1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
2
3The Linux USB Video Class (UVC) driver
4======================================
5
6This file documents some driver-specific aspects of the UVC driver, such as
7driver-specific ioctls and implementation notes.
8
9Questions and remarks can be sent to the Linux UVC development mailing list at
10linux-media@vger.kernel.org.
11
12
13Extension Unit (XU) support
14---------------------------
15
16Introduction
17~~~~~~~~~~~~
18
19The UVC specification allows for vendor-specific extensions through extension
20units (XUs). The Linux UVC driver supports extension unit controls (XU controls)
21through two separate mechanisms:
22
23  - through mappings of XU controls to V4L2 controls
24  - through a driver-specific ioctl interface
25
26The first one allows generic V4L2 applications to use XU controls by mapping
27certain XU controls onto V4L2 controls, which then show up during ordinary
28control enumeration.
29
30The second mechanism requires uvcvideo-specific knowledge for the application to
31access XU controls but exposes the entire UVC XU concept to user space for
32maximum flexibility.
33
34Both mechanisms complement each other and are described in more detail below.
35
36
37Control mappings
38~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
39
40The UVC driver provides an API for user space applications to define so-called
41control mappings at runtime. These allow for individual XU controls or byte
42ranges thereof to be mapped to new V4L2 controls. Such controls appear and
43function exactly like normal V4L2 controls (i.e. the stock controls, such as
44brightness, contrast, etc.). However, reading or writing of such a V4L2 controls
45triggers a read or write of the associated XU control.
46
47The ioctl used to create these control mappings is called UVCIOC_CTRL_MAP.
48Previous driver versions (before 0.2.0) required another ioctl to be used
49beforehand (UVCIOC_CTRL_ADD) to pass XU control information to the UVC driver.
50This is no longer necessary as newer uvcvideo versions query the information
51directly from the device.
52
53For details on the UVCIOC_CTRL_MAP ioctl please refer to the section titled
54"IOCTL reference" below.
55
56
573. Driver specific XU control interface
58
59For applications that need to access XU controls directly, e.g. for testing
60purposes, firmware upload, or accessing binary controls, a second mechanism to
61access XU controls is provided in the form of a driver-specific ioctl, namely
62UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY.
63
64A call to this ioctl allows applications to send queries to the UVC driver that
65directly map to the low-level UVC control requests.
66
67In order to make such a request the UVC unit ID of the control's extension unit
68and the control selector need to be known. This information either needs to be
69hardcoded in the application or queried using other ways such as by parsing the
70UVC descriptor or, if available, using the media controller API to enumerate a
71device's entities.
72
73Unless the control size is already known it is necessary to first make a
74UVC_GET_LEN requests in order to be able to allocate a sufficiently large buffer
75and set the buffer size to the correct value. Similarly, to find out whether
76UVC_GET_CUR or UVC_SET_CUR are valid requests for a given control, a
77UVC_GET_INFO request should be made. The bits 0 (GET supported) and 1 (SET
78supported) of the resulting byte indicate which requests are valid.
79
80With the addition of the UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY ioctl the UVCIOC_CTRL_GET and
81UVCIOC_CTRL_SET ioctls have become obsolete since their functionality is a
82subset of the former ioctl. For the time being they are still supported but
83application developers are encouraged to use UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY instead.
84
85For details on the UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY ioctl please refer to the section titled
86"IOCTL reference" below.
87
88
89Security
90~~~~~~~~
91
92The API doesn't currently provide a fine-grained access control facility. The
93UVCIOC_CTRL_ADD and UVCIOC_CTRL_MAP ioctls require super user permissions.
94
95Suggestions on how to improve this are welcome.
96
97
98Debugging
99~~~~~~~~~
100
101In order to debug problems related to XU controls or controls in general it is
102recommended to enable the UVC_TRACE_CONTROL bit in the module parameter 'trace'.
103This causes extra output to be written into the system log.
104
105
106IOCTL reference
107~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
108
109UVCIOC_CTRL_MAP - Map a UVC control to a V4L2 control
110^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
111
112Argument: struct uvc_xu_control_mapping
113
114**Description**:
115
116	This ioctl creates a mapping between a UVC control or part of a UVC
117	control and a V4L2 control. Once mappings are defined, userspace
118	applications can access vendor-defined UVC control through the V4L2
119	control API.
120
121	To create a mapping, applications fill the uvc_xu_control_mapping
122	structure with information about an existing UVC control defined with
123	UVCIOC_CTRL_ADD and a new V4L2 control.
124
125	A UVC control can be mapped to several V4L2 controls. For instance,
126	a UVC pan/tilt control could be mapped to separate pan and tilt V4L2
127	controls. The UVC control is divided into non overlapping fields using
128	the 'size' and 'offset' fields and are then independently mapped to
129	V4L2 control.
130
131	For signed integer V4L2 controls the data_type field should be set to
132	UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_SIGNED. Other values are currently ignored.
133
134**Return value**:
135
136	On success 0 is returned. On error -1 is returned and errno is set
137	appropriately.
138
139	ENOMEM
140		Not enough memory to perform the operation.
141	EPERM
142		Insufficient privileges (super user privileges are required).
143	EINVAL
144		No such UVC control.
145	EOVERFLOW
146		The requested offset and size would overflow the UVC control.
147	EEXIST
148		Mapping already exists.
149
150**Data types**:
151
152.. code-block:: none
153
154	* struct uvc_xu_control_mapping
155
156	__u32	id		V4L2 control identifier
157	__u8	name[32]	V4L2 control name
158	__u8	entity[16]	UVC extension unit GUID
159	__u8	selector	UVC control selector
160	__u8	size		V4L2 control size (in bits)
161	__u8	offset		V4L2 control offset (in bits)
162	enum v4l2_ctrl_type
163		v4l2_type	V4L2 control type
164	enum uvc_control_data_type
165		data_type	UVC control data type
166	struct uvc_menu_info
167		*menu_info	Array of menu entries (for menu controls only)
168	__u32	menu_count	Number of menu entries (for menu controls only)
169
170	* struct uvc_menu_info
171
172	__u32	value		Menu entry value used by the device
173	__u8	name[32]	Menu entry name
174
175
176	* enum uvc_control_data_type
177
178	UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_RAW		Raw control (byte array)
179	UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_SIGNED	Signed integer
180	UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_UNSIGNED	Unsigned integer
181	UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_BOOLEAN	Boolean
182	UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_ENUM		Enumeration
183	UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_BITMASK	Bitmask
184	UVC_CTRL_DATA_TYPE_RECT		Rectangular area
185
186
187UVCIOC_CTRL_QUERY - Query a UVC XU control
188^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
189Argument: struct uvc_xu_control_query
190
191**Description**:
192
193	This ioctl queries a UVC XU control identified by its extension unit ID
194	and control selector.
195
196	There are a number of different queries available that closely
197	correspond to the low-level control requests described in the UVC
198	specification. These requests are:
199
200	UVC_GET_CUR
201		Obtain the current value of the control.
202	UVC_GET_MIN
203		Obtain the minimum value of the control.
204	UVC_GET_MAX
205		Obtain the maximum value of the control.
206	UVC_GET_DEF
207		Obtain the default value of the control.
208	UVC_GET_RES
209		Query the resolution of the control, i.e. the step size of the
210		allowed control values.
211	UVC_GET_LEN
212		Query the size of the control in bytes.
213	UVC_GET_INFO
214		Query the control information bitmap, which indicates whether
215		get/set requests are supported.
216	UVC_SET_CUR
217		Update the value of the control.
218
219	Applications must set the 'size' field to the correct length for the
220	control. Exceptions are the UVC_GET_LEN and UVC_GET_INFO queries, for
221	which the size must be set to 2 and 1, respectively. The 'data' field
222	must point to a valid writable buffer big enough to hold the indicated
223	number of data bytes.
224
225	Data is copied directly from the device without any driver-side
226	processing. Applications are responsible for data buffer formatting,
227	including little-endian/big-endian conversion. This is particularly
228	important for the result of the UVC_GET_LEN requests, which is always
229	returned as a little-endian 16-bit integer by the device.
230
231**Return value**:
232
233	On success 0 is returned. On error -1 is returned and errno is set
234	appropriately.
235
236	ENOENT
237		The device does not support the given control or the specified
238		extension unit could not be found.
239	ENOBUFS
240		The specified buffer size is incorrect (too big or too small).
241	EINVAL
242		An invalid request code was passed.
243	EBADRQC
244		The given request is not supported by the given control.
245	EFAULT
246		The data pointer references an inaccessible memory area.
247
248**Data types**:
249
250.. code-block:: none
251
252	* struct uvc_xu_control_query
253
254	__u8	unit		Extension unit ID
255	__u8	selector	Control selector
256	__u8	query		Request code to send to the device
257	__u16	size		Control data size (in bytes)
258	__u8	*data		Control value
259
260
261Driver-specific V4L2 controls
262-----------------------------
263
264The uvcvideo driver implements the following UVC-specific controls:
265
266``V4L2_CID_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_RECT (struct)``
267	This control determines the region of interest (ROI). ROI is a
268	rectangular area represented by a struct :c:type:`v4l2_rect`. The
269	rectangle is in global sensor coordinates using pixel units. It is
270	independent of the field of view, not impacted by any cropping or
271	scaling.
272
273	Use ``V4L2_CTRL_WHICH_MIN_VAL`` and ``V4L2_CTRL_WHICH_MAX_VAL`` to query
274	the range of rectangle sizes.
275
276	Setting a ROI allows the camera to optimize the capture for the region.
277	The value of ``V4L2_CID_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO`` control determines
278	the detailed behavior.
279
280	An example of use of this control, can be found in the:
281	`Chrome OS USB camera HAL.
282	<https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform2/+/refs/heads/release-R121-15699.B/camera/hal/usb/>`
283
284
285``V4L2_CID_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO (bitmask)``
286	This determines which, if any, on-board features should track to the
287	Region of Interest specified by the current value of
288	``V4L2_CID_UVD__REGION_OF_INTEREST_RECT``.
289
290	Max value is a mask indicating all supported Auto Controls.
291
292.. flat-table::
293    :header-rows:  0
294    :stub-columns: 0
295
296    * - ``V4L2_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO_EXPOSURE``
297      - Setting this bit causes automatic exposure to track the region of
298	interest instead of the whole image.
299    * - ``V4L2_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO_IRIS``
300      - Setting this bit causes automatic iris to track the region of interest
301        instead of the whole image.
302    * - ``V4L2_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO_WHITE_BALANCE``
303      - Setting this bit causes automatic white balance to track the region
304	of interest instead of the whole image.
305    * - ``V4L2_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO_FOCUS``
306      - Setting this bit causes automatic focus adjustment to track the region
307        of interest instead of the whole image.
308    * - ``V4L2_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO_FACE_DETECT``
309      - Setting this bit causes automatic face detection to track the region of
310        interest instead of the whole image.
311    * - ``V4L2_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO_DETECT_AND_TRACK``
312      - Setting this bit enables automatic face detection and tracking. The
313	current value of ``V4L2_CID_REGION_OF_INTEREST_RECT`` may be updated by
314	the driver.
315    * - ``V4L2_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO_IMAGE_STABILIZATION``
316      - Setting this bit enables automatic image stabilization. The
317	current value of ``V4L2_CID_REGION_OF_INTEREST_RECT`` may be updated by
318	the driver.
319    * - ``V4L2_UVC_REGION_OF_INTEREST_AUTO_HIGHER_QUALITY``
320      - Setting this bit enables automatically capture the specified region
321        with higher quality if possible.
322