u-boot README--linux support

Posted 2020-08-08 yuxi_o

Linux HOWTO:
============

Porting Linux to U-Boot based systems:
---------------------------------------

U-Boot cannot save you from doing all the necessary modifications to
configure the Linux device drivers for use with your target hardware
(no, we don‘t intend to provide a full virtual machine interface to
Linux :-).

But now you can ignore ALL boot loader code (in arch/powerpc/mbxboot).

Just make sure your machine specific header file (for instance
include/asm-ppc/tqm8xx.h) includes the same definition of the Board
Information structure as we define in include/asm-<arch>/u-boot.h,
and make sure that your definition of IMAP_ADDR uses the same value
as your U-Boot configuration in CONFIG_SYS_IMMR.

Configuring the Linux kernel:
-----------------------------

No specific requirements for U-Boot. Make sure you have some root
device (initial ramdisk, NFS) for your target system.

Building a Linux Image:
-----------------------

With U-Boot, "normal" build targets like "zImage" or "bzImage" are
not used. If you use recent kernel source, a new build target
"uImage" will exist which automatically builds an image usable by
U-Boot. Most older kernels also have support for a "pImage" target,
which was introduced for our predecessor project PPCBoot and uses a
100% compatible format.

Example:

make TQM850L_config
make oldconfig
make dep
make uImage

The "uImage" build target uses a special tool (in ‘tools/mkimage‘) to
encapsulate a compressed Linux kernel image with header information,
CRC32 checksum etc. for use with U-Boot. This is what we are doing:

* build a standard "vmlinux" kernel image (in ELF binary format):

* convert the kernel into a raw binary image:

${CROSS_COMPILE}-objcopy -O binary \
-R .note -R .comment \
-S vmlinux linux.bin

* compress the binary image:

gzip -9 linux.bin

* package compressed binary image for U-Boot:

mkimage -A ppc -O linux -T kernel -C gzip \
-a 0 -e 0 -n "Linux Kernel Image" \
-d linux.bin.gz uImage

The "mkimage" tool can also be used to create ramdisk images for use
with U-Boot, either separated from the Linux kernel image, or
combined into one file. "mkimage" encapsulates the images with a 64
byte header containing information about target architecture,
operating system, image type, compression method, entry points, time
stamp, CRC32 checksums, etc.

"mkimage" can be called in two ways: to verify existing images and
print the header information, or to build new images.

In the first form (with "-l" option) mkimage lists the information
contained in the header of an existing U-Boot image; this includes
checksum verification:

tools/mkimage -l image
-l ==> list image header information

The second form (with "-d" option) is used to build a U-Boot image
from a "data file" which is used as image payload:

tools/mkimage -A arch -O os -T type -C comp -a addr -e ep \
-n name -d data_file image
-A ==> set architecture to ‘arch‘
-O ==> set operating system to ‘os‘
-T ==> set image type to ‘type‘
-C ==> set compression type ‘comp‘
-a ==> set load address to ‘addr‘ (hex)
-e ==> set entry point to ‘ep‘ (hex)
-n ==> set image name to ‘name‘
-d ==> use image data from ‘datafile‘

Right now, all Linux kernels for PowerPC systems use the same load
address (0x00000000), but the entry point address depends on the
kernel version:

- 2.2.x kernels have the entry point at 0x0000000C,
- 2.3.x and later kernels have the entry point at 0x00000000.

So a typical call to build a U-Boot image would read:

-> tools/mkimage -n ‘2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L‘ \
> -A ppc -O linux -T kernel -C gzip -a 0 -e 0 \
> -d /opt/elsk/ppc_8xx/usr/src/linux-2.4.4/arch/powerpc/coffboot/vmlinux.gz \
> examples/uImage.TQM850L
Image Name: 2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L
Created: Wed Jul 19 02:34:59 2000
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 335725 Bytes = 327.86 kB = 0.32 MB
Load Address: 0x00000000
Entry Point: 0x00000000

To verify the contents of the image (or check for corruption):

-> tools/mkimage -l examples/uImage.TQM850L
Image Name: 2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L
Created: Wed Jul 19 02:34:59 2000
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 335725 Bytes = 327.86 kB = 0.32 MB
Load Address: 0x00000000
Entry Point: 0x00000000

NOTE: for embedded systems where boot time is critical you can trade
speed for memory and install an UNCOMPRESSED image instead: this
needs more space in Flash, but boots much faster since it does not
need to be uncompressed:

-> gunzip /opt/elsk/ppc_8xx/usr/src/linux-2.4.4/arch/powerpc/coffboot/vmlinux.gz
-> tools/mkimage -n ‘2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L‘ \
> -A ppc -O linux -T kernel -C none -a 0 -e 0 \
> -d /opt/elsk/ppc_8xx/usr/src/linux-2.4.4/arch/powerpc/coffboot/vmlinux \
> examples/uImage.TQM850L-uncompressed
Image Name: 2.4.4 kernel for TQM850L
Created: Wed Jul 19 02:34:59 2000
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 792160 Bytes = 773.59 kB = 0.76 MB
Load Address: 0x00000000
Entry Point: 0x00000000

Similar you can build U-Boot images from a ‘ramdisk.image.gz‘ file
when your kernel is intended to use an initial ramdisk:

-> tools/mkimage -n ‘Simple Ramdisk Image‘ \
> -A ppc -O linux -T ramdisk -C gzip \
> -d /LinuxPPC/images/SIMPLE-ramdisk.image.gz examples/simple-initrd
Image Name: Simple Ramdisk Image
Created: Wed Jan 12 14:01:50 2000
Image Type: PowerPC Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 566530 Bytes = 553.25 kB = 0.54 MB
Load Address: 0x00000000
Entry Point: 0x00000000

Installing a Linux Image:
-------------------------

To downloading a U-Boot image over the serial (console) interface,
you must convert the image to S-Record format:

objcopy -I binary -O srec examples/image examples/image.srec

The ‘objcopy‘ does not understand the information in the U-Boot
image header, so the resulting S-Record file will be relative to
address 0x00000000. To load it to a given address, you need to
specify the target address as ‘offset‘ parameter with the ‘loads‘
command.

Example: install the image to address 0x40100000 (which on the
TQM8xxL is in the first Flash bank):

=> erase 40100000 401FFFFF

.......... done
Erased 8 sectors

=> loads 40100000
## Ready for S-Record download ...
~>examples/image.srec
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 ...
...
15989 15990 15991 15992
[file transfer complete]
[connected]
## Start Addr = 0x00000000

You can check the success of the download using the ‘iminfo‘ command;
this includes a checksum verification so you can be sure no data
corruption happened:

=> imi 40100000

## Checking Image at 40100000 ...
Image Name: 2.2.13 for initrd on TQM850L
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 335725 Bytes = 327 kB = 0 MB
Load Address: 00000000
Entry Point: 0000000c
Verifying Checksum ... OK

Boot Linux:
-----------

The "bootm" command is used to boot an application that is stored in
memory (RAM or Flash). In case of a Linux kernel image, the contents
of the "bootargs" environment variable is passed to the kernel as
parameters. You can check and modify this variable using the
"printenv" and "setenv" commands:

=> printenv bootargs
bootargs=root=/dev/ram

=> setenv bootargs root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=10.0.0.2:/LinuxPPC nfsaddrs=10.0.0.99:10.0.0.2

=> printenv bootargs
bootargs=root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=10.0.0.2:/LinuxPPC nfsaddrs=10.0.0.99:10.0.0.2

=> bootm 40020000
## Booting Linux kernel at 40020000 ...
Image Name: 2.2.13 for NFS on TQM850L
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 381681 Bytes = 372 kB = 0 MB
Load Address: 00000000
Entry Point: 0000000c
Verifying Checksum ... OK
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
Linux version 2.2.13 ([email protected]) (gcc version 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #1 Wed Jul 19 02:35:17 MEST 2000
Boot arguments: root=/dev/nfs rw nfsroot=10.0.0.2:/LinuxPPC nfsaddrs=10.0.0.99:10.0.0.2
time_init: decrementer frequency = 187500000/60
Calibrating delay loop... 49.77 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15208k available (700k kernel code, 444k data, 32k init) [c0000000,c1000000]
...

If you want to boot a Linux kernel with initial RAM disk, you pass
the memory addresses of both the kernel and the initrd image (PPBCOOT
format!) to the "bootm" command:

=> imi 40100000 40200000

## Checking Image at 40100000 ...
Image Name: 2.2.13 for initrd on TQM850L
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 335725 Bytes = 327 kB = 0 MB
Load Address: 00000000
Entry Point: 0000000c
Verifying Checksum ... OK

## Checking Image at 40200000 ...
Image Name: Simple Ramdisk Image
Image Type: PowerPC Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 566530 Bytes = 553 kB = 0 MB
Load Address: 00000000
Entry Point: 00000000
Verifying Checksum ... OK

=> bootm 40100000 40200000
## Booting Linux kernel at 40100000 ...
Image Name: 2.2.13 for initrd on TQM850L
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 335725 Bytes = 327 kB = 0 MB
Load Address: 00000000
Entry Point: 0000000c
Verifying Checksum ... OK
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
## Loading RAMDisk Image at 40200000 ...
Image Name: Simple Ramdisk Image
Image Type: PowerPC Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 566530 Bytes = 553 kB = 0 MB
Load Address: 00000000
Entry Point: 00000000
Verifying Checksum ... OK
Loading Ramdisk ... OK
Linux version 2.2.13 ([email protected]) (gcc version 2.95.2 19991024 (release)) #1 Wed Jul 19 02:32:08 MEST 2000
Boot arguments: root=/dev/ram
time_init: decrementer frequency = 187500000/60
Calibrating delay loop... 49.77 BogoMIPS
...
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).

bash#

Boot Linux and pass a flat device tree:
-----------

First, U-Boot must be compiled with the appropriate defines. See the section
titled "Linux Kernel Interface" above for a more in depth explanation. The
following is an example of how to start a kernel and pass an updated
flat device tree:

=> print oftaddr
oftaddr=0x300000
=> print oft
oft=oftrees/mpc8540ads.dtb
=> tftp $oftaddr $oft
Speed: 1000, full duplex
Using TSEC0 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.1; our IP address is 192.168.1.101
Filename ‘oftrees/mpc8540ads.dtb‘.
Load address: 0x300000
Loading: #
done
Bytes transferred = 4106 (100a hex)
=> tftp $loadaddr $bootfile
Speed: 1000, full duplex
Using TSEC0 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.1; our IP address is 192.168.1.2
Filename ‘uImage‘.
Load address: 0x200000
Loading:############
done
Bytes transferred = 1029407 (fb51f hex)
=> print loadaddr
loadaddr=200000
=> print oftaddr
oftaddr=0x300000
=> bootm $loadaddr - $oftaddr
## Booting image at 00200000 ...
Image Name: Linux-2.6.17-dirty
Image Type: PowerPC Linux Kernel Image (gzip compressed)
Data Size: 1029343 Bytes = 1005.2 kB
Load Address: 00000000
Entry Point: 00000000
Verifying Checksum ... OK
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
Booting using flat device tree at 0x300000
Using MPC85xx ADS machine description
Memory CAM mapping: CAM0=256Mb, CAM1=256Mb, CAM2=0Mb residual: 0Mb
[snip]