Re: [PATCH 1/1] pwm_bl: Add support for backlight enable GPIO

From: Alex Courbot
Date: Mon Mar 04 2013 - 21:56:47 EST


On 03/05/2013 07:46 AM, Thierry Reding wrote:
* PGP Signed by an unknown key

On Mon, Mar 04, 2013 at 01:49:49PM -0800, Andrew Chew wrote:
The backlight enable GPIO is specified in the device tree node for
backlight.

Signed-off-by: Andrew Chew <achew@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
.../bindings/video/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt | 2 ++
drivers/video/backlight/pwm_bl.c | 32 +++++++++++++++++---
include/linux/pwm_backlight.h | 2 ++
3 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/video/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/video/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
index 1e4fc72..1ed4f0f 100644
--- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/video/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
+++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/video/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ Required properties:
Optional properties:
- pwm-names: a list of names for the PWM devices specified in the
"pwms" property (see PWM binding[0])
+ - enable-gpio: a GPIO that needs to be used to enable the backlight
+ - enable-gpio-active-high: polarity of GPIO is active high (default is low)

[0]: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/pwm/pwm.txt

diff --git a/drivers/video/backlight/pwm_bl.c b/drivers/video/backlight/pwm_bl.c
index 069983c..f29f9c7 100644
--- a/drivers/video/backlight/pwm_bl.c
+++ b/drivers/video/backlight/pwm_bl.c
@@ -20,10 +20,13 @@
#include <linux/pwm.h>
#include <linux/pwm_backlight.h>
#include <linux/slab.h>
+#include <linux/of_gpio.h>

struct pwm_bl_data {
struct pwm_device *pwm;
struct device *dev;
+ int enable_gpio;
+ unsigned int enable_gpio_flags;
unsigned int period;
unsigned int lth_brightness;
unsigned int *levels;
@@ -146,10 +149,15 @@ static int pwm_backlight_parse_dt(struct device *dev,
}

/*
- * TODO: Most users of this driver use a number of GPIOs to control
- * backlight power. Support for specifying these needs to be
- * added.
+ * If "enable-gpio" is present, use that GPIO to enable the backlight.
+ * The presence (or not) of "enable-gpio-active-high" will determine
+ * the value of the GPIO.
*/
+ data->enable_gpio = of_get_named_gpio(node, "enable-gpio", 0);
+ if (of_property_read_bool(node, "enable-gpio-active-high"))
+ data->enable_gpio_flags = GPIOF_OUT_INIT_HIGH;
+ else
+ data->enable_gpio_flags = GPIOF_OUT_INIT_LOW;

return 0;
}
@@ -207,12 +215,23 @@ static int pwm_backlight_probe(struct platform_device *pdev)
} else
max = data->max_brightness;

+ pb->enable_gpio = data->enable_gpio;
+ pb->enable_gpio_flags = data->enable_gpio_flags;
pb->notify = data->notify;
pb->notify_after = data->notify_after;
pb->check_fb = data->check_fb;
pb->exit = data->exit;
pb->dev = &pdev->dev;

+ if (gpio_is_valid(pb->enable_gpio)) {
+ ret = gpio_request_one(pb->enable_gpio,
+ GPIOF_DIR_OUT | pb->enable_gpio_flags, "bl_en");
+ if (ret) {
+ dev_err(&pdev->dev, "failed to allocate bl_en gpio");
+ goto err_alloc;
+ }
+ }
+
pb->pwm = devm_pwm_get(&pdev->dev, NULL);
if (IS_ERR(pb->pwm)) {
dev_err(&pdev->dev, "unable to request PWM, trying legacy API\n");
@@ -221,7 +240,7 @@ static int pwm_backlight_probe(struct platform_device *pdev)
if (IS_ERR(pb->pwm)) {
dev_err(&pdev->dev, "unable to request legacy PWM\n");
ret = PTR_ERR(pb->pwm);
- goto err_alloc;
+ goto err_gpio;
}
}

@@ -255,6 +274,9 @@ static int pwm_backlight_probe(struct platform_device *pdev)
platform_set_drvdata(pdev, bl);
return 0;

+err_gpio:
+ if (gpio_is_valid(data->enable_gpio))
+ gpio_free(data->enable_gpio);
err_alloc:
if (data->exit)
data->exit(&pdev->dev);
@@ -269,6 +291,8 @@ static int pwm_backlight_remove(struct platform_device *pdev)
backlight_device_unregister(bl);
pwm_config(pb->pwm, 0, pb->period);
pwm_disable(pb->pwm);
+ if (gpio_is_valid(pb->enable_gpio))
+ gpio_free(pb->enable_gpio);
if (pb->exit)
pb->exit(&pdev->dev);
return 0;
diff --git a/include/linux/pwm_backlight.h b/include/linux/pwm_backlight.h
index 56f4a86..2706805 100644
--- a/include/linux/pwm_backlight.h
+++ b/include/linux/pwm_backlight.h
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@

struct platform_pwm_backlight_data {
int pwm_id;
+ int enable_gpio;
+ unsigned int enable_gpio_flags;
unsigned int max_brightness;
unsigned int dft_brightness;
unsigned int lth_brightness;

Hi Andrew,

I'm Cc'ing Alexandre Courbot, who has been working on supporting this in
a more generic way using power sequences. Generally this kind of support
really belongs in the common display framework, but I guess we could add
this one GPIO since it really is related only to the backlight. Usually
more than just an enable for the backlight is required so I'm not sure
how useful this really is.

Alex, any thought?

It is very common for a GPIO to be involved in powering the backlight on, indeed. However it seems that in this patch the GPIO is set once and for all during probe and never touched afterwards. This means the backlight is still enabled (and consuming power) even when its value is zero - I'd at least like to see the GPIO disabled when this is the case to save power. Otherwise you can achieve the same result with a gpio-regulator defined to be always on in the DT, without touching the pwm-backlight driver.

Another issue is that if the GPIO is not explicitly set to -1 in the platform data, probe will try to acquire GPIO 0 and will fail. This would break compatibility with all existing users of pwm-backlight that rely on platform data.

And there is also the fact that the powering of backlights is often slightly more complicated than just an enabling GPIO - for Ventana we have at least one more regulator/GPIO involved. Maybe this regulator could be turned on forever in the DT - then pwm-backlight could use the enable GPIO to save power, but I suspect we would save even more power if we could turn the regulator off as well.

But overall I'm not against having enable GPIO support in this driver if this helps getting the job done while I finish proper power-sequence support. Andrew, does this single patch allow you to enable the backlight on some boards?

Alex.
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/