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author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org> | 2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400 |
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committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org> | 2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400 |
commit | 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 (patch) | |
tree | 0bba044c4ce775e45a88a51686b5d9f90697ea9d /Documentation/arm/Booting |
Linux-2.6.12-rc2v2.6.12-rc2
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history,
even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git
archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about
3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early
git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good
infrastructure for it.
Let it rip!
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1 | Booting ARM Linux | ||
2 | ================= | ||
3 | |||
4 | Author: Russell King | ||
5 | Date : 18 May 2002 | ||
6 | |||
7 | The following documentation is relevant to 2.4.18-rmk6 and beyond. | ||
8 | |||
9 | In order to boot ARM Linux, you require a boot loader, which is a small | ||
10 | program that runs before the main kernel. The boot loader is expected | ||
11 | to initialise various devices, and eventually call the Linux kernel, | ||
12 | passing information to the kernel. | ||
13 | |||
14 | Essentially, the boot loader should provide (as a minimum) the | ||
15 | following: | ||
16 | |||
17 | 1. Setup and initialise the RAM. | ||
18 | 2. Initialise one serial port. | ||
19 | 3. Detect the machine type. | ||
20 | 4. Setup the kernel tagged list. | ||
21 | 5. Call the kernel image. | ||
22 | |||
23 | |||
24 | 1. Setup and initialise RAM | ||
25 | --------------------------- | ||
26 | |||
27 | Existing boot loaders: MANDATORY | ||
28 | New boot loaders: MANDATORY | ||
29 | |||
30 | The boot loader is expected to find and initialise all RAM that the | ||
31 | kernel will use for volatile data storage in the system. It performs | ||
32 | this in a machine dependent manner. (It may use internal algorithms | ||
33 | to automatically locate and size all RAM, or it may use knowledge of | ||
34 | the RAM in the machine, or any other method the boot loader designer | ||
35 | sees fit.) | ||
36 | |||
37 | |||
38 | 2. Initialise one serial port | ||
39 | ----------------------------- | ||
40 | |||
41 | Existing boot loaders: OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED | ||
42 | New boot loaders: OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED | ||
43 | |||
44 | The boot loader should initialise and enable one serial port on the | ||
45 | target. This allows the kernel serial driver to automatically detect | ||
46 | which serial port it should use for the kernel console (generally | ||
47 | used for debugging purposes, or communication with the target.) | ||
48 | |||
49 | As an alternative, the boot loader can pass the relevant 'console=' | ||
50 | option to the kernel via the tagged lists specifying the port, and | ||
51 | serial format options as described in | ||
52 | |||
53 | Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt. | ||
54 | |||
55 | |||
56 | 3. Detect the machine type | ||
57 | -------------------------- | ||
58 | |||
59 | Existing boot loaders: OPTIONAL | ||
60 | New boot loaders: MANDATORY | ||
61 | |||
62 | The boot loader should detect the machine type its running on by some | ||
63 | method. Whether this is a hard coded value or some algorithm that | ||
64 | looks at the connected hardware is beyond the scope of this document. | ||
65 | The boot loader must ultimately be able to provide a MACH_TYPE_xxx | ||
66 | value to the kernel. (see linux/arch/arm/tools/mach-types). | ||
67 | |||
68 | |||
69 | 4. Setup the kernel tagged list | ||
70 | ------------------------------- | ||
71 | |||
72 | Existing boot loaders: OPTIONAL, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED | ||
73 | New boot loaders: MANDATORY | ||
74 | |||
75 | The boot loader must create and initialise the kernel tagged list. | ||
76 | A valid tagged list starts with ATAG_CORE and ends with ATAG_NONE. | ||
77 | The ATAG_CORE tag may or may not be empty. An empty ATAG_CORE tag | ||
78 | has the size field set to '2' (0x00000002). The ATAG_NONE must set | ||
79 | the size field to zero. | ||
80 | |||
81 | Any number of tags can be placed in the list. It is undefined | ||
82 | whether a repeated tag appends to the information carried by the | ||
83 | previous tag, or whether it replaces the information in its | ||
84 | entirety; some tags behave as the former, others the latter. | ||
85 | |||
86 | The boot loader must pass at a minimum the size and location of | ||
87 | the system memory, and root filesystem location. Therefore, the | ||
88 | minimum tagged list should look: | ||
89 | |||
90 | +-----------+ | ||
91 | base -> | ATAG_CORE | | | ||
92 | +-----------+ | | ||
93 | | ATAG_MEM | | increasing address | ||
94 | +-----------+ | | ||
95 | | ATAG_NONE | | | ||
96 | +-----------+ v | ||
97 | |||
98 | The tagged list should be stored in system RAM. | ||
99 | |||
100 | The tagged list must be placed in a region of memory where neither | ||
101 | the kernel decompressor nor initrd 'bootp' program will overwrite | ||
102 | it. The recommended placement is in the first 16KiB of RAM. | ||
103 | |||
104 | 5. Calling the kernel image | ||
105 | --------------------------- | ||
106 | |||
107 | Existing boot loaders: MANDATORY | ||
108 | New boot loaders: MANDATORY | ||
109 | |||
110 | There are two options for calling the kernel zImage. If the zImage | ||
111 | is stored in flash, and is linked correctly to be run from flash, | ||
112 | then it is legal for the boot loader to call the zImage in flash | ||
113 | directly. | ||
114 | |||
115 | The zImage may also be placed in system RAM (at any location) and | ||
116 | called there. Note that the kernel uses 16K of RAM below the image | ||
117 | to store page tables. The recommended placement is 32KiB into RAM. | ||
118 | |||
119 | In either case, the following conditions must be met: | ||
120 | |||
121 | - Quiesce all DMA capable devicess so that memory does not get | ||
122 | corrupted by bogus network packets or disk data. This will save | ||
123 | you many hours of debug. | ||
124 | |||
125 | - CPU register settings | ||
126 | r0 = 0, | ||
127 | r1 = machine type number discovered in (3) above. | ||
128 | r2 = physical address of tagged list in system RAM. | ||
129 | |||
130 | - CPU mode | ||
131 | All forms of interrupts must be disabled (IRQs and FIQs) | ||
132 | The CPU must be in SVC mode. (A special exception exists for Angel) | ||
133 | |||
134 | - Caches, MMUs | ||
135 | The MMU must be off. | ||
136 | Instruction cache may be on or off. | ||
137 | Data cache must be off. | ||
138 | |||
139 | - The boot loader is expected to call the kernel image by jumping | ||
140 | directly to the first instruction of the kernel image. | ||
141 | |||