[U-Boot] [PATCH 00/13] System Firmware Loader for TI K3 family SoCs

[Simon Goldschmidt <simon.k.r.goldschmidt@gmail.com>]

On 07.05.19 19:25, Andreas Dannenberg wrote:
> TI K3 SoCs like the AM654x devices are fundamentally dependent on a
> firmware called SYSFW (System Firmware) being loaded into the dedicated
> DMSC (Device Management and Security Controller) processor to provide
> various services via TISCI (Texas Instruments System Control Interface)
> to manage device aspects such as core bringup, power, clocks, security,
> and so on across the entire SoC.
> 
> Currently public U-Boot does not boot on an actual AM654x EVM due to
> the missing loading and startup of SYSFW, with this being the only piece
> missing preventing a successful boot from SD/MMC-type media. This gap
> is addressed with this patch series.
> 
> Note that the loading and starting of SYSFW is done in the context of
> board_init_f() in SPL which poses some unique challenges due to the very
> constrained nature of this environment (minimal amount of SRAM, no DDR
> yet available).
> 
> In order to be as lean as possible on resource use an approach was chosen
> that extends the existing SPL loader framework to be usable beyond the
> usual "loading U-Boot" use case. While this patch series only makes
> changes to the MMC/SD card loader framework to support eMMC/MMC/SD FS-
> and sector/partition-based RAW boot at this time we have this solution
> in production today but extended to SPI/OSPI and Y-Modem without any
> issues.
> 
> While I also have a working solution based on the existing FS loader
> framework this has its own challenges, namely by its very nature only
> addressing a subset of our use cases (no eMMC/SD RAW boot support for
> example), being heavier on resource usage (needing to use ENV to pass
> parameters), and not addressing the need to probe the boot peripheral.
> This particular framework works well for use cases requiring to load
> firmware from FS-based media once DDR is up and U-Boot is in a more
> "initialized" state but it is not a one-fits all solution for very
> early use in SPL board_init_f() accross different boot modes.

And would it be an option to improve the loader (maybe dropping the "fs" 
from its name)? I think it's an "fs" loader because its idea has been 
copied from Linux. I think in U-Boot, it's more common to have things at 
a raw offset instead of a file system. Just thinking...

And the current state of that fs_loader is like it is because it fits 
its single user (socfpga stratix 10), I think.

Anyway, even if you do need yet another loader, would it make sense to 
create a common file instead of adding this in your arch/mach?

Regards,
Simon

> 
> 
> Andreas Dannenberg (10):
>    mmc: k3_arasan: Allow driver to probe without PDs specified
>    spl: Allow skipping clearing BSS during relocation
>    spl: Make image loader infrastructure more universal
>    arm: K3: Introduce System Firmware loader framework
>    armV7R: K3: am654: Allow using SPL BSS pre-relocation
>    armv7R: K3: am654: Use full malloc implementation in SPL
>    armV7R: K3: am654: Load SYSFW binary and config from boot media
>    configs: am65x_evm_r5: All sysfw to be loaded via MMC
>    configs: am65x_hs_evm_r5: All sysfw to be loaded via MMC
>    configs: am65x_hs_evm: Add Support for eMMC boot
> 
> Faiz Abbas (2):
>    configs: am65x_evm: Add Support for eMMC boot
>    am65x: README: Add eMMC layout and flash instructions
> 
> Lokesh Vutla (1):
>    armv7R: dts: k3: am654: Update mmc nodes for loading sysfw
> 
>   arch/arm/dts/k3-am654-r5-base-board.dts      |  18 ++
>   arch/arm/lib/crt0.S                          |   3 +
>   arch/arm/mach-k3/Kconfig                     |  40 +++
>   arch/arm/mach-k3/Makefile                    |   1 +
>   arch/arm/mach-k3/am6_init.c                  |  34 ++-
>   arch/arm/mach-k3/include/mach/sysfw-loader.h |  12 +
>   arch/arm/mach-k3/sysfw-loader.c              | 263 +++++++++++++++++++
>   board/ti/am65x/Kconfig                       |   1 +
>   board/ti/am65x/README                        |  52 ++++
>   common/spl/Kconfig                           |  13 +
>   common/spl/spl_fit.c                         |  14 +
>   common/spl/spl_mmc.c                         |  76 ++++--
>   configs/am65x_evm_a53_defconfig              |   2 +
>   configs/am65x_evm_r5_defconfig               |   7 +-
>   configs/am65x_hs_evm_a53_defconfig           |   2 +
>   configs/am65x_hs_evm_r5_defconfig            |   7 +-
>   drivers/mmc/k3_arsan_sdhci.c                 |  16 +-
>   include/configs/am65x_evm.h                  |  30 ++-
>   include/spl.h                                |  26 ++
>   19 files changed, 577 insertions(+), 40 deletions(-)
>   create mode 100644 arch/arm/mach-k3/include/mach/sysfw-loader.h
>   create mode 100644 arch/arm/mach-k3/sysfw-loader.c
>