@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ are provided in test/dm. To run them, try:
You should see something like this:
<...U-Boot banner...>
Running 20 driver model tests
Running 21 driver model tests
Test: dm_test_autobind
Test: dm_test_autoprobe
Test: dm_test_bus_children
@ -104,6 +104,7 @@ You should see something like this:
Device 'c-test@1': seq 1 is in use by 'd-test'
Test: dm_test_bus_children_funcs
Test: dm_test_bus_parent_data
Test: dm_test_bus_parent_ops
Test: dm_test_children
Test: dm_test_fdt
Device 'd-test': seq 3 is in use by 'b-test'
@ -425,6 +426,71 @@ entirely under the control of the board author so a conflict is generally
an error.
Bus Drivers
-----------
A common use of driver model is to implement a bus, a device which provides
access to other devices. Example of buses include SPI and I2C. Typically
the bus provides some sort of transport or translation that makes it
possible to talk to the devices on the bus.
Driver model provides a few useful features to help with implementing
buses. Firstly, a bus can request that its children store some 'parent
data' which can be used to keep track of child state. Secondly, the bus can
define methods which are called when a child is probed or removed. This is
similar to the methods the uclass driver provides.
Here an explanation of how a bus fits with a uclass may be useful. Consider
a USB bus with several devices attached to it, each from a different (made
up) uclass:
xhci_usb (UCLASS_USB)
eth (UCLASS_ETHERNET)
camera (UCLASS_CAMERA)
flash (UCLASS_FLASH_STORAGE)
Each of the devices is connected to a different address on the USB bus.
The bus device wants to store this address and some other information such
as the bus speed for each device.
To achieve this, the bus device can use dev->parent_priv in each of its
three children. This can be auto-allocated if the bus driver has a non-zero
value for per_child_auto_alloc_size. If not, then the bus device can
allocate the space itself before the child device is probed.
Also the bus driver can define the child_pre_probe() and child_post_remove()
methods to allow it to do some processing before the child is activated or
after it is deactivated.
Note that the information that controls this behaviour is in the bus's
driver, not the child's. In fact it is possible that child has no knowledge
that it is connected to a bus. The same child device may even be used on two
different bus types. As an example. the 'flash' device shown above may also
be connected on a SATA bus or standalone with no bus:
xhci_usb (UCLASS_USB)
flash (UCLASS_FLASH_STORAGE) - parent data/methods defined by USB bus
sata (UCLASS_SATA)
flash (UCLASS_FLASH_STORAGE) - parent data/methods defined by SATA bus
flash (UCLASS_FLASH_STORAGE) - no parent data/methods (not on a bus)
Above you can see that the driver for xhci_usb/sata controls the child's
bus methods. In the third example the device is not on a bus, and therefore
will not have these methods at all. Consider the case where the flash
device defines child methods. These would be used for *its* children, and
would be quite separate from the methods defined by the driver for the bus
that the flash device is connetced to. The act of attaching a device to a
parent device which is a bus, causes the device to start behaving like a
bus device, regardless of its own views on the matter.
The uclass for the device can also contain data private to that uclass.
But note that each device on the bus may be a memeber of a different
uclass, and this data has nothing to do with the child data for each child
on the bus.
Driver Lifecycle
----------------