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+========================
+USB Gadget API for Linux
+========================
+
+:Author: David Brownell
+:Date: 20 August 2004
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+This document presents a Linux-USB "Gadget" kernel mode API, for use
+within peripherals and other USB devices that embed Linux. It provides
+an overview of the API structure, and shows how that fits into a system
+development project. This is the first such API released on Linux to
+address a number of important problems, including:
+
+- Supports USB 2.0, for high speed devices which can stream data at
+ several dozen megabytes per second.
+
+- Handles devices with dozens of endpoints just as well as ones with
+ just two fixed-function ones. Gadget drivers can be written so
+ they're easy to port to new hardware.
+
+- Flexible enough to expose more complex USB device capabilities such
+ as multiple configurations, multiple interfaces, composite devices,
+ and alternate interface settings.
+
+- USB "On-The-Go" (OTG) support, in conjunction with updates to the
+ Linux-USB host side.
+
+- Sharing data structures and API models with the Linux-USB host side
+ API. This helps the OTG support, and looks forward to more-symmetric
+ frameworks (where the same I/O model is used by both host and device
+ side drivers).
+
+- Minimalist, so it's easier to support new device controller hardware.
+ I/O processing doesn't imply large demands for memory or CPU
+ resources.
+
+Most Linux developers will not be able to use this API, since they have
+USB ``host`` hardware in a PC, workstation, or server. Linux users with
+embedded systems are more likely to have USB peripheral hardware. To
+distinguish drivers running inside such hardware from the more familiar
+Linux "USB device drivers", which are host side proxies for the real USB
+devices, a different term is used: the drivers inside the peripherals
+are "USB gadget drivers". In USB protocol interactions, the device
+driver is the master (or "client driver") and the gadget driver is the
+slave (or "function driver").
+
+The gadget API resembles the host side Linux-USB API in that both use
+queues of request objects to package I/O buffers, and those requests may
+be submitted or canceled. They share common definitions for the standard
+USB *Chapter 9* messages, structures, and constants. Also, both APIs
+bind and unbind drivers to devices. The APIs differ in detail, since the
+host side's current URB framework exposes a number of implementation
+details and assumptions that are inappropriate for a gadget API. While
+the model for control transfers and configuration management is
+necessarily different (one side is a hardware-neutral master, the other
+is a hardware-aware slave), the endpoint I/0 API used here should also
+be usable for an overhead-reduced host side API.
+
+Structure of Gadget Drivers
+===========================
+
+A system running inside a USB peripheral normally has at least three
+layers inside the kernel to handle USB protocol processing, and may have
+additional layers in user space code. The ``gadget`` API is used by the
+middle layer to interact with the lowest level (which directly handles
+hardware).
+
+In Linux, from the bottom up, these layers are:
+
+*USB Controller Driver*
+ This is the lowest software level. It is the only layer that talks
+ to hardware, through registers, fifos, dma, irqs, and the like. The
+ ``<linux/usb/gadget.h>`` API abstracts the peripheral controller
+ endpoint hardware. That hardware is exposed through endpoint
+ objects, which accept streams of IN/OUT buffers, and through
+ callbacks that interact with gadget drivers. Since normal USB
+ devices only have one upstream port, they only have one of these
+ drivers. The controller driver can support any number of different
+ gadget drivers, but only one of them can be used at a time.
+
+ Examples of such controller hardware include the PCI-based NetChip
+ 2280 USB 2.0 high speed controller, the SA-11x0 or PXA-25x UDC
+ (found within many PDAs), and a variety of other products.
+
+*Gadget Driver*
+ The lower boundary of this driver implements hardware-neutral USB
+ functions, using calls to the controller driver. Because such
+ hardware varies widely in capabilities and restrictions, and is used
+ in embedded environments where space is at a premium, the gadget
+ driver is often configured at compile time to work with endpoints
+ supported by one particular controller. Gadget drivers may be
+ portable to several different controllers, using conditional
+ compilation. (Recent kernels substantially simplify the work
+ involved in supporting new hardware, by *autoconfiguring* endpoints
+ automatically for many bulk-oriented drivers.) Gadget driver
+ responsibilities include:
+
+ - handling setup requests (ep0 protocol responses) possibly
+ including class-specific functionality
+
+ - returning configuration and string descriptors
+
+ - (re)setting configurations and interface altsettings, including
+ enabling and configuring endpoints
+
+ - handling life cycle events, such as managing bindings to
+ hardware, USB suspend/resume, remote wakeup, and disconnection
+ from the USB host.
+
+ - managing IN and OUT transfers on all currently enabled endpoints
+
+ Such drivers may be modules of proprietary code, although that
+ approach is discouraged in the Linux community.
+
+*Upper Level*
+ Most gadget drivers have an upper boundary that connects to some
+ Linux driver or framework in Linux. Through that boundary flows the
+ data which the gadget driver produces and/or consumes through
+ protocol transfers over USB. Examples include:
+
+ - user mode code, using generic (gadgetfs) or application specific
+ files in ``/dev``
+
+ - networking subsystem (for network gadgets, like the CDC Ethernet
+ Model gadget driver)
+
+ - data capture drivers, perhaps video4Linux or a scanner driver; or
+ test and measurement hardware.
+
+ - input subsystem (for HID gadgets)
+
+ - sound subsystem (for audio gadgets)
+
+ - file system (for PTP gadgets)
+
+ - block i/o subsystem (for usb-storage gadgets)
+
+ - ... and more
+
+*Additional Layers*
+ Other layers may exist. These could include kernel layers, such as
+ network protocol stacks, as well as user mode applications building
+ on standard POSIX system call APIs such as ``open()``, ``close()``,
+ ``read()`` and ``write()``. On newer systems, POSIX Async I/O calls may
+ be an option. Such user mode code will not necessarily be subject to
+ the GNU General Public License (GPL).
+
+OTG-capable systems will also need to include a standard Linux-USB host
+side stack, with ``usbcore``, one or more *Host Controller Drivers*
+(HCDs), *USB Device Drivers* to support the OTG "Targeted Peripheral
+List", and so forth. There will also be an *OTG Controller Driver*,
+which is visible to gadget and device driver developers only indirectly.
+That helps the host and device side USB controllers implement the two
+new OTG protocols (HNP and SRP). Roles switch (host to peripheral, or
+vice versa) using HNP during USB suspend processing, and SRP can be
+viewed as a more battery-friendly kind of device wakeup protocol.
+
+Over time, reusable utilities are evolving to help make some gadget
+driver tasks simpler. For example, building configuration descriptors
+from vectors of descriptors for the configurations interfaces and
+endpoints is now automated, and many drivers now use autoconfiguration
+to choose hardware endpoints and initialize their descriptors. A
+potential example of particular interest is code implementing standard
+USB-IF protocols for HID, networking, storage, or audio classes. Some
+developers are interested in KDB or KGDB hooks, to let target hardware
+be remotely debugged. Most such USB protocol code doesn't need to be
+hardware-specific, any more than network protocols like X11, HTTP, or
+NFS are. Such gadget-side interface drivers should eventually be
+combined, to implement composite devices.
+
+Kernel Mode Gadget API
+======================
+
+Gadget drivers declare themselves through a struct
+:c:type:`usb_gadget_driver`, which is responsible for most parts of enumeration
+for a struct :c:type:`usb_gadget`. The response to a set_configuration usually
+involves enabling one or more of the struct :c:type:`usb_ep` objects exposed by
+the gadget, and submitting one or more struct :c:type:`usb_request` buffers to
+transfer data. Understand those four data types, and their operations,
+and you will understand how this API works.
+
+.. Note::
+
+ Other than the "Chapter 9" data types, most of the significant data
+ types and functions are described here.
+
+ However, some relevant information is likely omitted from what you
+ are reading. One example of such information is endpoint
+ autoconfiguration. You'll have to read the header file, and use
+ example source code (such as that for "Gadget Zero"), to fully
+ understand the API.
+
+ The part of the API implementing some basic driver capabilities is
+ specific to the version of the Linux kernel that's in use. The 2.6
+ and upper kernel versions include a *driver model* framework that has
+ no analogue on earlier kernels; so those parts of the gadget API are
+ not fully portable. (They are implemented on 2.4 kernels, but in a
+ different way.) The driver model state is another part of this API that is
+ ignored by the kerneldoc tools.
+
+The core API does not expose every possible hardware feature, only the
+most widely available ones. There are significant hardware features,
+such as device-to-device DMA (without temporary storage in a memory
+buffer) that would be added using hardware-specific APIs.
+
+This API allows drivers to use conditional compilation to handle
+endpoint capabilities of different hardware, but doesn't require that.
+Hardware tends to have arbitrary restrictions, relating to transfer
+types, addressing, packet sizes, buffering, and availability. As a rule,
+such differences only matter for "endpoint zero" logic that handles
+device configuration and management. The API supports limited run-time
+detection of capabilities, through naming conventions for endpoints.
+Many drivers will be able to at least partially autoconfigure
+themselves. In particular, driver init sections will often have endpoint
+autoconfiguration logic that scans the hardware's list of endpoints to
+find ones matching the driver requirements (relying on those
+conventions), to eliminate some of the most common reasons for
+conditional compilation.
+
+Like the Linux-USB host side API, this API exposes the "chunky" nature
+of USB messages: I/O requests are in terms of one or more "packets", and
+packet boundaries are visible to drivers. Compared to RS-232 serial
+protocols, USB resembles synchronous protocols like HDLC (N bytes per
+frame, multipoint addressing, host as the primary station and devices as
+secondary stations) more than asynchronous ones (tty style: 8 data bits
+per frame, no parity, one stop bit). So for example the controller
+drivers won't buffer two single byte writes into a single two-byte USB
+IN packet, although gadget drivers may do so when they implement
+protocols where packet boundaries (and "short packets") are not
+significant.
+
+Driver Life Cycle
+-----------------
+
+Gadget drivers make endpoint I/O requests to hardware without needing to
+know many details of the hardware, but driver setup/configuration code
+needs to handle some differences. Use the API like this:
+
+1. Register a driver for the particular device side usb controller
+ hardware, such as the net2280 on PCI (USB 2.0), sa11x0 or pxa25x as
+ found in Linux PDAs, and so on. At this point the device is logically
+ in the USB ch9 initial state (``attached``), drawing no power and not
+ usable (since it does not yet support enumeration). Any host should
+ not see the device, since it's not activated the data line pullup
+ used by the host to detect a device, even if VBUS power is available.
+
+2. Register a gadget driver that implements some higher level device
+ function. That will then bind() to a :c:type:`usb_gadget`, which activates
+ the data line pullup sometime after detecting VBUS.
+
+3. The hardware driver can now start enumerating. The steps it handles
+ are to accept USB ``power`` and ``set_address`` requests. Other steps are
+ handled by the gadget driver. If the gadget driver module is unloaded
+ before the host starts to enumerate, steps before step 7 are skipped.
+
+4. The gadget driver's ``setup()`` call returns usb descriptors, based both
+ on what the bus interface hardware provides and on the functionality
+ being implemented. That can involve alternate settings or
+ configurations, unless the hardware prevents such operation. For OTG
+ devices, each configuration descriptor includes an OTG descriptor.
+
+5. The gadget driver handles the last step of enumeration, when the USB
+ host issues a ``set_configuration`` call. It enables all endpoints used
+ in that configuration, with all interfaces in their default settings.
+ That involves using a list of the hardware's endpoints, enabling each
+ endpoint according to its descriptor. It may also involve using
+ ``usb_gadget_vbus_draw`` to let more power be drawn from VBUS, as
+ allowed by that configuration. For OTG devices, setting a
+ configuration may also involve reporting HNP capabilities through a
+ user interface.
+
+6. Do real work and perform data transfers, possibly involving changes
+ to interface settings or switching to new configurations, until the
+ device is disconnect()ed from the host. Queue any number of transfer
+ requests to each endpoint. It may be suspended and resumed several
+ times before being disconnected. On disconnect, the drivers go back
+ to step 3 (above).
+
+7. When the gadget driver module is being unloaded, the driver unbind()
+ callback is issued. That lets the controller driver be unloaded.
+
+Drivers will normally be arranged so that just loading the gadget driver
+module (or statically linking it into a Linux kernel) allows the
+peripheral device to be enumerated, but some drivers will defer
+enumeration until some higher level component (like a user mode daemon)
+enables it. Note that at this lowest level there are no policies about
+how ep0 configuration logic is implemented, except that it should obey
+USB specifications. Such issues are in the domain of gadget drivers,
+including knowing about implementation constraints imposed by some USB
+controllers or understanding that composite devices might happen to be
+built by integrating reusable components.
+
+Note that the lifecycle above can be slightly different for OTG devices.
+Other than providing an additional OTG descriptor in each configuration,
+only the HNP-related differences are particularly visible to driver
+code. They involve reporting requirements during the ``SET_CONFIGURATION``
+request, and the option to invoke HNP during some suspend callbacks.
+Also, SRP changes the semantics of ``usb_gadget_wakeup`` slightly.
+
+USB 2.0 Chapter 9 Types and Constants
+-------------------------------------
+
+Gadget drivers rely on common USB structures and constants defined in
+the :ref:`linux/usb/ch9.h <usb_chapter9>` header file, which is standard in
+Linux 2.6+ kernels. These are the same types and constants used by host side
+drivers (and usbcore).
+
+Core Objects and Methods
+------------------------
+
+These are declared in ``<linux/usb/gadget.h>``, and are used by gadget
+drivers to interact with USB peripheral controller drivers.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/usb/gadget.h
+ :internal:
+
+Optional Utilities
+------------------
+
+The core API is sufficient for writing a USB Gadget Driver, but some
+optional utilities are provided to simplify common tasks. These
+utilities include endpoint autoconfiguration.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/gadget/usbstring.c
+ :export:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/gadget/config.c
+ :export:
+
+Composite Device Framework
+--------------------------
+
+The core API is sufficient for writing drivers for composite USB devices
+(with more than one function in a given configuration), and also
+multi-configuration devices (also more than one function, but not
+necessarily sharing a given configuration). There is however an optional
+framework which makes it easier to reuse and combine functions.
+
+Devices using this framework provide a struct :c:type:`usb_composite_driver`,
+which in turn provides one or more struct :c:type:`usb_configuration`
+instances. Each such configuration includes at least one struct
+:c:type:`usb_function`, which packages a user visible role such as "network
+link" or "mass storage device". Management functions may also exist,
+such as "Device Firmware Upgrade".
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/usb/composite.h
+ :internal:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/usb/gadget/composite.c
+ :export:
+
+Composite Device Functions
+--------------------------
+
+At this writing, a few of the current gadget drivers have been converted
+to this framework. Near-term plans include converting all of them,
+except for ``gadgetfs``.
+
+Peripheral Controller Drivers
+=============================
+
+The first hardware supporting this API was the NetChip 2280 controller,
+which supports USB 2.0 high speed and is based on PCI. This is the
+``net2280`` driver module. The driver supports Linux kernel versions 2.4
+and 2.6; contact NetChip Technologies for development boards and product
+information.
+
+Other hardware working in the ``gadget`` framework includes: Intel's PXA
+25x and IXP42x series processors (``pxa2xx_udc``), Toshiba TC86c001
+"Goku-S" (``goku_udc``), Renesas SH7705/7727 (``sh_udc``), MediaQ 11xx
+(``mq11xx_udc``), Hynix HMS30C7202 (``h7202_udc``), National 9303/4
+(``n9604_udc``), Texas Instruments OMAP (``omap_udc``), Sharp LH7A40x
+(``lh7a40x_udc``), and more. Most of those are full speed controllers.
+
+At this writing, there are people at work on drivers in this framework
+for several other USB device controllers, with plans to make many of
+them be widely available.
+
+A partial USB simulator, the ``dummy_hcd`` driver, is available. It can
+act like a net2280, a pxa25x, or an sa11x0 in terms of available
+endpoints and device speeds; and it simulates control, bulk, and to some
+extent interrupt transfers. That lets you develop some parts of a gadget
+driver on a normal PC, without any special hardware, and perhaps with
+the assistance of tools such as GDB running with User Mode Linux. At
+least one person has expressed interest in adapting that approach,
+hooking it up to a simulator for a microcontroller. Such simulators can
+help debug subsystems where the runtime hardware is unfriendly to
+software development, or is not yet available.
+
+Support for other controllers is expected to be developed and
+contributed over time, as this driver framework evolves.
+
+Gadget Drivers
+==============
+
+In addition to *Gadget Zero* (used primarily for testing and development
+with drivers for usb controller hardware), other gadget drivers exist.
+
+There's an ``ethernet`` gadget driver, which implements one of the most
+useful *Communications Device Class* (CDC) models. One of the standards
+for cable modem interoperability even specifies the use of this ethernet
+model as one of two mandatory options. Gadgets using this code look to a
+USB host as if they're an Ethernet adapter. It provides access to a
+network where the gadget's CPU is one host, which could easily be
+bridging, routing, or firewalling access to other networks. Since some
+hardware can't fully implement the CDC Ethernet requirements, this
+driver also implements a "good parts only" subset of CDC Ethernet. (That
+subset doesn't advertise itself as CDC Ethernet, to avoid creating
+problems.)
+
+Support for Microsoft's ``RNDIS`` protocol has been contributed by
+Pengutronix and Auerswald GmbH. This is like CDC Ethernet, but it runs
+on more slightly USB hardware (but less than the CDC subset). However,
+its main claim to fame is being able to connect directly to recent
+versions of Windows, using drivers that Microsoft bundles and supports,
+making it much simpler to network with Windows.
+
+There is also support for user mode gadget drivers, using ``gadgetfs``.
+This provides a *User Mode API* that presents each endpoint as a single
+file descriptor. I/O is done using normal ``read()`` and ``read()`` calls.
+Familiar tools like GDB and pthreads can be used to develop and debug
+user mode drivers, so that once a robust controller driver is available
+many applications for it won't require new kernel mode software. Linux
+2.6 *Async I/O (AIO)* support is available, so that user mode software
+can stream data with only slightly more overhead than a kernel driver.
+
+There's a USB Mass Storage class driver, which provides a different
+solution for interoperability with systems such as MS-Windows and MacOS.
+That *Mass Storage* driver uses a file or block device as backing store
+for a drive, like the ``loop`` driver. The USB host uses the BBB, CB, or
+CBI versions of the mass storage class specification, using transparent
+SCSI commands to access the data from the backing store.
+
+There's a "serial line" driver, useful for TTY style operation over USB.
+The latest version of that driver supports CDC ACM style operation, like
+a USB modem, and so on most hardware it can interoperate easily with
+MS-Windows. One interesting use of that driver is in boot firmware (like
+a BIOS), which can sometimes use that model with very small systems
+without real serial lines.
+
+Support for other kinds of gadget is expected to be developed and
+contributed over time, as this driver framework evolves.
+
+USB On-The-GO (OTG)
+===================
+
+USB OTG support on Linux 2.6 was initially developed by Texas
+Instruments for `OMAP <http://www.omap.com>`__ 16xx and 17xx series
+processors. Other OTG systems should work in similar ways, but the
+hardware level details could be very different.
+
+Systems need specialized hardware support to implement OTG, notably
+including a special *Mini-AB* jack and associated transceiver to support
+*Dual-Role* operation: they can act either as a host, using the standard
+Linux-USB host side driver stack, or as a peripheral, using this
+``gadget`` framework. To do that, the system software relies on small
+additions to those programming interfaces, and on a new internal
+component (here called an "OTG Controller") affecting which driver stack
+connects to the OTG port. In each role, the system can re-use the
+existing pool of hardware-neutral drivers, layered on top of the
+controller driver interfaces (:c:type:`usb_bus` or :c:type:`usb_gadget`).
+Such drivers need at most minor changes, and most of the calls added to
+support OTG can also benefit non-OTG products.
+
+- Gadget drivers test the ``is_otg`` flag, and use it to determine
+ whether or not to include an OTG descriptor in each of their
+ configurations.
+
+- Gadget drivers may need changes to support the two new OTG protocols,
+ exposed in new gadget attributes such as ``b_hnp_enable`` flag. HNP
+ support should be reported through a user interface (two LEDs could
+ suffice), and is triggered in some cases when the host suspends the
+ peripheral. SRP support can be user-initiated just like remote
+ wakeup, probably by pressing the same button.
+
+- On the host side, USB device drivers need to be taught to trigger HNP
+ at appropriate moments, using ``usb_suspend_device()``. That also
+ conserves battery power, which is useful even for non-OTG
+ configurations.
+
+- Also on the host side, a driver must support the OTG "Targeted
+ Peripheral List". That's just a whitelist, used to reject peripherals
+ not supported with a given Linux OTG host. *This whitelist is
+ product-specific; each product must modify* ``otg_whitelist.h`` *to
+ match its interoperability specification.*
+
+ Non-OTG Linux hosts, like PCs and workstations, normally have some
+ solution for adding drivers, so that peripherals that aren't
+ recognized can eventually be supported. That approach is unreasonable
+ for consumer products that may never have their firmware upgraded,
+ and where it's usually unrealistic to expect traditional
+ PC/workstation/server kinds of support model to work. For example,
+ it's often impractical to change device firmware once the product has
+ been distributed, so driver bugs can't normally be fixed if they're
+ found after shipment.
+
+Additional changes are needed below those hardware-neutral :c:type:`usb_bus`
+and :c:type:`usb_gadget` driver interfaces; those aren't discussed here in any
+detail. Those affect the hardware-specific code for each USB Host or
+Peripheral controller, and how the HCD initializes (since OTG can be
+active only on a single port). They also involve what may be called an
+*OTG Controller Driver*, managing the OTG transceiver and the OTG state
+machine logic as well as much of the root hub behavior for the OTG port.
+The OTG controller driver needs to activate and deactivate USB
+controllers depending on the relevant device role. Some related changes
+were needed inside usbcore, so that it can identify OTG-capable devices
+and respond appropriately to HNP or SRP protocols.