What is the difference between a Linux platform driver and normal device driver?

Question

Earlier I had assumed that :

• Platform driver is for those devices that are on chip.
• Normal device driver are for those that are interfaced to the proc

Answer 1

Minimal module code examples

Maybe the difference will also become clearer with some concrete examples.

Platform device example

Code:

• driver upstream
• minimal QEMU virtual device driven.
• DTS entry modifications on Linux kernel

Further integration notes at: https://stackoverflow.com/a/44612957/895245

See how:

• register and interrupt addresses are hardcoded in the device tree and match the QEMU -M versatilepb machine description, which represents the SoC
• there is no way to remove the device hardware (since it is part of the SoC)
• the correct driver is selected by the compatible device tree property which matches platform_driver.name in the driver
• platform_driver_register is the main register interface

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

static struct resource res;
static unsigned int irq;
static void __iomem *map;

static irqreturn_t lkmc_irq_handler(int irq, void *dev)
{
    /* TODO this 34 and not 18 as in the DTS, likely the interrupt controller moves it around.
     * Understand precisely. 34 = 18 + 16. */
    pr_info("lkmc_irq_handler irq = %d dev = %llx\n", irq, *(unsigned long long *)dev);
    /* ACK the IRQ. */
    iowrite32(0x9ABCDEF0, map + 4);
    return IRQ_HANDLED;
}

static int lkmc_platform_device_probe(struct platform_device *pdev)
{
    int asdf;
    struct device *dev = &pdev->dev;
    struct device_node *np = dev->of_node;

    dev_info(dev, "probe\n");

    /* Play with our custom poperty. */
    if (of_property_read_u32(np, "lkmc-asdf", &asdf) ) {
        dev_err(dev, "of_property_read_u32\n");
        return -EINVAL;
    }
    if (asdf != 0x12345678) {
        dev_err(dev, "asdf = %llx\n", (unsigned long long)asdf);
        return -EINVAL;
    }

    /* IRQ. */
    irq = irq_of_parse_and_map(dev->of_node, 0);
    if (request_irq(irq, lkmc_irq_handler, 0, "lkmc_platform_device", dev) < 0) {
        dev_err(dev, "request_irq");
        return -EINVAL;
    }
    dev_info(dev, "irq = %u\n", irq);

    /* MMIO. */
    if (of_address_to_resource(pdev->dev.of_node, 0, &res)) {
        dev_err(dev, "of_address_to_resource");
        return -EINVAL;
    }
    if  (!request_mem_region(res.start, resource_size(&res), "lkmc_platform_device")) {
        dev_err(dev, "request_mem_region");
        return -EINVAL;
    }
    map = of_iomap(pdev->dev.of_node, 0);
    if (!map) {
        dev_err(dev, "of_iomap");
        return -EINVAL;
    }
    dev_info(dev, "res.start = %llx resource_size = %llx\n",
            (unsigned long long)res.start, (unsigned long long)resource_size(&res));

    /* Test MMIO and IRQ. */
    iowrite32(0x12345678, map);

    return 0;
}

static int lkmc_platform_device_remove(struct platform_device *pdev)
{
    dev_info(&pdev->dev, "remove\n");
    free_irq(irq, &pdev->dev);
    iounmap(map);
    release_mem_region(res.start, resource_size(&res));
    return 0;
}

static const struct of_device_id of_lkmc_platform_device_match[] = {
    { .compatible = "lkmc_platform_device", },
    {},
};

MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE(of, of_lkmc_platform_device_match);

static struct platform_driver lkmc_plaform_driver = {
    .probe      = lkmc_platform_device_probe,
    .remove     = lkmc_platform_device_remove,
    .driver     = {
        .name   = "lkmc_platform_device",
        .of_match_table = of_lkmc_platform_device_match,
        .owner = THIS_MODULE,
    },
};

static int lkmc_platform_device_init(void)
{
    pr_info("lkmc_platform_device_init\n");
    return platform_driver_register(&lkmc_plaform_driver);
}

static void lkmc_platform_device_exit(void)
{
    pr_info("lkmc_platform_device_exit\n");
    platform_driver_unregister(&lkmc_plaform_driver);
}

module_init(lkmc_platform_device_init)
module_exit(lkmc_platform_device_exit)

PCI non-platform device example

• driver upstream
• minimal QEMU virtual device driven

See how:

• register and interrupt addresses are dynamically allocated by the PCI system, no device tree is used
• the correct driver is selected by the PCI vendor:device ID (QEMU_VENDOR_ID, EDU_DEVICE_ID on example). This is baked into every device, and vendors must ensure uniqueness.
• we can insert and remove the PCI device with device_add edu and device_del edu as we can in real life. Probing is not automatic, but can be done after boot with echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan. See also: Why is the probe method needed in Linux device drivers in addition to init?

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

#define BAR 0
#define CDEV_NAME "lkmc_hw_pci_min"
#define EDU_DEVICE_ID 0x11e9
#define QEMU_VENDOR_ID 0x1234

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

static struct pci_device_id id_table[] = {
    { PCI_DEVICE(QEMU_VENDOR_ID, EDU_DEVICE_ID), },
    { 0, }
};
MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE(pci, id_table);
static int major;
static struct pci_dev *pdev;
static void __iomem *mmio;
static struct file_operations fops = {
    .owner   = THIS_MODULE,
};

static irqreturn_t irq_handler(int irq, void *dev)
{
    pr_info("irq_handler irq = %d dev = %d\n", irq, *(int *)dev);
    iowrite32(0, mmio + 4);
    return IRQ_HANDLED;
}

static int probe(struct pci_dev *dev, const struct pci_device_id *id)
{
    pr_info("probe\n");
    major = register_chrdev(0, CDEV_NAME, &fops);
    pdev = dev;
    if (pci_enable_device(dev) < 0) {
        dev_err(&(pdev->dev), "pci_enable_device\n");
        goto error;
    }
    if (pci_request_region(dev, BAR, "myregion0")) {
        dev_err(&(pdev->dev), "pci_request_region\n");
        goto error;
    }
    mmio = pci_iomap(pdev, BAR, pci_resource_len(pdev, BAR));
    pr_info("dev->irq = %u\n", dev->irq);
    if (request_irq(dev->irq, irq_handler, IRQF_SHARED, "pci_irq_handler0", &major) < 0) {
        dev_err(&(dev->dev), "request_irq\n");
        goto error;
    }
    iowrite32(0x12345678, mmio);
    return 0;
error:
    return 1;
}

static void remove(struct pci_dev *dev)
{
    pr_info("remove\n");
    free_irq(dev->irq, &major);
    pci_release_region(dev, BAR);
    unregister_chrdev(major, CDEV_NAME);
}

static struct pci_driver pci_driver = {
    .name     = CDEV_NAME,
    .id_table = id_table,
    .probe    = probe,
    .remove   = remove,
};

static int myinit(void)
{
    if (pci_register_driver(&pci_driver) < 0) {
        return 1;
    }
    return 0;
}

static void myexit(void)
{
    pci_unregister_driver(&pci_driver);
}

module_init(myinit);
module_exit(myexit);