Fuchsia driver development (DFv1)

Fuchsia drivers are shared libraries that are dynamically loaded in driver host processes in user space. The process of loading a driver is controlled by the driver manager. See Device Model for more information on driver hosts, driver manager and the driver and device lifecycles.

Directory structure

Drivers may be found throughout the source tree under driver subdirectories of areas as specified in the source code layout document. Most Fuchsia drivers are found under //src/devices/. They are grouped based on the protocols they implement. The driver protocols are defined in ddk/include/lib/ddk/protodefs.h. For example, a USB ethernet driver goes in //src/connectivity/ethernet/drivers/ rather than //src/devices/usb/drivers/ because it implements an ethernet protocol. However, drivers that implement the USB stack are in //src/devices/usb/drivers/ because they implement USB protocols.

In the driver's BUILD.gn, there should be a fuchsia_driver_component target. In order to get a driver to show up under /boot/driver, it should be included as under the board_bootfs_labels list in the relevant board file(s) under //boards. In order to get it to show up inside of /system/driver it should be added to the system package with a driver_package build target, which should then be referenced by relevant boardfile(s) under //boards. The driver manager looks first in /boot/driver, then /system/driver/ for loadable drivers.

Creating a new driver

Creating a new driver can be done automatically by using the Create Tool. Simply run the following command:

fx create driver --path <PATH> --lang cpp

This will create the directory <PATH> containing an empty driver where the last segment of <PATH> is the driver name and GN target name. After this command is run, the following steps need to be followed:

Include the fuchsia_driver_component or driver_package build target in the correct place to get your driver included into the system.
For packaged drivers the driver_package build target should be added to the relevant board file in //boards or //vendor/<foo>/boards to a xx_package_labels GN argument.
For boot drivers the fuchsia_driver_component build target should be added to the relevant board file in //boards or //vendor/<foo>/boards to the board_bootfs_labels GN argument.
Include the tests build target in the <PATH>:tests build target to get your tests included in CQ.
Add proper bind rules in meta/<NAME>.bind.
Add driver information in meta/<NAME>-info.json. The file must include a short_description and areas matching at least one of the areas listed at //build/drivers/areas.txt.
Write the functionality for the driver.

Declaring a driver

At a minimum, a driver should contain the driver declaration and implement the bind() driver op.

Drivers are loaded and bound to a device when the driver manager successfully finds a matching driver for a device. A driver declares the devices it is compatible with through bind rules, which should be placed in a .bind file alongside the driver. The bind compiler compiles those rules and creates a driver declaration macro containing those rules in a C header file. The following bind rules declares the AHCI driver:

using fuchsia.pci;
using fuchsia.pci.massstorage;

fuchsia.BIND_PROTOCOL == fuchsia.pci.BIND_PROTOCOL.DEVICE;
fuchsia.BIND_PCI_CLASS == fuchsia.pci.BIND_PCI_CLASS.MASS_STORAGE;
fuchsia.BIND_PCI_SUBCLASS == fuchsia.pci.massstorage.BIND_PCI_SUBCLASS_SATA;
fuchsia.BIND_PCI_INTERFACE == 0x01;
fuchsia.BIND_COMPOSITE == 1;

These bind rules state that the driver binds to devices with a BIND_PROTOCOL property that matches DEVICE from the pci namespace and the given PCI class/subclass/interface. The pci namespace is imported from the fucnsia.pci library on the first line. For more details, refer to the binding documentation.

To generate a driver declaration macro including these bind rules, there should be a corresponding bind_rules build target. This should declare dependencies corresponding to the "using" statements in the bind file.

driver_bind_rules("bind") {
    rules = "meta/ahci.bind"
    bind_output = "ahci.bindbc"
    deps = [
        "//src/devices/bind/fuchsia.pci",
        "//src/devices/bind/fuchsia.pci.massstorage",
    ]
}

The driver can now include the generated header and declare itself with the following macro. "zircon" is the vendor id and "0.1" is the driver version.

#include <lib/ddk/binding_driver.h>
...
ZIRCON_DRIVER(ahci, ahci_driver_ops, "zircon", "0.1");

The PCI driver publishes the matching device with the following properties:

zx_device_str_prop_t pci_device_props[] = {
    ddk::MakeStrProperty(bind_fuchsia::PCI_VID,
        static_cast<uint32_t>(device.info.vendor_id)),
    ddk::MakeStrProperty(bind_fuchsia::PCI_DID,
        static_cast<uint32_t>(device.info.device_id)),
    ddk::MakeStrProperty(bind_fuchsia::PCI_CLASS,
        static_cast<uint32_t>(device.info.base_class)),
    ddk::MakeStrProperty(bind_fuchsia::PCI_SUBCLASS,
        static_cast<uint32_t>(device.info.sub_class)),
    ddk::MakeStrProperty(bind_fuchsia::PCI_INTERFACE,
        static_cast<uint32_t>(device.info.program_interface)),
    ddk::MakeStrProperty(bind_fuchsia::PCI_REVISION,
        static_cast<uint32_t>(device.info.revision_id)),
    ddk::MakeStrProperty(bind_fuchsia::PCI_TOPO, pci_bind_topo),
};

For now, binding variables and macros are defined in lib/ddk/binding.h. In the near future, all node properties will be defined by bind libraries like the fuchsia.pci library imported above. If you are introducing a new device class, you may need to introduce new node properties to the binding header as well as the bind libraries.

Node properties are 32-bit values. If your variable value requires greater than a 32-bit value, split them into multiple 32-bit variables. An example is ACPI HID values, which are 8 characters (64-bits) long. It is split into BIND_ACPI_HID_0_3 and BIND_ACPI_HID_4_7. Once the migration to bind libraries is complete you will be able to use other data types such as strings, larger numbers, and booleans.

You may specify disable_autobind = true in the bind_rules build rule to disable the automatic binding behaviour. In that case, a driver can be bound to a device using fuchsia.device.Controller/Bind FIDL call.

Driver binding

A driver's bind() function is called when it is matched to a device. Generally a driver will initialize any data structures needed for the device and initialize hardware in this function. It should not perform any time-consuming tasks or block in this function, because it is invoked from the driver host's RPC thread and it will not be able to service other requests in the meantime. Instead, it should spawn a new thread to perform lengthy tasks.

The driver should make no assumptions about the state of the hardware in bind(). It may need to reset the hardware or otherwise ensure it is in a known state. Because the system recovers from a driver crash by re-spawning the driver host, the hardware may be in an unknown state when bind() is invoked.

There are generally four outcomes from bind():

The driver determines the device is supported and does not need to do any heavy lifting, so publishes a new device with device_add() in C or ddk::Device::DdkAdd() in the DDKTL C++ wrapper library and returns `ZX_OK.
The driver determines that even though the bind rules matched, the device cannot be supported (maybe due to checking hw version bits or whatnot) and returns an error.
The driver needs to do further initialization before the device is ready or it's sure it can support it, so it publishes a invisible device that implements the init() hook and kicks off a thread to keep working, while returning ZX_OK to bind(). That thread will eventually call device_init_reply() in C or ddk::InitTxn::Reply() in the DDKTL C++ wrapper library. The device is guaranteed not to be removed until the reply is received. The status indicates ZX_OK if it was able to successfully initialize the device and it should be made visible, or an error to indicate that the device should be removed.
The driver represents a bus or controller with 0..n children that may dynamically appear or disappear. In this case it should publish a device immediately representing the bus or controller, and then dynamically publish children (that downstream drivers will bind to) representing hardware on that bus. Examples: AHCI/SATA, USB, etc.

After a device is added and made visible by the system, it is made available to client processes and for binding by compatible drivers.

Banjo protocols

A driver provides a set of device ops and optional protocol ops to a device. Device ops implement the device lifecycle methods and the external interface to the device that are called by other user space applications and services. Protocol ops implement the in-process protocols of the device that are called by other drivers loaded into the same driver host.

You can pass one set of protocol ops for the device in device_add_args_t. If a device supports multiple protocols, implement the get_protocol() device op. A device can only have one protocol id. The protocol id corresponds to the class the device is published under in devfs.

Driver operation

A driver generally operates by servicing client requests from children drivers or other processes. It fulfills those requests either by communicating directly with hardware (for example, through MMIO) or by communicating with its parent device (for example, queueing a USB transaction).

External client requests from processes outside the driver host are fulfilled by children drivers, generally in the same process, are fulfilled by banjo protocols corresponding to the device class. Driver-to-driver requests should use banjo protocols instead of device ops.

A device can get a protocol supported by its parent by calling device_get_protocol() on its parent device.

Device interrupts

Device interrupts are implemented by interrupt objects, which are a type of kernel objects. A driver requests a handle to the device interrupt from its parent device in a device protocol method. The handle returned will be bound to the appropriate interrupt for the device, as defined by a parent driver. For example, the PCI protocol implements map_interrupt() for PCI children. A driver should spawn a thread to wait on the interrupt handle.

The kernel will automatically handle masking and unmasking the interrupt as appropriate, depending on whether the interrupt is edge-triggered or level-triggered. For level-triggered hardware interrupts, zx_interrupt_wait() will mask the interrupt before returning and unmask the interrupt when it is called again the next time. For edge-triggered interrupts, the interrupt remains unmasked.

The interrupt thread should not perform any long-running tasks. For drivers that perform lengthy tasks, use a worker thread.

You can signal an interrupt handle with zx_interrupt_trigger() on slot ZX_INTERRUPT_SLOT_USER to return from zx_interrupt_wait(). This is necessary to shut down the interrupt thread during driver clean up.

FIDL messages

Non-driver processes

Messages for each device class are defined in the FIDL language. Each device implements zero or more FIDL protocols, multiplexed over a single channel per client. The driver is given the opportunity to interpret FIDL messages through the message() hook. These are only accessible to non-driver components by means of devfs.

Drivers in other processes

If a driver needs to communicate with a driver in a separate process, rather than define protocol ops, it must instead host an outgoing directory, similar to components, which should host all FIDL protocols the child driver would access on bind.

Protocol ops vs. FIDL messages

Protocol ops define the in-process API for a device. FIDL messages define the API for communicating out of process. Define a protocol op if the function is meant to be called by other drivers in the same process. A driver should call a protocol op on its parent to make use of those functions.

Isolate devices

Devices that are added with DEVICE_ADD_MUST_ISOLATE spawn a new driver host. The device must have an accompanying outgoing directory which hosts FIDL protocols. A driver which is bound to the device will be loaded into the new driver host and provided the ability to connect FIDL protocols exported in the outgoing directory provided by the parent driver.

Driver rights

Although drivers run in user space processes, they have a more restricted set of rights than normal processes. Drivers are not allowed to access the filesystem, including devfs. That means a driver cannot interact with arbitrary devices. If your driver needs to do this, consider writing a service component instead. For example, the virtual console is implemented by the virtcon component.

Privileged operations such as zx_vmo_create_contiguous() and zx_interrupt_create require a root resource handle. This handle is not available to drivers other than the system driver (ACPI on x86 systems and platform on ARM systems). A device should request its parent to perform such operations for it. Contact the author of the parent driver if its protocol does not address this use case.

Similarly, a driver is not allowed to request arbitrary MMIO ranges, interrupts or GPIOs. Bus drivers such as PCI and platform only return the resources associated to the child device.

Advanced Topics and Tips

Taking a long time to initialize

What if your device takes a long time to initialize? When we discussed the null_bind() function above, we indicated that a successful return told the driver manager that the driver is now associated with the device. We can't spend a lot of time in the bind function; we're basically expected to initialize our device, publish it, and be done.

But your device might need to perform a lengthy initialization operation, such as:

enumerate hardware points
load firmware
negotiate a protocol

and so on, which might take a long time to do.

You can publish your device as "invisible" by implementing the device init() hook. The init() hook is run after the device is added through device_add(), and may be used to safely access the device state and to spawn a worker thread. The device will remain invisible and is guaranteed not to be removed until device_init_reply() is called, which may be done from any thread. This meets the requirements for the binding function, but nobody is able to use your device (because nobody knows about it yet, because it's not visible). Now your device can perform the long operations with a background thread.

When your device is ready to service client requests, call device_init_reply() which will cause it to appear in the pathname space.

Power savings

Two callouts, suspend() and resume(), are available for your device in order to support power or other resource saving features.

Both take a device context pointer and a flags argument, but the flags argument is used only in the suspend case.

Flag	Meaning
`DEVICE_SUSPEND_FLAG_REBOOT`	The driver should shut itself down in preparation for a reboot or shutdown of the machine
`DEVICE_SUSPEND_FLAG_REBOOT_BOOTLOADER`	?
`DEVICE_SUSPEND_FLAG_REBOOT_RECOVERY`	?
`DEVICE_SUSPEND_FLAG_POWEROFF`	The driver should shut itself down in preparation for power off
`DEVICE_SUSPEND_FLAG_MEXEC`	The driver should shut itself down in preparation for a soft reboot
`DEVICE_SUSPEND_FLAG_SUSPEND_RAM`	The driver should arrange so that it can be restarted from RAM

Reference: Support functions

This section lists support functions that are provided for your driver to use.

Accessor functions

The context block that's passed as the first argument to your driver's protocol functions is an opaque data structure. This means that in order to access the data elements, you need to call an accessor function:

Function	Purpose
`device_get_name()`	Retrieves the name of the device

Administrative functions

The following functions are used to administer the device:

Function	Purpose
`device_add()`	Adds a device to a parent
`device_async_remove()`	Schedules the removal of a device and all its children