xref: /openbmc/u-boot/doc/README.arm-relocation (revision 6d8962e8)
1To make relocation on arm working, the following changes are done:
2
3At arch level: add linker flag -pie
4
5	This causes the linker to generate fixup tables .rel.dyn and .dynsym,
6	which must be applied to the relocated image before transferring
7	control to it.
8
9	These fixups are described in the ARM ELF documentation as type 23
10	(program-base-relative) and 2 (symbol-relative)
11
12At cpu level: modify linker file and add a relocation and fixup loop
13
14	the linker file must be modified to include the .rel.dyn and .dynsym
15	tables in the binary image, and to provide symbols for the relocation
16	code to access these tables
17
18	The relocation and fixup loop must be executed after executing
19	board_init_f at initial location and before executing board_init_r
20	at final location.
21
22At board level:
23
24	dram_init(): bd pointer is now at this point not accessible, so only
25	detect the real dramsize, and store it in gd->ram_size. Bst detected
26	with get_ram_size().
27
28TODO:	move also dram initialization there on boards where it is possible.
29
30	Setup of the the bd_t dram bank info is done in the new function
31	dram_init_banksize() called after bd is accessible.
32
33At lib level:
34
35	Board.c code is adapted from ppc code
36
37* WARNING ** WARNING ** WARNING ** WARNING ** WARNING ** WARNING ** WARNING *
38
39Boards which are not fixed to support relocation will be REMOVED!
40
41-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
42
43For boards which boot from nand_spl, it is possible to save one copy
44if CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE == relocation address! This prevents that uboot code
45is copied again in relocate_code().
46
47example for the tx25 board:
48
49a) cpu starts
50b) it copies the first page in nand to internal ram
51   (nand_spl_code)
52c) end executes this code
53d) this initialize CPU, RAM, ... and copy itself to RAM
54   (this bin must fit in one page, so board_init_f()
55    don;t fit in it ... )
56e) there it copy u-boot to CONFIG_SYS_NAND_U_BOOT_DST and
57   starts this image @ CONFIG_SYS_NAND_U_BOOT_START
58f) u-boot code steps through board_init_f() and calculates
59   the relocation address and copy itself to it
60
61If CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE == relocation address, the copying of u-boot
62in f) could be saved.
63
64-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
65
66TODO
67
68- fill in bd_t infos (check)
69- adapt all boards
70
71- maybe adapt CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE (this must be checked from board maintainers)
72  This *must* be done for boards, which boot from NOR flash
73
74  on other boards if CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE = relocation baseaddr, this saves
75  one copying from u-boot code.
76
77- new function dram_init_banksize() is actual board specific. Maybe
78  we make a weak default function in arch/arm/lib/board.c ?
79
80-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
81
82Relocation with NAND_SPL (example for the tx25):
83
84- cpu copies the first page from NAND to 0xbb000000 (IMX_NFC_BASE)
85  and start with code execution on this address.
86
87- The First page contains u-boot code from u-boot:nand_spl/nand_boot_fsl_nfc.c
88  which inits the dram, cpu registers, reloacte itself to CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE	and loads
89  the "real" u-boot to CONFIG_SYS_NAND_U_BOOT_DST and starts execution
90  @CONFIG_SYS_NAND_U_BOOT_START
91
92- This u-boot does no RAM init, nor CPU register setup. Just look
93  where it has to copy and relocate itself to this address. If
94  relocate address = CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE (not the same, as the
95  CONFIG_SYS_TEXT_BASE from the nand_spl code), then there is no need
96  to copy, just go on with bss clear and jump to board_init_r.
97
98-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
99
100How ELF relocations 23 and 2 work.
101
102TBC
103
104-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
105
106Debugging u-boot in RAM:
107(example on the qong board)
108
109a) add in config.mk:
110
111PLATFORM_CPPFLAGS += -DDEBUG
112
113-----------------
114
115b) start debugger
116
117arm-linux-gdb u-boot
118
119[hs@pollux u-boot]$ arm-linux-gdb u-boot
120GNU gdb Red Hat Linux (6.7-2rh)
121Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
122License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
123This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
124There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
125and "show warranty" for details.
126This GDB was configured as "--host=i686-pc-linux-gnu --target=arm-linux".
127The target architecture is set automatically (currently arm)
128..
129(gdb)
130
131-----------------
132
133c) connect to target
134
135target remote bdi10:2001
136
137(gdb) target remote bdi10:2001
138Remote debugging using bdi10:2001
1390x8ff17f10 in ?? ()
140(gdb)
141
142-----------------
143
144d) discard symbol-file
145
146(gdb) symbol-file
147Discard symbol table from `/home/hs/celf/u-boot/u-boot'? (y or n) y
148No symbol file now.
149(gdb)
150
151-----------------
152
153e) load new symbol table:
154
155(gdb) add-symbol-file u-boot 0x8ff08000
156add symbol table from file "u-boot" at
157	.text_addr = 0x8ff08000
158(y or n) y
159Reading symbols from /home/hs/celf/u-boot/u-boot...done.
160(gdb) c
161Continuing.
162^C
163Program received signal SIGSTOP, Stopped (signal).
1640x8ff17f18 in serial_getc () at serial_mxc.c:192
165192		while (__REG(UART_PHYS + UTS) & UTS_RXEMPTY);
166(gdb)
167
168add-symbol-file u-boot 0x8ff08000
169		       ^^^^^^^^^^
170		       get this address from u-boot debug printfs
171
172U-Boot 2010.06-rc2-00009-gf77b8b8-dirty (Jun 22 2010 - 09:43:46)
173
174U-Boot code: A0000000 -> A0058BAC  BSS: -> A0061F10
175CPU:   Freescale i.MX31 at 398 MHz
176Board: DAVE/DENX Qong
177mon: FFFFFFFF gd->monLen: 00061F10
178Top of RAM usable for U-Boot at: 90000000
179LCD panel info: 640 x 480, 16 bit/pix
180Reserving 600k for LCD Framebuffer at: 8ff6a000
181Reserving 391k for U-Boot at: 8ff08000
182			      ^^^^^^^^
183Reserving 1280k for malloc() at: 8fdc8000
184Reserving 24 Bytes for Board Info at: 8fdc7fe8
185Reserving 52 Bytes for Global Data at: 8fdc7fb4
186New Stack Pointer is: 8fdc7fb0
187RAM Configuration:
188Bank #0: 80000000 256 MiB
189relocation Offset is: eff08000
190mon: 00058BAC gd->monLen: 00061F10
191Now running in RAM - U-Boot at: 8ff08000
192				^^^^^^^^
193
194Now you can use gdb as usual :-)
195