[PATCH] configs: rockchip: Enable RK806 PMIC on rk3588-evb

[PATCH] configs: rockchip: Enable RK806 PMIC on rk3588-evb

[Chaoyi Chen]

From: Chaoyi Chen <chaoyi.chen@rock-chips.com>

Some pmdomains rely on RK806 PMIC for power supply. If we don't
enable them in U-Boot, random panic may occur during the Kernel
boot process.

Signed-off-by: Chaoyi Chen <chaoyi.chen@rock-chips.com>
---
 configs/evb-rk3588_defconfig | 4 ++++
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)

diff --git a/configs/evb-rk3588_defconfig b/configs/evb-rk3588_defconfig
index 5aaecebdafc..0ad60252b0d 100644
--- a/configs/evb-rk3588_defconfig
+++ b/configs/evb-rk3588_defconfig
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ CONFIG_PHY_ROCKCHIP_INNO_USB2=y
 CONFIG_PHY_ROCKCHIP_NANENG_COMBOPHY=y
 CONFIG_PHY_ROCKCHIP_USBDP=y
 CONFIG_SPL_PINCTRL=y
+CONFIG_DM_PMIC=y
+CONFIG_PMIC_RK8XX=y
+CONFIG_SPL_PMIC_RK8XX=y
+CONFIG_REGULATOR_RK8XX=y
 CONFIG_PWM_ROCKCHIP=y
 CONFIG_SPL_RAM=y
 CONFIG_BAUDRATE=1500000
-- 
2.51.1

Re: [PATCH] configs: rockchip: Enable RK806 PMIC on rk3588-evb

[Quentin Schulz]

Hi Chaoyi Chen,

On 11/19/25 2:55 AM, Chaoyi Chen wrote:
> From: Chaoyi Chen <chaoyi.chen@rock-chips.com>
> 
> Some pmdomains rely on RK806 PMIC for power supply. If we don't
> enable them in U-Boot, random panic may occur during the Kernel
> boot process.
> 

The kernel shouldn't rely on U-Boot doing something to work, so please 
fix this with upstream Linux kernel.

Can you tell us what's the issue?

The issue with this patch here is that we probably would need **all** 
RK3588 boards to have the PMIC enabled, and all the appropriate 
regulators brought up before booting into the kernel. It'd be *much* 
better this is fixed in Linux (and depending on what we're talking 
about, it may need another fix in U-Boot so that whatever depends on the 
PM domain works as well).

Also, why the PMIC in SPL but not the regulators?

Cheers,
Quentin

Re: [PATCH] configs: rockchip: Enable RK806 PMIC on rk3588-evb

[Chaoyi Chen]

Hi Quentin,

On 11/19/2025 5:52 PM, Quentin Schulz wrote:
> Hi Chaoyi Chen,
>
> On 11/19/25 2:55 AM, Chaoyi Chen wrote:
>> From: Chaoyi Chen <chaoyi.chen@rock-chips.com>
>>
>> Some pmdomains rely on RK806 PMIC for power supply. If we don't
>> enable them in U-Boot, random panic may occur during the Kernel
>> boot process.
>>
>
> The kernel shouldn't rely on U-Boot doing something to work, so please fix this with upstream Linux kernel.
>
> Can you tell us what's the issue?
>
> The issue with this patch here is that we probably would need **all** RK3588 boards to have the PMIC enabled, and all the appropriate regulators brought up before booting into the kernel. It'd be *much* better this is fixed in Linux (and depending on what we're talking about, it may need another fix in U-Boot so that whatever depends on the PM domain works as well).
>
> Also, why the PMIC in SPL but not the regulators?

It make sense, but I haven't thought of a specific solution for Kernel yet.

To be specific, I'm trying to get RKVENC to work. It uses an independent power domain. If RK806 is not enabled in U-Boot, the first power-up attempt for the pmdomain corresponding to RKVENC will fail in the Kernel.

And essentially, the operations of pmdomains in the Kernel are dependent on regulators. But it seems that pmdomains driver haven't dealt with this. I have seen some cases, but it seems that the dependency issue has not been fully resolved [0].


[0]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250909111130.132976-3-ulf.hansson@linaro.org/

>
> Cheers,
> Quentin
>
>
-- 
Best,
Chaoyi

Re: [PATCH] configs: rockchip: Enable RK806 PMIC on rk3588-evb

[Quentin Schulz]

On 11/19/25 11:09 AM, Chaoyi Chen wrote:
> Hi Quentin,
> 
> On 11/19/2025 5:52 PM, Quentin Schulz wrote:
>> Hi Chaoyi Chen,
>>
>> On 11/19/25 2:55 AM, Chaoyi Chen wrote:
>>> From: Chaoyi Chen <chaoyi.chen@rock-chips.com>
>>>
>>> Some pmdomains rely on RK806 PMIC for power supply. If we don't
>>> enable them in U-Boot, random panic may occur during the Kernel
>>> boot process.
>>>
>>
>> The kernel shouldn't rely on U-Boot doing something to work, so please 
>> fix this with upstream Linux kernel.
>>
>> Can you tell us what's the issue?
>>
>> The issue with this patch here is that we probably would need **all** 
>> RK3588 boards to have the PMIC enabled, and all the appropriate 
>> regulators brought up before booting into the kernel. It'd be *much* 
>> better this is fixed in Linux (and depending on what we're talking 
>> about, it may need another fix in U-Boot so that whatever depends on 
>> the PM domain works as well).
>>
>> Also, why the PMIC in SPL but not the regulators?
> 
> It make sense, but I haven't thought of a specific solution for Kernel yet.
> 
> To be specific, I'm trying to get RKVENC to work. It uses an independent 
> power domain. If RK806 is not enabled in U-Boot, the first power-up 
> attempt for the pmdomain corresponding to RKVENC will fail in the Kernel.
> 

I assume you tried to add

domain-supply = <&vdd_vdenc_s0>;

to power-domain@RK3588_PD_VCODEC node to model what the HW is expecting?

Doing something similar to the NPU essentially, which has a similar 
issue as far as I remember (I am not too involved in kernel development 
nowadays so I only get snippets of info here and there).

> And essentially, the operations of pmdomains in the Kernel are dependent 
> on regulators. But it seems that pmdomains driver haven't dealt with 
> this. I have seen some cases, but it seems that the dependency issue has 
> not been fully resolved [0].
> 

The problem with working around the issue by applying bandage fixes in 
U-Boot is that nobody will actually work on fixing the actual issue. 
We've seen that with SoCs with IO domains which are still not properly 
supported by the kernel but since IO domains are now initialized by 
U-Boot, the issue doesn't show anymore, c.f. 
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-rockchip/20230904115816.1237684-1-s.hauer@pengutronix.de/.

Cheers,
Quentin

Re: [PATCH] configs: rockchip: Enable RK806 PMIC on rk3588-evb

[Chaoyi Chen]

On 11/19/2025 6:45 PM, Quentin Schulz wrote:

> On 11/19/25 11:09 AM, Chaoyi Chen wrote:
>> Hi Quentin,
>>
>> On 11/19/2025 5:52 PM, Quentin Schulz wrote:
>>> Hi Chaoyi Chen,
>>>
>>> On 11/19/25 2:55 AM, Chaoyi Chen wrote:
>>>> From: Chaoyi Chen <chaoyi.chen@rock-chips.com>
>>>>
>>>> Some pmdomains rely on RK806 PMIC for power supply. If we don't
>>>> enable them in U-Boot, random panic may occur during the Kernel
>>>> boot process.
>>>>
>>>
>>> The kernel shouldn't rely on U-Boot doing something to work, so please fix this with upstream Linux kernel.
>>>
>>> Can you tell us what's the issue?
>>>
>>> The issue with this patch here is that we probably would need **all** RK3588 boards to have the PMIC enabled, and all the appropriate regulators brought up before booting into the kernel. It'd be *much* better this is fixed in Linux (and depending on what we're talking about, it may need another fix in U-Boot so that whatever depends on the PM domain works as well).
>>>
>>> Also, why the PMIC in SPL but not the regulators?
>>
>> It make sense, but I haven't thought of a specific solution for Kernel yet.
>>
>> To be specific, I'm trying to get RKVENC to work. It uses an independent power domain. If RK806 is not enabled in U-Boot, the first power-up attempt for the pmdomain corresponding to RKVENC will fail in the Kernel.
>>
>
> I assume you tried to add
>
> domain-supply = <&vdd_vdenc_s0>;
>
> to power-domain@RK3588_PD_VCODEC node to model what the HW is expecting?
>
> Doing something similar to the NPU essentially, which has a similar issue as far as I remember (I am not too involved in kernel development nowadays so I only get snippets of info here and there).

Yes, that's exactly what I did, but I still get the same error.
I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the Kernel version. I'm currently testing on 6.15, and I'll try it again on 6.17.


>
>> And essentially, the operations of pmdomains in the Kernel are dependent on regulators. But it seems that pmdomains driver haven't dealt with this. I have seen some cases, but it seems that the dependency issue has not been fully resolved [0].
>>
>
> The problem with working around the issue by applying bandage fixes in U-Boot is that nobody will actually work on fixing the actual issue. We've seen that with SoCs with IO domains which are still not properly supported by the kernel but since IO domains are now initialized by U-Boot, the issue doesn't show anymore, c.f. https://lore.kernel.org/linux-rockchip/20230904115816.1237684-1-s.hauer@pengutronix.de/.
>
I agree with your point of view. This problem requires more time to investigate.

-- 
Best,
Chaoyi