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[1/2] dt-bindings: pwm-backlight: Add 'max-brightness' property

Message ID 20190610233739.29477-1-mka@chromium.org
State Not Applicable
Headers show
Series [1/2] dt-bindings: pwm-backlight: Add 'max-brightness' property | expand

Commit Message

Matthias Kaehlcke June 10, 2019, 11:37 p.m. UTC
Add an optional 'max-brightness' property, which is used to specify
the number of brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
has no 'brightness-levels' table.

Signed-off-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@chromium.org>
---
 .../devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt       | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

Comments

Pavel Machek June 11, 2019, 10:14 a.m. UTC | #1
On Mon 2019-06-10 16:37:38, Matthias Kaehlcke wrote:
> Add an optional 'max-brightness' property, which is used to specify
> the number of brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
> has no 'brightness-levels' table.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@chromium.org>

Acked-by: Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>
Thierry Reding June 11, 2019, 10:28 a.m. UTC | #2
On Mon, Jun 10, 2019 at 04:37:38PM -0700, Matthias Kaehlcke wrote:
> Add an optional 'max-brightness' property, which is used to specify
> the number of brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
> has no 'brightness-levels' table.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@chromium.org>
> ---
>  .../devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt       | 3 +++
>  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> index 64fa2fbd98c9..98f4ba626054 100644
> --- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> @@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ Optional properties:
>                              resolution pwm duty cycle can be used without
>                              having to list out every possible value in the
>                              brightness-level array.
> +  - max-brightness: Maximum brightness value. Used to specify the number of
> +                    brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
> +                    has no 'brightness-levels' table.

Back at the time when these bindings were defined we specifically didn't
add this because it was deemed impractical. That is, no real hardware is
actually capable of achieving useful results with a simplified
description like this.

Besides, we already have the num-interpolated-steps property which
should allow you to achieve the same thing:

	brightness-levels = <0 255>;
	default-brightness-level = <1>;
	num-interpolated-steps = <255>;

Though given the original discussion that we had around how backlight
hardware behaves, that doesn't seem like a good choice.

Thierry
Jacek Anaszewski June 11, 2019, 8:02 p.m. UTC | #3
Hi Matthias,

On 6/11/19 1:37 AM, Matthias Kaehlcke wrote:
> Add an optional 'max-brightness' property, which is used to specify
> the number of brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
> has no 'brightness-levels' table.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@chromium.org>
> ---
>   .../devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt       | 3 +++
>   1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> index 64fa2fbd98c9..98f4ba626054 100644
> --- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> @@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ Optional properties:
>                               resolution pwm duty cycle can be used without
>                               having to list out every possible value in the
>                               brightness-level array.
> +  - max-brightness: Maximum brightness value. Used to specify the number of
> +                    brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
> +                    has no 'brightness-levels' table.

In the LED subsystem we have led-max-microamp property which seems to
better describe hardware capabilities. It says just: this is the current
level the LED can withstand. max-brightness does not implicitly convey
this kind of information.

Why the need for the property at all? If for the reasons other than
hardware capabilities than it should be more likely handled
by userspace.

>   [0]: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/pwm/pwm.txt
>   [1]: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/gpio/gpio.txt
>
Matthias Kaehlcke June 11, 2019, 9:38 p.m. UTC | #4
Hi Thierry,

On Tue, Jun 11, 2019 at 12:28:51PM +0200, Thierry Reding wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 10, 2019 at 04:37:38PM -0700, Matthias Kaehlcke wrote:
> > Add an optional 'max-brightness' property, which is used to specify
> > the number of brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
> > has no 'brightness-levels' table.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@chromium.org>
> > ---
> >  .../devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt       | 3 +++
> >  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> > index 64fa2fbd98c9..98f4ba626054 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> > +++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> > @@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ Optional properties:
> >                              resolution pwm duty cycle can be used without
> >                              having to list out every possible value in the
> >                              brightness-level array.
> > +  - max-brightness: Maximum brightness value. Used to specify the number of
> > +                    brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
> > +                    has no 'brightness-levels' table.
> 
> Back at the time when these bindings were defined we specifically didn't
> add this because it was deemed impractical. That is, no real hardware is
> actually capable of achieving useful results with a simplified
> description like this.
> 
> Besides, we already have the num-interpolated-steps property which
> should allow you to achieve the same thing:
> 
> 	brightness-levels = <0 255>;
> 	default-brightness-level = <1>;
> 	num-interpolated-steps = <255>;

It doesn't achieve the same. With this configuration the device would
have a table with 256 linearly increasing values, the intended use of
the property is to provide the number of brightness levels to be used
by the CIE 1931 algorithm to compute a brightness scale that is
perceived as linear by the human eye. We could possibly treat a
'brightness-levels' table with only two levels as special case and
get the number of levels from it.

In any case from the discussion on "backlight: pwm_bl: Get number of
brightness levels for CIE 1931 from the device tree" it might not be
necessary to specify the number of levels in the DT.

> Though given the original discussion that we had around how backlight
> hardware behaves, that doesn't seem like a good choice.
Matthias Kaehlcke June 11, 2019, 10:11 p.m. UTC | #5
Hi Jacek,

On Tue, Jun 11, 2019 at 10:02:23PM +0200, Jacek Anaszewski wrote:
> Hi Matthias,
> 
> On 6/11/19 1:37 AM, Matthias Kaehlcke wrote:
> > Add an optional 'max-brightness' property, which is used to specify
> > the number of brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
> > has no 'brightness-levels' table.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@chromium.org>
> > ---
> >   .../devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt       | 3 +++
> >   1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> > index 64fa2fbd98c9..98f4ba626054 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> > +++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
> > @@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ Optional properties:
> >                               resolution pwm duty cycle can be used without
> >                               having to list out every possible value in the
> >                               brightness-level array.
> > +  - max-brightness: Maximum brightness value. Used to specify the number of
> > +                    brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
> > +                    has no 'brightness-levels' table.
> 
> In the LED subsystem we have led-max-microamp property which seems to
> better describe hardware capabilities. It says just: this is the current
> level the LED can withstand. max-brightness does not implicitly convey
> this kind of information.
> 
> Why the need for the property at all? If for the reasons other than
> hardware capabilities than it should be more likely handled
> by userspace.

The driver needs to know how many brightness levels to expose to
userspace. It currently uses a heuristic for that which is broken:

https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v5.1.9/source/drivers/video/backlight/pwm_bl.c#L234
https://lore.kernel.org/patchwork/patch/1086777/#1282610

In any case it seems the discussion is going into the direction of
fixing the heuristic (apparently using the period as an indicator of
the PWM resolution has more merit than I was initially aware of), if
that moves forward the property wouldn't be needed.
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
index 64fa2fbd98c9..98f4ba626054 100644
--- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
+++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/leds/backlight/pwm-backlight.txt
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@  Optional properties:
                             resolution pwm duty cycle can be used without
                             having to list out every possible value in the
                             brightness-level array.
+  - max-brightness: Maximum brightness value. Used to specify the number of
+                    brightness levels (max-brightness + 1) when the node
+                    has no 'brightness-levels' table.
 
 [0]: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/pwm/pwm.txt
 [1]: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/gpio/gpio.txt