| .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 |
| |
| .. _media_writing_camera_sensor_drivers: |
| |
| Writing camera sensor drivers |
| ============================= |
| |
| This document covers the in-kernel APIs only. For the best practices on |
| userspace API implementation in camera sensor drivers, please see |
| :ref:`media_using_camera_sensor_drivers`. |
| |
| CSI-2, parallel and BT.656 buses |
| -------------------------------- |
| |
| Please see :ref:`transmitter-receiver`. |
| |
| Handling clocks |
| --------------- |
| |
| Camera sensors have an internal clock tree including a PLL and a number of |
| divisors. The clock tree is generally configured by the driver based on a few |
| input parameters that are specific to the hardware: the external clock frequency |
| and the link frequency. The two parameters generally are obtained from system |
| firmware. **No other frequencies should be used in any circumstances.** |
| |
| The reason why the clock frequencies are so important is that the clock signals |
| come out of the SoC, and in many cases a specific frequency is designed to be |
| used in the system. Using another frequency may cause harmful effects |
| elsewhere. Therefore only the pre-determined frequencies are configurable by the |
| user. |
| |
| ACPI |
| ~~~~ |
| |
| Read the ``clock-frequency`` _DSD property to denote the frequency. The driver |
| can rely on this frequency being used. |
| |
| Devicetree |
| ~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| The preferred way to achieve this is using ``assigned-clocks``, |
| ``assigned-clock-parents`` and ``assigned-clock-rates`` properties. See the |
| `clock device tree bindings |
| <https://github.com/devicetree-org/dt-schema/blob/main/dtschema/schemas/clock/clock.yaml>`_ |
| for more information. The driver then gets the frequency using |
| ``clk_get_rate()``. |
| |
| This approach has the drawback that there's no guarantee that the frequency |
| hasn't been modified directly or indirectly by another driver, or supported by |
| the board's clock tree to begin with. Changes to the Common Clock Framework API |
| are required to ensure reliability. |
| |
| Power management |
| ---------------- |
| |
| Camera sensors are used in conjunction with other devices to form a camera |
| pipeline. They must obey the rules listed herein to ensure coherent power |
| management over the pipeline. |
| |
| Camera sensor drivers are responsible for controlling the power state of the |
| device they otherwise control as well. They shall use runtime PM to manage |
| power states. Runtime PM shall be enabled at probe time and disabled at remove |
| time. Drivers should enable runtime PM autosuspend. Also see |
| :ref:`async sub-device registration <media-registering-async-subdevs>`. |
| |
| The runtime PM handlers shall handle clocks, regulators, GPIOs, and other |
| system resources required to power the sensor up and down. For drivers that |
| don't use any of those resources (such as drivers that support ACPI systems |
| only), the runtime PM handlers may be left unimplemented. |
| |
| In general, the device shall be powered on at least when its registers are |
| being accessed and when it is streaming. Drivers should use |
| ``pm_runtime_resume_and_get()`` when starting streaming and |
| ``pm_runtime_put()`` or ``pm_runtime_put_autosuspend()`` when stopping |
| streaming. They may power the device up at probe time (for example to read |
| identification registers), but should not keep it powered unconditionally after |
| probe. |
| |
| At system suspend time, the whole camera pipeline must stop streaming, and |
| restart when the system is resumed. This requires coordination between the |
| camera sensor and the rest of the camera pipeline. Bridge drivers are |
| responsible for this coordination, and instruct camera sensors to stop and |
| restart streaming by calling the appropriate subdev operations |
| (``.s_stream()``, ``.enable_streams()`` or ``.disable_streams()``). Camera |
| sensor drivers shall therefore **not** keep track of the streaming state to |
| stop streaming in the PM suspend handler and restart it in the resume handler. |
| Drivers should in general not implement the system PM handlers. |
| |
| Camera sensor drivers shall **not** implement the subdev ``.s_power()`` |
| operation, as it is deprecated. While this operation is implemented in some |
| existing drivers as they predate the deprecation, new drivers shall use runtime |
| PM instead. If you feel you need to begin calling ``.s_power()`` from an ISP or |
| a bridge driver, instead add runtime PM support to the sensor driver you are |
| using and drop its ``.s_power()`` handler. |
| |
| Please also see :ref:`examples <media-camera-sensor-examples>`. |
| |
| Control framework |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| ``v4l2_ctrl_handler_setup()`` function may not be used in the device's runtime |
| PM ``runtime_resume`` callback, as it has no way to figure out the power state |
| of the device. This is because the power state of the device is only changed |
| after the power state transition has taken place. The ``s_ctrl`` callback can be |
| used to obtain device's power state after the power state transition: |
| |
| .. c:function:: int pm_runtime_get_if_in_use(struct device *dev); |
| |
| The function returns a non-zero value if it succeeded getting the power count or |
| runtime PM was disabled, in either of which cases the driver may proceed to |
| access the device. |
| |
| Rotation, orientation and flipping |
| ---------------------------------- |
| |
| Use ``v4l2_fwnode_device_parse()`` to obtain rotation and orientation |
| information from system firmware and ``v4l2_ctrl_new_fwnode_properties()`` to |
| register the appropriate controls. |
| |
| .. _media-camera-sensor-examples: |
| |
| Example drivers |
| --------------- |
| |
| Features implemented by sensor drivers vary, and depending on the set of |
| supported features and other qualities, particular sensor drivers better serve |
| the purpose of an example. The following drivers are known to be good examples: |
| |
| .. flat-table:: Example sensor drivers |
| :header-rows: 0 |
| :widths: 1 1 1 2 |
| |
| * - Driver name |
| - File(s) |
| - Driver type |
| - Example topic |
| * - CCS |
| - ``drivers/media/i2c/ccs/`` |
| - Freely configurable |
| - Power management (ACPI and DT), UAPI |
| * - imx219 |
| - ``drivers/media/i2c/imx219.c`` |
| - Register list based |
| - Power management (DT), UAPI, mode selection |
| * - imx319 |
| - ``drivers/media/i2c/imx319.c`` |
| - Register list based |
| - Power management (ACPI and DT) |