[RFC] staging: fbtft: Moving fb_ili9341 (and others) to DRM

From: Daniel Matyas <matyasdaniel006@gmail.com>
To: dri-devel@lists.freedesktop.org
Cc: Daniel Matyas <matyasdaniel006@gmail.com>,
	linux-staging@lists.linux.dev, Andy Shevchenko <andy@kernel.org>,
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
	Alex Lanzano <lanzano.alex@gmail.com>,
	Maarten Lankhorst <maarten.lankhorst@linux.intel.com>,
	Maxime Ripard <mripard@kernel.org>,
	Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@suse.de>,
	David Airlie <airlied@gmail.com>, Simona Vetter <simona@ffwll.ch>,
	Conor Dooley <conor@kernel.org>, Rob Herring <robh@kernel.org>,
	Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk+dt@kernel.org>,
	Paul Walmsley <pjw@kernel.org>,
	Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@dabbelt.com>,
	Albert Ou <aou@eecs.berkeley.edu>,
	Alexandre Ghiti <alex@ghiti.fr>, Nam Cao <namcao@linutronix.de>,
	linux-fbdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-riscv@lists.infradead.org, devicetree@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [RFC] staging: fbtft: Moving fb_ili9341 (and others) to DRM
Date: Thu,  5 Nov 2026 22:11:53 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261105201154.37294-2-matyasdaniel006@gmail.com> (raw)

Hi,

I'm looking at the fbtft TODO (convert drivers to DRM) and want to check
whether fb_ili9341 can be dropped. Findings against v7.4-rc1:

1. fb_ili9341's init sequence is the MI0283QT-9A one. Comparing register
   writes with drivers/gpu/drm/tiny/mi0283qt.c, the values are identical,
   including the default gamma tables. Differences I found:
   - mi0283qt writes EN3GAM (0xF2) = 0x08; the fbtft write is commented out.
   - mi0283qt always sets MADCTL BGR; fbtft makes it configurable (bgr=).
   - fbtft rotate=270 also sets ML; mi0283qt does not.
   - Rotation maps as DRM rotation = fbtft rotate - 90 (mod 360).
   - fbtft also offers runtime gamma adjustment.

2. fb_ili9341 registers the compatible "ilitek,ili9341", which is also the
   fallback in the dt-schema binding, so it can match nodes that the DRM
   drivers claim via their specific compatibles.

3. In-tree users: no defconfig enables FB_TFT. canaan_kd233 (62363a8e2f56, Feb 2021)
   has a status = "disabled" panel node compatible with "canaan,kd233-tft",
   "ilitek,ili9341". It predates the first DRM driver accepting ilitek,ili9341
   (5a04227326b0, Jul 2021), and none of the DRM drivers match canaan,kd233-tft.
   fbtft requests "dc" and "reset" GPIOs, which fits that node. I haven't tried
   binding it. I suppose that, if the board is used, then it is built against the
   fbtft driver.

4. fb_ili9341 has had only style/mechanical changes in recent years.

Questions:
 a) Is removing fb_ili9341 acceptable, pointing users of other ILI9341
    modules to panel-mipi-dbi? The KD233 node would then have no driver.
 b) Or should KD233 panel support go into a DRM driver first? I don't have
    its init sequence or physical size, or the board...
 c) Is removal of all of fbtft already planned?
 d) Several other fbtft drivers have drm counterparts. Should I inspect those
 to see if removal is needed?

I have not tested on hardware.

Thanks,
Daniel M