[PATCH] doc: board: amlogic: add documentation on boot flow

4 Jul 2022

This is a preliminary documentation introducing different
boot sequences, and notably the recovery mode.
Signed-off-by: Neil Armstrong narmstrong@baylibre.com
---
 doc/board/amlogic/boot-flow.rst | 147 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 doc/board/amlogic/index.rst     |   1 +
 2 files changed, 148 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 doc/board/amlogic/boot-flow.rst

diff --git a/doc/board/amlogic/boot-flow.rst b/doc/board/amlogic/boot-flow.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..32943f42db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/board/amlogic/boot-flow.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
+
+Amlogic SoC Boot Flow
+=====================
+
+The Amlogic SoCs has a pre-defined boot sequence in the SoC ROM code.
+
+Here is the possible boot sources of different SoC families supported by U-Boot:
+
+GX* & AXG family
+----------------
+
++----------+--------------------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+
+|          |   1                | 2     | 3     |    4          |     5         |
++==========+====================+=======+=======+===============+===============+
+| S905     | POC=0: SPI NOR     | eMMC  | NAND  | SD Card       | USB Device    |
+| S905X    |                    |       |       |               |               |
+| S905L    |                    |       |       |               |               |
+| S905W    |                    |       |       |               |               |
+| S912     |                    |       |       |               |               |
++----------+--------------------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+
+| S805X    | POC=0: SPI NOR     | eMMC  | NAND  | USB Device    | -             |
+| A113D    |                    |       |       |               |               |
+| A113X    |                    |       |       |               |               |
++----------+--------------------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+
+
+POC pin: `NAND_CLE`
+
+Usually boards provides a button to force USB BOOT which disables eMMC clock signal to
+bypass eMMC.
+
+Most of the GX SBCs have removable eMMC modules, in this case removing the eMMC and SDCard
+will boot over USB.
+
+An exception is the lafrite board (aml-s805x-xx) which doesn't have an SDCard and boots
+over SPI. The only ways to boot over USB are:
+
+ - erase first sectors of SPI NOR flash
+ - insert an HDMI boot plug forcing boot over USB
+
+The VIM1 and initial VIM2 boards provides a test point on the eMMC signals to block the
+storage from answering and continue to the next boot step.
+
+The USB Device boot uses the first USB interface, on some boards this port is only
+available on an USB-A type connector, and needs an special Type-A to Type-A cable
+to communicate with the BootROM.
+
+G12* & SM1 family
+-----------------
+
++-------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
+| POC0  | POC1  | POC2  | 1             | 2             | 3             | 4             |
++=======+=======+=======+===============+===============+===============+===============+
+| 0     | 0     | 0     | USB Device    | SPI NOR       | NAND/eMMC     | SDCard        |
++-------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
+| 0     | 0     | 1     | USB Device    | NAND/eMMC     | SDCard        | -             |
++-------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
+| 0     | 1     | 0     | SPI NOR       | NAND/eMMC     | SDCard        | USB Device    |
++-------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
+| 0     | 1     | 1     | SPI NAND      | NAND/eMMC     | USB Device    | -             |
++-------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
+| 1     | 0     | 0     | USB Device    | SPI NOR       | NAND/eMMC     | SDCard        |
++-------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
+| 1     | 0     | 1     | USB Device    | NAND/eMMC     | SDCard        | -             |
++-------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
+| 1     | 1     | 0     | SPI NOR       | NAND/eMMC     | SDCard        | USB Device    |
++-------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
+| 1     | 1     | 1     | NAND/eMMC     | SDCard        | USB Device    | -             |
++-------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+
+
+The last is the normal default boot on production devices.
+
+ * POC0 pin: `BOOT_4` (0 and all other 1 means SPI NAND boot first)
+ * POC1 pin: `BOOT_5` (0 and all other 1 means USB Device boot first
+ * POC2 pin: `BOOT_6` (0 and all other 1 means SPI NOR boot first)
+
+Usually boards provides a button to force USB BOOT which lowers `BOOT_5` to 0.
+
+Some boards provides a test point on the eMMC or SPI NOR clock signals to block the
+storage from answering and continue to the next boot step.
+
+The Khadas VIM3 boards embeds a microcontroller which sets POC signals depending
+on it's configuration or a specific key press sequence to either boot from SPI NOR
+or eMMC then SDCard, or boot as USB Device.
+
+The Odroid-N2(+) has a switch to select SPI NOR or eMMC boot.
+
+Boot Modes
+----------
+
+ * SDCard
+
+The BootROM fetches the first SDCard sectors in one sequence, then checks the content
+of the data.
+
+The BootROM expects finding the FIP binary are sector 1, 512 bytes offset from the start.
+
+ * eMMC
+
+The BootROM fetches the first sectors in one sequence, first on the main partition,
+and then on the Boot0 followed by Boot1 HW partitions.
+
+After each read, the BootROM checks the data and looks the next partition if it fails.
+
+The BootROM expects finding the FIP binary are sector 1, 512 bytes offset from the start.
+
+ * SPI NOR
+
+The BootROM fetches the first SPI NOR sectors in one sequence, then checks the content
+of the data.
+
+The BootROM expects finding the FIP binary are sector 1, 512 bytes offset from the start.
+
+ * NAND & SPI NAND
+
+Those modes are not widely used in open platforms, thus no details are available.
+
+ * USB Device
+
+The BootROM setups the USB Gadget interface to serve a custom USB protocols with the
+USB ID 1b8e:c003.
+
+This protocol is also implemented in the Amlogic Vendor U-Boot.
+
+The `update` utility provided by Amlogic is designed to use this protocol.
+
+The https://github.com/superna9999/pyamlboot open-source utility also implements this
+protocol and can load U-Boot in memory in order to start the SoC without any attached
+storage or to recover from a failed storage/flash tentative.
+
+HDMI Recovery
+-------------
+
+The BootROM also briefly reads 8 bytes at address I2C 0x52 offset 0xf8 (248) on the
+HDMI DDC bus.
+
+If the content is `boot@USB` it will force USB boot mode, if the content is `boot@SDC`
+it will force SDCard boot mode.
+
+If USB Device doesn't enumerate or SD Card boot step doesn't work, it will continue the
+boot steps.
+
+Special boot dongles can be built by connecting a 256bytes EEPROM set to answer on
+address 0x52, and program `boot@USB` or `boot@SDC` at offset 0xf8 (248).
+
+Note: if the SoC was booted with USB Device forced at first step, it will keep the boot
+order on a warm reboot, only a cold reboot (remove power) will reset the boot order.
diff --git a/doc/board/amlogic/index.rst b/doc/board/amlogic/index.rst
index 9c7fadf2c0..8b9f1e2e1d 100644
--- a/doc/board/amlogic/index.rst
+++ b/doc/board/amlogic/index.rst
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ Boot Documentation
    :maxdepth: 1
pre-generated-fip
+   boot-flow
Board Documentation
 -------------------
-- 
2.25.1


    

Neil Armstrong

Mattijs Korpershoek

Board Documentation

Simon Glass

Signed-off-by: Neil Armstrong narmstrong@baylibre.com

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