Re: [PATCH v2] clocksource: arch_timer: Allow the device tree to specify the physical timer

[Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>]

On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 05:59:53PM +0100, Doug Anderson wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 9:47 AM, Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com> wrote:
> > I'd say `Only supported for ARM' to better match what we've done. Probably
> > also worth mentioning that this relies on the hypervisor/firmware having set
> > CNTHCTL.PL1PCEN and CNTHCTL.EL1PCTEN (but assumedly made a mess of CNTVOFF
> > ;) if you want to boot on the non-secure side (e.g. as a guest).
> 
> Note that the reset value of CNTHCTL.PL1PCEN and CNTHCTL.PL1PCTEN are
> both 1 in my version of the ARM ARM.  On the other hand CNTVOFF is
> documented to have an UNKNOWN reset value.  If only ARM had guaranteed
> that CNTVOFF started out as 0 (which seems like it would have been
> sensible) we wouldn't be in this mess.  :-/

I'm afraid we went the opposite way -- in ARMv8 there are a tiny handful
of EL3 registers that are well-defined out of reset, then the rest of the
system is UNKNOWN. The hardware guys prefer that and it can also be useful
for very low-level debugging (system crashes, do a reset, read out the
state).

Will