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xianfeng |
Booting ARM Linux
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=================
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Author: Russell King
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Date : 18 May 2002
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The following documentation is relevant to 2.4.18-rmk6 and beyond.
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In order to boot ARM Linux, you require a boot loader, which is a small
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program that runs before the main kernel. The boot loader is expected
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to initialise various devices, and eventually call the Linux kernel,
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passing information to the kernel.
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Essentially, the boot loader should provide (as a minimum) the
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following:
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1. Setup and initialise the RAM.
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2. Initialise one serial port.
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3. Detect the machine type.
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4. Setup the kernel tagged list.
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5. Call the kernel image.
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1. Setup and initialise RAM
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---------------------------
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Existing boot loaders: MANDATORY
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New boot loaders: MANDATORY
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The boot loader is expected to find and initialise all RAM that the
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kernel will use for volatile data storage in the system. It performs
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this in a machine dependent manner. (It may use internal algorithms
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to automatically locate and size all RAM, or it may use knowledge of
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the RAM in the machine, or any other method the boot loader designer
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sees fit.)
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2. Initialise one serial port
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-----------------------------
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Existing boot loaders: OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED
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New boot loaders: OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED
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The boot loader should initialise and enable one serial port on the
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target. This allows the kernel serial driver to automatically detect
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which serial port it should use for the kernel console (generally
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used for debugging purposes, or communication with the target.)
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As an alternative, the boot loader can pass the relevant 'console='
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option to the kernel via the tagged lists specifying the port, and
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serial format options as described in
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Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt.
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3. Detect the machine type
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--------------------------
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Existing boot loaders: OPTIONAL
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New boot loaders: MANDATORY
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The boot loader should detect the machine type its running on by some
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method. Whether this is a hard coded value or some algorithm that
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looks at the connected hardware is beyond the scope of this document.
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The boot loader must ultimately be able to provide a MACH_TYPE_xxx
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value to the kernel. (see linux/arch/arm/tools/mach-types).
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4. Setup the kernel tagged list
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-------------------------------
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Existing boot loaders: OPTIONAL, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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New boot loaders: MANDATORY
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The boot loader must create and initialise the kernel tagged list.
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A valid tagged list starts with ATAG_CORE and ends with ATAG_NONE.
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The ATAG_CORE tag may or may not be empty. An empty ATAG_CORE tag
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has the size field set to '2' (0x00000002). The ATAG_NONE must set
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the size field to zero.
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Any number of tags can be placed in the list. It is undefined
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whether a repeated tag appends to the information carried by the
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previous tag, or whether it replaces the information in its
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entirety; some tags behave as the former, others the latter.
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The boot loader must pass at a minimum the size and location of
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the system memory, and root filesystem location. Therefore, the
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minimum tagged list should look:
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+-----------+
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base -> | ATAG_CORE | |
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+-----------+ |
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| ATAG_MEM | | increasing address
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+-----------+ |
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| ATAG_NONE | |
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+-----------+ v
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The tagged list should be stored in system RAM.
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The tagged list must be placed in a region of memory where neither
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the kernel decompressor nor initrd 'bootp' program will overwrite
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it. The recommended placement is in the first 16KiB of RAM.
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5. Calling the kernel image
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---------------------------
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Existing boot loaders: MANDATORY
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New boot loaders: MANDATORY
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There are two options for calling the kernel zImage. If the zImage
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is stored in flash, and is linked correctly to be run from flash,
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then it is legal for the boot loader to call the zImage in flash
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directly.
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The zImage may also be placed in system RAM (at any location) and
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called there. Note that the kernel uses 16K of RAM below the image
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to store page tables. The recommended placement is 32KiB into RAM.
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In either case, the following conditions must be met:
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- Quiesce all DMA capable devices so that memory does not get
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corrupted by bogus network packets or disk data. This will save
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you many hours of debug.
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- CPU register settings
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r0 = 0,
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r1 = machine type number discovered in (3) above.
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r2 = physical address of tagged list in system RAM.
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- CPU mode
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All forms of interrupts must be disabled (IRQs and FIQs)
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The CPU must be in SVC mode. (A special exception exists for Angel)
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- Caches, MMUs
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The MMU must be off.
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Instruction cache may be on or off.
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Data cache must be off.
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- The boot loader is expected to call the kernel image by jumping
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directly to the first instruction of the kernel image.
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