Booting AArch64 Linux ===================== Author: Will Deacon Date : 07 September 2012 This document is based on the ARM booting document by Russell King and is relevant to all public releases of the AArch64 Linux kernel. The AArch64 exception model is made up of a number of exception levels (EL0 - EL3), with EL0 and EL1 having a secure and a non-secure counterpart. EL2 is the hypervisor level and exists only in non-secure mode. EL3 is the highest priority level and exists only in secure mode. For the purposes of this document, we will use the term `boot loader' simply to define all software that executes on the CPU(s) before control is passed to the Linux kernel. This may include secure monitor and hypervisor code, or it may just be a handful of instructions for preparing a minimal boot environment. Essentially, the boot loader should provide (as a minimum) the following: 1. Setup and initialise the RAM 2. Setup the device tree 3. Decompress the kernel image 4. Call the kernel image 1. Setup and initialise RAM --------------------------- Requirement: MANDATORY The boot loader is expected to find and initialise all RAM that the kernel will use for volatile data storage in the system. It performs this in a machine dependent manner. (It may use internal algorithms to automatically locate and size all RAM, or it may use knowledge of the RAM in the machine, or any other method the boot loader designer sees fit.) 2. Setup the device tree ------------------------- Requirement: MANDATORY The device tree blob (dtb) must be placed on an 8-byte boundary within the first 512 megabytes from the start of the kernel image and must not cross a 2-megabyte boundary. This is to allow the kernel to map the blob using a single section mapping in the initial page tables. 3. Decompress the kernel image ------------------------------ Requirement: OPTIONAL The AArch64 kernel does not currently provide a decompressor and therefore requires decompression (gzip etc.) to be performed by the boot loader if a compressed Image target (e.g. Image.gz) is used. For bootloaders that do not implement this requirement, the uncompressed Image target is available instead. 4. Call the kernel image ------------------------ Requirement: MANDATORY The decompressed kernel image contains a 64-byte header as follows: u32 code0; /* Executable code */ u32 code1; /* Executable code */ u64 text_offset; /* Image load offset, little endian */ u64 image_size; /* Effective Image size, little endian */ u64 flags; /* kernel flags, little endian */ u64 res2 = 0; /* reserved */ u64 res3 = 0; /* reserved */ u64 res4 = 0; /* reserved */ u32 magic = 0x644d5241; /* Magic number, little endian, "ARM\x64" */ u32 res5; /* reserved (used for PE COFF offset) */ Header notes: - As of v3.17, all fields are little endian unless stated otherwise. - code0/code1 are responsible for branching to stext. - when booting through EFI, code0/code1 are initially skipped. res5 is an offset to the PE header and the PE header has the EFI entry point (efi_stub_entry). When the stub has done its work, it jumps to code0 to resume the normal boot process. - Prior to v3.17, the endianness of text_offset was not specified. In these cases image_size is zero and text_offset is 0x80000 in the endianness of the kernel. Where image_size is non-zero image_size is little-endian and must be respected. Where image_size is zero, text_offset can be assumed to be 0x80000. - The flags field (introduced in v3.17) is a little-endian 64-bit field composed as follows: Bit 0: Kernel endianness. 1 if BE, 0 if LE. Bits 1-63: Reserved. - When image_size is zero, a bootloader should attempt to keep as much memory as possible free for use by the kernel immediately after the end of the kernel image. The amount of space required will vary depending on selected features, and is effectively unbound. The Image must be placed text_offset bytes from a 2MB aligned base address near the start of usable system RAM and called there. Memory below that base address is currently unusable by Linux, and therefore it is strongly recommended that this location is the start of system RAM. At least image_size bytes from the start of the image must be free for use by the kernel. Any memory described to the kernel (even that below the 2MB aligned base address) which is not marked as reserved from the kernel e.g. with a memreserve region in the device tree) will be considered as available to the kernel. Before jumping into the kernel, the following conditions must be met: - Quiesce all DMA capable devices so that memory does not get corrupted by bogus network packets or disk data. This will save you many hours of debug. - Primary CPU general-purpose register settings x0 = physical address of device tree blob (dtb) in system RAM. x1 = 0 (reserved for future use) x2 = 0 (reserved for future use) x3 = 0 (reserved for future use) - CPU mode All forms of interrupts must be masked in PSTATE.DAIF (Debug, SError, IRQ and FIQ). The CPU must be in either EL2 (RECOMMENDED in order to have access to the virtualisation extensions) or non-secure EL1. - Caches, MMUs The MMU must be off. Instruction cache may be on or off. The address range corresponding to the loaded kernel image must be cleaned to the PoC. In the presence of a system cache or other coherent masters with caches enabled, this will typically require cache maintenance by VA rather than set/way operations. System caches which respect the architected cache maintenance by VA operations must be configured and may be enabled. System caches which do not respect architected cache maintenance by VA operations (not recommended) must be configured and disabled. - Architected timers CNTFRQ must be programmed with the timer frequency and CNTVOFF must be programmed with a consistent value on all CPUs. If entering the kernel at EL1, CNTHCTL_EL2 must have EL1PCTEN (bit 0) set where available. - Coherency All CPUs to be booted by the kernel must be part of the same coherency domain on entry to the kernel. This may require IMPLEMENTATION DEFINED initialisation to enable the receiving of maintenance operations on each CPU. - System registers All writable architected system registers at the exception level where the kernel image will be entered must be initialised by software at a higher exception level to prevent execution in an UNKNOWN state. For systems with a GICv3 interrupt controller: - If EL3 is present: ICC_SRE_EL3.Enable (bit 3) must be initialiased to 0b1. ICC_SRE_EL3.SRE (bit 0) must be initialised to 0b1. - If the kernel is entered at EL1: ICC.SRE_EL2.Enable (bit 3) must be initialised to 0b1 ICC_SRE_EL2.SRE (bit 0) must be initialised to 0b1. The requirements described above for CPU mode, caches, MMUs, architected timers, coherency and system registers apply to all CPUs. All CPUs must enter the kernel in the same exception level. The boot loader is expected to enter the kernel on each CPU in the following manner: - The primary CPU must jump directly to the first instruction of the kernel image. The device tree blob passed by this CPU must contain an 'enable-method' property for each cpu node. The supported enable-methods are described below. It is expected that the bootloader will generate these device tree properties and insert them into the blob prior to kernel entry. - CPUs with a "spin-table" enable-method must have a 'cpu-release-addr' property in their cpu node. This property identifies a naturally-aligned 64-bit zero-initalised memory location. These CPUs should spin outside of the kernel in a reserved area of memory (communicated to the kernel by a /memreserve/ region in the device tree) polling their cpu-release-addr location, which must be contained in the reserved region. A wfe instruction may be inserted to reduce the overhead of the busy-loop and a sev will be issued by the primary CPU. When a read of the location pointed to by the cpu-release-addr returns a non-zero value, the CPU must jump to this value. The value will be written as a single 64-bit little-endian value, so CPUs must convert the read value to their native endianness before jumping to it. - CPUs with a "psci" enable method should remain outside of the kernel (i.e. outside of the regions of memory described to the kernel in the memory node, or in a reserved area of memory described to the kernel by a /memreserve/ region in the device tree). The kernel will issue CPU_ON calls as described in ARM document number ARM DEN 0022A ("Power State Coordination Interface System Software on ARM processors") to bring CPUs into the kernel. The device tree should contain a 'psci' node, as described in Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/psci.txt. - Secondary CPU general-purpose register settings x0 = 0 (reserved for future use) x1 = 0 (reserved for future use) x2 = 0 (reserved for future use) x3 = 0 (reserved for future use)