|
@@ -0,0 +1,165 @@
|
|
|
+Allwinner 64-bit boards README
|
|
|
+==============================
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+Newer Allwinner SoCs feature ARMv8 cores (ARM Cortex-A53) with support for
|
|
|
+both the 64-bit AArch64 mode and the ARMv7 compatible 32-bit AArch32 mode.
|
|
|
+Examples are the Allwinner A64 (used for instance on the Pine64 board) or
|
|
|
+the Allwinner H5 SoC (as used on the OrangePi PC 2).
|
|
|
+These SoCs are wired to start in AArch32 mode on reset and execute 32-bit
|
|
|
+code from the Boot ROM (BROM). As this has some implications on U-Boot, this
|
|
|
+file describes how to make full use of the 64-bit capabilities.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+Quick Start / Overview
|
|
|
+======================
|
|
|
+- Build the ARM Trusted Firmware binary (see "ARM Trusted Firmware (ATF)" below)
|
|
|
+- Build U-Boot (see "SPL/U-Boot" below)
|
|
|
+- Transfer to an uSD card (see "microSD card" below)
|
|
|
+- Boot and enjoy!
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+Building the firmware
|
|
|
+=====================
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+The Allwinner A64/H5 firmware consists of three parts: U-Boot's SPL, an
|
|
|
+ARM Trusted Firmware (ATF) build and the U-Boot proper.
|
|
|
+The SPL will load both ATF and U-Boot proper along with the right device
|
|
|
+tree blob (.dtb) and will pass execution to ATF (in EL3), which in turn will
|
|
|
+drop into the U-Boot proper (in EL2).
|
|
|
+As the ATF binary will become part of the U-Boot image file, you will need
|
|
|
+to build it first.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+ ARM Trusted Firmware (ATF)
|
|
|
+----------------------------
|
|
|
+Checkout the "allwinner" branch from the github repository [1] and build it:
|
|
|
+$ export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-
|
|
|
+$ make PLAT=sun50iw1p1 DEBUG=1 bl31
|
|
|
+The resulting binary is build/sun50iw1p1/debug/bl31.bin. Either put the
|
|
|
+location of this file into the BL31 environment variable or copy this to
|
|
|
+the root of your U-Boot build directory (or create a symbolic link).
|
|
|
+$ export BL31=/src/arm-trusted-firmware/build/sun50iw1p1/debug/bl31.bin
|
|
|
+ (adjust the actual path accordingly)
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+ SPL/U-Boot
|
|
|
+------------
|
|
|
+Both U-Boot proper and the SPL are using the 64-bit mode. As the boot ROM
|
|
|
+enters the SPL still in AArch32 secure SVC mode, there is some shim code to
|
|
|
+enter AArch64 very early. The rest of the SPL runs in AArch64 EL3.
|
|
|
+U-Boot proper runs in EL2 and can load any AArch64 code (using the "go"
|
|
|
+command), EFI applications (with "bootefi") or arm64 Linux kernel images
|
|
|
+(often named "Image"), using the "booti" command.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+$ make clean
|
|
|
+$ export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-
|
|
|
+$ make pine64_plus_defconfig
|
|
|
+$ make
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+This will build the SPL in spl/sunxi-spl.bin and a FIT image called u-boot.itb,
|
|
|
+which contains the rest of the firmware.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+Boot process
|
|
|
+============
|
|
|
+The on-die BROM code will try several methods to load and execute the firmware.
|
|
|
+On a typical board like the Pine64 this will result in the following boot order:
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+1) Reading 32KB from sector 16 (@8K) of the microSD card to SRAM A1. If the
|
|
|
+BROM finds the magic "eGON" header in the first bytes, it will execute that
|
|
|
+code. If not (no SD card at all or invalid magic), it will:
|
|
|
+2) Try to read 32KB from sector 16 (@8K) of memory connected to the MMC2
|
|
|
+controller, typically an on-board eMMC chip. If there is no eMMC or it does
|
|
|
+not contain a valid boot header, it will:
|
|
|
+3) Initialize the SPI0 controller and try to access a NOR flash connected to
|
|
|
+it (using the CS0 pin). If a flash chip is found, the BROM will load the
|
|
|
+first 32KB (from offset 0) into SRAM A1. Now it checks for the magic eGON
|
|
|
+header and checksum and will execute the code upon finding it. If not, it will:
|
|
|
+4) Initialize the USB OTG controller and will wait for a host to connect to
|
|
|
+it, speaking the Allwinner proprietary (but deciphered) "FEL" USB protocol.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+To boot the Pine64 board, you can use U-Boot and any of the described methods.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+FEL boot (USB OTG)
|
|
|
+------------------
|
|
|
+FEL is the name of the Allwinner defined USB boot protocol built in the
|
|
|
+mask ROM of most Allwinner SoCs. It allows to bootstrap a board solely
|
|
|
+by using the USB-OTG interface and a host port on another computer.
|
|
|
+As the FEL mode is controlled by the boot ROM, it expects to be running in
|
|
|
+AArch32. For now the AArch64 SPL cannot properly return into FEL mode, so the
|
|
|
+feature is disabled in the configuration at the moment.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+microSD card
|
|
|
+------------
|
|
|
+Transfer the SPL and the U-Boot FIT image directly to an uSD card:
|
|
|
+# dd if=spl/sunxi-spl.bin of=/dev/sdx bs=8k seek=1
|
|
|
+# dd if=u-boot.itb of=/dev/sdx bs=8k seek=5
|
|
|
+# sync
|
|
|
+(replace /dev/sdx with you SD card device file name, which could be
|
|
|
+/dev/mmcblk[x] as well).
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+Alternatively you can concatenate the SPL and the U-Boot FIT image into a
|
|
|
+single file and transfer that instead:
|
|
|
+$ cat spl/sunxi-spl.bin u-boot.itb > u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin
|
|
|
+# dd if=u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/sdx bs=8k seek=1
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+You can partition the microSD card, but leave the first MB unallocated (most
|
|
|
+partitioning tools will do this anyway).
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+NOR flash
|
|
|
+---------
|
|
|
+Some boards (like the SoPine, Pinebook or the OrangePi PC2) come with a
|
|
|
+soldered SPI NOR flash chip. On other boards like the Pine64 such a chip
|
|
|
+can be connected to the SPI0/CS0 pins on the PI-2 headers.
|
|
|
+Create the SPL and FIT image like described above for the SD card.
|
|
|
+Now connect either an "A to A" USB cable to the upper USB port on the Pine64
|
|
|
+or get an adaptor and use a regular A-microB cable connected to it. Other
|
|
|
+boards often have a proper micro-B USB socket connected to the USB OTB port.
|
|
|
+Remove a microSD card from the slot and power on the board.
|
|
|
+On your host computer download and build the sunxi-tools package[2], then
|
|
|
+use "sunxi-fel" to access the board:
|
|
|
+$ ./sunxi-fel ver -v -p
|
|
|
+This should give you an output starting with: AWUSBFEX soc=00001689(A64) ...
|
|
|
+Now use the sunxi-fel tool to write to the NOR flash:
|
|
|
+$ ./sunxi-fel spiflash-write 0 spl/sunxi-spl.bin
|
|
|
+$ ./sunxi-fel spiflash-write 32768 u-boot.itb
|
|
|
+Now boot the board without an SD card inserted and you should see the
|
|
|
+U-Boot prompt on the serial console.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+(Legacy) boot0 method
|
|
|
+---------------------
|
|
|
+boot0 is Allwiner's secondary program loader and it can be used as some kind
|
|
|
+of SPL replacement to get U-Boot up and running from an microSD card.
|
|
|
+For some time using boot0 was the only option to get the Pine64 booted.
|
|
|
+With working DRAM init code in U-Boot's SPL this is no longer necessary,
|
|
|
+but this method is described here for the sake of completeness.
|
|
|
+Please note that this method works only with the boot0 files shipped with
|
|
|
+A64 based boards, the H5 uses an incompatible layout which is not supported
|
|
|
+by this method.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+The boot0 binary is a 32 KByte blob and contained in the official Pine64 images
|
|
|
+distributed by Pine64 or Allwinner. It can be easily extracted from a micro
|
|
|
+SD card or an image file:
|
|
|
+# dd if=/dev/sd<x> of=boot0.bin bs=8k skip=1 count=4
|
|
|
+where /dev/sd<x> is the device name of the uSD card or the name of the image
|
|
|
+file. Apparently Allwinner allows re-distribution of this proprietary code
|
|
|
+"as-is".
|
|
|
+This boot0 blob takes care of DRAM initialisation and loads the remaining
|
|
|
+firmware parts, then switches the core into AArch64 mode.
|
|
|
+The original boot0 code looks for U-Boot at a certain place on an uSD card
|
|
|
+(at 19096 KB), also it expects a header with magic bytes and a checksum.
|
|
|
+There is a tool called boot0img[3] which takes a boot0.bin image and a compiled
|
|
|
+U-Boot binary (plus other binaries) and will populate that header accordingly.
|
|
|
+To make space for the magic header, the pine64_plus_defconfig will make sure
|
|
|
+there is sufficient space at the beginning of the U-Boot binary.
|
|
|
+boot0img will also take care of putting the different binaries at the right
|
|
|
+places on the uSD card and works around unused, but mandatory parts by using
|
|
|
+trampoline code. See the output of "boot0img -h" for more information.
|
|
|
+boot0img can also patch boot0 to avoid loading U-Boot from 19MB, instead
|
|
|
+fetching it from just behind the boot0 binary (-B option).
|
|
|
+$ ./boot0img -o firmware.img -B boot0.img -u u-boot-dtb.bin -e -s bl31.bin \
|
|
|
+-a 0x44008 -d trampoline64:0x44000
|
|
|
+Then write this image to a microSD card, replacing /dev/sdx with the right
|
|
|
+device file (see above):
|
|
|
+$ dd if=firmware.img of=/dev/sdx bs=8k seek=1
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+[1] https://github.com/apritzel/arm-trusted-firmware.git
|
|
|
+[2] git://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-tools.git
|
|
|
+[3] https://github.com/apritzel/pine64/
|