Merging upstream version 6.7.7.

Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>

1 files changed, 131 insertions, 0 deletions

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+========================
+The PowerPC boot wrapper
+========================
+
+Copyright (C) Secret Lab Technologies Ltd.
+
+PowerPC image targets compresses and wraps the kernel image (vmlinux) with
+a boot wrapper to make it usable by the system firmware.  There is no
+standard PowerPC firmware interface, so the boot wrapper is designed to
+be adaptable for each kind of image that needs to be built.
+
+The boot wrapper can be found in the arch/powerpc/boot/ directory.  The
+Makefile in that directory has targets for all the available image types.
+The different image types are used to support all of the various firmware
+interfaces found on PowerPC platforms.  OpenFirmware is the most commonly
+used firmware type on general purpose PowerPC systems from Apple, IBM and
+others.  U-Boot is typically found on embedded PowerPC hardware, but there
+are a handful of other firmware implementations which are also popular.  Each
+firmware interface requires a different image format.
+
+The boot wrapper is built from the makefile in arch/powerpc/boot/Makefile and
+it uses the wrapper script (arch/powerpc/boot/wrapper) to generate target
+image.  The details of the build system is discussed in the next section.
+Currently, the following image format targets exist:
+
+   ==================== ========================================================
+   cuImage.%:		Backwards compatible uImage for older version of
+			U-Boot (for versions that don't understand the device
+			tree).  This image embeds a device tree blob inside
+			the image.  The boot wrapper, kernel and device tree
+			are all embedded inside the U-Boot uImage file format
+			with boot wrapper code that extracts data from the old
+			bd_info structure and loads the data into the device
+			tree before jumping into the kernel.
+
+			Because of the series of #ifdefs found in the
+			bd_info structure used in the old U-Boot interfaces,
+			cuImages are platform specific.  Each specific
+			U-Boot platform has a different platform init file
+			which populates the embedded device tree with data
+			from the platform specific bd_info file.  The platform
+			specific cuImage platform init code can be found in
+			`arch/powerpc/boot/cuboot.*.c`. Selection of the correct
+			cuImage init code for a specific board can be found in
+			the wrapper structure.
+
+   dtbImage.%:		Similar to zImage, except device tree blob is embedded
+			inside the image instead of provided by firmware.  The
+			output image file can be either an elf file or a flat
+			binary depending on the platform.
+
+			dtbImages are used on systems which do not have an
+			interface for passing a device tree directly.
+			dtbImages are similar to simpleImages except that
+			dtbImages have platform specific code for extracting
+			data from the board firmware, but simpleImages do not
+			talk to the firmware at all.
+
+			PlayStation 3 support uses dtbImage.  So do Embedded
+			Planet boards using the PlanetCore firmware.  Board
+			specific initialization code is typically found in a
+			file named arch/powerpc/boot/<platform>.c; but this
+			can be overridden by the wrapper script.
+
+   simpleImage.%:	Firmware independent compressed image that does not
+			depend on any particular firmware interface and embeds
+			a device tree blob.  This image is a flat binary that
+			can be loaded to any location in RAM and jumped to.
+			Firmware cannot pass any configuration data to the
+			kernel with this image type and it depends entirely on
+			the embedded device tree for all information.
+
+   treeImage.%;		Image format for used with OpenBIOS firmware found
+			on some ppc4xx hardware.  This image embeds a device
+			tree blob inside the image.
+
+   uImage:		Native image format used by U-Boot.  The uImage target
+			does not add any boot code.  It just wraps a compressed
+			vmlinux in the uImage data structure.  This image
+			requires a version of U-Boot that is able to pass
+			a device tree to the kernel at boot.  If using an older
+			version of U-Boot, then you need to use a cuImage
+			instead.
+
+   zImage.%:		Image format which does not embed a device tree.
+			Used by OpenFirmware and other firmware interfaces
+			which are able to supply a device tree.  This image
+			expects firmware to provide the device tree at boot.
+			Typically, if you have general purpose PowerPC
+			hardware then you want this image format.
+   ==================== ========================================================
+
+Image types which embed a device tree blob (simpleImage, dtbImage, treeImage,
+and cuImage) all generate the device tree blob from a file in the
+arch/powerpc/boot/dts/ directory.  The Makefile selects the correct device
+tree source based on the name of the target.  Therefore, if the kernel is
+built with 'make treeImage.walnut', then the build system will use
+arch/powerpc/boot/dts/walnut.dts to build treeImage.walnut.
+
+Two special targets called 'zImage' and 'zImage.initrd' also exist.  These
+targets build all the default images as selected by the kernel configuration.
+Default images are selected by the boot wrapper Makefile
+(arch/powerpc/boot/Makefile) by adding targets to the $image-y variable.  Look
+at the Makefile to see which default image targets are available.
+
+How it is built
+---------------
+arch/powerpc is designed to support multiplatform kernels, which means
+that a single vmlinux image can be booted on many different target boards.
+It also means that the boot wrapper must be able to wrap for many kinds of
+images on a single build.  The design decision was made to not use any
+conditional compilation code (#ifdef, etc) in the boot wrapper source code.
+All of the boot wrapper pieces are buildable at any time regardless of the
+kernel configuration.  Building all the wrapper bits on every kernel build
+also ensures that obscure parts of the wrapper are at the very least compile
+tested in a large variety of environments.
+
+The wrapper is adapted for different image types at link time by linking in
+just the wrapper bits that are appropriate for the image type.  The 'wrapper
+script' (found in arch/powerpc/boot/wrapper) is called by the Makefile and
+is responsible for selecting the correct wrapper bits for the image type.
+The arguments are well documented in the script's comment block, so they
+are not repeated here.  However, it is worth mentioning that the script
+uses the -p (platform) argument as the main method of deciding which wrapper
+bits to compile in.  Look for the large 'case "$platform" in' block in the
+middle of the script.  This is also the place where platform specific fixups
+can be selected by changing the link order.
+
+In particular, care should be taken when working with cuImages.  cuImage
+wrapper bits are very board specific and care should be taken to make sure
+the target you are trying to build is supported by the wrapper bits.