Chromebook Coral
Coral is a Chromebook (or really about 20 different Chromebooks) which use the Intel Apollo Lake platform (APL). The ‘reef’ Chromebooks use the same APL SoC so should also work. Some later ones based on Glacier Lake (GLK) need various changes in GPIOs, etc. but are very similar.
It is hoped that this port can enable ports to embedded APL boards which are starting to appear.
Note that booting U-Boot on APL is already supported by coreboot and Slim Bootloader. This documentation refers to a ‘bare metal’ port.
Building
First, you need the following binary blobs:
descriptor.bin - Intel flash descriptor
fitimage.bin - Base flash image structure
fsp_m.bin - FSP-M, for setting up SDRAM
fsp_s.bin - FSP-S, for setting up Silicon
vbt.bin - for setting up display
These binaries do not seem to be available publicly. If you have a ROM image, such as santa.bin then you can do this:
cbfstool santa.bin extract -n fspm.bin -f fsp-m.bin
cbfstool santa.bin extract -n fsps.bin -f fsp-s.bin
cbfstool santa.bin extract -n vbt-santa.bin -f vbt.bin
mkdir tmp
cd tmp
dump_fmap -x ../santa.bin
mv SI_DESC ../descriptor.bin
mv IFWI ../fitimage.bin
Put all of these files in board/google/chromebook_coral so they can be found by the build.
To build:
make O=/tmp/b/chromebook_coral chromebook_coral_defconfig
make O=/tmp/b/chromebook_coral -s -j30 all
That should produce /tmp/b/chrombook_coral/u-boot.rom which you can use with a Dediprog em100:
em100 -s -c w25q128fw -d /tmp/b/chromebook_coral/u-boot.rom -r
or you can use flashrom to write it to the board. If you do that, make sure you have a way to restore the old ROM without booting the board. Otherwise you may brick it. Having said that, you may find these instructions useful if you want to unbrick your device:
You can buy Suzy-Q from Sparkfun:
Note that it will hang at the SPL prompt for 21 seconds. When booting into Chrome OS it will always select developer mode, so will wipe anything you have on the device if you let it proceed. You have two seconds in U-Boot to stop the auto-boot prompt and several seconds at the ‘developer wipe’ screen to stop it wiping the disk.
Here is the console output:
U-Boot TPL 2021.04-rc1-00128-g344eefcdfec-dirty (Feb 11 2021 - 20:13:08 -0700)
Trying to boot from Mapped SPI
U-Boot SPL 2021.04-rc1-00128-g344eefcdfec-dirty (Feb 11 2021 - 20:13:08 -0700)
Trying to boot from Mapped SPI
U-Boot 2021.04-rc1-00128-g344eefcdfec-dirty (Feb 11 2021 - 20:13:08 -0700)
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N3450 @ 1.10GHz
DRAM: 3.9 GiB
MMC: sdmmc@1b,0: 1, emmc@1c,0: 2
Video: 1024x768x32 @ b0000000
Model: Google Coral
Net: No ethernet found.
SF: Detected w25q128fw with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 16 MiB
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
cmdline=console= loglevel=7 init=/sbin/init cros_secure oops=panic panic=-1 root=PARTUUID=${uuid}/PARTNROFF=1 rootwait rw dm_verity.error_behavior=3 dm_verity.max_bios=-1 dm_verity.dev_wait=0 dm="1 vroot none rw 1,0 3788800 verity payload=ROOT_DEV hashtree=HASH_DEV hashstart=3788800 alg=sha1 root_hexdigest=55052b629d3ac889f25a9583ea12cdcd3ea15ff8 salt=a2d4d9e574069f4fed5e3961b99054b7a4905414b60a25d89974a7334021165c" noinitrd vt.global_cursor_default=0 kern_guid=${uuid} add_efi_memmap noresume i915.modeset=1 Kernel command line: "console= loglevel=7 init=/sbin/init cros_secure oops=panic panic=-1 root=PARTUUID=35c775e7-3735-d745-93e5-d9e0238f7ed0/PARTNROFF=1 rootwait rw dm_verity.error_behavior=3 dm_verity.max_bios=-1 dm_verity.dev_wait=0 dm="1 vroot none rw 1,0 3788800 verity payload=ROOT_DEV hashtree=HASH_DEV hashstart=3788800 alg=sha1 root_hexdigest=55052b629d3ac889f25a9583ea12cdcd3ea15ff8 salt=a2d4d9e574069f4fed5e3961b99054b7a4905414b60a25d89974a7334021165c" noinitrd vt.global_
Setup located at 00090000:
ACPI RSDP addr : 7991f000
E820: 14 entries
Addr Size Type
d0000000 1000000 <NULL>
0 a0000 RAM
a0000 60000 Reserved
7b000000 800000 Reserved
7b800000 4800000 Reserved
7ac00000 400000 Reserved
100000 ff00000 RAM
10000000 2151000 Reserved
12151000 68aaf000 RAM
100000000 80000000 RAM
e0000000 10000000 Reserved
7991bfd0 12e4030 Reserved
d0000000 10000000 Reserved
fed10000 8000 Reserved
Setup sectors : 1e
Root flags : 1
Sys size : 63420
RAM size : 0
Video mode : ffff
Root dev : 0
Boot flag : 0
Jump : 66eb
Header : 53726448
Kernel V2
Version : 20d
Real mode switch : 0
Start sys : 1000
Kernel version : 38cc
@00003acc:
Type of loader : 80
U-Boot, version 0
Load flags : 81
: loaded-high can-use-heap
Setup move size : 8000
Code32 start : 100000
Ramdisk image : 0
Ramdisk size : 0
Bootsect kludge : 0
Heap end ptr : 8e00
Ext loader ver : 0
Ext loader type : 0
Command line ptr : 99000
console= loglevel=7 init=/sbin/init cros_secure oops=panic panic=-1 root=PARTUUID=35c775e7-3735-d745-93e5-d9e0238f7ed0/PARTNROFF=1 rootwait rw dm_verity.error_behavior=3 dm_verity.max_bios=-1 dm_verity.dev_wait=0 dm="1 vroot none rw 1,0 3788800 verity payload=ROOT_DEV hashtree=HASH_DEV hashstart=3788800 alg=sha1 root_hexdigest=55052b629d3ac889f25a9583ea12cdcd3ea15ff8 salt=a2d4d9e574069f4fed5e3961b99054b7a4905414b60a25d89974a7334021165c" noinitrd vt.global_cursor_default=0 kern_guid=35c775e7-3735-d745-93e5-d9e0238f7ed0 add_efi_memmap noresume i915.modeset=1 tpm_tis.force=1 tpm_tis.interrupts=0 nmi_watchdog=panic,lapic disablevmx=off
Initrd addr max : 7fffffff
Kernel alignment : 200000
Relocatable kernel : 1
Min alignment : 15
: 200000
Xload flags : 3
: 64-bit-entry can-load-above-4gb
Cmdline size : 7ff
Hardware subarch : 0
HW subarch data : 0
Payload offset : 26e
Payload length : 612045
Setup data : 0
Pref address : 1000000
Init size : 1383000
Handover offset : 0
Starting kernel ...
Timer summary in microseconds (17 records):
Mark Elapsed Stage
0 0 reset
155,279 155,279 TPL
237,088 81,809 end phase
237,533 445 SPL
816,456 578,923 end phase
817,357 901 board_init_f
1,061,751 244,394 board_init_r
1,402,435 340,684 id=64
1,430,071 27,636 main_loop
5,532,057 4,101,986 start_kernel
Accumulated time:
685 dm_r
2,817 fast_spi
33,095 dm_spl
52,468 dm_f
208,242 fsp-m
242,221 fsp-s
332,710 mmap_spi
Boot flow - TPL
Apollo Lake boots via an IFWI (Integrated Firmware Image). TPL is placed in this, in the IBBL entry.
On boot, an on-chip microcontroller called the CSE (Converged Security Engine) sets up some SDRAM at ffff8000 and loads the TPL image to that address. The SRAM extends up to the top of 32-bit address space, but the last 2KB is the start16 region, so the TPL image must be 30KB at most, and CONFIG_TPL_TEXT_BASE must be ffff8000. Actually the start16 region is small and it could probably move from f800 to fe00, providing another 1.5KB, but TPL is only about 19KB so there is no need to change it at present. The size limit is enforced by CONFIG_TPL_SIZE_LIMIT to avoid producing images that won’t boot.
TPL (running from start.S) first sets up CAR (Cache-as-RAM) which provides larger area of RAM for use while booting. CAR is mapped at CONFIG_SYS_CAR_ADDR (fef00000) and is 768KB in size. It then sets up the stack in the botttom 64KB of this space (i.e. below fef10000). This means that the stack and early malloc() region in TPL can be 64KB at most.
TPL operates without CONFIG_TPL_PCI enabled so PCI config access must use the x86-specific functions pci_x86_write_config(), etc. SPL creates a simple-bus device so that PCI devices are bound by driver model. Then arch_cpu_init_tpl() is called to early init on various devices. This includes placing PCI devices at hard-coded addresses in the memory map. PCI auto-config is not used.
Most of the 16KB ROM is mapped into the very top of memory, except for the Intel descriptor (first 4KB) and the space for SRAM as above.
TPL does not set up a bloblist since at present it does not have anything to pass to SPL.
Once TPL is done it loads SPL from ROM using either the memory-mapped SPI or by using the Intel fast SPI driver. SPL is loaded into CAR, at the address given by CONFIG_SPL_TEXT_BASE, which is normally fef10000.
Note that booting using the SPI driver results in an TPL image that is about 26KB in size instead of 19KB. Also boot speed is worse by about 340ms. If you really want to use the driver, enable CONFIG_APL_SPI_FLASH_BOOT and set BOOT_FROM_FAST_SPI_FLASH to true[2].
Boot flow - SPL
SPL (running from start_from_tpl.S) continues to use the same stack as TPL. It calls arch_cpu_init_spl() to set up a few devices, then init_dram() loads the FSP-M binary into CAR and runs to, to set up SDRAM. The address of the output ‘HOB’ list (Hand-off-block) is stored into gd->arch.hob_list for parsing. There is a 2GB chunk of SDRAM starting at 0 and the rest is at 4GB.
PCI auto-config is not used in SPL either, but CONFIG_SPL_PCI is defined, so proper PCI access is available and normal dm_pci_read_config() calls can be used. However PCI auto-config is not used so the same static memory mapping set up by TPL is still active.
SPL on x86 always runs with CONFIG_SPL_SEPARATE_BSS=y and BSS is at 120000 (see u-boot-spl.lds). This works because SPL doesn’t access BSS until after board_init_r(), as per the rules, and DRAM is available then.
SPL sets up a bloblist and passes the SPL hand-off information to U-Boot proper. This includes a pointer to the HOB list as well as DRAM information. See struct arch_spl_handoff. The bloblist address is set by CONFIG_BLOBLIST_ADDR, normally 100000.
SPL uses SPI flash to update the MRC caches in ROM. This speeds up subsequent boots. Be warned that SPL can take 30 seconds without this cache! This is a known issue with Intel SoCs with modern DRAM and apparently cannot be improved. The MRC caches are used to work around this.
Once SPL is finished it loads U-Boot into SDRAM at CONFIG_TEXT_BASE, which is normally 1110000. Note that CAR is still active.
Boot flow - U-Boot pre-relocation
U-Boot (running from start_from_spl.S) starts running in RAM and uses the same stack as SPL. It does various init activities before relocation. Notably fsp_setup_pinctrl() sets up the pin muxing for the chip using a very large table in the device tree.
PCI auto-config is not used before relocation, but CONFIG_PCI of course is defined, so proper PCI access is available. The same static memory mapping set up by TPL is still active until relocation.
As per usual, U-Boot allocates memory at the top of available RAM (a bit below 2GB in this case) and copies things there ready to relocate itself. Notably reserve_arch() does not reserve space for the HOB list returned by FSP-M since this is already located in RAM.
U-Boot then shuts down CAR and jumps to its relocated version.
Boot flow - U-Boot post-relocation
U-Boot starts up normally, running near the top of RAM. After driver model is running, arch_fsp_init_r() is called which loads and runs the FSP-S binary. This updates the HOB list to include graphics information, used by the fsp_video driver.
PCI autoconfig is done and a few devices are probed to complete init. Most others are started only when they are used.
Note that FSP-S is supposed to run after CAR has been shut down, which happens immediately before U-Boot starts up in its relocated position. Therefore we cannot run FSP-S before relocation. On the other hand we must run it before PCI auto-config is done, since FSP-S may show or hide devices. The first device that probes PCI after relocation is the serial port, in initr_serial(), so FSP-S must run before that. A corollary is that loading FSP-S must be done without using the SPI driver, to avoid probing PCI and causing an autoconfig, so memory-mapped reading is always used for FSP-S.
It would be possible to tear down CAR in SPL instead of U-Boot. The SPL handoff information could make sure it does not include any pointers into CAR (in fact it doesn’t). But tearing down CAR in U-Boot allows the initial state used by TPL and SPL to be read by U-Boot, which seems useful. It also matches how older platforms start up (those that don’t use SPL).
Performance
Bootstage is used through all phases of U-Boot to keep accurate timimgs for boot. Use ‘bootstage report’ in U-Boot to see the report, e.g.:
Timer summary in microseconds (16 records):
Mark Elapsed Stage
0 0 reset
155,325 155,325 TPL
204,014 48,689 end TPL
204,385 371 SPL
738,633 534,248 end SPL
739,161 528 board_init_f
842,764 103,603 board_init_r
1,166,233 323,469 main_loop
1,166,283 50 id=175
Accumulated time:
62 fast_spi
202 dm_r
7,779 dm_spl
15,555 dm_f
208,357 fsp-m
239,847 fsp-s
292,143 mmap_spi
CPU performance is about 3500 DMIPS:
=> dhry
1000000 iterations in 161 ms: 6211180/s, 3535 DMIPS
Partial memory map
ffffffff Top of ROM (and last byte of 32-bit address space)
ffff8000 TPL loaded here (from IFWI)
ff000000 Bottom of ROM
fefc0000 Top of CAR region
fef96000 Stack for FSP-M
fef40000 59000 FSP-M (also VPL loads here)
fef11000 SPL loaded here
fef10000 CONFIG_BLOBLIST_ADDR
fef10000 Stack top in TPL, SPL and U-Boot before relocation
fef00000 1000 CONFIG_BOOTSTAGE_STASH_ADDR
fef00000 Base of CAR region
30000 AP_DEFAULT_BASE (used to start up additional CPUs)
f0000 CONFIG_ROM_TABLE_ADDR
120000 BSS (defined in u-boot-spl.lds)
200000 FSP-S (which is run after U-Boot is relocated)
1110000 CONFIG_TEXT_BASE
Speeding up SPL for development
The 21-second wait for memory training is annoying during development, since every new image incurs this cost when booting. There is no cache to fall back on since that area of the image is empty on start-up.
You can add suitable cache contents to the image to fix this, for development purposes only, like this:
# Read the image back after booting through SPL
em100 -s -c w25q128fw -u image.bin
# Extract the two cache regions
binman extract -i image.bin extra *cache
# Move them into the source directory
mv *cache board/google/chromebook_coral
Then add something like this to the devicetree:
#if IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_HAVE_MRC) || IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_FSP_VERSION2)
/* Provide initial contents of the MRC data for faster development */
rw-mrc-cache {
type = "blob";
/* Mirror the offset in spi-flash@0 */
offset = <0xff8e0000>;
size = <0x10000>;
filename = "board/google/chromebook_coral/rw-mrc-cache";
};
rw-var-mrc-cache {
type = "blob";
size = <0x1000>;
filename = "board/google/chromebook_coral/rw-var-mrc-cache";
};
#endif
This tells binman to put the cache contents in the same place as the rw-mrc-cache and rw-var-mrc-cache regions defined by the SPI-flash driver.
Supported peripherals
The following have U-Boot drivers:
UART
SPI flash
Video
MMC (dev 0) and micro-SD (dev 1)
Chrome OS EC
Cr50 (security chip)
Keyboard
USB
To do
- Finish peripherals
Sound (Intel I2S support exists, but need da7219 driver)
Use FSP-T binary instead of our own CAR implementation
Use the official FSP package instead of the coreboot one
Suspend / resume
Fix MMC which seems to try to read even though the card is empty
Fix USB3 crash “WARN halted endpoint, queueing URB anyway.”
Credits
This is a spare-time project conducted slowly over a long period of time.
Much of the code for this port came from Coreboot, an open-source firmware project similar to U-Boot’s SPL in terms of features.
Also see [2] for information about the boot flow used by coreboot. It is similar, but has an extra postcar stage. U-Boot doesn’t need this since it supports relocating itself in memory.
[2] Intel PDF https://www.coreboot.org/images/2/23/Apollolake_SoC.pdf