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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/gpio/drivers-on-gpio.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/gpio/drivers-on-gpio.txt | 95 |
1 files changed, 95 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/gpio/drivers-on-gpio.txt b/Documentation/gpio/drivers-on-gpio.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..f6121328630f --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/gpio/drivers-on-gpio.txt @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ +Subsystem drivers using GPIO +============================ + +Note that standard kernel drivers exist for common GPIO tasks and will provide +the right in-kernel and userspace APIs/ABIs for the job, and that these +drivers can quite easily interconnect with other kernel subsystems using +hardware descriptions such as device tree or ACPI: + +- leds-gpio: drivers/leds/leds-gpio.c will handle LEDs connected to GPIO + lines, giving you the LED sysfs interface + +- ledtrig-gpio: drivers/leds/trigger/ledtrig-gpio.c will provide a LED trigger, + i.e. a LED will turn on/off in response to a GPIO line going high or low + (and that LED may in turn use the leds-gpio as per above). + +- gpio-keys: drivers/input/keyboard/gpio_keys.c is used when your GPIO line + can generate interrupts in response to a key press. Also supports debounce. + +- gpio-keys-polled: drivers/input/keyboard/gpio_keys_polled.c is used when your + GPIO line cannot generate interrupts, so it needs to be periodically polled + by a timer. + +- gpio_mouse: drivers/input/mouse/gpio_mouse.c is used to provide a mouse with + up to three buttons by simply using GPIOs and no mouse port. You can cut the + mouse cable and connect the wires to GPIO lines or solder a mouse connector + to the lines for a more permanent solution of this type. + +- gpio-beeper: drivers/input/misc/gpio-beeper.c is used to provide a beep from + an external speaker connected to a GPIO line. + +- gpio-tilt-polled: drivers/input/misc/gpio_tilt_polled.c provides tilt + detection switches using GPIO, which is useful for your homebrewn pinball + machine if for nothing else. It can detect different tilt angles of the + monitored object. + +- extcon-gpio: drivers/extcon/extcon-gpio.c is used when you need to read an + external connector status, such as a headset line for an audio driver or an + HDMI connector. It will provide a better userspace sysfs interface than GPIO. + +- restart-gpio: drivers/power/gpio-restart.c is used to restart/reboot the + system by pulling a GPIO line and will register a restart handler so + userspace can issue the right system call to restart the system. + +- poweroff-gpio: drivers/power/gpio-poweroff.c is used to power the system down + by pulling a GPIO line and will register a pm_power_off() callback so that + userspace can issue the right system call to power down the system. + +- gpio-gate-clock: drivers/clk/clk-gpio-gate.c is used to control a gated clock + (off/on) that uses a GPIO, and integrated with the clock subsystem. + +- i2c-gpio: drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-gpio.c is used to drive an I2C bus + (two wires, SDA and SCL lines) by hammering (bitbang) two GPIO lines. It will + appear as any other I2C bus to the system and makes it possible to connect + drivers for the I2C devices on the bus like any other I2C bus driver. + +- spi_gpio: drivers/spi/spi-gpio.c is used to drive an SPI bus (variable number + of wires, atleast SCK and optionally MISO, MOSI and chip select lines) using + GPIO hammering (bitbang). It will appear as any other SPI bus on the system + and makes it possible to connect drivers for SPI devices on the bus like + any other SPI bus driver. For example any MMC/SD card can then be connected + to this SPI by using the mmc_spi host from the MMC/SD card subsystem. + +- w1-gpio: drivers/w1/masters/w1-gpio.c is used to drive a one-wire bus using + a GPIO line, integrating with the W1 subsystem and handling devices on + the bus like any other W1 device. + +- gpio-fan: drivers/hwmon/gpio-fan.c is used to control a fan for cooling the + system, connected to a GPIO line (and optionally a GPIO alarm line), + presenting all the right in-kernel and sysfs interfaces to make your system + not overheat. + +- gpio-regulator: drivers/regulator/gpio-regulator.c is used to control a + regulator providing a certain voltage by pulling a GPIO line, integrating + with the regulator subsystem and giving you all the right interfaces. + +- gpio-wdt: drivers/watchdog/gpio_wdt.c is used to provide a watchdog timer + that will periodically "ping" a hardware connected to a GPIO line by toggling + it from 1-to-0-to-1. If that hardware does not recieve its "ping" + periodically, it will reset the system. + +- gpio-nand: drivers/mtd/nand/gpio.c is used to connect a NAND flash chip to + a set of simple GPIO lines: RDY, NCE, ALE, CLE, NWP. It interacts with the + NAND flash MTD subsystem and provides chip access and partition parsing like + any other NAND driving hardware. + +Apart from this there are special GPIO drivers in subsystems like MMC/SD to +read card detect and write protect GPIO lines, and in the TTY serial subsystem +to emulate MCTRL (modem control) signals CTS/RTS by using two GPIO lines. The +MTD NOR flash has add-ons for extra GPIO lines too, though the address bus is +usually connected directly to the flash. + +Use those instead of talking directly to the GPIOs using sysfs; they integrate +with kernel frameworks better than your userspace code could. Needless to say, +just using the apropriate kernel drivers will simplify and speed up your +embedded hacking in particular by providing ready-made components. |