| .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 |
| |
| =============================================== |
| RISC-V Kernel Boot Requirements and Constraints |
| =============================================== |
| |
| :Author: Alexandre Ghiti <alexghiti@rivosinc.com> |
| :Date: 23 May 2023 |
| |
| This document describes what the RISC-V kernel expects from bootloaders and |
| firmware, and also the constraints that any developer must have in mind when |
| touching the early boot process. For the purposes of this document, the |
| ``early boot process`` refers to any code that runs before the final virtual |
| mapping is set up. |
| |
| Pre-kernel Requirements and Constraints |
| ======================================= |
| |
| The RISC-V kernel expects the following of bootloaders and platform firmware: |
| |
| Register state |
| -------------- |
| |
| The RISC-V kernel expects: |
| |
| * ``$a0`` to contain the hartid of the current core. |
| * ``$a1`` to contain the address of the devicetree in memory. |
| |
| CSR state |
| --------- |
| |
| The RISC-V kernel expects: |
| |
| * ``$satp = 0``: the MMU, if present, must be disabled. |
| |
| Reserved memory for resident firmware |
| ------------------------------------- |
| |
| The RISC-V kernel must not map any resident memory, or memory protected with |
| PMPs, in the direct mapping, so the firmware must correctly mark those regions |
| as per the devicetree specification and/or the UEFI specification. |
| |
| Kernel location |
| --------------- |
| |
| The RISC-V kernel expects to be placed at a PMD boundary (2MB aligned for rv64 |
| and 4MB aligned for rv32). Note that the EFI stub will physically relocate the |
| kernel if that's not the case. |
| |
| Hardware description |
| -------------------- |
| |
| The firmware can pass either a devicetree or ACPI tables to the RISC-V kernel. |
| |
| The devicetree is either passed directly to the kernel from the previous stage |
| using the ``$a1`` register, or when booting with UEFI, it can be passed using the |
| EFI configuration table. |
| |
| The ACPI tables are passed to the kernel using the EFI configuration table. In |
| this case, a tiny devicetree is still created by the EFI stub. Please refer to |
| "EFI stub and devicetree" section below for details about this devicetree. |
| |
| Kernel entry |
| ------------ |
| |
| On SMP systems, there are 2 methods to enter the kernel: |
| |
| - ``RISCV_BOOT_SPINWAIT``: the firmware releases all harts in the kernel, one hart |
| wins a lottery and executes the early boot code while the other harts are |
| parked waiting for the initialization to finish. This method is mostly used to |
| support older firmwares without SBI HSM extension and M-mode RISC-V kernel. |
| - ``Ordered booting``: the firmware releases only one hart that will execute the |
| initialization phase and then will start all other harts using the SBI HSM |
| extension. The ordered booting method is the preferred booting method for |
| booting the RISC-V kernel because it can support CPU hotplug and kexec. |
| |
| UEFI |
| ---- |
| |
| UEFI memory map |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| When booting with UEFI, the RISC-V kernel will use only the EFI memory map to |
| populate the system memory. |
| |
| The UEFI firmware must parse the subnodes of the ``/reserved-memory`` devicetree |
| node and abide by the devicetree specification to convert the attributes of |
| those subnodes (``no-map`` and ``reusable``) into their correct EFI equivalent |
| (refer to section "3.5.4 /reserved-memory and UEFI" of the devicetree |
| specification v0.4-rc1). |
| |
| RISCV_EFI_BOOT_PROTOCOL |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| When booting with UEFI, the EFI stub requires the boot hartid in order to pass |
| it to the RISC-V kernel in ``$a1``. The EFI stub retrieves the boot hartid using |
| one of the following methods: |
| |
| - ``RISCV_EFI_BOOT_PROTOCOL`` (**preferred**). |
| - ``boot-hartid`` devicetree subnode (**deprecated**). |
| |
| Any new firmware must implement ``RISCV_EFI_BOOT_PROTOCOL`` as the devicetree |
| based approach is deprecated now. |
| |
| Early Boot Requirements and Constraints |
| ======================================= |
| |
| The RISC-V kernel's early boot process operates under the following constraints: |
| |
| EFI stub and devicetree |
| ----------------------- |
| |
| When booting with UEFI, the devicetree is supplemented (or created) by the EFI |
| stub with the same parameters as arm64 which are described at the paragraph |
| "UEFI kernel support on ARM" in Documentation/arch/arm/uefi.rst. |
| |
| Virtual mapping installation |
| ---------------------------- |
| |
| The installation of the virtual mapping is done in 2 steps in the RISC-V kernel: |
| |
| 1. ``setup_vm()`` installs a temporary kernel mapping in ``early_pg_dir`` which |
| allows discovery of the system memory. Only the kernel text/data are mapped |
| at this point. When establishing this mapping, no allocation can be done |
| (since the system memory is not known yet), so ``early_pg_dir`` page table is |
| statically allocated (using only one table for each level). |
| |
| 2. ``setup_vm_final()`` creates the final kernel mapping in ``swapper_pg_dir`` |
| and takes advantage of the discovered system memory to create the linear |
| mapping. When establishing this mapping, the kernel can allocate memory but |
| cannot access it directly (since the direct mapping is not present yet), so |
| it uses temporary mappings in the fixmap region to be able to access the |
| newly allocated page table levels. |
| |
| For ``virt_to_phys()`` and ``phys_to_virt()`` to be able to correctly convert |
| direct mapping addresses to physical addresses, they need to know the start of |
| the DRAM. This happens after step 1, right before step 2 installs the direct |
| mapping (see ``setup_bootmem()`` function in arch/riscv/mm/init.c). Any usage of |
| those macros before the final virtual mapping is installed must be carefully |
| examined. |
| |
| Devicetree mapping via fixmap |
| ----------------------------- |
| |
| As the ``reserved_mem`` array is initialized with virtual addresses established |
| by ``setup_vm()``, and used with the mapping established by |
| ``setup_vm_final()``, the RISC-V kernel uses the fixmap region to map the |
| devicetree. This ensures that the devicetree remains accessible by both virtual |
| mappings. |
| |
| Pre-MMU execution |
| ----------------- |
| |
| A few pieces of code need to run before even the first virtual mapping is |
| established. These are the installation of the first virtual mapping itself, |
| patching of early alternatives and the early parsing of the kernel command line. |
| That code must be very carefully compiled as: |
| |
| - ``-fno-pie``: This is needed for relocatable kernels which use ``-fPIE``, |
| since otherwise, any access to a global symbol would go through the GOT which |
| is only relocated virtually. |
| - ``-mcmodel=medany``: Any access to a global symbol must be PC-relative to |
| avoid any relocations to happen before the MMU is setup. |
| - *all* instrumentation must also be disabled (that includes KASAN, ftrace and |
| others). |
| |
| As using a symbol from a different compilation unit requires this unit to be |
| compiled with those flags, we advise, as much as possible, not to use external |
| symbols. |