[U-Boot] [PATCH] RFC: am35xx: Rearrange SPL on am35xx

[Simon Glass]

Hi Tom, Albert,

On 19 December 2014 at 07:40, Tom Rini <trini at ti.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 05:21:21PM -0700, Simon Glass wrote:
>
>> This is an attempt to tidy up the early SPL code in an attempt to pave
>> the way for driver model in SPL:
>>
>> - Avoid setting up SDRAM before board_init_f()
>> - Avoid touching global_data before board_init_f()
>> - Allow board_init_f() to set up a new stack (seems that the SRAM stack
>> is not large enough on these boards)
>>
>> This needs more work but it does boot on Beaglebone Black.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Simon Glass <sjg at chromium.org>
>> ---
>>
>>  arch/arm/cpu/armv7/am33xx/board.c  | 60 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------
>>  arch/arm/cpu/armv7/lowlevel_init.S |  4 ---
>>  arch/arm/include/asm/spl.h         |  3 ++
>>  arch/arm/lib/crt0.S                |  9 ++++++
>>  include/configs/ti_armv7_common.h  |  5 ++--
>>  5 files changed, 56 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)
>
> This takes things in the wrong direction I think.  Since omap3/4/5 have
> the same problem we're going to have to duplicate a bunch of this code.
> But we can do omap_save_boot_params a bit later I'm pretty sure we can
> shove it into spl_board_init() in
> arch/arm/cpu/armv7/omap-common/boot-common.c and I'm going to do my best
> to do that today and test it on at least a few boards.

I don't have a lot of background on SPL stuff as I only know one
implementation in detail. So these comments may be a bit off.

There seem to be two drivers causing this oddness:

1. The need to save boot params before global_data is available. I
wonder if it is possible to avoid overwriting the boot params, and
save them later, in board_init_f()? If not, then I don't think the
global_data structure should be used. A static local variable in the
data section, with just a few fields in it, could be used instead.
That avoids the temptation to thing that we are creating a global_data
structure before crt0.S does it officially. If the data had just been
stored into the data section, without messing with global_data, then I
don't think we would have this problem.

2. Need for more stack that can be fitted into SRAM. I think the only
sensible option here is to change the stack after board_init_f(). As
Albert says this should be done in crt0.S (in fact that's where I put
my code). Forcing the dram init to before board_init_f() in SPL seems
broken to me.

I think we should try to have the same flow as U-Boot proper:

start.S
lowlevel_init (no stack, no global_data, no dram) - can only use
'data' section to write stuff
crt0.S (sets up stack and global_data, no dram)
board_init_f (sets up dram)
relocate stack if required (but not code)
board_init_r (running with full stack in dram)

Albert, re your comment do you mean that board_init_f() should not
call spl_call_board_init_r() but it should return to crt0.S, which
then calls board_init_r()? I'm not sure as this isn't currently how
things work in U-Boot proper.

Anyway, anything you can do to remove the g_data thing would be great.
Also one more thing - are we trying to unify the init sequence in SPL
and U-Boot?

Regards,
Simon