Re: [PATCH v4 02/11] mfd: Add support for Kontron sl28cpld management controller

[Michael Walle]

Hi,

Am 2020-06-05 12:50, schrieb Mark Brown:
> On Fri, Jun 05, 2020 at 07:57:09AM +0100, Lee Jones wrote:
> > On Thu, 04 Jun 2020, Michael Walle wrote:
>
> > > +	sl28cpld->regmap = devm_regmap_init_i2c(i2c, &sl28cpld_regmap_config);
> > > +	if (IS_ERR(sl28cpld->regmap))
> > > +		return PTR_ERR(sl28cpld->regmap);
>
> > This is now a shared memory allocator and not an MFD at all.
>
> > I'm clamping down on these type of drivers!
>
> > Please find a better way to accomplish this.
>
> What is the concern with this?  Looking at the patch I'm guessing the
> concern would be that the driver isn't instantiating any MFD children
> and instead requiring them to be put in the DT?
>
> > Potentially using "simple-mfd" and "simple-regmap".
>
> > The former already exists and does what you want.  The latter doesn't
> > yet exist, but could solve your and lots of other contributor's
> > issues.
>
> I have no idea what you are thinking of when you say "simple-regmap" so
> it is difficult to comment.

I guess, Lee is suggesting to be able to create a regmap instance via
device tree (and populate its child nodes?). Like
  compatible = "syscon", "simple-mfd";
but for any regmap, not just MMIO.

But, there is more in my driver:
 (1) there is a version check
 (2) there is another function for which there is no suitable linux
     subsystem I'm aware of and thus which I'd like to us sysfs
     attributes for: This controller supports 16 non-volatile
     configuration bits. (this is still TBD)

I don't see what is different between this driver and for example the
gateworks-gsc.c. Just that mine doesn't use a global register set, but
local offsets and a base for each component. From a hardware
perspective its one device behind an I2C address providing different
functions across multiple driver subsystems.

Actually, I've tried to remove the devm_of_platform_populate() and
instead added the "simple-mfd" to my mfd node:
 compatible = "kontron,sl28cpld-r1", "simple-mfd";

I guess that doesn't work because the device is below the i2c bus?

--
-michael