[linux-sunxi] Re: Audio sound card name [was [PATCH 4/7] arm64: dts: allwinner: a64: Add HDMI audio]

[Maxime Ripard]

Hi

(Sorry for ignoring a couple of mails from you, for some reason your mails
didn't end up in my Inbox)

On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 11:43:06AM +0100, Robin Murphy wrote:
> On 2020-04-29 9:17 am, Maxime Ripard wrote:
> > On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 02:24:00PM +0800, Chen-Yu Tsai wrote:
> > > On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 1:11 AM Robin Murphy <robin.murphy at arm.com> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > On 2020-04-28 5:49 pm, Clément Péron wrote:
> > > > > Hi Mark, Rob,
> > > > > 
> > > > > On Tue, 28 Apr 2020 at 18:04, Maxime Ripard <maxime at cerno.tech> wrote:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 10:54:00AM +0200, Clément Péron wrote:
> > > > > > > Hi Maxime,
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > On Tue, 28 Apr 2020 at 10:00, Maxime Ripard <maxime at cerno.tech> wrote:
> > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > On Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 02:04:39PM +0200, Clément Péron wrote:
> > > > > > > > > From: Marcus Cooper <codekipper at gmail.com>
> > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > Add a simple-soundcard to link audio between HDMI and I2S.
> > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > Signed-off-by: Jernej Skrabec <jernej.skrabec at siol.net>
> > > > > > > > > Signed-off-by: Marcus Cooper <codekipper at gmail.com>
> > > > > > > > > Signed-off-by: Clément Péron <peron.clem at gmail.com>
> > > > > > > > > ---
> > > > > > > > >    arch/arm64/boot/dts/allwinner/sun50i-a64.dtsi | 21 +++++++++++++++++++
> > > > > > > > >    1 file changed, 21 insertions(+)
> > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > diff --git a/arch/arm64/boot/dts/allwinner/sun50i-a64.dtsi b/arch/arm64/boot/dts/allwinner/sun50i-a64.dtsi
> > > > > > > > > index e56e1e3d4b73..08ab6b5e72a5 100644
> > > > > > > > > --- a/arch/arm64/boot/dts/allwinner/sun50i-a64.dtsi
> > > > > > > > > +++ b/arch/arm64/boot/dts/allwinner/sun50i-a64.dtsi
> > > > > > > > > @@ -102,6 +102,25 @@
> > > > > > > > >                 status = "disabled";
> > > > > > > > >         };
> > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > +     hdmi_sound: hdmi-sound {
> > > > > > > > > +             compatible = "simple-audio-card";
> > > > > > > > > +             simple-audio-card,format = "i2s";
> > > > > > > > > +             simple-audio-card,name = "allwinner,hdmi";
> > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > I'm not sure what the usual card name should be like though. I would assume that
> > > > > > > > this should be something specific enough so that you're able to differentiate
> > > > > > > > between boards / SoC so that the userspace can choose a different configuration
> > > > > > > > based on it?
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > I really don't know what we should use here,
> > > > > > > I just have a look at other SoC:
> > > > > > > rk3328: "HDMI"
> > > > > > > rk3399: "hdmi-sound"
> > > > > > > r8a774c0-cat874: "CAT874 HDMI sound"
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > But maybe it's time to introduce proper name:
> > > > > > > What about :
> > > > > > > pat
> > > > > > > sun50i-h6-hdmi
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > It's pretty much what we've been using for the other sound cards we have, so it
> > > > > > makes sense to me.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I have a question regarding the simple-audio-card,name.
> > > > > In this patch, I would like to introduce a simple-audio-card for the
> > > > > Allwinner A64 HDMI.
> > > > > 
> > > > > What should be the preferred name for this sound card?
> > > > > "sun50i-a64-hdmi" ? "allwinner, sun50i-a64-hdmi" ?
> > > > 
> > > > I can at least speak for RK3328, and the reasoning there was that as the
> > > > user looking at what `aplay -l` says, I don't give a hoot about what the
> > > > SoC may be called, I see two cards and I want to know, with the least
> > > > amount of uncertainty, which one will make the sound come out of the
> > > > port that's labelled "HDMI" on the box ;)
> > > 
> > > I agree. The user really doesn't care what SoC the system uses. The only
> > > real requirement is to be able to tell which output the card is related
> > > to, i.e. is it onboard or an external DAC, is it analog or HDMI, etc..
> > 
> > Yeah, but it's exactly the point.
> > 
> > If we also end up with "HDMI" as our card name, then the userspace has no way to
> > tell anymore if it's running from an rk3328 or an allwinner SoC, or something
> > else entirely. And therefore it cannot really configure anything to work out of
> > the box anymore.
> 
> OK, you're a userspace audio application - enlighten me as to what exact
> chip you're running on here, and why you need to know:
> 
> card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI]
> 
> or how about here?
> 
> card 0: Intel [HDA Intel]
> 
> 
> Furthermore, your argument works both ways - if the equivalent (or in common
> cases like DesignWare IP blocks, exact same) thing across 3 different SoCs
> has 3 different names, then it's that much harder for userspace that wants
> to present a consistent behaviour. I don't know exactly why LibreELEC have
> downstream patches that standardise all the Rockchip ones to "HDMI", but I
> can't help noting that they do.
> 
> With simple-audio-card we're talking about trivial interfaces that often
> don't expose any controls at all, so there's unlikely to be much
> 'configuration' for userspace to do beyond choosing which card to output to.

That's not really true though. simple-audio-card is used when the connection
between the DAIs is simple. It doesn't mean that the configuration of the CPU
DAI (i2s controller in that case) or the configuration of the codec are simple,
and with pretty featureful codecs, between the various muxes and amps, it can
actually be quite difficult to get the combination of controls you need to
change to output something on the output you expected.

Maxime
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