diff --git a/Documentation/pinctrl.txt b/Documentation/pinctrl.txt
index da40efbef6ec5599406a1e086f7b11aaaa06e018..a2b57e0a1db04d6454253d8f8fa7b383fcb974ed 100644
--- a/Documentation/pinctrl.txt
+++ b/Documentation/pinctrl.txt
@@ -972,6 +972,18 @@ pinmux core.
 Pin control requests from drivers
 =================================
 
+When a device driver is about to probe the device core will automatically
+attempt to issue pinctrl_get_select_default() on these devices.
+This way driver writers do not need to add any of the boilerplate code
+of the type found below. However when doing fine-grained state selection
+and not using the "default" state, you may have to do some device driver
+handling of the pinctrl handles and states.
+
+So if you just want to put the pins for a certain device into the default
+state and be done with it, there is nothing you need to do besides
+providing the proper mapping table. The device core will take care of
+the rest.
+
 Generally it is discouraged to let individual drivers get and enable pin
 control. So if possible, handle the pin control in platform code or some other
 place where you have access to all the affected struct device * pointers. In
@@ -1097,9 +1109,9 @@ situations that can be electrically unpleasant, you will certainly want to
 mux in and bias pins in a certain way before the GPIO subsystems starts to
 deal with them.
 
-The above can be hidden: using pinctrl hogs, the pin control driver may be
-setting up the config and muxing for the pins when it is probing,
-nevertheless orthogonal to the GPIO subsystem.
+The above can be hidden: using the device core, the pinctrl core may be
+setting up the config and muxing for the pins right before the device is
+probing, nevertheless orthogonal to the GPIO subsystem.
 
 But there are also situations where it makes sense for the GPIO subsystem
 to communicate directly with with the pinctrl subsystem, using the latter
diff --git a/drivers/base/Makefile b/drivers/base/Makefile
index 5aa2d703d19fac08073c54e27530ef8d5bc5b45d..4e22ce3ed73d408b97d316c61fefc089e824c3c3 100644
--- a/drivers/base/Makefile
+++ b/drivers/base/Makefile
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ endif
 obj-$(CONFIG_SYS_HYPERVISOR) += hypervisor.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_REGMAP)	+= regmap/
 obj-$(CONFIG_SOC_BUS) += soc.o
+obj-$(CONFIG_PINCTRL) += pinctrl.o
 
 ccflags-$(CONFIG_DEBUG_DRIVER) := -DDEBUG
 
diff --git a/drivers/base/dd.c b/drivers/base/dd.c
index e3bbed8a617c257373a1fa2d75318d9ff930601a..656310156ddeeeabc0d709f3393b9af27e949214 100644
--- a/drivers/base/dd.c
+++ b/drivers/base/dd.c
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 #include <linux/wait.h>
 #include <linux/async.h>
 #include <linux/pm_runtime.h>
+#include <linux/pinctrl/devinfo.h>
 
 #include "base.h"
 #include "power/power.h"
@@ -269,6 +270,12 @@ static int really_probe(struct device *dev, struct device_driver *drv)
 	WARN_ON(!list_empty(&dev->devres_head));
 
 	dev->driver = drv;
+
+	/* If using pinctrl, bind pins now before probing */
+	ret = pinctrl_bind_pins(dev);
+	if (ret)
+		goto probe_failed;
+
 	if (driver_sysfs_add(dev)) {
 		printk(KERN_ERR "%s: driver_sysfs_add(%s) failed\n",
 			__func__, dev_name(dev));
diff --git a/drivers/base/pinctrl.c b/drivers/base/pinctrl.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..67a274e8672703bc17bb57e96f3262b4effe184e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drivers/base/pinctrl.c
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/*
+ * Driver core interface to the pinctrl subsystem.
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2012 ST-Ericsson SA
+ * Written on behalf of Linaro for ST-Ericsson
+ * Based on bits of regulator core, gpio core and clk core
+ *
+ * Author: Linus Walleij <linus.walleij@linaro.org>
+ *
+ * License terms: GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2
+ */
+
+#include <linux/device.h>
+#include <linux/pinctrl/devinfo.h>
+#include <linux/pinctrl/consumer.h>
+#include <linux/slab.h>
+
+/**
+ * pinctrl_bind_pins() - called by the device core before probe
+ * @dev: the device that is just about to probe
+ */
+int pinctrl_bind_pins(struct device *dev)
+{
+	int ret;
+
+	dev->pins = devm_kzalloc(dev, sizeof(*(dev->pins)), GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (!dev->pins)
+		return -ENOMEM;
+
+	dev->pins->p = devm_pinctrl_get(dev);
+	if (IS_ERR(dev->pins->p)) {
+		dev_dbg(dev, "no pinctrl handle\n");
+		ret = PTR_ERR(dev->pins->p);
+		goto cleanup_alloc;
+	}
+
+	dev->pins->default_state = pinctrl_lookup_state(dev->pins->p,
+					PINCTRL_STATE_DEFAULT);
+	if (IS_ERR(dev->pins->default_state)) {
+		dev_dbg(dev, "no default pinctrl state\n");
+		ret = 0;
+		goto cleanup_get;
+	}
+
+	ret = pinctrl_select_state(dev->pins->p, dev->pins->default_state);
+	if (ret) {
+		dev_dbg(dev, "failed to activate default pinctrl state\n");
+		goto cleanup_get;
+	}
+
+	return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * If no pinctrl handle or default state was found for this device,
+	 * let's explicitly free the pin container in the device, there is
+	 * no point in keeping it around.
+	 */
+cleanup_get:
+	devm_pinctrl_put(dev->pins->p);
+cleanup_alloc:
+	devm_kfree(dev, dev->pins);
+	dev->pins = NULL;
+
+	/* Only return deferrals */
+	if (ret != -EPROBE_DEFER)
+		ret = 0;
+
+	return ret;
+}
diff --git a/drivers/pinctrl/core.c b/drivers/pinctrl/core.c
index e6373f30aeeb26895283ab486893b6396c814371..5a2fe9aae20f1f89ea1baf2248f09d46b74a6d3a 100644
--- a/drivers/pinctrl/core.c
+++ b/drivers/pinctrl/core.c
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 #define pr_fmt(fmt) "pinctrl core: " fmt
 
 #include <linux/kernel.h>
+#include <linux/kref.h>
 #include <linux/export.h>
 #include <linux/init.h>
 #include <linux/device.h>
@@ -727,6 +728,8 @@ static struct pinctrl *create_pinctrl(struct device *dev)
 		return ERR_PTR(ret);
 	}
 
+	kref_init(&p->users);
+
 	/* Add the pinctrl handle to the global list */
 	list_add_tail(&p->node, &pinctrl_list);
 
@@ -740,9 +743,17 @@ static struct pinctrl *pinctrl_get_locked(struct device *dev)
 	if (WARN_ON(!dev))
 		return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
 
+	/*
+	 * See if somebody else (such as the device core) has already
+	 * obtained a handle to the pinctrl for this device. In that case,
+	 * return another pointer to it.
+	 */
 	p = find_pinctrl(dev);
-	if (p != NULL)
-		return ERR_PTR(-EBUSY);
+	if (p != NULL) {
+		dev_dbg(dev, "obtain a copy of previously claimed pinctrl\n");
+		kref_get(&p->users);
+		return p;
+	}
 
 	return create_pinctrl(dev);
 }
@@ -798,13 +809,24 @@ static void pinctrl_put_locked(struct pinctrl *p, bool inlist)
 }
 
 /**
- * pinctrl_put() - release a previously claimed pinctrl handle
+ * pinctrl_release() - release the pinctrl handle
+ * @kref: the kref in the pinctrl being released
+ */
+void pinctrl_release(struct kref *kref)
+{
+	struct pinctrl *p = container_of(kref, struct pinctrl, users);
+
+	pinctrl_put_locked(p, true);
+}
+
+/**
+ * pinctrl_put() - decrease use count on a previously claimed pinctrl handle
  * @p: the pinctrl handle to release
  */
 void pinctrl_put(struct pinctrl *p)
 {
 	mutex_lock(&pinctrl_mutex);
-	pinctrl_put_locked(p, true);
+	kref_put(&p->users, pinctrl_release);
 	mutex_unlock(&pinctrl_mutex);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(pinctrl_put);
diff --git a/drivers/pinctrl/core.h b/drivers/pinctrl/core.h
index 232a9f6db4aa0a0cd3229866d3966ce70cef4943..fdd350d639f60bd2744d5461e65285b699aedbec 100644
--- a/drivers/pinctrl/core.h
+++ b/drivers/pinctrl/core.h
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
  * License terms: GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2
  */
 
+#include <linux/kref.h>
 #include <linux/mutex.h>
 #include <linux/radix-tree.h>
 #include <linux/pinctrl/pinconf.h>
@@ -58,6 +59,7 @@ struct pinctrl_dev {
  * @state: the current state
  * @dt_maps: the mapping table chunks dynamically parsed from device tree for
  *	this device, if any
+ * @users: reference count
  */
 struct pinctrl {
 	struct list_head node;
@@ -65,6 +67,7 @@ struct pinctrl {
 	struct list_head states;
 	struct pinctrl_state *state;
 	struct list_head dt_maps;
+	struct kref users;
 };
 
 /**
diff --git a/include/linux/device.h b/include/linux/device.h
index 43dcda937ddf82fcb8661372a68899953209e3f2..001f6637aa476eacb7cd75b36008ecce35d3bd53 100644
--- a/include/linux/device.h
+++ b/include/linux/device.h
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #include <linux/compiler.h>
 #include <linux/types.h>
 #include <linux/mutex.h>
+#include <linux/pinctrl/devinfo.h>
 #include <linux/pm.h>
 #include <linux/atomic.h>
 #include <linux/ratelimit.h>
@@ -620,6 +621,8 @@ struct acpi_dev_node {
  * @pm_domain:	Provide callbacks that are executed during system suspend,
  * 		hibernation, system resume and during runtime PM transitions
  * 		along with subsystem-level and driver-level callbacks.
+ * @pins:	For device pin management.
+ *		See Documentation/pinctrl.txt for details.
  * @numa_node:	NUMA node this device is close to.
  * @dma_mask:	Dma mask (if dma'ble device).
  * @coherent_dma_mask: Like dma_mask, but for alloc_coherent mapping as not all
@@ -672,6 +675,10 @@ struct device {
 	struct dev_pm_info	power;
 	struct dev_pm_domain	*pm_domain;
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_PINCTRL
+	struct dev_pin_info	*pins;
+#endif
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_NUMA
 	int		numa_node;	/* NUMA node this device is close to */
 #endif
diff --git a/include/linux/pinctrl/devinfo.h b/include/linux/pinctrl/devinfo.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6e5f8a985ea7ddf6690679c5908b348d863ac735
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/linux/pinctrl/devinfo.h
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+/*
+ * Per-device information from the pin control system.
+ * This is the stuff that get included into the device
+ * core.
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2012 ST-Ericsson SA
+ * Written on behalf of Linaro for ST-Ericsson
+ * This interface is used in the core to keep track of pins.
+ *
+ * Author: Linus Walleij <linus.walleij@linaro.org>
+ *
+ * License terms: GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2
+ */
+
+#ifndef PINCTRL_DEVINFO_H
+#define PINCTRL_DEVINFO_H
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_PINCTRL
+
+/* The device core acts as a consumer toward pinctrl */
+#include <linux/pinctrl/consumer.h>
+
+/**
+ * struct dev_pin_info - pin state container for devices
+ * @p: pinctrl handle for the containing device
+ * @default_state: the default state for the handle, if found
+ */
+struct dev_pin_info {
+	struct pinctrl *p;
+	struct pinctrl_state *default_state;
+};
+
+extern int pinctrl_bind_pins(struct device *dev);
+
+#else
+
+/* Stubs if we're not using pinctrl */
+
+static inline int pinctrl_bind_pins(struct device *dev)
+{
+	return 0;
+}
+
+#endif /* CONFIG_PINCTRL */
+#endif /* PINCTRL_DEVINFO_H */