Re: [PATCH 1/2] Documentation: riscv: Add early boot document

[Sunil V L <sunilvl@ventanamicro.com>]

Hey Alex,

Many thanks for writing this up!

On Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 11:49:13AM +0200, Alexandre Ghiti wrote:
> @Sunil V L Something about ACPI is more than welcome :)
> 
> And thanks to @Björn Töpel and @Atish Kumar Patra for helping in
> writing this document!
> 
> On Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 11:47 AM Alexandre Ghiti <alexghiti@rivosinc.com> wrote:
> >
> > This document describes the constraints and requirements of the early
> > boot process in a RISC-V kernel.
> >
> > Szigned-off-by: Alexandre Ghiti <alexghiti@rivosinc.com>
> > ---
> >  Documentation/riscv/boot-image-header.rst |   3 -
> >  Documentation/riscv/boot.rst              | 181 ++++++++++++++++++++++
> >  Documentation/riscv/index.rst             |   1 +
> >  3 files changed, 182 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> >  create mode 100644 Documentation/riscv/boot.rst
> >
> > diff --git a/Documentation/riscv/boot-image-header.rst b/Documentation/riscv/boot-image-header.rst
> > index d7752533865f..a4a45310c4c4 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/riscv/boot-image-header.rst
> > +++ b/Documentation/riscv/boot-image-header.rst
> > @@ -7,9 +7,6 @@ Boot image header in RISC-V Linux
> >
> >  This document only describes the boot image header details for RISC-V Linux.
> >
> > -TODO:
> > -  Write a complete booting guide.
> > -
> >  The following 64-byte header is present in decompressed Linux kernel image::
> >
> >         u32 code0;                /* Executable code */
> > diff --git a/Documentation/riscv/boot.rst b/Documentation/riscv/boot.rst
> > new file mode 100644
> > index 000000000000..b02230818b79
> > --- /dev/null
> > +++ b/Documentation/riscv/boot.rst
> > @@ -0,0 +1,181 @@
> > +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
> > +
> > +=============================================
> > +Early boot requirements/constraints on RISC-V
> > +=============================================
> > +
> > +:Author: Alexandre Ghiti <alexghiti@rivosinc.com>
> > +:Date: 23 May 2023
> > +
> > +This document describes what the RISC-V kernel expects from the previous stages
> > +and the firmware, but also the constraints that any developer must have in mind
> > +when touching the early boot process, e.g. before the final virtual mapping is
> > +setup.
> > +
> > +Pre-kernel boot (Expectations from firmware)
> > +============================================
> > +
> > +Registers state
> > +---------------
> > +
> > +The RISC-V kernel expects:
> > +
> > +  * `$a0` to contain the hartid of the current core.
> > +  * `$a1` to contain the address of the device tree in memory.
> > +
> > +CSR state
> > +---------
> > +
> > +The RISC-V kernel expects:
> > +
> > +  * `$satp = 0`: the MMU must be disabled.
> > +
> > +Reserved memory for resident firmware
> > +-------------------------------------
> > +
> > +The RISC-V kernel expects the firmware to mark any resident memory with the
> > +`no-map` flag, thus the kernel won't map those regions in the direct mapping
> > +(avoiding issues with hibernation, speculative accesses and probably other
> > +subsystems).
> > +
> > +Kernel location
> > +---------------
> > +
> > +The RISC-V kernel expects to be placed at a PMD boundary (2MB for rv64 and 4MB
> > +for rv32). Note though that the EFI stub will physically relocate the kernel if
> > +that's not the case.
> > +
> > +Device-tree
> > +-----------
> > +
> > +The RISC-V kernel always expects a device tree, it is:
> > +
In general, the firmware can pass either DT or ACPI (not both at the
same time) to the OS. So, I think the statement that kernel always
expects DT probably causes confusion. Can we mention some thing like
below?

The firmware can pass either DeviceTree or ACPI tables to the RISC-V
kernel.

The DeviceTree is either passed directly to the kernel from the
previous stage using the `$a1` register, or when booting with UEFI, it
can be passed using the EFI configuration table.

The ACPI tables are passed to the kernel using the EFI configuration
table. In this case, a tiny DeviceTree is still created by the EFI
stub. Please refer to "EFI stub and device" tree section below for
details of the tiny DeviceTree.

Thanks,
Sunil