On Fri October 12 2012 00:41:37 Alain VOLMAT wrote: > Hi Laurent, > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Laurent Pinchart [mailto:laurent.pinchart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] > > Sent: vendredi 12 octobre 2012 00:22 > > To: Alain VOLMAT > > Cc: Linux Media Mailing List (linux-media@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) > > Subject: Re: Proposal for the addition of a binary V4L2 control type > > > > Hi Alain, > > > > On Thursday 11 October 2012 22:50:29 Alain VOLMAT wrote: > > > Hi guys, > > > > > > In the context of supporting the control of our HDMI-TX via V4L2 in > > > our SetTopBox, we are facing interface issue with V4L2 when trying to > > > set some information from the application into the H/W. > > > > > > As an example, in the HDCP context, an application controlling the > > > HDMI-TX have the possibility to inform the transmitter that it should > > > fail authentication to some identified HDMI-RX because for example > > > they might be known to be "bad" HDMI receiver that cannot be trusted. > > > This is basically done by setting the list of key (BKSV) into the HDMI-TX H/W. > > > > > > Currently, V4L2 ext control can be of the following type: > > > > > > enum v4l2_ctrl_type { > > > V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_INTEGER = 1, > > > V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_BOOLEAN = 2, > > > V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_MENU = 3, > > > V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_BUTTON = 4, > > > V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_INTEGER64 = 5, > > > V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_CTRL_CLASS = 6, > > > V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_STRING = 7, > > > V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_BITMASK = 8, > > > } > > > > > > There is nothing here than could efficiently be used to push this kind > > > of long (several bytes long .. not fitting into an int64) key information. > > > STRING exists but actually since they are supposed to be strings, the > > > V4L2 core code (v4l2-ctrls.c) is using strlen to figure out the length > > > of data to be copied and it thus cannot be used to push this kind of blob data. > > > > > > Would you consider the addition of a new v4l2_ctrl_type, for example > > > called V4L2_CTRL_TYPE_BINARY or so, that basically would be pointer + > > > length. That would be helpful to pass this kind of control from the > > > application to the driver. (here I took the example of HDCP key blob > > > but that isn't of course the only example we can find of course). > > > > If I remember correctly Hans Verkuil wasn't happy with the concept of binary controls. That's correct. Controls should be 1) fairly elementary types and 2) have clear semantics. Binary blobs are neither. > > While I'm > > not totally against it, I agree with him that it could open the door to abuses. There are valid use > > cases though, both for binary "strings" (such as encryption keys) and binary arrays (such as > > gamma tables). > > Completely random binary blobs are not a good idea though. > > > > So far we've worked around the absence of binary controls by using custom ioctls (or even > > standardizing new ioctls). It might or might not be a good solution for your problem, depending > > on your exact use cases. > > Ok, at least for the HDCP keys table we could for an ioctl if that's already the case in some other situations. Look at the EDID ioctls in v4l2-subdev.h. The HDCP ioctls should be next to them. If I remember correctly you need a get ioctl to obtains the keys from a receiver and a set ioctl to set the keys for a transmitter. > I can however think about some cases where passing such binary controls is better than ioctl in case of it is necessary achieve several settings in an atomic way (which is I believe one of the merit of ext_control). Still in the field of HDMI-TX I can at least think about setting video post processing setting tables & mode change at the same time for example. > If one setting is already available via a control and the other one has to be done via an ioctl, then it becomes hard to ensure that this is done in an atomic way back at the driver level. > > So, in short, for HDCP keys, there might not be a problem with ioctl but for other HDMI-TX settings, I'm afraid we will face problems. > > I am preparing some proposal for some new HDMI-TX controls (or ioctl ?) for things like SPD, AVMUTE, CONTENT_TYPE etc, I guess we could discuss about that problem again at that time. A lot of the stuff that's in InfoFrames lends itself perfectly to controls. They are both simple types and have clear semantics. Regards, Hans -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-media" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
