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+ Booting AArch64 Linux
+ =====================
+
+Author: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
+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 and must
+not exceed 2 megabytes in size. Since the dtb will be mapped cacheable
+using blocks of up to 2 megabytes in size, it must not be placed within
+any 2M region which must be mapped with any specific attributes.
+
+NOTE: versions prior to v4.2 also require that the DTB be placed within
+the 512 MB region starting at text_offset bytes below the kernel Image.
+
+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.
+ Bit 1-2: Kernel Page size.
+ 0 - Unspecified.
+ 1 - 4K
+ 2 - 16K
+ 3 - 64K
+ Bit 3: Kernel physical placement
+ 0 - 2MB aligned base should be as close as possible
+ to the base of DRAM, since memory below it is not
+ accessible via the linear mapping
+ 1 - 2MB aligned base may be anywhere in physical
+ memory
+ Bits 4-63: 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 anywhere in usable system RAM and called there. The region
+between the 2 MB aligned base address and the start of the image has no
+special significance to the kernel, and may be used for other purposes.
+At least image_size bytes from the start of the image must be free for
+use by the kernel.
+NOTE: versions prior to v4.6 cannot make use of memory below the
+physical offset of the Image so it is recommended that the Image be
+placed as close as possible to the start of system RAM.
+
+If an initrd/initramfs is passed to the kernel at boot, it must reside
+entirely within a 1 GB aligned physical memory window of up to 32 GB in
+size that fully covers the kernel Image as well.
+
+Any memory described to the kernel (even that below the start of the
+image) 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 to be used in v3 mode:
+ - 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 DT or ACPI tables must describe a GICv3 interrupt controller.
+
+ For systems with a GICv3 interrupt controller to be used in
+ compatibility (v2) mode:
+ - If EL3 is present:
+ ICC_SRE_EL3.SRE (bit 0) must be initialised to 0b0.
+ - If the kernel is entered at EL1:
+ ICC_SRE_EL2.SRE (bit 0) must be initialised to 0b0.
+ - The DT or ACPI tables must describe a GICv2 interrupt controller.
+
+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)