1Falcon boot option
2------------------
3Falcon boot is a short cut boot method for SD/eMMC targets. It skips loading the
4RAM version U-Boot. Instead, it loads FIT image and boot directly to Linux.
5CONFIG_SPL_OS_BOOT enables falcon boot. CONFIG_SPL_LOAD_FIT enables the FIT
6image support (also need CONFIG_SPL_OF_LIBFDT, CONFIG_SPL_FIT and optionally
7CONFIG_SPL_GZIP).
8
9To enable falcon boot, a hook function spl_start_uboot() returns 0 to indicate
10booting U-Boot is not the first choice. The kernel FIT image needs to be put
11at CONFIG_SYS_MMCSD_RAW_MODE_KERNEL_SECTOR. SPL mmc driver reads the header to
12determine if this is a FIT image. If true, FIT image components are parsed and
13copied or decompressed (if applicable) to their destinations. If FIT image is
14not found, normal U-Boot flow will follow.
15
16An important part of falcon boot is to prepare the device tree. A normal U-Boot
17does FDT fixups when booting Linux. For falcon boot, Linux boots directly from
18SPL, skipping the normal U-Boot. The device tree has to be prepared in advance.
19A command "spl export" should be called under the normal RAM version U-Boot.
20It is equivalent to go through "bootm" step-by-step until device tree fixup is
21done. The device tree in memory is the one needed for falcon boot. Falcon boot
22flow suggests to save this image to SD/eMMC at the location pointed by macro
23CONFIG_SYS_MMCSD_RAW_MODE_ARGS_SECTOR, with maximum size specified by macro
24CONFIG_SYS_MMCSD_RAW_MODE_ARGS_SECTORS. However, when FIT image is used for
25Linux, the device tree stored in FIT image overwrites the memory loaded by spl
26driver from these sectors. We could change this loading order to favor the
27stored sectors. But when secure boot is enabled, these sectors are used for
28signature header and needs to be loaded before the FIT image. So it is important
29to understand the device tree in FIT image should be the one actually used, or
30leave it absent to favor the stored sectors. It is easier to deploy the FIT
31image with embedded static device tree to multiple boards.
32
33Macro CONFIG_SYS_SPL_ARGS_ADDR serves two purposes. One is the pointer to load
34the stored sectors to. Normally this is the static device tree. The second
35purpose is the memory location of signature header for secure boot. After the
36FIT image is loaded into memory, it is validated against the signature header
37before individual components are extracted (and optionally decompressed) into
38their final memory locations, respectively. After the validation, the header
39is no longer used. The static device tree is copied into this location. So
40this macro is passed as the location of device tree when booting Linux.
41
42Steps to prepare static device tree
43-----------------------------------
44To prepare the static device tree for Layerscape boards, it is important to
45understand the fixups in U-Boot. Memory size and location, as well as reserved
46memory blocks are added/updated. Ethernet MAC addressed are updated. FMan
47microcode (if used) is embedded in the device tree. Kernel command line and
48initrd information are embedded. Others including CPU status, boot method,
49Ethernet port status, etc. are also updated.
50
51Following normal booting process, all variables are set, all images are loaded
52before "bootm" command would be issued to boot, run command
53
54spl export fdt <address>
55
56where the address is the location of FIT image. U-Boot goes through the booting
57process as if "bootm start", "bootm loados", "bootm ramdisk"... commands but
58stops before "bootm go". There we have the fixed-up device tree in memory.
59We can check the device tree header by these commands
60
61fdt addr <fdt address>
62fdt header
63
64Where the fdt address is the device tree in memory. It is printed by U-Boot.
65It is useful to know the exact size. One way to extract this static device
66tree is to save it to eMMC/SD using command in U-Boot, and extract under Linux
67with these commands, repectively
68
69mmc write <address> <sector> <sectors>
70dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=<filename> bs=512 skip=<sector> count=<sectors>
71
72Note, U-Boot takes values as hexadecimals while Linux takes them as decimals by
73default. If using NAND or other storage, the commands are slightly different.
74When we have the static device tree image, we can re-make the FIT image with
75it. It is important to specify the load addresses in FIT image for every
76components. Otherwise U-Boot cannot load them correctly.
77
78Generate FIT image with static device tree
79------------------------------------------
80Example:
81
82/dts-v1/;
83
84/ {
85	description = "Image file for the LS1043A Linux Kernel";
86	#address-cells = <1>;
87
88	images {
89		kernel {
90			description = "ARM64 Linux kernel";
91			data = /incbin/("./arch/arm64/boot/Image.gz");
92			type = "kernel";
93			arch = "arm64";
94			os = "linux";
95			compression = "gzip";
96			load = <0x80080000>;
97			entry = <0x80080000>;
98		};
99		fdt-1 {
100			description = "Flattened Device Tree blob";
101			data = /incbin/("./fsl-ls1043ardb-static.dtb");
102			type = "flat_dt";
103			arch = "arm64";
104			compression = "none";
105			load = <0x90000000>;
106		};
107		ramdisk {
108			description = "LS1043 Ramdisk";
109                        data = /incbin/("./rootfs.cpio.gz");
110			type = "ramdisk";
111			arch = "arm64";
112			os = "linux";
113			compression = "none";
114			load = <0xa0000000>;
115		};
116	};
117
118	configurations {
119		default = "config-1";
120		config-1 {
121			description = "Boot Linux kernel";
122			kernel = "kernel";
123			fdt = "fdt-1";
124			ramdisk = "ramdisk";
125			loadables = "fdt", "ramdisk";
126		};
127	};
128};
129
130The "loadables" is not optional. It tells SPL which images to load into memory.
131
132Falcon mode with QSPI boot
133--------------------------
134To use falcon mode with QSPI boot, SPL needs to be enabled. Similar to SD or
135NAND boot, a RAM version full feature U-Boot is needed. Unlike SD or NAND boot,
136SPL with QSPI doesn't need to combine SPL image with RAM version image. Two
137separated images are used, u-boot-spl.pbl and u-boot.img. The former is SPL
138image with RCW and PBI commands to load the SPL payload into On-Chip RAM. The
139latter is RAM version U-Boot in FIT format (or legacy format if FIT is not
140used).
141
142Other things to consider
143-----------------------
144Falcon boot skips a lot of initialization in U-Boot. If Linux expects the
145hardware to be initialized by U-Boot, the related code should be ported to SPL
146build. For example, if Linux expect Ethernet PHY to be initialized in U-Boot
147(which is not a common case), the PHY initialization has to be included in
148falcon boot. This increases the SPL image size and should be handled carefully.
149If Linux has PHY driver enabled, it still depends on the correct MDIO bus setup
150in U-Boot. Normal U-Boot sets the MDC ratio to generate a proper clock signal.
151