On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 12:45 PM Mark Brown <broonie@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > So this is one device that has two separate modes? This sounds like you > need a property specifying how the device is wired up, or possibly just > different compatibles at the root of the device though that's not quite > idiomatic. Splitting this up with different devices is a bit of a Linux > specific implementation detail. Yes, that does make sense and sounds elegant. However, bear with me: This mfd chip can be wired up as one of the following: - gpio only - gpio + regulator - gpio + led - gpio + flash So I need a way to indicate this in the dt. Imagine I do this with a text/value property, like this: i2c0 { tps61052@33 { compatible = "ti,tps61050"; reg = <0x33>; mode = "regulator"; // or mode = <TPS6105X_REGULATOR_MODE>; }; }; in this case, there is no elegant way to specify the regulator properties in the devicetree. Except by grabbing a reference to a subnode perhaps. And then I'd have to somehow make sure that the sub driver's device->of_node points at this subnode, which the mfd core doesn't do automatically. Now imagine I use a reference property: i2c0 { tps61052@33 { compatible = "ti,tps61050"; reg = <0x33>; mode = <&tps_reg>; tps_reg: regulator { regulator-min-microvolt = <5000000>; regulator-max-microvolt = <5000000>; regulator-always-on; }; }; }; However for this to work, I need to make sure the regulator subdriver gets a valid dev->of_node, which the mfd core doesn't do automatically. So I'd have to follow the 'mode' node, check that its compatible is correct, and then manually assign the of_node to the mfd child driver (not sure how to even do that). So I arrived at the following: i2c0 { tps61052@33 { compatible = "ti,tps61050"; reg = <0x33>; regulator { compatible = "ti,tps6105x-regulator"; regulator-min-microvolt = <5000000>; regulator-max-microvolt = <5000000>; regulator-always-on; }; }; }; In this case, I only need to verify that there is at most one single subnode. And when I specify of_compatible = "ti,tps6105x-regulator" in the mfd cell, the mfd core will automatically assign the child driver's of_node. Nice 'n elegant? Would you be able to suggest a way forward?