Enable IMX6 VPU(CODA960) in the kernel config as module.

[themilord]

Enables HW acceleration of video en-/decoding through v4l2 interface

Description

I follow up to the discussion here:
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17282-armbian-kernel-for-imx6-missing-vpu-coda960-support/

Support for video accceleration was missing in the current imx6 kernel. I have enabled the VPU in the kernel config to build the CODA960 driver as a module to use he codec built in the SoC.

How Has This Been Tested?

Using SolidRun Hummingboard with Imx6 solo module

I have build cubox kernel with the attached "linux-imx6-current.config"

1. Kernel boots and is detecting the codec

[ 29.911784] coda 2040000.vpu: Direct firmware load for vpu_fw_imx6d.bin failed with error -2
[ 29.961350] coda 2040000.vpu: Using fallback firmware vpu/vpu_fw_imx6d.bin
[ 29.964619] coda 2040000.vpu: Firmware code revision: 46063
[ 29.964636] coda 2040000.vpu: Initialized CODA960.
[ 29.964645] coda 2040000.vpu: Firmware version: 3.1.1
[ 29.969814] coda 2040000.vpu: encoder registered as video0
[ 29.970090] coda 2040000.vpu: decoder registered as video1
[ 29.970348] coda 2040000.vpu: encoder registered as video2
[ 29.970715] coda 2040000.vpu: decoder registered as video3

2. v4l2-ctl reports the devices as being CODA960

CODA960 (platform:coda):
/dev/video0
/dev/video1
/dev/video2
/dev/video3

imx-capture (platform:ipu1_csi0):
/dev/video4

imx-capture (platform:ipu1_csi1):
/dev/video7

imx-capture (platform:ipu1_ic_prpenc):
/dev/video5

imx-capture (platform:ipu1_ic_prpvf):
/dev/video6

3.Tried gstreamer to play h.264 with v4l2 decoding

gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=Big_Buck_Bunny_720_10s_30MB.mp4 ! qtdemux name=demux demux.video_0 ! queue ! h264parse ! v4l2h264dec ! kmssink

The video is ok, cat /proc/interrupts shows activity on the VPU, and the CPU load is low (5%-10% on i.mx.6 SOLO!), so the video acceleration is there.

[igorpecovnik]

Thanks!