1<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN"[]>
2
3<book id="V4LGuide">
4 <bookinfo>
5  <title>Video4Linux Programming</title>
6
7  <authorgroup>
8   <author>
9    <firstname>Alan</firstname>
10    <surname>Cox</surname>
11    <affiliation>
12     <address>
13      <email>alan@redhat.com</email>
14     </address>
15    </affiliation>
16   </author>
17  </authorgroup>
18
19  <copyright>
20   <year>2000</year>
21   <holder>Alan Cox</holder>
22  </copyright>
23
24  <legalnotice>
25   <para>
26     This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
27     it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
28     License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
29     version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
30     version.
31   </para>
32
33   <para>
34     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
35     useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
36     warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
37     See the GNU General Public License for more details.
38   </para>
39
40   <para>
41     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
42     License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
43     Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
44     MA 02111-1307 USA
45   </para>
46
47   <para>
48     For more details see the file COPYING in the source
49     distribution of Linux.
50   </para>
51  </legalnotice>
52 </bookinfo>
53
54<toc></toc>
55
56  <chapter id="intro">
57      <title>Introduction</title>
58  <para>
59        Parts of this document first appeared in Linux Magazine under a
60        ninety day exclusivity.
61  </para>
62  <para>
63        Video4Linux is intended to provide a common programming interface
64        for the many TV and capture cards now on the market, as well as
65        parallel port and USB video cameras. Radio, teletext decoders and
66        vertical blanking data interfaces are also provided.
67  </para>
68  </chapter>
69  <chapter id="radio">
70        <title>Radio Devices</title>
71  <para>
72        There are a wide variety of radio interfaces available for PC's, and these
73        are generally very simple to program. The biggest problem with supporting
74        such devices is normally extracting documentation from the vendor.
75  </para>
76  <para>
77        The radio interface supports a simple set of control ioctls standardised
78        across all radio and tv interfaces. It does not support read or write, which
79        are used for video streams. The reason radio cards do not allow you to read
80        the audio stream into an application is that without exception they provide
81        a connection on to a soundcard. Soundcards can be used to read the radio
82        data just fine.
83  </para>
84  <sect1 id="registerradio">
85  <title>Registering Radio Devices</title>
86  <para>
87        The Video4linux core provides an interface for registering devices. The
88        first step in writing our radio card driver is to register it.
89  </para>
90  <programlisting>
91
92
93static struct video_device my_radio
94{
95        "My radio",
96        VID_TYPE_TUNER,
97        VID_HARDWARE_MYRADIO,
98        radio_open.
99        radio_close,
100        NULL,                /* no read */
101        NULL,                 /* no write */
102        NULL,                /* no poll */
103        radio_ioctl,
104        NULL,                /* no special init function */
105        NULL                /* no private data */
106};
107
108
109  </programlisting>
110  <para>
111        This declares our video4linux device driver interface. The VID_TYPE_ value
112        defines what kind of an interface we are, and defines basic capabilities.
113  </para>
114  <para>
115        The only defined value relevant for a radio card is VID_TYPE_TUNER which
116        indicates that the device can be tuned. Clearly our radio is going to have some
117        way to change channel so it is tuneable.
118  </para>
119  <para>
120        The VID_HARDWARE_ types are unique to each device. Numbers are assigned by
121        <email>alan@redhat.com</email> when device drivers are going to be released. Until then you
122        can pull a suitably large number out of your hat and use it. 10000 should be
123        safe for a very long time even allowing for the huge number of vendors
124        making new and different radio cards at the moment.
125  </para>
126  <para>
127        We declare an open and close routine, but we do not need read or write,
128        which are used to read and write video data to or from the card itself. As
129        we have no read or write there is no poll function.
130  </para>
131  <para>
132        The private initialise function is run when the device is registered. In
133        this driver we've already done all the work needed. The final pointer is a
134        private data pointer that can be used by the device driver to attach and
135        retrieve private data structures. We set this field "priv" to NULL for
136        the moment.
137  </para>
138  <para>
139        Having the structure defined is all very well but we now need to register it
140        with the kernel.
141  </para>
142  <programlisting>
143
144
145static int io = 0x320;
146
147int __init myradio_init(struct video_init *v)
148{
149        if(!request_region(io, MY_IO_SIZE, "myradio"))
150        {
151                printk(KERN_ERR
152                    "myradio: port 0x%03X is in use.\n", io);
153                return -EBUSY;
154        }
155
156        if(video_device_register(&amp;my_radio, VFL_TYPE_RADIO)==-1) {
157                release_region(io, MY_IO_SIZE);
158                return -EINVAL;
159        }
160        return 0;
161}
162
163  </programlisting>
164  <para>
165        The first stage of the initialisation, as is normally the case, is to check
166        that the I/O space we are about to fiddle with doesn't belong to some other
167        driver. If it is we leave well alone. If the user gives the address of the
168        wrong device then we will spot this. These policies will generally avoid
169        crashing the machine.
170  </para>
171  <para>
172        Now we ask the Video4Linux layer to register the device for us. We hand it
173        our carefully designed video_device structure and also tell it which group
174        of devices we want it registered with. In this case VFL_TYPE_RADIO.
175  </para>
176  <para>
177        The types available are
178  </para>
179   <table frame=all><title>Device Types</title>
180   <tgroup cols=3 align=left>
181   <tbody>
182   <row>
183        <entry>VFL_TYPE_RADIO</><entry>/dev/radio{n}</><entry>
184
185        Radio devices are assigned in this block. As with all of these
186        selections the actual number assignment is done by the video layer
187        accordijng to what is free.</entry>
188	</row><row>
189        <entry>VFL_TYPE_GRABBER</><entry>/dev/video{n}</><entry>
190        Video capture devices and also -- counter-intuitively for the name --
191        hardware video playback devices such as MPEG2 cards.</entry>
192	</row><row>
193        <entry>VFL_TYPE_VBI</><entry>/dev/vbi{n}</><entry>
194        The VBI devices capture the hidden lines on a television picture
195        that carry further information like closed caption data, teletext
196        (primarily in Europe) and now Intercast and the ATVEC internet
197        television encodings.</entry>
198	</row><row>
199        <entry>VFL_TYPE_VTX</><entry>/dev/vtx[n}</><entry>
200        VTX is 'Videotext' also known as 'Teletext'. This is a system for
201        sending numbered, 40x25, mostly textual page images over the hidden
202        lines. Unlike the /dev/vbi interfaces, this is for 'smart' decoder
203        chips. (The use of the word smart here has to be taken in context,
204        the smartest teletext chips are fairly dumb pieces of technology).
205	</entry>
206    </row>
207    </tbody>
208    </tgroup>
209    </table>
210  <para>
211        We are most definitely a radio.
212  </para>
213  <para>
214        Finally we allocate our I/O space so that nobody treads on us and return 0
215        to signify general happiness with the state of the universe.
216  </para>
217  </sect1>
218  <sect1 id="openradio">
219  <title>Opening And Closing The Radio</title>
220
221  <para>
222        The functions we declared in our video_device are mostly very simple.
223        Firstly we can drop in what is basically standard code for open and close.
224  </para>
225  <programlisting>
226
227
228static int users = 0;
229
230static int radio_open(stuct video_device *dev, int flags)
231{
232        if(users)
233                return -EBUSY;
234        users++;
235        MOD_INC_USE_COUNT;
236        return 0;
237}
238
239  </programlisting>
240  <para>
241        At open time we need to do nothing but check if someone else is also using
242        the radio card. If nobody is using it we make a note that we are using it,
243        then we ensure that nobody unloads our driver on us.
244  </para>
245  <programlisting>
246
247
248static int radio_close(struct video_device *dev)
249{
250        users--;
251        MOD_DEC_USE_COUNT;
252}
253
254  </programlisting>
255  <para>
256        At close time we simply need to reduce the user count and allow the module
257        to become unloadable.
258  </para>
259  <para>
260        If you are sharp you will have noticed neither the open nor the close
261        routines attempt to reset or change the radio settings. This is intentional.
262        It allows an application to set up the radio and exit. It avoids a user
263        having to leave an application running all the time just to listen to the
264        radio.
265  </para>
266  </sect1>
267  <sect1 id="ioctlradio">
268  <title>The Ioctl Interface</title>
269  <para>
270        This leaves the ioctl routine, without which the driver will not be
271        terribly useful to anyone.
272  </para>
273  <programlisting>
274
275
276static int radio_ioctl(struct video_device *dev, unsigned int cmd, void *arg)
277{
278        switch(cmd)
279        {
280                case VIDIOCGCAP:
281                {
282                        struct video_capability v;
283                        v.type = VID_TYPE_TUNER;
284                        v.channels = 1;
285                        v.audios = 1;
286                        v.maxwidth = 0;
287                        v.minwidth = 0;
288                        v.maxheight = 0;
289                        v.minheight = 0;
290                        strcpy(v.name, "My Radio");
291                        if(copy_to_user(arg, &amp;v, sizeof(v)))
292                                return -EFAULT;
293                        return 0;
294                }
295
296  </programlisting>
297  <para>
298        VIDIOCGCAP is the first ioctl all video4linux devices must support. It
299        allows the applications to find out what sort of a card they have found and
300        to figure out what they want to do about it. The fields in the structure are
301  </para>
302   <table frame=all><title>struct video_capability fields</title>
303   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
304   <tbody>
305   <row>
306        <entry>name</><entry>The device text name. This is intended for the user.</>
307	</row><row>
308        <entry>channels</><entry>The number of different channels you can tune on
309                        this card. It could even by zero for a card that has
310                        no tuning capability. For our simple FM radio it is 1.
311                        An AM/FM radio would report 2.</entry>
312	</row><row>
313        <entry>audios</><entry>The number of audio inputs on this device. For our
314                        radio there is only one audio input.</entry>
315	</row><row>
316        <entry>minwidth,minheight</><entry>The smallest size the card is capable of capturing
317		        images in. We set these to zero. Radios do not
318                        capture pictures</entry>
319	</row><row>
320        <entry>maxwidth,maxheight</><entry>The largest image size the card is capable of
321                                      capturing. For our radio we report 0.
322				</entry>
323	</row><row>
324        <entry>type</><entry>This reports the capabilities of the device, and
325                        matches the field we filled in in the struct
326                        video_device when registering.</entry>
327    </row>
328    </tbody>
329    </tgroup>
330    </table>
331  <para>
332        Having filled in the fields, we use copy_to_user to copy the structure into
333        the users buffer. If the copy fails we return an EFAULT to the application
334        so that it knows it tried to feed us garbage.
335  </para>
336  <para>
337        The next pair of ioctl operations select which tuner is to be used and let
338        the application find the tuner properties. We have only a single FM band
339        tuner in our example device.
340  </para>
341  <programlisting>
342
343
344                case VIDIOCGTUNER:
345                {
346                        struct video_tuner v;
347                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v))!=0)
348                                return -EFAULT;
349                        if(v.tuner)
350                                return -EINVAL;
351                        v.rangelow=(87*16000);
352                        v.rangehigh=(108*16000);
353                        v.flags = VIDEO_TUNER_LOW;
354                        v.mode = VIDEO_MODE_AUTO;
355                        v.signal = 0xFFFF;
356                        strcpy(v.name, "FM");
357                        if(copy_to_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v))!=0)
358                                return -EFAULT;
359                        return 0;
360                }
361
362  </programlisting>
363  <para>
364        The VIDIOCGTUNER ioctl allows applications to query a tuner. The application
365        sets the tuner field to the tuner number it wishes to query. The query does
366        not change the tuner that is being used, it merely enquires about the tuner
367        in question.
368  </para>
369  <para>
370        We have exactly one tuner so after copying the user buffer to our temporary
371        structure we complain if they asked for a tuner other than tuner 0.
372  </para>
373  <para>
374        The video_tuner structure has the following fields
375  </para>
376   <table frame=all><title>struct video_tuner fields</title>
377   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
378   <tbody>
379   <row>
380        <entry>int tuner</><entry>The number of the tuner in question</entry>
381   </row><row>
382        <entry>char name[32]</><entry>A text description of this tuner. "FM" will do fine.
383                        This is intended for the application.</entry>
384   </row><row>
385        <entry>u32 flags</>
386        <entry>Tuner capability flags</entry>
387   </row>
388   <row>
389        <entry>u16 mode</><entry>The current reception mode</entry>
390
391   </row><row>
392        <entry>u16 signal</><entry>The signal strength scaled between 0 and 65535. If
393                        a device cannot tell the signal strength it should
394                        report 65535. Many simple cards contain only a
395                        signal/no signal bit. Such cards will report either
396                        0 or 65535.</entry>
397
398   </row><row>
399        <entry>u32 rangelow, rangehigh</><entry>
400                        The range of frequencies supported by the radio
401                        or TV. It is scaled according to the VIDEO_TUNER_LOW
402                        flag.</entry>
403
404    </row>
405    </tbody>
406    </tgroup>
407    </table>
408
409   <table frame=all><title>struct video_tuner flags</title>
410   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
411   <tbody>
412   <row>
413	<entry>VIDEO_TUNER_PAL</><entry>A PAL TV tuner</entry>
414	</row><row>
415        <entry>VIDEO_TUNER_NTSC</><entry>An NTSC (US) TV tuner</entry>
416	</row><row>
417        <entry>VIDEO_TUNER_SECAM</><entry>A SECAM (French) TV tuner</entry>
418	</row><row>
419        <entry>VIDEO_TUNER_LOW</><entry>
420             The tuner frequency is scaled in 1/16th of a KHz
421             steps. If not it is in 1/16th of a MHz steps
422	</entry>
423	</row><row>
424        <entry>VIDEO_TUNER_NORM</><entry>The tuner can set its format</entry>
425	</row><row>
426        <entry>VIDEO_TUNER_STEREO_ON</><entry>The tuner is currently receiving a stereo signal</entry>
427        </row>
428    </tbody>
429    </tgroup>
430    </table>
431
432   <table frame=all><title>struct video_tuner modes</title>
433   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
434   <tbody>
435   <row>
436                <entry>VIDEO_MODE_PAL</><entry>PAL Format</entry>
437   </row><row>
438                <entry>VIDEO_MODE_NTSC</><entry>NTSC Format (USA)</entry>
439   </row><row>
440                <entry>VIDEO_MODE_SECAM</><entry>French Format</entry>
441   </row><row>
442                <entry>VIDEO_MODE_AUTO</><entry>A device that does not need to do
443                                        TV format switching</entry>
444   </row>
445    </tbody>
446    </tgroup>
447    </table>
448  <para>
449        The settings for the radio card are thus fairly simple. We report that we
450        are a tuner called "FM" for FM radio. In order to get the best tuning
451        resolution we report VIDEO_TUNER_LOW and select tuning to 1/16th of KHz. Its
452        unlikely our card can do that resolution but it is a fair bet the card can
453        do better than 1/16th of a MHz. VIDEO_TUNER_LOW is appropriate to almost all
454        radio usage.
455  </para>
456  <para>
457        We report that the tuner automatically handles deciding what format it is
458        receiving - true enough as it only handles FM radio. Our example card is
459        also incapable of detecting stereo or signal strengths so it reports a
460        strength of 0xFFFF (maximum) and no stereo detected.
461  </para>
462  <para>
463        To finish off we set the range that can be tuned to be 87-108Mhz, the normal
464        FM broadcast radio range. It is important to find out what the card is
465        actually capable of tuning. It is easy enough to simply use the FM broadcast
466        range. Unfortunately if you do this you will discover the FM broadcast
467        ranges in the USA, Europe and Japan are all subtly different and some users
468        cannot receive all the stations they wish.
469  </para>
470  <para>
471        The application also needs to be able to set the tuner it wishes to use. In
472        our case, with a single tuner this is rather simple to arrange.
473  </para>
474  <programlisting>
475
476                case VIDIOCSTUNER:
477                {
478                        struct video_tuner v;
479                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
480                                return -EFAULT;
481                        if(v.tuner != 0)
482                                return -EINVAL;
483                        return 0;
484                }
485
486  </programlisting>
487  <para>
488        We copy the user supplied structure into kernel memory so we can examine it.
489        If the user has selected a tuner other than zero we reject the request. If
490        they wanted tuner 0 then, surprisingly enough, that is the current tuner already.
491  </para>
492  <para>
493        The next two ioctls we need to provide are to get and set the frequency of
494        the radio. These both use an unsigned long argument which is the frequency.
495        The scale of the frequency depends on the VIDEO_TUNER_LOW flag as I
496        mentioned earlier on. Since we have VIDEO_TUNER_LOW set this will be in
497        1/16ths of a KHz.
498  </para>
499  <programlisting>
500
501static unsigned long current_freq;
502
503
504
505                case VIDIOCGFREQ:
506                        if(copy_to_user(arg, &amp;current_freq,
507                                sizeof(unsigned long))
508                                return -EFAULT;
509                        return 0;
510
511  </programlisting>
512  <para>
513        Querying the frequency in our case is relatively simple. Our radio card is
514        too dumb to let us query the signal strength so we remember our setting if
515        we know it. All we have to do is copy it to the user.
516  </para>
517  <programlisting>
518
519
520                case VIDIOCSFREQ:
521                {
522                        u32 freq;
523                        if(copy_from_user(arg, &amp;freq,
524                                sizeof(unsigned long))!=0)
525                                return -EFAULT;
526                        if(hardware_set_freq(freq)<0)
527                                return -EINVAL;
528                        current_freq = freq;
529                        return 0;
530                }
531
532  </programlisting>
533  <para>
534        Setting the frequency is a little more complex. We begin by copying the
535        desired frequency into kernel space. Next we call a hardware specific routine
536        to set the radio up. This might be as simple as some scaling and a few
537        writes to an I/O port. For most radio cards it turns out a good deal more
538        complicated and may involve programming things like a phase locked loop on
539        the card. This is what documentation is for.
540  </para>
541  <para>
542        The final set of operations we need to provide for our radio are the
543        volume controls. Not all radio cards can even do volume control. After all
544        there is a perfectly good volume control on the sound card. We will assume
545        our radio card has a simple 4 step volume control.
546  </para>
547  <para>
548        There are two ioctls with audio we need to support
549  </para>
550  <programlisting>
551
552static int current_volume=0;
553
554                case VIDIOCGAUDIO:
555                {
556                        struct video_audio v;
557                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
558                                return -EFAULT;
559                        if(v.audio != 0)
560                                return -EINVAL;
561                        v.volume = 16384*current_volume;
562                        v.step = 16384;
563                        strcpy(v.name, "Radio");
564                        v.mode = VIDEO_SOUND_MONO;
565                        v.balance = 0;
566                        v.base = 0;
567                        v.treble = 0;
568
569                        if(copy_to_user(arg. &amp;v, sizeof(v)))
570                                return -EFAULT;
571                        return 0;
572                }
573
574  </programlisting>
575  <para>
576        Much like the tuner we start by copying the user structure into kernel
577        space. Again we check if the user has asked for a valid audio input. We have
578        only input 0 and we punt if they ask for another input.
579  </para>
580  <para>
581        Then we fill in the video_audio structure. This has the following format
582  </para>
583   <table frame=all><title>struct video_audio fields</title>
584   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
585   <tbody>
586   <row>
587   <entry>audio</><entry>The input the user wishes to query</>
588   </row><row>
589   <entry>volume</><entry>The volume setting on a scale of 0-65535</>
590   </row><row>
591   <entry>base</><entry>The base level on a scale of 0-65535</>
592   </row><row>
593   <entry>treble</><entry>The treble level on a scale of 0-65535</>
594   </row><row>
595   <entry>flags</><entry>The features this audio device supports
596   </entry>
597   </row><row>
598   <entry>name</><entry>A text name to display to the user. We picked
599                        "Radio" as it explains things quite nicely.</>
600   </row><row>
601   <entry>mode</><entry>The current reception mode for the audio
602
603                We report MONO because our card is too stupid to know if it is in
604                mono or stereo.
605   </entry>
606   </row><row>
607   <entry>balance</><entry>The stereo balance on a scale of 0-65535, 32768 is
608                        middle.</>
609   </row><row>
610   <entry>step</><entry>The step by which the volume control jumps. This is
611                        used to help make it easy for applications to set
612                        slider behaviour.</>
613   </row>
614   </tbody>
615   </tgroup>
616   </table>
617
618   <table frame=all><title>struct video_audio flags</title>
619   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
620   <tbody>
621   <row>
622                <entry>VIDEO_AUDIO_MUTE</><entry>The audio is currently muted. We
623                                        could fake this in our driver but we
624                                        choose not to bother.</entry>
625   </row><row>
626                <entry>VIDEO_AUDIO_MUTABLE</><entry>The input has a mute option</entry>
627   </row><row>
628                <entry>VIDEO_AUDIO_TREBLE</><entry>The  input has a treble control</entry>
629   </row><row>
630                <entry>VIDEO_AUDIO_BASS</><entry>The input has a base control</entry>
631   </row>
632   </tbody>
633   </tgroup>
634   </table>
635
636   <table frame=all><title>struct video_audio modes</title>
637   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
638   <tbody>
639   <row>
640                <entry>VIDEO_SOUND_MONO</><entry>Mono sound</entry>
641   </row><row>
642                <entry>VIDEO_SOUND_STEREO</><entry>Stereo sound</entry>
643   </row><row>
644                <entry>VIDEO_SOUND_LANG1</><entry>Alternative language 1 (TV specific)</entry>
645   </row><row>
646                <entry>VIDEO_SOUND_LANG2</><entry>Alternative language 2 (TV specific)</entry>
647   </row>
648   </tbody>
649   </tgroup>
650   </table>
651  <para>
652        Having filled in the structure we copy it back to user space.
653  </para>
654  <para>
655        The VIDIOCSAUDIO ioctl allows the user to set the audio parameters in the
656        video_audio structure. The driver does its best to honour the request.
657  </para>
658  <programlisting>
659
660                case VIDIOCSAUDIO:
661                {
662                        struct video_audio v;
663                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
664                                return -EFAULT;
665                        if(v.audio)
666                                return -EINVAL;
667                        current_volume = v/16384;
668                        hardware_set_volume(current_volume);
669                        return 0;
670                }
671
672  </programlisting>
673  <para>
674        In our case there is very little that the user can set. The volume is
675        basically the limit. Note that we could pretend to have a mute feature
676        by rewriting this to
677  </para>
678  <programlisting>
679
680                case VIDIOCSAUDIO:
681                {
682                        struct video_audio v;
683                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
684                                return -EFAULT;
685                        if(v.audio)
686                                return -EINVAL;
687                        current_volume = v/16384;
688                        if(v.flags&amp;VIDEO_AUDIO_MUTE)
689                                hardware_set_volume(0);
690                        else
691                                hardware_set_volume(current_volume);
692                        current_muted = v.flags &amp;
693                                              VIDEO_AUDIO_MUTE;
694                        return 0;
695                }
696
697  </programlisting>
698  <para>
699        This with the corresponding changes to the VIDIOCGAUDIO code to report the
700        state of the mute flag we save and to report the card has a mute function,
701        will allow applications to use a mute facility with this card. It is
702        questionable whether this is a good idea however. User applications can already
703        fake this themselves and kernel space is precious.
704  </para>
705  <para>
706        We now have a working radio ioctl handler. So we just wrap up the function
707  </para>
708  <programlisting>
709
710
711        }
712        return -ENOIOCTLCMD;
713}
714
715  </programlisting>
716  <para>
717        and pass the Video4Linux layer back an error so that it knows we did not
718        understand the request we got passed.
719  </para>
720  </sect1>
721  <sect1 id="modradio">
722  <title>Module Wrapper</title>
723  <para>
724        Finally we add in the usual module wrapping and the driver is done.
725  </para>
726  <programlisting>
727
728#ifndef MODULE
729
730static int io = 0x300;
731
732#else
733
734static int io = -1;
735
736
737MODULE_AUTHOR("Alan Cox");
738MODULE_DESCRIPTION("A driver for an imaginary radio card.");
739MODULE_PARM(io, "i");
740MODULE_PARM_DESC(io, "I/O address of the card.");
741
742EXPORT_NO_SYMBOLS;
743
744int init_module(void)
745{
746        if(io==-1)
747        {
748                printk(KERN_ERR
749         "You must set an I/O address with io=0x???\n");
750                return -EINVAL;
751        }
752        return myradio_init(NULL);
753}
754
755void cleanup_module(void)
756{
757        video_unregister_device(&amp;my_radio);
758        release_region(io, MY_IO_SIZE);
759}
760
761#endif
762
763  </programlisting>
764  <para>
765        In this example we set the IO base by default if the driver is compiled into
766        the kernel where you cannot pass a parameter. For the module we require the
767        user sets the parameter. We set io to a nonsense port (-1) so that we can
768        tell if the user supplied an io parameter or not.
769  </para>
770  <para>
771        We use MODULE_ defines to give an author for the card driver and a
772        description. We also use them to declare that io is an integer and it is the
773        address of the card.
774  </para>
775  <para>
776        The clean-up routine unregisters the video_device we registered, and frees
777        up the I/O space. Note that the unregister takes the actual video_device
778        structure as its argument. Unlike the file operations structure which can be
779        shared by all instances of a device a video_device structure as an actual
780        instance of the device. If you are registering multiple radio devices you
781        need to fill in one structure per device (most likely by setting up a
782        template and copying it to each of the actual device structures).
783  </para>
784  </sect1>
785  </chapter>
786  <chapter>
787        <title>Video Capture Devices</title>
788  <sect1 id="introvid">
789  <title>Video Capture Device Types</title>
790  <para>
791        The video capture devices share the same interfaces as radio devices. In
792        order to explain the video capture interface I will use the example of a
793        camera that has no tuners or audio input. This keeps the example relatively
794        clean. To get both combine the two driver examples.
795  </para>
796  <para>
797        Video capture devices divide into four categories. A little technology
798        backgrounder. Full motion video even at television resolution (which is
799        actually fairly low) is pretty resource-intensive. You are continually
800        passing megabytes of data every second from the capture card to the display.
801        several alternative approaches have emerged because copying this through the
802        processor and the user program is a particularly bad idea .
803  </para>
804  <para>
805        The first is to add the television image onto the video output directly.
806        This is also how some 3D cards work. These basic cards can generally drop the
807        video into any chosen rectangle of the display. Cards like this, which
808        include most mpeg1 cards that used the feature connector,  aren't very
809        friendly in a windowing environment. They don't understand windows or
810        clipping. The video window is always on the top of the display.
811  </para>
812  <para>
813        Chroma keying is a technique used by cards to get around this. It is an old
814        television mixing trick where you mark all the areas you wish to replace
815        with a single clear colour that isn't used in the image - TV people use an
816        incredibly bright blue while computing people often use a particularly
817        virulent purple. Bright blue occurs on the desktop. Anyone with virulent
818        purple windows has another problem besides their TV overlay.
819  </para>
820  <para>
821        The third approach is to copy the data from the capture card to the video
822        card, but to do it directly across the PCI bus. This relieves the processor
823        from doing the work but does require some smartness on the part of the video
824        capture chip, as well as a suitable video card. Programming this kind of
825        card and more so debugging it can be extremely tricky. There are some quite
826        complicated interactions with the display and you may also have to cope with
827        various chipset bugs that show up when PCI cards start talking to each
828        other.
829  </para>
830  <para>
831        To keep our example fairly simple we will assume a card that supports
832        overlaying a flat rectangular image onto the frame buffer output, and which
833        can also capture stuff into processor memory.
834  </para>
835  </sect1>
836  <sect1 id="regvid">
837  <title>Registering Video Capture Devices</title>
838  <para>
839        This time we need to add more functions for our camera device.
840  </para>
841  <programlisting>
842static struct video_device my_camera
843{
844        "My Camera",
845        VID_TYPE_OVERLAY|VID_TYPE_SCALES|\
846        VID_TYPE_CAPTURE|VID_TYPE_CHROMAKEY,
847        VID_HARDWARE_MYCAMERA,
848        camera_open.
849        camera_close,
850        camera_read,      /* no read */
851        NULL,             /* no write */
852        camera_poll,      /* no poll */
853        camera_ioctl,
854        NULL,             /* no special init function */
855        NULL              /* no private data */
856};
857  </programlisting>
858  <para>
859        We need a read() function which is used for capturing data from
860        the card, and we need a poll function so that a driver can wait for the next
861        frame to be captured.
862  </para>
863  <para>
864        We use the extra video capability flags that did not apply to the
865        radio interface. The video related flags are
866  </para>
867   <table frame=all><title>Capture Capabilities</title>
868   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
869   <tbody>
870   <row>
871<entry>VID_TYPE_CAPTURE</><entry>We support image capture</>
872</row><row>
873<entry>VID_TYPE_TELETEXT</><entry>A teletext capture device (vbi{n])</>
874</row><row>
875<entry>VID_TYPE_OVERLAY</><entry>The image can be directly overlaid onto the
876                                frame buffer</>
877</row><row>
878<entry>VID_TYPE_CHROMAKEY</><entry>Chromakey can be used to select which parts
879                                of the image to display</>
880</row><row>
881<entry>VID_TYPE_CLIPPING</><entry>It is possible to give the board a list of
882                                rectangles to draw around. </>
883</row><row>
884<entry>VID_TYPE_FRAMERAM</><entry>The video capture goes into the video memory
885                                and actually changes it. Applications need
886                                to know this so they can clean up after the
887                                card</>
888</row><row>
889<entry>VID_TYPE_SCALES</><entry>The image can be scaled to various sizes,
890                                rather than being a single fixed size.</>
891</row><row>
892<entry>VID_TYPE_MONOCHROME</><entry>The capture will be monochrome. This isn't a
893                                complete answer to the question since a mono
894                                camera on a colour capture card will still
895                                produce mono output.</>
896</row><row>
897<entry>VID_TYPE_SUBCAPTURE</><entry>The card allows only part of its field of
898                                view to be captured. This enables
899                                applications to avoid copying all of a large
900                                image into memory when only some section is
901                                relevant.</>
902    </row>
903    </tbody>
904    </tgroup>
905    </table>
906  <para>
907        We set VID_TYPE_CAPTURE so that we are seen as a capture card,
908        VID_TYPE_CHROMAKEY so the application knows it is time to draw in virulent
909        purple, and VID_TYPE_SCALES because we can be resized.
910  </para>
911  <para>
912        Our setup is fairly similar. This time we also want an interrupt line
913        for the 'frame captured' signal. Not all cards have this so some of them
914        cannot handle poll().
915  </para>
916  <programlisting>
917
918
919static int io = 0x320;
920static int irq = 11;
921
922int __init mycamera_init(struct video_init *v)
923{
924        if(!request_region(io, MY_IO_SIZE, "mycamera"))
925        {
926                printk(KERN_ERR
927                      "mycamera: port 0x%03X is in use.\n", io);
928                return -EBUSY;
929        }
930
931        if(video_device_register(&amp;my_camera,
932            VFL_TYPE_GRABBER)==-1) {
933                release_region(io, MY_IO_SIZE);
934                return -EINVAL;
935        }
936        return 0;
937}
938
939  </programlisting>
940  <para>
941        This is little changed from the needs of the radio card. We specify
942        VFL_TYPE_GRABBER this time as we want to be allocated a /dev/video name.
943  </para>
944  </sect1>
945  <sect1 id="opvid">
946  <title>Opening And Closing The Capture Device</title>
947  <programlisting>
948
949
950static int users = 0;
951
952static int camera_open(stuct video_device *dev, int flags)
953{
954        if(users)
955                return -EBUSY;
956        if(request_irq(irq, camera_irq, 0, "camera", dev)&lt;0)
957                return -EBUSY;
958        users++;
959        MOD_INC_USE_COUNT;
960        return 0;
961}
962
963
964static int camera_close(struct video_device *dev)
965{
966        users--;
967        free_irq(irq, dev);
968        MOD_DEC_USE_COUNT;
969}
970  </programlisting>
971  <para>
972        The open and close routines are also quite similar. The only real change is
973        that we now request an interrupt for the camera device interrupt line. If we
974        cannot get the interrupt we report EBUSY to the application and give up.
975  </para>
976  </sect1>
977  <sect1 id="irqvid">
978  <title>Interrupt Handling</title>
979  <para>
980        Our example handler is for an ISA bus device. If it was PCI you would be
981        able to share the interrupt and would have set SA_SHIRQ to indicate a
982        shared IRQ. We pass the device pointer as the interrupt routine argument. We
983        don't need to since we only support one card but doing this will make it
984        easier to upgrade the driver for multiple devices in the future.
985  </para>
986  <para>
987        Our interrupt routine needs to do little if we assume the card can simply
988        queue one frame to be read after it captures it.
989  </para>
990  <programlisting>
991
992
993static struct wait_queue *capture_wait;
994static int capture_ready = 0;
995
996static void camera_irq(int irq, void *dev_id,
997                          struct pt_regs *regs)
998{
999        capture_ready=1;
1000        wake_up_interruptible(&amp;capture_wait);
1001}
1002  </programlisting>
1003  <para>
1004        The interrupt handler is nice and simple for this card as we are assuming
1005        the card is buffering the frame for us. This means we have little to do but
1006        wake up        anybody interested. We also set a capture_ready flag, as we may
1007        capture a frame before an application needs it. In this case we need to know
1008        that a frame is ready. If we had to collect the frame on the interrupt life
1009        would be more complex.
1010  </para>
1011  <para>
1012        The two new routines we need to supply are camera_read which returns a
1013        frame, and camera_poll which waits for a frame to become ready.
1014  </para>
1015  <programlisting>
1016
1017
1018static int camera_poll(struct video_device *dev,
1019	struct file *file, struct poll_table *wait)
1020{
1021        poll_wait(file, &amp;capture_wait, wait);
1022        if(capture_read)
1023                return POLLIN|POLLRDNORM;
1024        return 0;
1025}
1026
1027  </programlisting>
1028  <para>
1029        Our wait queue for polling is the capture_wait queue. This will cause the
1030        task to be woken up by our camera_irq routine. We check capture_read to see
1031        if there is an image present and if so report that it is readable.
1032  </para>
1033  </sect1>
1034  <sect1 id="rdvid">
1035  <title>Reading The Video Image</title>
1036  <programlisting>
1037
1038
1039static long camera_read(struct video_device *dev, char *buf,
1040                                unsigned long count)
1041{
1042        struct wait_queue wait = { current, NULL };
1043        u8 *ptr;
1044        int len;
1045        int i;
1046
1047        add_wait_queue(&amp;capture_wait, &amp;wait);
1048
1049        while(!capture_ready)
1050        {
1051                if(file->flags&amp;O_NDELAY)
1052                {
1053                        remove_wait_queue(&amp;capture_wait, &amp;wait);
1054                        current->state = TASK_RUNNING;
1055                        return -EWOULDBLOCK;
1056                }
1057                if(signal_pending(current))
1058                {
1059                        remove_wait_queue(&amp;capture_wait, &amp;wait);
1060                        current->state = TASK_RUNNING;
1061                        return -ERESTARTSYS;
1062                }
1063                schedule();
1064                current->state = TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE;
1065        }
1066        remove_wait_queue(&amp;capture_wait, &amp;wait);
1067        current->state = TASK_RUNNING;
1068
1069  </programlisting>
1070  <para>
1071        The first thing we have to do is to ensure that the application waits until
1072        the next frame is ready. The code here is almost identical to the mouse code
1073        we used earlier in this chapter. It is one of the common building blocks of
1074        Linux device driver code and probably one which you will find occurs in any
1075        drivers you write.
1076  </para>
1077  <para>
1078        We wait for a frame to be ready, or for a signal to interrupt our waiting. If a
1079        signal occurs we need to return from the system call so that the signal can
1080        be sent to the application itself. We also check to see if the user actually
1081        wanted to avoid waiting - ie  if they are using non-blocking I/O and have other things
1082        to get on with.
1083  </para>
1084  <para>
1085        Next we copy the data from the card to the user application. This is rarely
1086        as easy as our example makes out. We will add capture_w, and capture_h here
1087        to hold the width and height of the captured image. We assume the card only
1088        supports 24bit RGB for now.
1089  </para>
1090  <programlisting>
1091
1092
1093
1094        capture_ready = 0;
1095
1096        ptr=(u8 *)buf;
1097        len = capture_w * 3 * capture_h; /* 24bit RGB */
1098
1099        if(len>count)
1100                len=count;  /* Doesn't all fit */
1101
1102        for(i=0; i&lt;len; i++)
1103        {
1104                put_user(inb(io+IMAGE_DATA), ptr);
1105                ptr++;
1106        }
1107
1108        hardware_restart_capture();
1109
1110        return i;
1111}
1112
1113  </programlisting>
1114  <para>
1115        For a real hardware device you would try to avoid the loop with put_user().
1116        Each call to put_user() has a time overhead checking whether the accesses to user
1117        space are allowed. It would be better to read a line into a temporary buffer
1118        then copy this to user space in one go.
1119  </para>
1120  <para>
1121        Having captured the image and put it into user space we can kick the card to
1122        get the next frame acquired.
1123  </para>
1124  </sect1>
1125  <sect1 id="iocvid">
1126  <title>Video Ioctl Handling</title>
1127  <para>
1128        As with the radio driver the major control interface is via the ioctl()
1129        function. Video capture devices support the same tuner calls as a radio
1130        device and also support additional calls to control how the video functions
1131        are handled. In this simple example the card has no tuners to avoid making
1132        the code complex.
1133  </para>
1134  <programlisting>
1135
1136
1137
1138static int camera_ioctl(struct video_device *dev, unsigned int cmd, void *arg)
1139{
1140        switch(cmd)
1141        {
1142                case VIDIOCGCAP:
1143                {
1144                        struct video_capability v;
1145                        v.type = VID_TYPE_CAPTURE|\
1146                                 VID_TYPE_CHROMAKEY|\
1147                                 VID_TYPE_SCALES|\
1148                                 VID_TYPE_OVERLAY;
1149                        v.channels = 1;
1150                        v.audios = 0;
1151                        v.maxwidth = 640;
1152                        v.minwidth = 16;
1153                        v.maxheight = 480;
1154                        v.minheight = 16;
1155                        strcpy(v.name, "My Camera");
1156                        if(copy_to_user(arg, &amp;v, sizeof(v)))
1157                                return -EFAULT;
1158                        return 0;
1159                }
1160
1161
1162  </programlisting>
1163  <para>
1164        The first ioctl we must support and which all video capture and radio
1165        devices are required to support is VIDIOCGCAP. This behaves exactly the same
1166        as with a radio device. This time, however, we report the extra capabilities
1167        we outlined earlier on when defining our video_dev structure.
1168  </para>
1169  <para>
1170        We now set the video flags saying that we support overlay, capture,
1171        scaling and chromakey. We also report size limits - our smallest image is
1172        16x16 pixels, our largest is 640x480.
1173  </para>
1174  <para>
1175        To keep things simple we report no audio and no tuning capabilities at all.
1176  </para>
1177  <programlisting>
1178
1179                case VIDIOCGCHAN:
1180                {
1181                        struct video_channel v;
1182                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
1183                                return -EFAULT;
1184                        if(v.channel != 0)
1185                                return -EINVAL;
1186                        v.flags = 0;
1187                        v.tuners = 0;
1188                        v.type = VIDEO_TYPE_CAMERA;
1189                        v.norm = VIDEO_MODE_AUTO;
1190                        strcpy(v.name, "Camera Input");break;
1191                        if(copy_to_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
1192                                return -EFAULT;
1193                        return 0;
1194                }
1195
1196
1197  </programlisting>
1198  <para>
1199        This follows what is very much the standard way an ioctl handler looks
1200        in Linux. We copy the data into a kernel space variable and we check that the
1201        request is valid (in this case that the input is 0). Finally we copy the
1202        camera info back to the user.
1203  </para>
1204  <para>
1205        The VIDIOCGCHAN ioctl allows a user to ask about video channels (that is
1206        inputs to the video card). Our example card has a single camera input. The
1207        fields in the structure are
1208  </para>
1209   <table frame=all><title>struct video_channel fields</title>
1210   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
1211   <tbody>
1212   <row>
1213
1214   <entry>channel</><entry>The channel number we are selecting</entry>
1215   </row><row>
1216   <entry>name</><entry>The name for this channel. This is intended
1217                   to describe the port to the user.
1218                   Appropriate names are therefore things like
1219                   "Camera" "SCART input"</entry>
1220   </row><row>
1221   <entry>flags</><entry>Channel properties</entry>
1222   </row><row>
1223   <entry>type</><entry>Input type</entry>
1224   </row><row>
1225   <entry>norm</><entry>The current television encoding being used
1226                   if relevant for this channel.
1227    </entry>
1228    </row>
1229    </tbody>
1230    </tgroup>
1231    </table>
1232    <table frame=all><title>struct video_channel flags</title>
1233    <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
1234    <tbody>
1235    <row>
1236        <entry>VIDEO_VC_TUNER</><entry>Channel has a tuner.</entry>
1237   </row><row>
1238        <entry>VIDEO_VC_AUDIO</><entry>Channel has audio.</entry>
1239    </row>
1240    </tbody>
1241    </tgroup>
1242    </table>
1243    <table frame=all><title>struct video_channel types</title>
1244    <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
1245    <tbody>
1246    <row>
1247        <entry>VIDEO_TYPE_TV</><entry>Television input.</entry>
1248   </row><row>
1249        <entry>VIDEO_TYPE_CAMERA</><entry>Fixed camera input.</entry>
1250   </row><row>
1251	<entry>0</><entry>Type is unknown.</entry>
1252    </row>
1253    </tbody>
1254    </tgroup>
1255    </table>
1256    <table frame=all><title>struct video_channel norms</title>
1257    <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
1258    <tbody>
1259    <row>
1260        <entry>VIDEO_MODE_PAL</><entry>PAL encoded Television</entry>
1261   </row><row>
1262        <entry>VIDEO_MODE_NTSC</><entry>NTSC (US) encoded Television</entry>
1263   </row><row>
1264        <entry>VIDEO_MODE_SECAM</><entry>SECAM (French) Television </entry>
1265   </row><row>
1266        <entry>VIDEO_MODE_AUTO</><entry>Automatic switching, or format does not
1267                                matter</entry>
1268    </row>
1269    </tbody>
1270    </tgroup>
1271    </table>
1272    <para>
1273        The corresponding VIDIOCSCHAN ioctl allows a user to change channel and to
1274        request the norm is changed - for example to switch between a PAL or an NTSC
1275        format camera.
1276  </para>
1277  <programlisting>
1278
1279
1280                case VIDIOCSCHAN:
1281                {
1282                        struct video_channel v;
1283                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
1284                                return -EFAULT;
1285                        if(v.channel != 0)
1286                                return -EINVAL;
1287                        if(v.norm != VIDEO_MODE_AUTO)
1288                                return -EINVAL;
1289                        return 0;
1290                }
1291
1292
1293  </programlisting>
1294  <para>
1295        The implementation of this call in our driver is remarkably easy. Because we
1296        are assuming fixed format hardware we need only check that the user has not
1297        tried to change anything.
1298  </para>
1299  <para>
1300        The user also needs to be able to configure and adjust the picture they are
1301        seeing. This is much like adjusting a television set. A user application
1302        also needs to know the palette being used so that it knows how to display
1303        the image that has been captured. The VIDIOCGPICT and VIDIOCSPICT ioctl
1304        calls provide this information.
1305  </para>
1306  <programlisting>
1307
1308
1309                case VIDIOCGPICT
1310                {
1311                        struct video_picture v;
1312                        v.brightness = hardware_brightness();
1313                        v.hue = hardware_hue();
1314                        v.colour = hardware_saturation();
1315                        v.contrast = hardware_brightness();
1316                        /* Not settable */
1317                        v.whiteness = 32768;
1318                        v.depth = 24;           /* 24bit */
1319                        v.palette = VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB24;
1320                        if(copy_to_user(&amp;v, arg,
1321                             sizeof(v)))
1322                                return -EFAULT;
1323                        return 0;
1324                }
1325
1326
1327  </programlisting>
1328  <para>
1329        The brightness, hue, color, and contrast provide the picture controls that
1330        are akin to a conventional television. Whiteness provides additional
1331        control for greyscale images. All of these values are scaled between 0-65535
1332        and have 32768 as the mid point setting. The scaling means that applications
1333        do not have to worry about the capability range of the hardware but can let
1334        it make a best effort attempt.
1335  </para>
1336  <para>
1337        Our depth is 24, as this is in bits. We will be returning RGB24 format. This
1338        has one byte of red, then one of green, then one of blue. This then repeats
1339        for every other pixel in the image. The other common formats the interface
1340        defines are
1341  </para>
1342   <table frame=all><title>Framebuffer Encodings</title>
1343   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
1344   <tbody>
1345   <row>
1346   <entry>GREY</><entry>Linear greyscale. This is for simple cameras and the
1347                        like</>
1348   </row><row>
1349   <entry>RGB565</><entry>The top 5 bits hold 32 red levels, the next six bits
1350                        hold green and the low 5 bits hold blue. </>
1351   </row><row>
1352   <entry>RGB555</><entry>The top bit is clear. The red green and blue levels
1353                        each occupy five bits.</>
1354    </row>
1355    </tbody>
1356    </tgroup>
1357    </table>
1358  <para>
1359        Additional modes are support for YUV capture formats. These are common for
1360        TV and video conferencing applications.
1361  </para>
1362  <para>
1363        The VIDIOCSPICT ioctl allows a user to set some of the picture parameters.
1364        Exactly which ones are supported depends heavily on the card itself. It is
1365        possible to support many modes and effects in software. In general doing
1366        this in the kernel is a bad idea. Video capture is a performance-sensitive
1367        application and the programs can often do better if they aren't being
1368        'helped' by an overkeen driver writer. Thus for our device we will report
1369        RGB24 only and refuse to allow a change.
1370  </para>
1371  <programlisting>
1372
1373
1374                case VIDIOCSPICT:
1375                {
1376                        struct video_picture v;
1377                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
1378                                return -EFAULT;
1379                        if(v.depth!=24 ||
1380                           v.palette != VIDEO_PALETTE_RGB24)
1381                                return -EINVAL;
1382                        set_hardware_brightness(v.brightness);
1383                        set_hardware_hue(v.hue);
1384                        set_hardware_saturation(v.colour);
1385                        set_hardware_brightness(v.contrast);
1386                        return 0;
1387                }
1388
1389
1390  </programlisting>
1391  <para>
1392        We check the user has not tried to change the palette or the depth. We do
1393        not want to carry out some of the changes and then return an error. This may
1394        confuse the application which will be assuming no change occurred.
1395  </para>
1396  <para>
1397        In much the same way as you need to be able to set the picture controls to
1398        get the right capture images, many cards need to know what they are
1399        displaying onto when generating overlay output. In some cases getting this
1400        wrong even makes a nasty mess or may crash the computer. For that reason
1401        the VIDIOCSBUF ioctl used to set up the frame buffer information may well
1402        only be usable by root.
1403  </para>
1404  <para>
1405        We will assume our card is one of the old ISA devices with feature connector
1406        and only supports a couple of standard video modes. Very common for older
1407        cards although the PCI devices are way smarter than this.
1408  </para>
1409  <programlisting>
1410
1411
1412static struct video_buffer capture_fb;
1413
1414                case VIDIOCGFBUF:
1415                {
1416                        if(copy_to_user(arg, &amp;capture_fb,
1417                             sizeof(capture_fb)))
1418                                return -EFAULT;
1419                        return 0;
1420
1421                }
1422
1423
1424  </programlisting>
1425  <para>
1426        We keep the frame buffer information in the format the ioctl uses. This
1427        makes it nice and easy to work with in the ioctl calls.
1428  </para>
1429  <programlisting>
1430
1431                case VIDIOCSFBUF:
1432                {
1433                        struct video_buffer v;
1434
1435                        if(!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN))
1436                                return -EPERM;
1437
1438                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
1439                                return -EFAULT;
1440                        if(v.width!=320 &amp;&amp; v.width!=640)
1441                                return -EINVAL;
1442                        if(v.height!=200 &amp;&amp; v.height!=240
1443                                &amp;&amp; v.height!=400
1444                                &amp;&amp; v.height !=480)
1445                                return -EINVAL;
1446                        memcpy(&amp;capture_fb, &amp;v, sizeof(v));
1447                        hardware_set_fb(&amp;v);
1448                        return 0;
1449                }
1450
1451
1452
1453  </programlisting>
1454  <para>
1455        The capable() function checks a user has the required capability. The Linux
1456        operating system has a set of about 30 capabilities indicating privileged
1457        access to services. The default set up gives the superuser (uid 0) all of
1458        them and nobody else has any.
1459  </para>
1460  <para>
1461        We check that the user has the SYS_ADMIN capability, that is they are
1462        allowed to operate as the machine administrator. We don't want anyone but
1463        the administrator making a mess of the display.
1464  </para>
1465  <para>
1466        Next we check for standard PC video modes (320 or 640 wide with either
1467        EGA or VGA depths). If the mode is not a standard video mode we reject it as
1468        not supported by our card. If the mode is acceptable we save it so that
1469        VIDIOCFBUF will give the right answer next time it is called.  The
1470        hardware_set_fb() function is some undescribed card specific function to
1471        program the card for the desired mode.
1472  </para>
1473  <para>
1474        Before the driver can display an overlay window it needs to know where the
1475        window should be placed, and also how large it should be. If the card
1476        supports clipping it needs to know which rectangles to omit from the
1477        display. The video_window structure is used to describe the way the image
1478        should be displayed.
1479   </para>
1480   <table frame=all><title>struct video_window fields</title>
1481   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
1482   <tbody>
1483   <row>
1484        <entry>width</><entry>The width in pixels of the desired image. The card
1485                        may use a smaller size if this size is not available</>
1486	</row><row>
1487        <entry>height</><entry>The height of the image. The card may use a smaller
1488                        size if this size is not available.</>
1489	</row><row>
1490        <entry>x</><entry>   The X position of the top left of the window. This
1491                        is in pixels relative to the left hand edge of the
1492                        picture. Not all cards can display images aligned on
1493                        any pixel boundary. If the position is unsuitable
1494                        the card adjusts the image right and reduces the
1495                        width.</>
1496	</row><row>
1497        <entry>y</><entry>   The Y position of the top left of the window. This
1498                        is counted in pixels relative to the top edge of the
1499                        picture. As with the width if the card cannot
1500                        display  starting on this line it will adjust the
1501                        values.</>
1502	</row><row>
1503        <entry>chromakey</><entry>The colour (expressed in RGB32 format) for the
1504                        chromakey colour if chroma keying is being used. </>
1505	</row><row>
1506        <entry>clips</><entry>An array of rectangles that must not be drawn
1507			over.</>
1508	</row><row>
1509        <entry>clipcount</><entry>The number of clips in this array.</>
1510    </row>
1511    </tbody>
1512    </tgroup>
1513    </table>
1514    <para>
1515        Each clip is a struct video_clip which has the following fields
1516   </para>
1517   <table frame=all><title>video_clip fields</title>
1518   <tgroup cols=2 align=left>
1519   <tbody>
1520   <row>
1521        <entry>x, y</><entry>Co-ordinates relative to the display</>
1522	</row><row>
1523        <entry>width, height</><entry>Width and height in pixels</>
1524	</row><row>
1525        <entry>next</><entry>A spare field for the application to use</>
1526    </row>
1527    </tbody>
1528    </tgroup>
1529    </table>
1530    <para>
1531        The driver is required to ensure it always draws in the area requested or a        smaller area, and that it never draws in any of the areas that are clipped.
1532        This may well mean it has to leave alone. small areas the application wished to be
1533        drawn.
1534  </para>
1535  <para>
1536        Our example card uses chromakey so does not have to address most of the
1537        clipping.  We will add a video_window structure to our global variables to
1538        remember our parameters, as we did with the frame buffer.
1539  </para>
1540  <programlisting>
1541
1542
1543                case VIDIOCGWIN:
1544                {
1545                        if(copy_to_user(arg, &amp;capture_win,
1546                            sizeof(capture_win)))
1547                                return -EFAULT;
1548                        return 0;
1549                }
1550
1551
1552                case VIDIOCSWIN:
1553                {
1554                        struct video_window v;
1555                        if(copy_from_user(&amp;v, arg, sizeof(v)))
1556                                return -EFAULT;
1557                        if(v.width > 640 || v.height > 480)
1558                                return -EINVAL;
1559                        if(v.width < 16 || v.height < 16)
1560                                return -EINVAL;
1561                        hardware_set_key(v.chromakey);
1562                        hardware_set_window(v);
1563                        memcpy(&amp;capture_win, &amp;v, sizeof(v));
1564                        capture_w = v.width;
1565                        capture_h = v.height;
1566                        return 0;
1567                }
1568
1569
1570  </programlisting>
1571  <para>
1572        Because we are using Chromakey our setup is fairly simple. Mostly we have to
1573        check the values are sane and load them into the capture card.
1574  </para>
1575  <para>
1576        With all the setup done we can now turn on the actual capture/overlay. This
1577        is done with the VIDIOCCAPTURE ioctl. This takes a single integer argument
1578        where 0 is on and 1 is off.
1579  </para>
1580  <programlisting>
1581
1582
1583                case VIDIOCCAPTURE:
1584                {
1585                        int v;
1586                        if(get_user(v, (int *)arg))
1587                                return -EFAULT;
1588                        if(v==0)
1589                                hardware_capture_off();
1590                        else
1591                        {
1592                                if(capture_fb.width == 0
1593                                    || capture_w == 0)
1594                                        return -EINVAL;
1595                                hardware_capture_on();
1596                        }
1597                        return 0;
1598                }
1599
1600
1601  </programlisting>
1602  <para>
1603        We grab the flag from user space and either enable or disable according to
1604        its value. There is one small corner case we have to consider here. Suppose
1605        that the capture was requested before the video window or the frame buffer
1606        had been set up. In those cases there will be unconfigured fields in our
1607        card data, as well as unconfigured hardware settings. We check for this case and
1608        return an error if the frame buffer or the capture window width is zero.
1609  </para>
1610  <programlisting>
1611
1612
1613                default:
1614                        return -ENOIOCTLCMD;
1615        }
1616}
1617  </programlisting>
1618  <para>
1619
1620        We don't need to support any other ioctls, so if we get this far, it is time
1621        to tell the video layer that we don't now what the user is talking about.
1622  </para>
1623  </sect1>
1624  <sect1 id="endvid">
1625  <title>Other Functionality</title>
1626  <para>
1627        The Video4Linux layer supports additional features, including a high
1628        performance mmap() based capture mode and capturing part of the image.
1629        These features are out of the scope of the book.  You should however have enough
1630        example code to implement most simple video4linux devices for radio and TV
1631        cards.
1632  </para>
1633  </sect1>
1634  </chapter>
1635  <chapter id="bugs">
1636     <title>Known Bugs And Assumptions</title>
1637  <para>
1638  <variablelist>
1639    <varlistentry><term>Multiple Opens</term>
1640    <listitem>
1641    <para>
1642        The driver assumes multiple opens should not be allowed. A driver
1643        can work around this but not cleanly.
1644    </para>
1645    </listitem></varlistentry>
1646
1647    <varlistentry><term>API Deficiencies</term>
1648    <listitem>
1649    <para>
1650        The existing API poorly reflects compression capable devices. There
1651        are plans afoot to merge V4L, V4L2 and some other ideas into a
1652        better interface.
1653    </para>
1654    </listitem></varlistentry>
1655  </variablelist>
1656
1657  </para>
1658  </chapter>
1659
1660  <chapter id="pubfunctions">
1661     <title>Public Functions Provided</title>
1662!Edrivers/media/video/videodev.c
1663  </chapter>
1664
1665</book>
1666