marfrit
895f57c63a
Adds /dev/daedalus-v4l2 misc chardev to the kernel module. The
chardev is the IPC channel for the future userspace decoder
daemon: kernel enqueues REQ_* messages, daemon read()s them,
processes, write()s RESP_* back.
Wire protocol (pre-1.0, header in include/daedalus_v4l2_proto.h):
- struct daedalus_msg_hdr: magic (D04V) + version + type +
cookie + payload_len + reserved
- Request/response separated by high bit of type field
- Max 64 KiB payload per message
- Cookie correlates request with matching response
Kernel implementation (kernel/daedalus_v4l2_chardev.{c,h}):
- Single-instance chardev (-EBUSY on second open)
- In-kernel FIFO bounded at 64 messages
- Blocking + non-blocking read; poll() with EPOLLIN on queued
- write() parses + validates header, logs response at pr_debug
- Bad magic → -EBADMSG, bad version → -EPROTO, oversize → -EMSGSIZE
- All error paths free resources
Phase 8.2 test trigger via debugfs:
- /sys/kernel/debug/daedalus_v4l2/test_ping — any byte
enqueues a PING with a fixed 24-byte payload. Removed in
Phase 8.4 when real REQ_DECODE from V4L2 path takes over.
Userspace verification tool (tools/test_chardev_pingpong.c):
- Real C program, proper error reporting via strerror
- Validates the 6-step round-trip: open → empty-queue EAGAIN →
trigger ping → read PING → verify all fields → write PONG → close
- Builds with -Wall -Wextra clean
Verification on hertz (Pi 5, 6.12.75+rpt-rpi-2712):
$ sudo insmod daedalus_v4l2.ko
$ sudo tools/test_chardev_pingpong
opening /dev/daedalus-v4l2...
non-blocking read on empty queue: EAGAIN ✓
injected PING via debugfs ✓
read PING: magic ✓ version ✓ type=PING ✓ cookie=0x1234 ✓ payload=24 bytes
payload: "DAEDALUS-V4L2-PING-PL"
wrote PONG (cookie=0x1234) ✓
ALL TESTS PASSED.
$ sudo rmmod daedalus_v4l2 # clean
Per correctness-before-speed: full kerneldoc on structs, 8-tab
kernel style, SPDX headers, proper error paths, real test
program (not "I ran it once"), failure-mode coverage documented.
Phase 8.3 next: userspace daemon with dlopen'd FFmpeg parse path.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
daedalus-v4l2
V4L2 stateless decoder for the Raspberry Pi 5 / CM5, backed by the
daedalus-fourier kernel library (VP9 + AV1 CDEF + H.264 video
decode kernels on VideoCore VII compute + ARM NEON).
Status: scaffold (2026-05-18). Architecture locked per daedalus-fourier session memory; implementation not yet begun.
What this is
Sibling repo to daedalus-fourier (the kernel library; cycles 1-9 closed).
A two-piece userspace + kernel-module stack that exposes a V4L2
stateless decoder interface (/dev/videoNN) so that
libva-v4l2-request-fourier → firefox-fourier /
chromium-fourier can drive it the same way they drive existing
hardware-decode pipelines on Pi 5 / RK3588.
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| firefox-fourier / chromium-fourier (existing) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| VA-API |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| libva-v4l2-request-fourier (existing, sibling project) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| V4L2 stateless ioctl uAPI |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| daedalus-v4l2 kernel module (`kernel/`) |
| - registers /dev/videoNN |
| - parses V4L2 stateless ioctls (VP9/AV1/H.264 controls) |
| - forwards bitstream + controls to userspace daemon |
| via chardev or netlink |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| daedalus-v4l2 userspace daemon (`daemon/`) |
| - takes bitstream blobs + per-slice controls |
| - drives FFmpeg parsers via dlopen (Option γ) |
| - dispatches per-block ops via daedalus-fourier |
| public API (daedalus_dispatch_*) |
| - posts decoded frames back to kernel module |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| daedalus-fourier kernel library (sibling project) |
| - exports include/daedalus.h public API |
| - per-kernel CPU NEON + opportunistic V3D QPU dispatch |
| - 9 closed cycles across VP9, AV1 CDEF, H.264 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| V3D 7.1 (Mesa userspace v3dv) + ARM NEON (BCM2712) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Why this architecture (Option B + γ + sibling)
Locked by user 2026-05-18 from 3 options in
daedalus-fourier/docs/phase8_scoping.md:
- Option B over A (userspace v4l2loopback): real
/dev/videoNN, proper DRM PRIME / dmabuf for browser zero-copy. - Option γ: dlopen FFmpeg as parser at runtime. No vendoring, fastest to v1.
- Sibling repo: per
project_consumer_targetconvention, V4L2-side work lives outside daedalus-fourier so the kernel-library has a clean API boundary.
Status
Initial scaffold only. See docs/architecture.md for the
deeper design and docs/roadmap.md for the
sub-phase breakdown.
Repo layout
kernel/— Linux kernel module (V4L2 device registration + ioctl handling + userspace chardev bridge). Out-of-tree.daemon/— userspace decoder daemon (linkslibdaedalus_core.afrom sibling daedalus-fourier; uses dlopen for FFmpeg parser).include/— shared headers between kernel and daemon.docs/— architecture + roadmap.
License
Kernel module: GPLv2 (required for kernel-tree compatibility). Userspace daemon: BSD-2-Clause (matches daedalus-fourier).