xref: /openbmc/qemu/docs/system/generic-loader.rst (revision d177892d)
1..
2   Copyright (c) 2016, Xilinx Inc.
3
4This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or later.  See
5the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
6
7Generic Loader
8--------------
9
10The 'loader' device allows the user to load multiple images or values into
11QEMU at startup.
12
13Loading Data into Memory Values
14^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
15The loader device allows memory values to be set from the command line. This
16can be done by following the syntax below::
17
18   -device loader,addr=<addr>,data=<data>,data-len=<data-len> \
19                   [,data-be=<data-be>][,cpu-num=<cpu-num>]
20
21``<addr>``
22  The address to store the data in.
23
24``<data>``
25  The value to be written to the address. The maximum size of the data
26  is 8 bytes.
27
28``<data-len>``
29  The length of the data in bytes. This argument must be included if
30  the data argument is.
31
32``<data-be>``
33  Set to true if the data to be stored on the guest should be written
34  as big endian data. The default is to write little endian data.
35
36``<cpu-num>``
37  The number of the CPU's address space where the data should be
38  loaded. If not specified the address space of the first CPU is used.
39
40All values are parsed using the standard QemuOps parsing. This allows the user
41to specify any values in any format supported. By default the values
42will be parsed as decimal. To use hex values the user should prefix the number
43with a '0x'.
44
45An example of loading value 0x8000000e to address 0xfd1a0104 is::
46
47    -device loader,addr=0xfd1a0104,data=0x8000000e,data-len=4
48
49Setting a CPU's Program Counter
50^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
51
52The loader device allows the CPU's PC to be set from the command line. This
53can be done by following the syntax below::
54
55     -device loader,addr=<addr>,cpu-num=<cpu-num>
56
57``<addr>``
58  The value to use as the CPU's PC.
59
60``<cpu-num>``
61  The number of the CPU whose PC should be set to the specified value.
62
63All values are parsed using the standard QemuOpts parsing. This allows the user
64to specify any values in any format supported. By default the values
65will be parsed as decimal. To use hex values the user should prefix the number
66with a '0x'.
67
68An example of setting CPU 0's PC to 0x8000 is::
69
70    -device loader,addr=0x8000,cpu-num=0
71
72Loading Files
73^^^^^^^^^^^^^
74
75The loader device also allows files to be loaded into memory. It can load ELF,
76U-Boot, and Intel HEX executable formats as well as raw images.  The syntax is
77shown below:
78
79    -device loader,file=<file>[,addr=<addr>][,cpu-num=<cpu-num>][,force-raw=<raw>]
80
81``<file>``
82  A file to be loaded into memory
83
84``<addr>``
85  The memory address where the file should be loaded. This is required
86  for raw images and ignored for non-raw files.
87
88``<cpu-num>``
89  This specifies the CPU that should be used. This is an
90  optional argument and will cause the CPU's PC to be set to the
91  memory address where the raw file is loaded or the entry point
92  specified in the executable format header. This option should only
93  be used for the boot image. This will also cause the image to be
94  written to the specified CPU's address space. If not specified, the
95  default is CPU 0. <force-raw> - Setting force-raw=on forces the file
96  to be treated as a raw image. This can be used to load supported
97  executable formats as if they were raw.
98
99All values are parsed using the standard QemuOpts parsing. This allows the user
100to specify any values in any format supported. By default the values
101will be parsed as decimal. To use hex values the user should prefix the number
102with a '0x'.
103
104An example of loading an ELF file which CPU0 will boot is shown below::
105
106    -device loader,file=./images/boot.elf,cpu-num=0
107
108Restrictions and ToDos
109^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
110
111At the moment it is just assumed that if you specify a cpu-num then
112you want to set the PC as well. This might not always be the case. In
113future the internal state 'set_pc' (which exists in the generic loader
114now) should be exposed to the user so that they can choose if the PC
115is set or not.
116
117
118