Re: [PATCH] backlight: gpio_backlight: Drop output gpio direction check for initial power state

[Bartosz Golaszewski]

On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 3:10 PM Daniel Thompson
<daniel.thompson@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 02:56:32PM +0200, Bartosz Golaszewski wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 1:27 PM Daniel Thompson
> > <daniel.thompson@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 06:06:27AM +0000, Ying Liu wrote:
> > > > Bootloader may leave gpio direction as input and gpio value as logical low.
> > > > It hints that initial backlight power state should be FB_BLANK_POWERDOWN
> > > > since the gpio value is literally logical low.
> > >
> > > To be honest this probably "hints" that the bootloader simply didn't
> > > consider the backlight at all :-) . I'd rather the patch description
> > > focus on what circumstances lead to the current code making a bad
> > > decision. More like:
> > >
> > >   If the GPIO pin is in the input state but the backlight is currently
> > >   off due to default pull downs then ...
> > >
> > > > So, let's drop output gpio
> > > > direction check and only check gpio value to set the initial power state.
> > >
> > > This check was specifically added by Bartosz so I'd be interested in his
> > > opinion of this change (especially since he is now a GPIO maintainer)!
> > >
> > > What motivates (or motivated) the need to check the direction rather
> > > than just read that current logic level on the pin?
> > >
> > >
> > > Daniel.
> > > [I'm done but since Bartosz and Linus were not on copy of the original
> > > thread I've left the rest of the patch below as a convenience ;-) ]
> > >
> >
> > This was done in commit: 706dc68102bc ("backlight: gpio: Explicitly
> > set the direction of the GPIO").
> >
> > Let me quote myself from it:
> > --
> > The GPIO backlight driver currently requests the line 'as is', without
> > actively setting its direction. This can lead to problems: if the line
> > is in input mode by default, we won't be able to drive it later when
> > updating the status and also reading its initial value doesn't make
> > sense for backlight setting.
> > --
>
> You are perhaps quoting the wrong bit here ;-). The currently proposed
> patch leaves the code to put the pin into output mode unmodified. However
> there was an extra line at the bottom of your commit message:
> --
> Also: check the current direction and only read the value if it's output.
> --

Yeah I'm no longer sure why I did this. The commit doesn't look harmful though.

Bart

>
> This was the bit I wanted to check on, since the proposed patch
> literally reverses this!
>
> However...
>
>
> > I agree with Thomas that it's highly unlikely the bootloader "hints"
> > at any specific backlight settings. That being said, the change itself
> > looks correct to me. The other branch of that if will always unblank
> > the backlight if the GPIO is in input mode which may not be desirable.
>
> ... if you're happy the proposed change is OK then I'm happy too!
> I came to the same conclusion after reviewing the GPIO code this morning,
> however I copied you in because I was worried I might have overlooked
> something.
>
>
> > I don't see any obvious problem with this change, just make sure the
> > commit message makes more sense.
>
> Agreed.
>
>
> Daniel.