[libcamera-devel,0/5] Introduce ancillary links
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Message ID 20211213232849.40071-1-djrscally@gmail.com
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Daniel Scally Dec. 13, 2021, 11:28 p.m. UTC
Hello all

At present there's no means in the kernel of describing the supporting
relationship between subdevices that work together to form an effective single
unit - the type example in this case being a camera sensor and its
corresponding vcm. To attempt to solve that, this series adds a new type of
media link called MEDIA_LNK_FL_ANCILLARY_LINK, which connects two instances of
struct media_entity.

The mechanism of connection I have modelled as a notifier and async subdev,
which seemed the best route since sensor drivers already typically will call
v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() on probe, and that function already looks
for a reference to a firmware node with the reference named "lens-focus". To
avoid boilerplate in the sensor drivers, I added some new functions in
v4l2-async that are called in v4l2_async_match_notify() to create the ancillary
links - checking the entity.function of both notifier and subdev to make sure
that's appropriate. I haven't gone further than that yet, but I suspect we could
cut down on code elsewhere by, for example, also creating pad-to-pad links in
the same place.

Thoughts and comments very welcome 

Dan

Daniel Scally (5):
  media: media.h: Add new media link type
  media: entity: Add link_type() helper
  media: entity: Skip non-data links in graph iteration
  media: entity: Add support for ancillary links
  media: v4l2-async: Create links during v4l2_async_match_notify()

 drivers/media/mc/mc-entity.c         | 56 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-async.c | 51 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 include/media/media-entity.h         | 29 ++++++++++++++
 include/uapi/linux/media.h           |  1 +
 4 files changed, 134 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

Comments

Mauro Carvalho Chehab Dec. 15, 2021, 9:25 a.m. UTC | #1
Em Mon, 13 Dec 2021 23:28:44 +0000
Daniel Scally <djrscally@gmail.com> escreveu:

> Hello all
> 
> At present there's no means in the kernel of describing the supporting
> relationship between subdevices that work together to form an effective single
> unit - the type example in this case being a camera sensor and its
> corresponding vcm. To attempt to solve that, this series adds a new type of
> media link called MEDIA_LNK_FL_ANCILLARY_LINK, which connects two instances of
> struct media_entity.
> 
> The mechanism of connection I have modelled as a notifier and async subdev,
> which seemed the best route since sensor drivers already typically will call
> v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() on probe, and that function already looks
> for a reference to a firmware node with the reference named "lens-focus". To
> avoid boilerplate in the sensor drivers, I added some new functions in
> v4l2-async that are called in v4l2_async_match_notify() to create the ancillary
> links - checking the entity.function of both notifier and subdev to make sure
> that's appropriate. I haven't gone further than that yet, but I suspect we could
> cut down on code elsewhere by, for example, also creating pad-to-pad links in
> the same place.
> 
> Thoughts and comments very welcome 

The idea of ancillary link sounds interesting. I did a quick look at
the series. 

Laurent already did some good points during his review.
Besides that, one thing it is missing, though, is an implementation on
a driver. At least vimc should gain an implementation at this series,
in order to allow media developers to test and see how the graph will
be after the patch series.

Regards,
Mauro

> 
> Dan
> 
> Daniel Scally (5):
>   media: media.h: Add new media link type
>   media: entity: Add link_type() helper
>   media: entity: Skip non-data links in graph iteration
>   media: entity: Add support for ancillary links
>   media: v4l2-async: Create links during v4l2_async_match_notify()
> 
>  drivers/media/mc/mc-entity.c         | 56 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
>  drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-async.c | 51 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  include/media/media-entity.h         | 29 ++++++++++++++
>  include/uapi/linux/media.h           |  1 +
>  4 files changed, 134 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> 



Thanks,
Mauro
Daniel Scally Dec. 15, 2021, 9:36 a.m. UTC | #2
Hi Mauro

On 15/12/2021 09:25, Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote:
> Em Mon, 13 Dec 2021 23:28:44 +0000
> Daniel Scally <djrscally@gmail.com> escreveu:
>
>> Hello all
>>
>> At present there's no means in the kernel of describing the supporting
>> relationship between subdevices that work together to form an effective single
>> unit - the type example in this case being a camera sensor and its
>> corresponding vcm. To attempt to solve that, this series adds a new type of
>> media link called MEDIA_LNK_FL_ANCILLARY_LINK, which connects two instances of
>> struct media_entity.
>>
>> The mechanism of connection I have modelled as a notifier and async subdev,
>> which seemed the best route since sensor drivers already typically will call
>> v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() on probe, and that function already looks
>> for a reference to a firmware node with the reference named "lens-focus". To
>> avoid boilerplate in the sensor drivers, I added some new functions in
>> v4l2-async that are called in v4l2_async_match_notify() to create the ancillary
>> links - checking the entity.function of both notifier and subdev to make sure
>> that's appropriate. I haven't gone further than that yet, but I suspect we could
>> cut down on code elsewhere by, for example, also creating pad-to-pad links in
>> the same place.
>>
>> Thoughts and comments very welcome 
> The idea of ancillary link sounds interesting. I did a quick look at
> the series. 
>
> Laurent already did some good points during his review.
> Besides that, one thing it is missing, though, is an implementation on
> a driver. At least vimc should gain an implementation at this series,
> in order to allow media developers to test and see how the graph will
> be after the patch series.


We have this running through libcamera at the moment; this series piggy
backs onto the notifier that's set up by
v4l2_async_create_sensor_subdev() so that the connection is made and the
links created when a lens controller is linked to the sensor via the
lens-focus firmware property. I've been testing this using the dw9719
driver I posted [1], plus a series that adds support to libcamera [2]. I
believe that some folks from Cros have also tested it with the dw9714
driver too.


[1]
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-media/20211128232115.38833-1-djrscally@gmail.com/

[2]
https://lists.libcamera.org/pipermail/libcamera-devel/2021-December/028082.html

>
> Regards,
> Mauro
>
>> Dan
>>
>> Daniel Scally (5):
>>   media: media.h: Add new media link type
>>   media: entity: Add link_type() helper
>>   media: entity: Skip non-data links in graph iteration
>>   media: entity: Add support for ancillary links
>>   media: v4l2-async: Create links during v4l2_async_match_notify()
>>
>>  drivers/media/mc/mc-entity.c         | 56 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
>>  drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-async.c | 51 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>  include/media/media-entity.h         | 29 ++++++++++++++
>>  include/uapi/linux/media.h           |  1 +
>>  4 files changed, 134 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
>>
>
>
> Thanks,
> Mauro
Laurent Pinchart Dec. 15, 2021, 9:52 a.m. UTC | #3
Hi Mauro,

On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 10:25:09AM +0100, Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote:
> Em Mon, 13 Dec 2021 23:28:44 +0000 Daniel Scally escreveu:
> 
> > Hello all
> > 
> > At present there's no means in the kernel of describing the supporting
> > relationship between subdevices that work together to form an effective single
> > unit - the type example in this case being a camera sensor and its
> > corresponding vcm. To attempt to solve that, this series adds a new type of
> > media link called MEDIA_LNK_FL_ANCILLARY_LINK, which connects two instances of
> > struct media_entity.
> > 
> > The mechanism of connection I have modelled as a notifier and async subdev,
> > which seemed the best route since sensor drivers already typically will call
> > v4l2_async_register_subdev_sensor() on probe, and that function already looks
> > for a reference to a firmware node with the reference named "lens-focus". To
> > avoid boilerplate in the sensor drivers, I added some new functions in
> > v4l2-async that are called in v4l2_async_match_notify() to create the ancillary
> > links - checking the entity.function of both notifier and subdev to make sure
> > that's appropriate. I haven't gone further than that yet, but I suspect we could
> > cut down on code elsewhere by, for example, also creating pad-to-pad links in
> > the same place.
> > 
> > Thoughts and comments very welcome 
> 
> The idea of ancillary link sounds interesting. I did a quick look at
> the series. 
> 
> Laurent already did some good points during his review.
> Besides that, one thing it is missing, though, is an implementation on
> a driver. At least vimc should gain an implementation at this series,
> in order to allow media developers to test and see how the graph will
> be after the patch series.

The whole point of patch 4/4 is to create those links in the core
without requiring manual involvement of the drivers :-)

> > Daniel Scally (5):
> >   media: media.h: Add new media link type
> >   media: entity: Add link_type() helper
> >   media: entity: Skip non-data links in graph iteration
> >   media: entity: Add support for ancillary links
> >   media: v4l2-async: Create links during v4l2_async_match_notify()
> > 
> >  drivers/media/mc/mc-entity.c         | 56 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
> >  drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-async.c | 51 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >  include/media/media-entity.h         | 29 ++++++++++++++
> >  include/uapi/linux/media.h           |  1 +
> >  4 files changed, 134 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)