Numbering and Detection

Numbering and Detection

Public numbering modes

Mode	Meaning
GPIO.BOARD	Physical connector position on the exact supported carrier/header.
GPIO.BCM	Compatibility identifier from the board map. It is not necessarily the SoC's native GPIO line.

Internally, the backend also needs the native SoC GPIO bank/line or Linux gpiochip offset. Do not expose or document that controller identifier as though it were universally interchangeable with GPIO.BCM.

BPI-F4 is a documented exception to the usual single-header layout: GPIO.BOARD numbers 1-29 are rows in the official combined terminal table across CN8/CN3/CN7/CN6/CN5/CN1/CN4, not connector-local pin labels. GPIO.BCM channels 0-19 follow the GPIO-bearing table rows in order and map to native SP7350 lines 84,85,71,70,81,80,83,82,60,61,69,68,72,73,74,75,59,58,56,57.

Board detection

Detection aliases and Banana Pi model selection are maintained in source/c_gpio_bpi.c. Board-specific maps are included through source/bpi_gpio.h and the relevant source/bpi-*.h headers.

For a new board, collect both values from the exact production image:

cat /proc/device-tree/model; echo
tr '\0' '\n' < /proc/device-tree/compatible

Prefer exact compatible strings over broad marketing names. Generic model strings shared by multiple revisions must not silently select the wrong carrier map.

Modules and carriers

A compute module does not define a 26/40-pin user header by itself. GPIO.BOARD can only be promised for the exact carrier/development kit.

Examples:

• LM7 uses W3 as its documented development kit.
• CM4, CM5, CM5 Pro, CM6, AIM7 and AI2N support claims must name the exact IO board/carrier.

Detection bug report data

Attach:

uname -a
cat /etc/os-release
cat /proc/device-tree/model; echo
tr '\0' '\n' < /proc/device-tree/compatible
python3 -c 'import RPi.GPIO as GPIO; print(GPIO.VERSION); print(GPIO.RPI_INFO)'

Also provide board, module and carrier revisions and a clear header photograph.