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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+============
+Early Printk
+============
+
+Mini-HOWTO for using the earlyprintk=dbgp boot option with a
+USB2 Debug port key and a debug cable, on x86 systems.
+
+You need two computers, the 'USB debug key' special gadget and
+two USB cables, connected like this::
+
+ [host/target] <-------> [USB debug key] <-------> [client/console]
+
+Hardware requirements
+=====================
+
+ a) Host/target system needs to have USB debug port capability.
+
+ You can check this capability by looking at a 'Debug port' bit in
+ the lspci -vvv output::
+
+ # lspci -vvv
+ ...
+ 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
+ Subsystem: Lenovo ThinkPad T61
+ Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
+ Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
+ Latency: 0
+ Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 19
+ Region 0: Memory at fe227000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
+ Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
+ Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
+ Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME+
+ Capabilities: [58] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00a0
+ ^^^^^^^^^^^ <==================== [ HERE ]
+ Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
+ Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
+ ...
+
+ .. note::
+ If your system does not list a debug port capability then you probably
+ won't be able to use the USB debug key.
+
+ b) You also need a NetChip USB debug cable/key:
+
+ http://www.plxtech.com/products/NET2000/NET20DC/default.asp
+
+ This is a small blue plastic connector with two USB connections;
+ it draws power from its USB connections.
+
+ c) You need a second client/console system with a high speed USB 2.0 port.
+
+ d) The NetChip device must be plugged directly into the physical
+ debug port on the "host/target" system. You cannot use a USB hub in
+ between the physical debug port and the "host/target" system.
+
+ The EHCI debug controller is bound to a specific physical USB
+ port and the NetChip device will only work as an early printk
+ device in this port. The EHCI host controllers are electrically
+ wired such that the EHCI debug controller is hooked up to the
+ first physical port and there is no way to change this via software.
+ You can find the physical port through experimentation by trying
+ each physical port on the system and rebooting. Or you can try
+ and use lsusb or look at the kernel info messages emitted by the
+ usb stack when you plug a usb device into various ports on the
+ "host/target" system.
+
+ Some hardware vendors do not expose the usb debug port with a
+ physical connector and if you find such a device send a complaint
+ to the hardware vendor, because there is no reason not to wire
+ this port into one of the physically accessible ports.
+
+ e) It is also important to note, that many versions of the NetChip
+ device require the "client/console" system to be plugged into the
+ right hand side of the device (with the product logo facing up and
+ readable left to right). The reason being is that the 5 volt
+ power supply is taken from only one side of the device and it
+ must be the side that does not get rebooted.
+
+Software requirements
+=====================
+
+ a) On the host/target system:
+
+ You need to enable the following kernel config option::
+
+ CONFIG_EARLY_PRINTK_DBGP=y
+
+ And you need to add the boot command line: "earlyprintk=dbgp".
+
+ .. note::
+ If you are using Grub, append it to the 'kernel' line in
+ /etc/grub.conf. If you are using Grub2 on a BIOS firmware system,
+ append it to the 'linux' line in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg. If you are
+ using Grub2 on an EFI firmware system, append it to the 'linux'
+ or 'linuxefi' line in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg or
+ /boot/efi/EFI/<distro>/grub.cfg.
+
+ On systems with more than one EHCI debug controller you must
+ specify the correct EHCI debug controller number. The ordering
+ comes from the PCI bus enumeration of the EHCI controllers. The
+ default with no number argument is "0" or the first EHCI debug
+ controller. To use the second EHCI debug controller, you would
+ use the command line: "earlyprintk=dbgp1"
+
+ .. note::
+ normally earlyprintk console gets turned off once the
+ regular console is alive - use "earlyprintk=dbgp,keep" to keep
+ this channel open beyond early bootup. This can be useful for
+ debugging crashes under Xorg, etc.
+
+ b) On the client/console system:
+
+ You should enable the following kernel config option::
+
+ CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_DEBUG=y
+
+ On the next bootup with the modified kernel you should
+ get a /dev/ttyUSBx device(s).
+
+ Now this channel of kernel messages is ready to be used: start
+ your favorite terminal emulator (minicom, etc.) and set
+ it up to use /dev/ttyUSB0 - or use a raw 'cat /dev/ttyUSBx' to
+ see the raw output.
+
+ c) On Nvidia Southbridge based systems: the kernel will try to probe
+ and find out which port has a debug device connected.
+
+Testing
+=======
+
+You can test the output by using earlyprintk=dbgp,keep and provoking
+kernel messages on the host/target system. You can provoke a harmless
+kernel message by for example doing::
+
+ echo h > /proc/sysrq-trigger
+
+On the host/target system you should see this help line in "dmesg" output::
+
+ SysRq : HELP : loglevel(0-9) reBoot Crashdump terminate-all-tasks(E) memory-full-oom-kill(F) kill-all-tasks(I) saK show-backtrace-all-active-cpus(L) show-memory-usage(M) nice-all-RT-tasks(N) powerOff show-registers(P) show-all-timers(Q) unRaw Sync show-task-states(T) Unmount show-blocked-tasks(W) dump-ftrace-buffer(Z)
+
+On the client/console system do::
+
+ cat /dev/ttyUSB0
+
+And you should see the help line above displayed shortly after you've
+provoked it on the host system.
+
+If it does not work then please ask about it on the linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
+mailing list or contact the x86 maintainers.