diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/rfkill.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/rfkill.txt | 132 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 132 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/rfkill.txt b/Documentation/rfkill.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 7d3684e81df6..000000000000 --- a/Documentation/rfkill.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,132 +0,0 @@ -=============================== -rfkill - RF kill switch support -=============================== - - -.. contents:: - :depth: 2 - -Introduction -============ - -The rfkill subsystem provides a generic interface for disabling any radio -transmitter in the system. When a transmitter is blocked, it shall not -radiate any power. - -The subsystem also provides the ability to react on button presses and -disable all transmitters of a certain type (or all). This is intended for -situations where transmitters need to be turned off, for example on -aircraft. - -The rfkill subsystem has a concept of "hard" and "soft" block, which -differ little in their meaning (block == transmitters off) but rather in -whether they can be changed or not: - - - hard block - read-only radio block that cannot be overridden by software - - - soft block - writable radio block (need not be readable) that is set by - the system software. - -The rfkill subsystem has two parameters, rfkill.default_state and -rfkill.master_switch_mode, which are documented in -admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst. - - -Implementation details -====================== - -The rfkill subsystem is composed of three main components: - - * the rfkill core, - * the deprecated rfkill-input module (an input layer handler, being - replaced by userspace policy code) and - * the rfkill drivers. - -The rfkill core provides API for kernel drivers to register their radio -transmitter with the kernel, methods for turning it on and off, and letting -the system know about hardware-disabled states that may be implemented on -the device. - -The rfkill core code also notifies userspace of state changes, and provides -ways for userspace to query the current states. See the "Userspace support" -section below. - -When the device is hard-blocked (either by a call to rfkill_set_hw_state() -or from query_hw_block), set_block() will be invoked for additional software -block, but drivers can ignore the method call since they can use the return -value of the function rfkill_set_hw_state() to sync the software state -instead of keeping track of calls to set_block(). In fact, drivers should -use the return value of rfkill_set_hw_state() unless the hardware actually -keeps track of soft and hard block separately. - - -Kernel API -========== - -Drivers for radio transmitters normally implement an rfkill driver. - -Platform drivers might implement input devices if the rfkill button is just -that, a button. If that button influences the hardware then you need to -implement an rfkill driver instead. This also applies if the platform provides -a way to turn on/off the transmitter(s). - -For some platforms, it is possible that the hardware state changes during -suspend/hibernation, in which case it will be necessary to update the rfkill -core with the current state at resume time. - -To create an rfkill driver, driver's Kconfig needs to have:: - - depends on RFKILL || !RFKILL - -to ensure the driver cannot be built-in when rfkill is modular. The !RFKILL -case allows the driver to be built when rfkill is not configured, in which -case all rfkill API can still be used but will be provided by static inlines -which compile to almost nothing. - -Calling rfkill_set_hw_state() when a state change happens is required from -rfkill drivers that control devices that can be hard-blocked unless they also -assign the poll_hw_block() callback (then the rfkill core will poll the -device). Don't do this unless you cannot get the event in any other way. - -rfkill provides per-switch LED triggers, which can be used to drive LEDs -according to the switch state (LED_FULL when blocked, LED_OFF otherwise). - - -Userspace support -================= - -The recommended userspace interface to use is /dev/rfkill, which is a misc -character device that allows userspace to obtain and set the state of rfkill -devices and sets of devices. It also notifies userspace about device addition -and removal. The API is a simple read/write API that is defined in -linux/rfkill.h, with one ioctl that allows turning off the deprecated input -handler in the kernel for the transition period. - -Except for the one ioctl, communication with the kernel is done via read() -and write() of instances of 'struct rfkill_event'. In this structure, the -soft and hard block are properly separated (unlike sysfs, see below) and -userspace is able to get a consistent snapshot of all rfkill devices in the -system. Also, it is possible to switch all rfkill drivers (or all drivers of -a specified type) into a state which also updates the default state for -hotplugged devices. - -After an application opens /dev/rfkill, it can read the current state of all -devices. Changes can be obtained by either polling the descriptor for -hotplug or state change events or by listening for uevents emitted by the -rfkill core framework. - -Additionally, each rfkill device is registered in sysfs and emits uevents. - -rfkill devices issue uevents (with an action of "change"), with the following -environment variables set:: - - RFKILL_NAME - RFKILL_STATE - RFKILL_TYPE - -The content of these variables corresponds to the "name", "state" and -"type" sysfs files explained above. - -For further details consult Documentation/ABI/stable/sysfs-class-rfkill. |