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Documentation / i2c / instantiating-devices


Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:53 EST.

1	How to instantiate I2C devices
2	==============================
3	
4	Unlike PCI or USB devices, I2C devices are not enumerated at the hardware
5	level. Instead, the software must know which devices are connected on each
6	I2C bus segment, and what address these devices are using. For this
7	reason, the kernel code must instantiate I2C devices explicitly. There are
8	several ways to achieve this, depending on the context and requirements.
9	
10	
11	Method 1a: Declare the I2C devices by bus number
12	------------------------------------------------
13	
14	This method is appropriate when the I2C bus is a system bus as is the case
15	for many embedded systems. On such systems, each I2C bus has a number
16	which is known in advance. It is thus possible to pre-declare the I2C
17	devices which live on this bus. This is done with an array of struct
18	i2c_board_info which is registered by calling i2c_register_board_info().
19	
20	Example (from omap2 h4):
21	
22	static struct i2c_board_info h4_i2c_board_info[] __initdata = {
23		{
24			I2C_BOARD_INFO("isp1301_omap", 0x2d),
25			.irq		= OMAP_GPIO_IRQ(125),
26		},
27		{	/* EEPROM on mainboard */
28			I2C_BOARD_INFO("24c01", 0x52),
29			.platform_data	= &m24c01,
30		},
31		{	/* EEPROM on cpu card */
32			I2C_BOARD_INFO("24c01", 0x57),
33			.platform_data	= &m24c01,
34		},
35	};
36	
37	static void __init omap_h4_init(void)
38	{
39		(...)
40		i2c_register_board_info(1, h4_i2c_board_info,
41				ARRAY_SIZE(h4_i2c_board_info));
42		(...)
43	}
44	
45	The above code declares 3 devices on I2C bus 1, including their respective
46	addresses and custom data needed by their drivers. When the I2C bus in
47	question is registered, the I2C devices will be instantiated automatically
48	by i2c-core.
49	
50	The devices will be automatically unbound and destroyed when the I2C bus
51	they sit on goes away (if ever.)
52	
53	
54	Method 1b: Declare the I2C devices via devicetree
55	-------------------------------------------------
56	
57	This method has the same implications as method 1a. The declaration of I2C
58	devices is here done via devicetree as subnodes of the master controller.
59	
60	Example:
61	
62		i2c1: i2c@400a0000 {
63			/* ... master properties skipped ... */
64			clock-frequency = <100000>;
65	
66			flash@50 {
67				compatible = "atmel,24c256";
68				reg = <0x50>;
69			};
70	
71			pca9532: gpio@60 {
72				compatible = "nxp,pca9532";
73				gpio-controller;
74				#gpio-cells = <2>;
75				reg = <0x60>;
76			};
77		};
78	
79	Here, two devices are attached to the bus using a speed of 100kHz. For
80	additional properties which might be needed to set up the device, please refer
81	to its devicetree documentation in Documentation/devicetree/bindings/.
82	
83	
84	Method 1c: Declare the I2C devices via ACPI
85	-------------------------------------------
86	
87	ACPI can also describe I2C devices. There is special documentation for this
88	which is currently located at Documentation/acpi/enumeration.txt.
89	
90	
91	Method 2: Instantiate the devices explicitly
92	--------------------------------------------
93	
94	This method is appropriate when a larger device uses an I2C bus for
95	internal communication. A typical case is TV adapters. These can have a
96	tuner, a video decoder, an audio decoder, etc. usually connected to the
97	main chip by the means of an I2C bus. You won't know the number of the I2C
98	bus in advance, so the method 1 described above can't be used. Instead,
99	you can instantiate your I2C devices explicitly. This is done by filling
100	a struct i2c_board_info and calling i2c_new_device().
101	
102	Example (from the sfe4001 network driver):
103	
104	static struct i2c_board_info sfe4001_hwmon_info = {
105		I2C_BOARD_INFO("max6647", 0x4e),
106	};
107	
108	int sfe4001_init(struct efx_nic *efx)
109	{
110		(...)
111		efx->board_info.hwmon_client =
112			i2c_new_device(&efx->i2c_adap, &sfe4001_hwmon_info);
113	
114		(...)
115	}
116	
117	The above code instantiates 1 I2C device on the I2C bus which is on the
118	network adapter in question.
119	
120	A variant of this is when you don't know for sure if an I2C device is
121	present or not (for example for an optional feature which is not present
122	on cheap variants of a board but you have no way to tell them apart), or
123	it may have different addresses from one board to the next (manufacturer
124	changing its design without notice). In this case, you can call
125	i2c_new_probed_device() instead of i2c_new_device().
126	
127	Example (from the nxp OHCI driver):
128	
129	static const unsigned short normal_i2c[] = { 0x2c, 0x2d, I2C_CLIENT_END };
130	
131	static int usb_hcd_nxp_probe(struct platform_device *pdev)
132	{
133		(...)
134		struct i2c_adapter *i2c_adap;
135		struct i2c_board_info i2c_info;
136	
137		(...)
138		i2c_adap = i2c_get_adapter(2);
139		memset(&i2c_info, 0, sizeof(struct i2c_board_info));
140		strlcpy(i2c_info.type, "isp1301_nxp", I2C_NAME_SIZE);
141		isp1301_i2c_client = i2c_new_probed_device(i2c_adap, &i2c_info,
142							   normal_i2c, NULL);
143		i2c_put_adapter(i2c_adap);
144		(...)
145	}
146	
147	The above code instantiates up to 1 I2C device on the I2C bus which is on
148	the OHCI adapter in question. It first tries at address 0x2c, if nothing
149	is found there it tries address 0x2d, and if still nothing is found, it
150	simply gives up.
151	
152	The driver which instantiated the I2C device is responsible for destroying
153	it on cleanup. This is done by calling i2c_unregister_device() on the
154	pointer that was earlier returned by i2c_new_device() or
155	i2c_new_probed_device().
156	
157	
158	Method 3: Probe an I2C bus for certain devices
159	----------------------------------------------
160	
161	Sometimes you do not have enough information about an I2C device, not even
162	to call i2c_new_probed_device(). The typical case is hardware monitoring
163	chips on PC mainboards. There are several dozen models, which can live
164	at 25 different addresses. Given the huge number of mainboards out there,
165	it is next to impossible to build an exhaustive list of the hardware
166	monitoring chips being used. Fortunately, most of these chips have
167	manufacturer and device ID registers, so they can be identified by
168	probing.
169	
170	In that case, I2C devices are neither declared nor instantiated
171	explicitly. Instead, i2c-core will probe for such devices as soon as their
172	drivers are loaded, and if any is found, an I2C device will be
173	instantiated automatically. In order to prevent any misbehavior of this
174	mechanism, the following restrictions apply:
175	* The I2C device driver must implement the detect() method, which
176	  identifies a supported device by reading from arbitrary registers.
177	* Only buses which are likely to have a supported device and agree to be
178	  probed, will be probed. For example this avoids probing for hardware
179	  monitoring chips on a TV adapter.
180	
181	Example:
182	See lm90_driver and lm90_detect() in drivers/hwmon/lm90.c
183	
184	I2C devices instantiated as a result of such a successful probe will be
185	destroyed automatically when the driver which detected them is removed,
186	or when the underlying I2C bus is itself destroyed, whichever happens
187	first.
188	
189	Those of you familiar with the i2c subsystem of 2.4 kernels and early 2.6
190	kernels will find out that this method 3 is essentially similar to what
191	was done there. Two significant differences are:
192	* Probing is only one way to instantiate I2C devices now, while it was the
193	  only way back then. Where possible, methods 1 and 2 should be preferred.
194	  Method 3 should only be used when there is no other way, as it can have
195	  undesirable side effects.
196	* I2C buses must now explicitly say which I2C driver classes can probe
197	  them (by the means of the class bitfield), while all I2C buses were
198	  probed by default back then. The default is an empty class which means
199	  that no probing happens. The purpose of the class bitfield is to limit
200	  the aforementioned undesirable side effects.
201	
202	Once again, method 3 should be avoided wherever possible. Explicit device
203	instantiation (methods 1 and 2) is much preferred for it is safer and
204	faster.
205	
206	
207	Method 4: Instantiate from user-space
208	-------------------------------------
209	
210	In general, the kernel should know which I2C devices are connected and
211	what addresses they live at. However, in certain cases, it does not, so a
212	sysfs interface was added to let the user provide the information. This
213	interface is made of 2 attribute files which are created in every I2C bus
214	directory: new_device and delete_device. Both files are write only and you
215	must write the right parameters to them in order to properly instantiate,
216	respectively delete, an I2C device.
217	
218	File new_device takes 2 parameters: the name of the I2C device (a string)
219	and the address of the I2C device (a number, typically expressed in
220	hexadecimal starting with 0x, but can also be expressed in decimal.)
221	
222	File delete_device takes a single parameter: the address of the I2C
223	device. As no two devices can live at the same address on a given I2C
224	segment, the address is sufficient to uniquely identify the device to be
225	deleted.
226	
227	Example:
228	# echo eeprom 0x50 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-3/new_device
229	
230	While this interface should only be used when in-kernel device declaration
231	can't be done, there is a variety of cases where it can be helpful:
232	* The I2C driver usually detects devices (method 3 above) but the bus
233	  segment your device lives on doesn't have the proper class bit set and
234	  thus detection doesn't trigger.
235	* The I2C driver usually detects devices, but your device lives at an
236	  unexpected address.
237	* The I2C driver usually detects devices, but your device is not detected,
238	  either because the detection routine is too strict, or because your
239	  device is not officially supported yet but you know it is compatible.
240	* You are developing a driver on a test board, where you soldered the I2C
241	  device yourself.
242	
243	This interface is a replacement for the force_* module parameters some I2C
244	drivers implement. Being implemented in i2c-core rather than in each
245	device driver individually, it is much more efficient, and also has the
246	advantage that you do not have to reload the driver to change a setting.
247	You can also instantiate the device before the driver is loaded or even
248	available, and you don't need to know what driver the device needs.
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