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diff --git a/docs/plat/rpi4.rst b/docs/plat/rpi4.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e83fd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/plat/rpi4.rst @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ +Raspberry Pi 4 +============== + +The `Raspberry Pi 4`_ is an inexpensive single-board computer that contains four +Arm Cortex-A72 cores. Also in contrast to previous Raspberry Pi versions this +model has a GICv2 interrupt controller. + +This port is a minimal port to support loading non-secure EL2 payloads such +as a 64-bit Linux kernel. Other payloads such as U-Boot or EDK-II should work +as well, but have not been tested at this point. + +**IMPORTANT NOTE**: This port isn't secure. All of the memory used is DRAM, +which is available from both the Non-secure and Secure worlds. The SoC does +not seem to feature a secure memory controller of any kind, so portions of +DRAM can't be protected properly from the Non-secure world. + +Build Instructions +------------------ + +There are no real configuration options at this point, so there is only +one universal binary (bl31.bin), which can be built with: + +.. code:: shell + + CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- make PLAT=rpi4 DEBUG=1 + +Copy the generated build/rpi4/debug/bl31.bin to the SD card, adding an entry +starting with ``armstub=``, then followed by the respective file name to +``config.txt``. You should have AArch64 code in the file loaded as the +"kernel", as BL31 will drop into AArch64/EL2 to the respective load address. +arm64 Linux kernels are known to work this way. + +Other options that should be set in ``config.txt`` to properly boot 64-bit +kernels are: + +:: + + enable_uart=1 + arm_64bit=1 + enable_gic=1 + +The BL31 code will patch the provided device tree blob in memory to advertise +PSCI support, also will add a reserved-memory node to the DT to tell the +non-secure payload to not touch the resident TF-A code. + +If you connect a serial cable between the Mini UART and your computer, and +connect to it (for example, with ``screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200``) you should +see some text from BL31, followed by the output of the EL2 payload. +The command line provided is read from the ``cmdline.txt`` file on the SD card. + +TF-A port design +---------------- + +In contrast to the existing Raspberry Pi 3 port this one here is a BL31-only +port, also it deviates quite a lot from the RPi3 port in many other ways. +There is not so much difference between the two models, so eventually those +two could be (more) unified in the future. + +As with the previous models, the GPU and its firmware are the first entity to +run after the SoC gets its power. The on-chip Boot ROM loads the next stage +(bootcode.bin) from flash (EEPROM), which is again GPU code. +This part knows how to access the MMC controller and how to parse a FAT +filesystem, so it will load further components and configuration files +from the first FAT partition on the SD card. + +To accommodate this existing way of configuring and setting up the board, +we use as much of this workflow as possible. +If bootcode.bin finds a file called ``armstub8.bin`` on the SD card or it gets +pointed to such code by finding a ``armstub=`` key in ``config.txt``, it will +load this file to the beginning of DRAM (address 0) and execute it in +AArch64 EL3. +But before doing that, it will also load a "kernel" and the device tree into +memory. The load addresses have a default, but can also be changed by +setting them in ``config.txt``. If the GPU firmware finds a magic value in the +armstub image file, it will put those two load addresses in memory locations +near the beginning of memory, where TF-A code picks them up. + +To keep things simple, we will just use the kernel load address as the BL33 +entry point, also put the DTB address in the x0 register, as requested by +the arm64 Linux kernel boot protocol. This does not necessarily mean that +the EL2 payload needs to be a Linux kernel, a bootloader or any other kernel +would work as well, as long as it can cope with having the DT address in +register x0. If the payload has other means of finding the device tree, it +could ignore this address as well. |