xref: /openbmc/u-boot/doc/README.x86 (revision 93322749)
1#
2# Copyright (C) 2014, Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
3# Copyright (C) 2014, Bin Meng <bmeng.cn@gmail.com>
4#
5# SPDX-License-Identifier:	GPL-2.0+
6#
7
8U-Boot on x86
9=============
10
11This document describes the information about U-Boot running on x86 targets,
12including supported boards, build instructions, todo list, etc.
13
14Status
15------
16U-Boot supports running as a coreboot [1] payload on x86. So far only Link
17(Chromebook Pixel) has been tested, but it should work with minimal adjustments
18on other x86 boards since coreboot deals with most of the low-level details.
19
20U-Boot also supports booting directly from x86 reset vector without coreboot,
21aka raw support or bare support. Currently Link and Intel Crown Bay board
22support running U-Boot 'bare metal'.
23
24As for loading OS, U-Boot supports directly booting a 32-bit or 64-bit Linux
25kernel as part of a FIT image. It also supports a compressed zImage.
26
27Build Instructions
28------------------
29Building U-Boot as a coreboot payload is just like building U-Boot for targets
30on other architectures, like below:
31
32$ make coreboot-x86_defconfig
33$ make all
34
35Building ROM version of U-Boot (hereafter referred to as u-boot.rom) is a
36little bit tricky, as generally it requires several binary blobs which are not
37shipped in the U-Boot source tree. Due to this reason, the u-boot.rom build is
38not turned on by default in the U-Boot source tree. Firstly, you need turn it
39on by uncommenting the following line in the main U-Boot Makefile:
40
41# ALL-$(CONFIG_X86_RESET_VECTOR) += u-boot.rom
42
43Link-specific instructions:
44
45First, you need the following binary blobs:
46
47* descriptor.bin - Intel flash descriptor
48* me.bin - Intel Management Engine
49* mrc.bin - Memory Reference Code, which sets up SDRAM
50* video ROM - sets up the display
51
52You can get these binary blobs by:
53
54$ git clone http://review.coreboot.org/p/blobs.git
55$ cd blobs
56
57Find the following files:
58
59* ./mainboard/google/link/descriptor.bin
60* ./mainboard/google/link/me.bin
61* ./northbridge/intel/sandybridge/systemagent-ivybridge.bin
62
63The 3rd one should be renamed to mrc.bin.
64As for the video ROM, you can get it here [2].
65Make sure all these binary blobs are put in the board directory.
66
67Now you can build U-Boot and obtain u-boot.rom:
68
69$ make chromebook_link_defconfig
70$ make all
71
72Intel Crown Bay specific instructions:
73
74U-Boot support of Intel Crown Bay board [3] relies on a binary blob called
75Firmware Support Package [4] to perform all the necessary initialization steps
76as documented in the BIOS Writer Guide, including initialization of the CPU,
77memory controller, chipset and certain bus interfaces.
78
79Download the Intel FSP for Atom E6xx series and Platform Controller Hub EG20T,
80install it on your host and locate the FSP binary blob. Note this platform
81also requires a Chipset Micro Code (CMC) state machine binary to be present in
82the SPI flash where u-boot.rom resides, and this CMC binary blob can be found
83in this FSP package too.
84
85* ./FSP/QUEENSBAY_FSP_GOLD_001_20-DECEMBER-2013.fd
86* ./Microcode/C0_22211.BIN
87
88Rename the first one to fsp.bin and second one to cmc.bin and put them in the
89board directory.
90
91Now you can build U-Boot and obtaim u-boot.rom
92
93$ make crownbay_defconfig
94$ make all
95
96CPU Microcode
97-------------
98Modern CPU usually requires a special bit stream called microcode [5] to be
99loaded on the processor after power up in order to function properly. U-Boot
100has already integrated these as hex dumps in the source tree.
101
102Driver Model
103------------
104x86 has been converted to use driver model for serial and GPIO.
105
106Device Tree
107-----------
108x86 uses device tree to configure the board thus requires CONFIG_OF_CONTROL to
109be turned on. Not every device on the board is configured via devie tree, but
110more and more devices will be added as time goes by. Check out the directory
111arch/x86/dts/ for these device tree source files.
112
113TODO List
114---------
115- MTRR support (for performance)
116- Audio
117- Chrome OS verified boot
118- SMI and ACPI support, to provide platform info and facilities to Linux
119
120References
121----------
122[1] http://www.coreboot.org
123[2] http://www.coreboot.org/~stepan/pci8086,0166.rom
124[3] http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/embedded/design-tools/evaluation-platforms/atom-e660-eg20t-development-kit.html
125[4] http://www.intel.com/fsp
126[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode
127