Am 15.01.2016 um 18:43 schrieb Peter Hurley <[email protected]>:

> On 01/15/2016 09:32 AM, H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
>> Hi Peter,
>> 
>> Am 15.01.2016 um 18:16 schrieb Peter Hurley <[email protected]>:
>> 
>>> On 01/15/2016 08:08 AM, H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
>>>> Hi Andrey,
>>>> ah that is fine to learn about another project that needs some solution 
>>>> (however it will look like).
>>>> 
>>>> Am 15.01.2016 um 16:43 schrieb Andrey Vostrikov 
>>>> <[email protected]>:
>>>> 
>>>>> Hi Nikolaus,
>>>>> 
>>>>> H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
>>>>>> And IMHO nobody has described that he/she needs a solution to model 
>>>>>> the*data*  relationship
>>>>>> for devices connected behind a tty port.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I am not sure if my case fits *data* relationship or not in this case. 
>>>>> Some time ago I asked about state of your patches.
>>>>> In my case I have supervising microcontroller unit (MCU) that is 
>>>>> connected to one of UARTs on SoC.
>>>>> 
>>>>> This MCU implements several functions that will be implemented as MFD 
>>>>> driver:
>>>>> - watchdog and system reset
>>>>> - NVMEM EEPROM
>>>>> - HWMON sensors
>>>>> - Input/power button
>>>>> - and similar low level functions
>>>>> 
>>>>> So in my case DTS binding looks like:
>>>>> 
>>>>> &uart3 {
>>>>>   mcu {
>>>>>           line-speed = <baud rate>;
>>>>>           watchdog {
>>>>>                   timeout = <ms>;
>>>>>                   ...other params...
>>>>>           };
>>>>>           eeprom {
>>>>>                   #address-cells
>>>>>                   #size-cells
>>>>>                   cell1 : cell@1 {
>>>>>                           reg = <1 2>;
>>>>>                   };
>>>>>                   cell2 : cell@2 {
>>>>>                           reg = <2 1>;
>>>>>                   };
>>>>>           };
>>>>>           hwmon {
>>>>>                   sensors-list = "voltage", "current", etc...;
>>>>>           }
>>>>>   }
>>>>> }
>>>> 
>>>> With my proposal it would just become
>>>> 
>>>> / {
>>>>    themcu: mcu {
>>>>            uart = <&uart3>;
>>>>            line-speed = <baud rate>;
>>>>            watchdog {
>>>>                    timeout = <ms>;
>>>>                    ...other params...
>>>>            };
>>>>            eeprom {
>>>>                    #address-cells
>>>>                    #size-cells
>>>>                    cell1 : cell@1 {
>>>>                            reg = <1 2>;
>>>>                    };
>>>>                    cell2 : cell@2 {
>>>>                            reg = <2 1>;
>>>>                    };
>>>>            };
>>>>            hwmon {
>>>>                    sensors-list = "voltage", "current", etc...;
>>>>            }
>>>>    }
>>>> };
>>>> 
>>>> Which is almost the same. Except that it allows to move your mcu node 
>>>> whereever you like and easily allows to change the interface to connect to 
>>>> a different device by
>>>> 
>>>> &themcu {
>>>>    uart = <&uart1>;
>>>> };
>>>> 
>>>> With the subnode style you would need some tricks to get the driver 
>>>> instance for uart3 disabled, although it is possible (everything is 
>>>> possible - just easier or more difficult).
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> This MCU receives commands and notifies MFD driver about events via UART 
>>>>> protocol.
>>>>> It looks like not really a slave though, more like a partnership from 
>>>>> data flow point of view.
>>>> 
>>>> Yes!. That is why I started to question the term "slave".
>>>> 
>>>> And yes, this is the second use case I am aware of: a device that just 
>>>> *uses" the UART to do its works and there is no /dev/tty involved.
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> There is no user space code involved in this case as whole interactions 
>>>>> are between drivers (just a kick to open /dev/ttyXXX using sys_open, as 
>>>>> there is no way to start probe on uart_slave bus and assign line 
>>>>> discipline).
>>>> 
>>>> Exactly this is what we want to provide as API for the drivers by our 
>>>> patches to serial-core.c. 
>>>> 
>>>> We want to allow such a "partner" device to take a line-speed property 
>>>> e.g. from its DT node (or a 9600 constant as for our GPS chip) and ask the 
>>>> UART driver to set the required clocks. Or to get the driver notified that 
>>>> someone has opened the /dev/tty* etc. So make it possible to use some UART 
>>>> from another driver.
>>>> 
>>>> In the long run it should be possible to use the UART even if there is no 
>>>> /dev/tty client or interface in user-space but that is something not 
>>>> perfectly working (there is some initialization race in the tty/serial 
>>>> subsystem we have not yet understood).
>>>> 
>>>> As you see, I have a driver-specific standpoint (and not coming from user 
>>>> space).
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks for sharing this example.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I'd like to see the exemplar slave driver be something more complicated than
>>> trivial on-off, before hacking in junk into the serial core.
>>> 
>>> As it stands, this gps could be supported on any uart driver that implements
>>> mctrl gpios (which is trivial with the serial mctrl gpio helpers).
>> 
>> in the GPS case basic mctrl is not enough because the "partner" driver must 
>> get meta-data
>> that there is data activity. This is something mctrl can't provide.
> 
> A binary state is hardly "meta-data". What is the purpose of the rx 
> notification?

the GPS chip can send data when it is not expected.

The bit tells that there is data activity on the data line (RX). Hence I call 
this "meta-data"
because it is condensed information about other data..

> 
> 
>> And the GPS chip does not need a simple gpio state to power on/off but an 
>> on/off toggle impulse.
> 
> Genericity. If this chip needs such a state mechanism, then that should be 
> reflected
> generically in gpio support, and we're back to trivial mctrl.

Argh... Sorry.

Should a swiss army knife GPIO driver be the solution for everything that a 
driver can do by simply
*using* a GPIO?

BTW: we did have a proposal back tree years that made the GPS driver present 
itself as
a gpio controller with a single gpio.

We called that "virtual gpio". Then we would simply connect the gps driver's
virtual power control gpio to a gpio-mctrl (or dtr-gpio).

This was rejected because a virtual gpio is not a piece of hardware. And the 
device/driver
is *not* a gpio.

> 
> 
>> In our case there are no mctrl gpios (omap) but part of our driver proposal 
>> is just to
>> forward changes of the mctrl bits to the partner driver.
> 
> Please feel free to submit patches for mctrl gpios for the omap-serial driver.

Well, I don't necessarily need mctrl gpios. I need to get RX data activity 
notifications in addition.

BTW: with our patch you can easily add a generic mctrl driver that works for 
all serial
drivers. A sketch implementation (tied to a specific gpio based RS232 device) 
is here:

<http://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-kernel.git;a=blob;f=Documentation/devicetree/bindings/misc/ti%2Ctrs3386.txt;h=0e39ed1a47df9bb7bc747fca66548ff982b19cc5>

Then it is not necessary to implement mctrl for different uart drivers.

> 
> 
>>> Not that I'm against uart slave device support, just that I don't think 
>>> hacks
>>> is the way to go about it.
>>> 
>>> What I'd like to see is a split of the serial core into a tty driver and a
>>> standalone device abstraction. Anything else is just workarounds.
> 
> I think you misunderstand what I mean by "standalone device abstraction"; let 
> me
> be clearer: "standalone UART device abstraction".

Hm. Sorry, but I still don't understand what you mean and don't know what I 
should
abstract. Can you please give an example?

> 
> Regards,
> Peter Hurley
> 
>> Here (was rebased from what I had submitted to LKML a while ago):
>> 
>> 1. serial core (two patches add API for any such partner drivers)
>> 
>> http://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-kernel.git;a=commit;h=c75ab51483e56afe08f56de104b5ed3fa1d6b0e8
>> http://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-kernel.git;a=commit;h=f910d951fcf816fce3261814d7f8c46ac6b35e68
>> 
>> 2. standalone driver example (using the new API)
>> 
>> http://git.goldelico.com/?p=gta04-kernel.git;a=commit;h=4fd1dbd4e915d741dddd264d6f87396e72351b3a
>> 
>> BR and thanks,
>> Nikolaus
>> 
> 

Did you look into these patches to understand what we propose?

Best Regards and thanks,
Nikolaus

_______________________________________________
Gta04-owner mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.goldelico.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/gta04-owner

Reply via email to