Re: [PATCH v3 0/6] RTL8231 GPIO expander support

[Sander Vanheule <sander@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 2021-05-25 at 20:11 +0300, Andy Shevchenko wrote:
> On Mon, May 24, 2021 at 7:30 PM Andy Shevchenko
> <andy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Mon, May 24, 2021 at 6:03 PM Sander Vanheule <sander@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2021-05-24 at 15:54 +0300, Andy Shevchenko wrote:
> 
> ...
> 
> > > Sadly, I don't. Most of the info we have comes from code archives of
> > > switch
> > > vendors (Zyxel, Cisco etc). Boards need to be reverse engineered, and the
> > > few
> > > leaked datasheets that can be found on the internet aren't exactly thick
> > > in
> > > information.
> > > 
> > > The RTL8231 datasheet is actually quite useful, but makes no mention of
> > > the
> > > output value isse. Since this isn't an official resource, I don't think it
> > > would
> > > be appropriate to link it via a Datasheet: tag.
> > > https://github.com/libc0607/Realtek_switch_hacking/blob/files/RTL8231_Datasheet_
> > > 1.2.pdf
> > > 
> > > Looking at the datasheet again, I came up with a... terrible hack to work
> > > around
> > > the output value issue.
> > > 
> > > The chip also has GPIO_INVERT registers that I hadn't used until now,
> > > because
> > > the logical inversion is handled in the kernel. However, these inversion
> > > registers only apply to the output values. So, I could implement glitch-
> > > free
> > > output behaviour in the following way:
> > >  * After chip reset, and before enabling the output driver (MFD
> > > initialisation):
> > >     - Mux all pins as GPIO
> > >     - Change all pins to outputs,
> > 
> > No. no, no. This is much worse than the glitches. You never know what
> > the hardware is connected there and it's potential breakage (on hw
> > level) possible.
> > 
> > >  so the data registers (0x1c-0x1e) become writable
> > >     - Write value 0 to all pins
> > >     - Change all pins to GPI to change them into high-Z
> > >  * In the pinctrl/gpio driver:
> > >     - Use data registers as input-only
> > >     - Use inversion register to determine output value (can be written any
> > > time)
> > > 
> > > The above gives glitch-free outputs, but the values that are read back
> > > (when
> > > configured as output), come from the data registers. They should now be
> > > coming
> > > from the inversion (reg_set_base) registers, but the code prefers to use
> > > the
> > > data registers (reg_dat_base).
> > 
> > Lemme read the datasheet and see if I find any clue for the hw behaviour.
> 
> Thank you for your patience!
> 
> Have you explored the possibility of using En_Sync_GPIO?

I haven't (output latching doesn't really appear to be a thing in the gpio
framework?), but I did notice that the main SoC's RTL8231 integration uses it.

Let me play around with it to see if it also latches the pin direction, or if
that's always an immediate change.


Best,
Sander