Linux kernel mirror (for testing) git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
kernel os linux

backlight: led-bl: Add devlink to supplier LEDs

LED Backlight is a consumer of one or multiple LED class devices, but
devlink is currently unable to create correct supplier-producer links when
the supplier is a class device. It creates instead a link where the
supplier is the parent of the expected device.

One consequence is that removal order is not correctly enforced.

Issues happen for example with the following sections in a device tree
overlay:

// An LED driver chip
pca9632@62 {
compatible = "nxp,pca9632";
reg = <0x62>;

// ...

addon_led_pwm: led-pwm@3 {
reg = <3>;
label = "addon:led:pwm";
};
};

backlight-addon {
compatible = "led-backlight";
leds = <&addon_led_pwm>;
brightness-levels = <255>;
default-brightness-level = <255>;
};

In this example, the devlink should be created between the backlight-addon
(consumer) and the pca9632@62 (supplier). Instead it is created between the
backlight-addon (consumer) and the parent of the pca9632@62, which is
typically the I2C bus adapter.

On removal of the above overlay, the LED driver can be removed before the
backlight device, resulting in:

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000010
...
Call trace:
led_put+0xe0/0x140
devm_led_release+0x6c/0x98

Another way to reproduce the bug without any device tree overlays is
unbinding the LED class device (pca9632@62) before unbinding the consumer
(backlight-addon):

echo 11-0062 >/sys/bus/i2c/drivers/leds-pca963x/unbind
echo ...backlight-dock >/sys/bus/platform/drivers/led-backlight/unbind

Fix by adding a devlink between the consuming led-backlight device and the
supplying LED device, as other drivers and subsystems do as well.

Fixes: ae232e45acf9 ("backlight: add led-backlight driver")
Signed-off-by: Luca Ceresoli <luca.ceresoli@bootlin.com>
Reviewed-by: Daniel Thompson (RISCstar) <danielt@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Herve Codina <herve.codina@bootlin.com>
Tested-by: Alexander Sverdlin <alexander.sverdlin@siemens.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20250519-led-backlight-add-devlink-to-supplier-class-device-v6-1-845224aeb2ce@bootlin.com
Signed-off-by: Lee Jones <lee@kernel.org>

authored by

Luca Ceresoli and committed by
Lee Jones
9341d669 d95963e3

+13
+13
drivers/video/backlight/led_bl.c
··· 211 211 } 212 212 213 213 for (i = 0; i < priv->nb_leds; i++) { 214 + struct device_link *link; 215 + 216 + link = device_link_add(&pdev->dev, priv->leds[i]->dev->parent, 217 + DL_FLAG_AUTOREMOVE_CONSUMER); 218 + if (!link) { 219 + dev_err(&pdev->dev, "Failed to add devlink (consumer %s, supplier %s)\n", 220 + dev_name(&pdev->dev), dev_name(priv->leds[i]->dev->parent)); 221 + backlight_device_unregister(priv->bl_dev); 222 + return -EINVAL; 223 + } 224 + } 225 + 226 + for (i = 0; i < priv->nb_leds; i++) { 214 227 mutex_lock(&priv->leds[i]->led_access); 215 228 led_sysfs_disable(priv->leds[i]); 216 229 mutex_unlock(&priv->leds[i]->led_access);