Baytrail camera csi / isp support status ?

Baytrail camera csi / isp support status ?

[Hans de Goede]

Hi All,

A college of mine has a baytrail bases tablet:

http://www.onda-tablet.com/onda-v975w-quad-core-win-8-tablet-9-7-inch-retina-screen-ram-2gb-wifi-32gb.html

And he is trying to get Linux to run on it, he has things mostly
working, but he would also like to get the cameras to work.

I've found this:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/e3845mipi/files/

Which is some not so pretty code, with the usual problems of using
custom ioctls to pass info from the statistics block of the isp
to userspace and then let some userspace thingie (blob?) handle it.

So I was wondering if anyone is working on proper support
(targeting upstream) for this ? It would be nice if we could at least
get the csi bits going, using the sensors or software auto-whitebal, etc.
for now.

Regards,

Hans

Re: Baytrail camera csi / isp support status ?

[Bastien Nocera]

Hey,

On Fri, 2014-12-12 at 12:07 +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> A college of mine has a baytrail bases tablet:
> 
> http://www.onda-tablet.com/onda-v975w-quad-core-win-8-tablet-9-7-inch-retina-screen-ram-2gb-wifi-32gb.html
> 
> And he is trying to get Linux to run on it, he has things mostly
> working, but he would also like to get the cameras to work.
> 
> I've found this:
> 
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/e3845mipi/files/
> 
> Which is some not so pretty code, with the usual problems of using
> custom ioctls to pass info from the statistics block of the isp
> to userspace and then let some userspace thingie (blob?) handle it.
> 
> So I was wondering if anyone is working on proper support
> (targeting upstream) for this ? It would be nice if we could at least
> get the csi bits going, using the sensors or software auto-whitebal, etc.
> for now.

As I mentioned to Hans in private, I would be ready to provide the
hardware for somebody with a track record to keep, to allow testing and
hopefully maintaining that code longer term.

I would expect that this sort of hardware is already quite common
amongst Windows 8 tablets so it would be very helpful to have working
out-of-the-box on a stock Linux.

Cheers

Re: Baytrail camera csi / isp support status ?

[Laurent Pinchart]

Hi Bastien,

On Tuesday 06 January 2015 01:06:54 Bastien Nocera wrote:
> On Fri, 2014-12-12 at 12:07 +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
> > Hi All,
> > 
> > A college of mine has a baytrail bases tablet:
> > 
> > http://www.onda-tablet.com/onda-v975w-quad-core-win-8-tablet-9-7-inch-reti
> > na-screen-ram-2gb-wifi-32gb.html
> > 
> > And he is trying to get Linux to run on it, he has things mostly
> > working, but he would also like to get the cameras to work.
> > 
> > I've found this:
> > 
> > http://sourceforge.net/projects/e3845mipi/files/
> > 
> > Which is some not so pretty code, with the usual problems of using
> > custom ioctls to pass info from the statistics block of the isp
> > to userspace and then let some userspace thingie (blob?) handle it.
> > 
> > So I was wondering if anyone is working on proper support
> > (targeting upstream) for this ? It would be nice if we could at least
> > get the csi bits going, using the sensors or software auto-whitebal, etc.
> > for now.
> 
> As I mentioned to Hans in private, I would be ready to provide the
> hardware for somebody with a track record to keep, to allow testing and
> hopefully maintaining that code longer term.
> 
> I would expect that this sort of hardware is already quite common
> amongst Windows 8 tablets so it would be very helpful to have working
> out-of-the-box on a stock Linux.

$ cat BYT_LSP_3.11_ISP_2013-12-26.patch | diffstat -s
 302 files changed, 91662 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

There's no interest in upstreaming the code on Intel's side. As far as I 
understand their ISP is more like a programmable DSP than a fixed pipeline 
ISP. I expect the driver they have published to hardcode the pipeline 
programmed in a particular firmware and thus be specific to a limited number 
of devices. Given the amount of work required to get the code in shape, and 
given that reusability would be very limited if my assumptions are correct, I 
don't really see this happening unless you can find a motivated developer with 
way too much free time.

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart

Re: Baytrail camera csi / isp support status ?

[Bastien Nocera]

On Tue, 2015-01-06 at 09:55 +0200, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> Hi Bastien,
> 
> On Tuesday 06 January 2015 01:06:54 Bastien Nocera wrote:
> > On Fri, 2014-12-12 at 12:07 +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
> > > Hi All,
> > > 
> > > A college of mine has a baytrail bases tablet:
> > > 
> > > http://www.onda-tablet.com/onda-v975w-quad-core-win-8-tablet-9-7-inch-reti
> > > na-screen-ram-2gb-wifi-32gb.html
> > > 
> > > And he is trying to get Linux to run on it, he has things mostly
> > > working, but he would also like to get the cameras to work.
> > > 
> > > I've found this:
> > > 
> > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/e3845mipi/files/
> > > 
> > > Which is some not so pretty code, with the usual problems of using
> > > custom ioctls to pass info from the statistics block of the isp
> > > to userspace and then let some userspace thingie (blob?) handle it.
> > > 
> > > So I was wondering if anyone is working on proper support
> > > (targeting upstream) for this ? It would be nice if we could at least
> > > get the csi bits going, using the sensors or software auto-whitebal, etc.
> > > for now.
> > 
> > As I mentioned to Hans in private, I would be ready to provide the
> > hardware for somebody with a track record to keep, to allow testing and
> > hopefully maintaining that code longer term.
> > 
> > I would expect that this sort of hardware is already quite common
> > amongst Windows 8 tablets so it would be very helpful to have working
> > out-of-the-box on a stock Linux.
> 
> $ cat BYT_LSP_3.11_ISP_2013-12-26.patch | diffstat -s
>  302 files changed, 91662 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

That's smaller than the Wi-Fi driver I'm cleaning up ;)

> There's no interest in upstreaming the code on Intel's side. As far as I 
> understand their ISP is more like a programmable DSP than a fixed pipeline 
> ISP. I expect the driver they have published to hardcode the pipeline 
> programmed in a particular firmware and thus be specific to a limited number 
> of devices. Given the amount of work required to get the code in shape, and 
> given that reusability would be very limited if my assumptions are correct, I 
> don't really see this happening unless you can find a motivated developer with 
> way too much free time.

Can somebody explain the different parts of this puzzle, or point me to
a document that would? I understand that there's a piece of silicon on
the SoC that would filter the data from the camera sensor, but I would
expect that to be (somewhat) optional to at least get something going.

Is that not the case?