Re: [ANN] Meeting minutes of the Cambourne meeting

[Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>]

Hi Sylwester,

On Sunday 28 August 2011 13:28:23 Sylwester Nawrocki wrote:
> On 08/08/2011 05:50 PM, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> > Subdevs hierachy, Linux device model
> > ------------------------------------
> > 
> >   Preliminary conclusions:
> >   
> >   - With the move to device tree on ARM (and other platforms), I2C, SPI
> >   and
> >   
> >     platform subdevs should be created from board code, not from
> >     bridge/host drivers.
> >   
> >   - Bus notifiers should be used by bridge/host drivers to wait for all
> >   
> >     required subdevs. V4L2 core should provide helper functions.
> >   
> >   - struct clk should be used to handle clocks provided by hosts to
> >   subdevs.
> 
> I have been investigating recently possible ways to correct the external
> clock handling in Samsung FIMC driver and this led me up to the device
> tree stuff. I.e. in order to be able to register any I2C client device
> there is a need to enable its master clock at the v4l2 host/bridge driver.

To be completely generic, the subdev master clock can come from anywhere, not 
only from the V4L2 host/bridge (although that's the usual case).

> There is an issue that the v4l2_device (host)/v4l2_subdev hierarchy is not
> reflected by the linux device tree model, e.g. the host might be a platform
> device while the client an I2C client device. Thus a proper device/driver
> registration order is not assured by the device driver core from v4l2 POV.
> 
> I thought about embedding some API in a struct v4l2_device for the subdevs
> to be able to get their master clock(s) as they need it. But this would
> work only when a v4l2_device and v4l2_subdev are matched (registered)
> before I2C client's probe(), or alternatively
> subdev_internal_ops::registered() callback, is called.
> 
> Currently such requirement is satisfied when the I2C client/v4l2 subdev
> devices are registered from within a v4l2 bridge/host driver initialization
> routine. But we may need to stop doing this to adhere to the DT rules.

Right, that's my understanding as well.

> I guess above you didn't really mean to create subdevs from board code?
> The I2C client registration is now done at the I2C bus drivers, using the
> OF helpers to retrieve the child devices list from fdt.

I meant registering the I2C board information from board code (for non-DT 
platforms) or from the device tree (for DT platforms) instead of V4L2 
host/bridge drivers.

> I guess we could try to create some sort of replacement for
> v4l2_i2c_new_subdev_board() function in linux/drivers/of/* (of_i2c.c ?),
> similar to of_i2c_register_devices().
> 
> But first we would have somehow to make sure the host drivers are registered
> and initialized first. I'm not sure how to do it.
> Plus such a new subdev registration method would have to obtain a relevant
> struct v4l2_device object reference during the process; which is getting
> a bit cumbersome..
> 
> Also, if we used a 'struct clk' to handle clocks provided by hosts to
> subdevs, could we use any subdev operation callback to pass a reference to
> such object from host to subdev? I doubt since the clock may be needed in
> the subdev before it is allocated and fully initialized, (i.e. available
> in the host).
> 
> If we have embedded a 'struct clk' pointer into struct v4l2_device, it
> would have probably to be an array of clocks and the subdev would have to
> be able to find out which clock applies to it.
> 
> So I thought about doing something like:
> 
> diff --git a/include/media/v4l2-device.h b/include/media/v4l2-device.h
> index d61febf..9888f7d 100644
> --- a/include/media/v4l2-device.h
> +++ b/include/media/v4l2-device.h
> @@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ struct v4l2_device {
>         /* notify callback called by some sub-devices. */
>         void (*notify)(struct v4l2_subdev *sd,
>                         unsigned int notification, void *arg);
> +       const struct clk * (*clock_get)(struct v4l2_subdev *sd);
>         /* The control handler. May be NULL. */
>         struct v4l2_ctrl_handler *ctrl_handler;
>         /* Device's priority state */
> 
> This would allow the host to return proper clock for a subdev.
> But it won't work unless the initialization order is assured..

My idea was to let the kernel register all devices based on the DT or board 
code. When the V4L2 host/bridge driver gets registered, it will then call a 
V4L2 core function with a list of subdevs it needs. The V4L2 core would store 
that information and react to bus notifier events to notify the V4L2 
host/bridge driver when all subdevs are present. At that point the host/bridge 
driver will get hold of all the subdevs and call (probably through the V4L2 
core) their .registered operation. That's where the subdevs will get access to 
their clock using clk_get().

This is really a rough idea, we will probably run into unexpected issues. I'm 
not even sure if this can work out in the end, but I don't really see another 
clean solution for now.

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart