207 lines
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207 lines
10 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. include:: /substitutions.rst
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.. _drivers:
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Drivers
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=======
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Some NuttX boards don't have full support for all the on-chip peripherals. If you need support for this hardware,
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you will either need to port a driver from another chip, or write one yourself. This section discusses how to do that.
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.. _drivers-porting:
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Porting a Driver
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----------------
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Often support for on-chip peripherals exists in a closely related chip, or even a different family or from a different
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manufacturer. Many chips are made up of different Intellectual Property (IP) blocks that are licensed from vendors like
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Cadence, Synopsys, and others. The IP blocks may be similar enough to use another chip's driver with little
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modification.
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* Find a similar driver in NuttX source code:
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* Look at register names listed in the datasheet for the peripheral.
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* Search the NuttX codebase for the register names (try several different ones).
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* Note that you'll have to compare the datasheet to the header and code files to see if there are differences; there
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will usually be some differences between architectures, and they can be significant.
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* Find a similar driver in U-Boot, Zephyr or BSD Unix (OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD) source code:
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* Only for inspiration, you can't copy code because of license incompatibility and Apache Foundation restrictions.
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(Apache License 2.0 and BSD code can come in with a software grant agreement from the original authors; this can
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sometimes be hard to get. Ask on the mailing list if you're unsure.)
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* But you can debug to see how the driver works.
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* `U-Boot <https://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot>`_ drivers are often easier to understand than BSD Unix drivers because
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U-Boot is simpler.
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* Understanding how the driver works
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Here are a couple of techniques that helped me.
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* printf debugging
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* Sprinkle ``custinfo()`` logging statements through your code to see execution paths and look at variables
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while the code is running. The reason to use ``custinfo()`` as opposed to the other logging shortcuts
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(``mcinfo()``, etc.) is that you can turn on and off other other logging and still see your custom debug
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logging. Sometimes it's useful to quiet the flood of logging that comes from a particular debug logging
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shortcut.
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* Note that printing info to the console will affect timing.
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* Keep a file with just your debug settings in it, like this (``debugsettings``):
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.. code-block:: c
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CONFIG_DEBUG_CUSTOM_INFO=y
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(etc..)
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* Add the settings to the end of your ``.config`` file after running ``make menuconfig`` (that will reorder
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the file, making it harder to see and change the debug settings if you need to).
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.. code-block:: bash
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$ cat .config debugsettings > .config1 ; mv .config1 .config
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* If you are using interrupts and threads (many things in NuttX run in different threads as a response to interrupts),
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you can use printf debugging to see overlapping execution.
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* Interrupts - here's how to inspect the C stack frame to see what execution environment is currently running:
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.. code-block:: c
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uint32_t frame = 0; /* MUST be the very first thing in the function */
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uint32_t p_frame;
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frame++; /* make sure that frame doesn't get optimized out */
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p_frame = (uint32_t)(&frame);
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custinfo("p_frame: %08x\n", p_frame);
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* Threads - here's how to get the thread identifier to see which thread is currently executing:
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.. code-block:: c
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pthread_t thread_id = pthread_self();
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custinfo("pthread_id: %08x\n", thread_id);
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* stack frame printf
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* thread printf
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* `GDB — the GNU Debugger <https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/>`_
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GDB is a great tool. In this guide we've already used it to load our program and run it. But it can do a lot
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more. You can single-step through code, examine variables and memory, set breakpoints, and more. I generally use
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it from the commandline, but have also used it from an IDE like JetBrains' Clion, where it's easier to see the
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code context.
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One add-on that I found to be essential is the ability to examine blocks of memory, like buffers that NuttX uses
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for reading and writing to storage media or network adapters. This `Stack Overflow question on using GDB to
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examine memory <https://stackoverflow.com/a/54784260/431222>`_ includes a GDB command that is very handy. Add
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this to your ``.gdbinit`` file, and then use the ``xxd`` command to dump memory in an easy-to-read format:
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.. code-block::
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define xxd
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if $argc < 2
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set $size = sizeof(*$arg0)
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else
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set $size = $arg1
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end
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dump binary memory dump.bin $arg0 ((void *)$arg0)+$size
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eval "shell xxd -o %d dump.bin; rm dump.bin", ((void *)$arg0)
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end
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document xxd
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Dump memory with xxd command (keep the address as offset)
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xxd addr [size]
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addr -- expression resolvable as an address
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size -- size (in byte) of memory to dump
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sizeof(*addr) is used by default end
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Here's a short GDB session that shows what this looks like in practice. Note that the memory location being
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examined (``0x200aa9eo`` here) is a buffer being passed to ``mmcsd_readsingle``:
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.. code-block::
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Program received signal SIGTRAP, Trace/breakpoint trap.
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0x200166e8 in up_idle () at common/arm_idle.c:78
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78 }
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(gdb) b mmcsd_readsingle
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Breakpoint 1 at 0x2006ea70: file mmcsd/mmcsd_sdio.c, line 1371.
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(gdb) c
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Continuing.
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Breakpoint 1, mmcsd_readsingle (priv=0x200aa8c0, buffer=0x200aa9e0 "WRTEST TXT \030", startblock=2432) at mmcsd/mmcsd_sdio.c:1371
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1371 finfo("startblock=%d\n", startblock);
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(gdb) xxd 0x200aa9e0 200
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200aa9e0: 5752 5445 5354 2020 5458 5420 1800 0000 WRTEST TXT ....
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200aa9f0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 5500 1100 0000 ..........U.....
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200aaa00: 5752 5445 5354 3520 5458 5420 1800 0000 WRTEST5 TXT ....
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200aaa10: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 5800 1500 0000 ..........X.....
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200aaa20: e552 5445 5854 3620 5458 5420 1800 0000 .RTEXT6 TXT ....
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200aaa30: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 5600 1200 0000 ..........V.....
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200aaa40: 5752 5445 5354 3620 5458 5420 1800 0000 WRTEST6 TXT ....
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200aaa50: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 5600 1200 0000 ..........V.....
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200aaa60: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
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200aaa70: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
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200aaa80: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
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200aaa90: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
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200aaaa0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 ........
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NuttX Drivers as a Reference
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----------------------------
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If you're not porting a NuttX driver from another architecture, it still helps to look at other similar NuttX
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drivers, if there are any. For instance, when implementing an Ethernet driver, look at other NuttX Ethernet drivers;
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for an SD Card driver, look at other NuttX SD Card drivers. Even if the chip-specific code won't be the same, the
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structure to interface with NuttX can be used.
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Using Chip Datasheets
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---------------------
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To port or write a driver, you'll have to be familiar with the information in the chip datasheet. Definitely find
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the datasheet for your chip, and read the sections relevant to the peripheral you're working with. Doing so ahead
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of time will save a lot of time later.
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Another thing that's often helpful is to refer to sample code provided by the manufacturer, or driver code from
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another operating system (like U-Boot, Zephyr, or FreeBSD) while referring to the datasheet — seeing how working
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code implements the necessary algorithms often helps one understand how the driver needs to work.
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* How to use a datasheet
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Key pieces of information in System-on-a-Chip (SoC) datasheets are usually:
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* Chip Architecture Diagram — shows how the subsections of the chip (CPU, system bus, peripherals, I/O, etc.) connect
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to each other.
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* Memory Map — showing the location of peripheral registers in memory. This info usually goes into a header file.
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* DMA Engine — if Direct Memory Access (DMA) is used, this may have info on how to use it.
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* Peripheral — the datasheet usually has a section on how the peripheral works. Key parts of this include:
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* Registers List — name and offset from the base memory address of the peripheral. This needs to go into a header
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file.
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* Register Map — what is the size of each register, and what do the bits mean? You will need to create ``#defines``
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in a header file that your code will use to operate on the registers. Refer to other driver header files for
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examples.
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Logic Analyzers
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---------------
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For drivers that involve input and output (I/O), especially that involve complex protocols like SD Cards, SPI, I2C,
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etc., actually seeing the waveform that goes in and out the chip's pins is extremely helpful. `Logic Analyzers <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_analyzer>`_
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can capture that information and display it graphically, allowing you to see if the driver is doing the right thing
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on the wire.
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DMA Debugging
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-------------
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* Dump registers before, during, and after transfer. Some NuttX drivers (``sam_sdmmc.c`` or ``imxrt_sdmmc.c`` for
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example) have built-in code for debugging register states, and can sample registers before, during, and
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immediately after a DMA transfer, as well as code that can dump the peripheral registers in a nicely-formatted
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way onto the console device (which can be a serial console, a network console, or memory). Consider using something
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like this to see what's happening inside the chip if you're trying to debug DMA transfer code.
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* Compare register settings to expected settings determined from the datasheet or from dumping registers from working
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code in another operating system (U-Boot, Zephyr, FreeBSD, etc.).
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* Use the ``xxd`` GDB tool mentioned above to dump NuttX memory buffers before, during, and after a transfer to see if
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data is being transferred correctly, if there are over- or under-runs, or to diagnose data being stored in incorrect
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locations.
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* printf debugging register states can also help here.
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* Remember that logging can change the timing of any algorithms you might be using, so things may start or stop
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working when logging is added or removed. Definitely test with logging disabled.
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