one of the maintainers of the Nouveau driver, has prepared a set of patches for inclusion in the Linux kernel that implement bindings for the DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) subsystem, allowing the creation of graphics drivers in Rust. In a note, Danilo indicated that the proposed changes are based on the work of Asahi Lina, who developed the drm-asahi driver for Apple's AGX GPUs used in the Apple Silicon chip series. Lina, who created the first version of the published patch set, was marked as the primary author of the DRM ioctl binding and co-author of the other abstractions for driver creation. <\/p>\n
Lina expressed dissatisfaction with the diminishing recognition of her role in the development, feeling that the mentions of 'Co-developed-by:' were insufficient in a situation where the patches originally created by Lina were made only with cosmetic changes. For instance, in the code drm\/drv.rs, line 280 out of 321 was written by Lina, while the other lines mainly involve adding comments and minor refactoring of the driver registration code. According to Lina, the code was not significantly reworked, so it would be ethical to list her as the main author. <\/p>\n
In response, Danilo explained that the patches in which Lina is listed as a co-author were restructured (the code split into separate files) and significantly altered in places. The patches are published under the authorship of 'Danilo Krummrich,' as they did not exist separately before. Additionally, Danilo believed that attributing the modified code to someone else would lead to dissatisfaction, as it would distort another person's work. Previously, Lina had permitted borrowing code from her past patches and using it in any way. At the same time, Danilo can easily state Lina as the main author, which he mentioned in his first message, saying that if Lina finds the mention in the 'Co-developed-by' section insufficient, she should just let him know. <\/p>\n
Lina replied that by allowing her code to be used in any way, she considered the preservation of authorship to be a given and was not prepared for Danilo to put his name as the main author, as if he wrote a significant portion of it. Lina emphasized that she does not intend to escalate the conflict and is disappointed that simply splitting the commits is enough to change the main author of the code she worked on for many years. <\/p>\n
After that, Danilo published a list of changes he made (the diff size is 1462 lines), showing that his corrections are far from being limited to just comments. He reiterated that he is not opposed to listing Lina as a primary author and that she simply needed to specify in which patches this should be done. Instead, Lina started accusing him of claiming authorship and devaluing his contributions to the development. He does not have time to engage in conflict, so Lina should just write down where and what needs to be changed without new accusations. <\/p>\n
Lina replied that she regrets being part of such a community. Regarding the code, she requested the complete removal of any mention of her authorship and permitted the use of the code under a CC-0 license (waiving her copyright) as public domain, allowing use for any purpose. The waiver of authorship also applies to any other code written by Lina for the Asahi git branch. <\/p>\n
After that, Dave Airlie, the maintainer of the DRM subsystem, intervened in the discussion, stating that the project would retain Lina's authorship in all patches containing her code, including modified patches, without going into details or trying to create drama. <\/p>\n
Lina replied that she analyzed the changes and concluded that out of 978 lines of code, more than half is borrowed from her patches. In terms of pure code, Danilo added 270 lines, which are related to minor refactoring, not the creation of new functionality. When considering only the code, excluding comments, Lina valued her contribution at 75%. If the maintainers are not willing to remove the mention of authorship, Lina prefers her name to be listed as the main author for patches 3 to 7. <\/p>\n
Recall that at the end of March, Lina announced a suspension of her work on the Asahi kernel driver for an indefinite period, as she no longer feels safe working in the Linux ecosystem. Earlier in February, Hector Martin announced the cessation of development and stepped down from his role as the leader of the Asahi Linux project, having also exited the group supporting the ARM\/Apple platform in the Linux kernel. The cause was cited as resistance to the incorporation of 'Rust for Linux' into the kernel and the creation of a hostile atmosphere for participants in this project. <\/p>\n