VirtIO-GPIO Guest Driver Updated For The Linux Kernel

There has been a number of new VirtIO driver additions recently to the Linux kernel like for sound and Bluetooth for the expanding VirtIO specification while one still in the works for mainlining is the GPIO guest driver.

The latest VirtIO-GPIO guest driver was published on Tuesday as a new GPIO driver for complying with the VirtIO-GPIO protocol and ultimately mapping from a guest virtual machine either to virtual/simulator devices or from the guest mapping to real GPIOs on the host hardware.

So for those using GPIO on Raspberry Pi boards and other common hardware setups with general purpose I/O pins, this VirtIO addition may prove useful especially.

This latest VirtIO-GPIO driver code can be seen view review on the kernel mailing list. Hopefully this driver will manage to get mainlined within the next kernel cycle or two. More details on VirtIO-GPIO can be found via this documentation.