Re: Replacing global GPIO numbers in sysfs with hardware offsets

[Ayush Singh <ayushsingh1325@gmail.com>]

> Ah, the dreaded userspace GPIO drivers...

> Please point them to my ELCE2020 presentation "Gadgets and Trinkets,
> The Upstream Linux Way"
> https://elinux.org/ELC_Europe_2020_Presentations#Day_1_Presentations

> Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

>                        Geert


One of the reasons of the prevalence of userspace drivers (and probably
the reason why kernel drivers for stuff like motors are not attractive)
is the lack of upstream solution for runtime devicetree overlays. It is
simply not attractive to have tutorials or examples that will require a
reboot to work. And since a lot of people will start with those examples,
they will continue using userspace drivers for their future projects.

Connectors is also a problem that has been stuck for a while (although
things seem to have started progressing).

I personally, would love if I could use kernel drivers instead of
userspace drivers since they are probably much better quality than
random userspace drivers, and will not require any external deps
(as long as they provide a good sysfs API). But I also dread
having to ask a user to reboot the system to get their blinky
example working, and reboot again, since they used the wrong
pin in the overlay.


Best Regards,
Ayush Singh