Re: [PATCH 1/2] dt-bindings: hwmon: ir38060: Move & update dt binding

Andrew Jeffery
2025-02-13T00:33:13Z

On Wed, 2025-02-12 at 18:56 +0000, Conor Dooley wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 09:13:11PM +1030, Andrew Jeffery wrote:
> > On Thu, 2025-02-06 at 18:09 +0000, Conor Dooley wrote:
> > > On Thu, Feb 06, 2025 at 09:23:03PM +0530, Naresh Solanki wrote:
> > > > On Thu, 6 Feb 2025 at 01:43, Conor Dooley <conor@kernel.org> wrote:
> > > > > On Wed, Feb 05, 2025 at 03:51:25PM +0530, Naresh Solanki wrote:
> > > > > > On Wed, 5 Feb 2025 at 00:52, Conor Dooley <conor@kernel.org>
> > > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > > On Tue, Feb 04, 2025 at 11:33:03PM +0530, Naresh Solanki
> > > > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > > > +  regulators:
> > > > > > > > +    type: object
> > > > > > > > +    description:
> > > > > > > > +      list of regulators provided by this controller.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Can you explain why this change is justified? Your commit
> > > > > > > message is
> > > > > > > explaining what you're doing but not why it's okay to do.
> > > > >
> > > > > > This is based on other similar dt-bindings under hwmon/pmbus.
> > > > >
> > > > > Okay, but what I am looking for is an explanation of why it is
> > > > > okay to
> > > > > change the node from
> > > > >
> > > > > > regulator@34 {
> > > > > >   compatible = "infineon,ir38060";
> > > > > >   reg = <0x34>;
> > > > > >
> > > > > >   regulator-min-microvolt = <437500>;
> > > > > >   regulator-max-microvolt = <1387500>;
> > > > > > };
> > > > As I have understood the driver, this isn't supported.
> > > > >
> > > > > to
> > > > >
> > > > > > regulator@34 {
> > > > > >     compatible = "infineon,ir38060";
> > > > > >     reg = <0x34>;
> > > > > >
> > > > > >     regulators {
> > > > > >         vout {
> > > > > >             regulator-name = "p5v_aux";
> > > > > >             regulator-min-microvolt = <437500>;
> > > > > >             regulator-max-microvolt = <1387500>;
> > > > > >         };
> > > > > >     };
> > > > Above is the typical approach in other pmbus dt bindings.
> > > > Even pmbus driver expects this approach.
> > > > >
> > > > > ?
> > > > >
> > > > > Will the driver handle both of these identically? Is backwards
> > > > > compatibility with the old format maintained? Was the original
> > > > > format
> > > > > wrong and does not work? Why is a list of regulators needed when
> > > > > the
> > > > > device only provides one?
> > > > Driver doesn't support both.
> > > > Based on the pmbus driver original format was wrong.
> > > > pmbus driver looks for a regulator node to start with.
> > > >
> > > > Reference:
> > > > https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/hwmon/pmbus/pmbus.h#L515
> > >
> > > Then all of the in-tree users are all just broken? They're in aspeed
> > > bmcs, so I would not be surprised at all if that were the case.
> >
> > Can you unpack the intent of this remark for me a little?
> >
> > The history of the problem from what I can see looks like:
> >
> >    1. pmbus regulator support exploiting "regulators" as an OF child
> >       node was merged for 3.19[1]
> >    2. The infineon driver support was merged with trivial bindings[2]
> >       and released in v5.17
> >    3. A patch was proposed that extracted the Infineon regulator
> >       compatibles and provided a dedicated binding[3], however it
> >       lacked the "regulators" object property
> >    4. The patch in 3 was merged as [4] with relevant tags, and was
> >       released in v6.9
> >    5. The system1 devicetree was merged and released in v6.10, and sbp1
> >       is merged in v6.14-rc1 for release in v6.14. Both devicetrees, as
> >       far as I'm aware, conform to the binding as written.
> >
> > In addition to keeping an eye out for Rob's bot, I check all Aspeed-
> > related devicetree patches against the bindings using the usual tooling
> > while applying them. I would like to avoid diving into driver
> > implementations as a blocker to applying devicetree patches where
> > possible - the formalised bindings and tooling should exist to separate
> > us from having to do that.
> >
> > If the complaint is that people submitting Aspeed devicetree patches
> > are regularly not testing them to make sure they behave correctly on
> > hardware, then sure, that's something to complain about. Otherwise, I'm
> > well aware of the (Aspeed) bindings and warnings situation; we've
> > spoken about it previously. If there's something I should change in my
> > process (beyond eventually addressing all the warnings) please let me
> > know, but I don't see that there is in this specific instance.
>
> Ye, it's not a jab at aspeed maintainership, it's about the bmc stuff in
> particular. I saw far too many warnings from Rob's bot on series with a
> version number where the submitter should know better, so the idea that
> it had not been tested in other ways wasn't exactly a stretch.

Thanks for elaborating :)

>
> I made a mistake how I pulled these devices out of trivial-devices.yaml,
> given the existing driver didn't work with that binding, but I don't
> really see why there's a requirement for a regulator child here in the
> first place. I get it for something like the lm25066 that is a monitor
> IC that you connect a regulator to, as the regulator is a distinct
> device - but the ir38060 is a regulator that has a pmbus interface so
> both describe the same device.

Makes sense. Maybe it's best to support the existing description in
pmbus core as Rob's already suggested in another part of the thread.

Andrew