doc: Move distro boot doc to rST
Move this over to the new rST format.
Signed-off-by: Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
Reviewed-by: Artem Lapkin <email2tema@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Ramon Fried <rfried.dev@gmail.com>
diff --git a/doc/develop/distro.rst b/doc/develop/distro.rst
new file mode 100644
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
+
+Generic Distro Configuration Concept
+====================================
+
+Linux distributions are faced with supporting a variety of boot mechanisms,
+environments or bootloaders (PC BIOS, EFI, U-Boot, Barebox, ...). This makes
+life complicated. Worse, bootloaders such as U-Boot have a configurable set
+of features, and each board chooses to enable a different set of features.
+Hence, distros typically need to have board-specific knowledge in order to
+set up a bootable system.
+
+This document defines a common set of U-Boot features that are required for
+a distro to support the board in a generic fashion. Any board wishing to
+allow distros to install and boot in an out-of-the-box fashion should enable
+all these features. Linux distros can then create a single set of boot
+support/install logic that targets these features. This will allow distros
+to install on many boards without the need for board-specific logic.
+
+In fact, some of these features can be implemented by any bootloader, thus
+decoupling distro install/boot logic from any knowledge of the bootloader.
+
+This model assumes that boards will load boot configuration files from a
+regular storage mechanism (eMMC, SD card, USB Disk, SATA disk, etc.) with
+a standard partitioning scheme (MBR, GPT). Boards that cannot support this
+storage model are outside the scope of this document, and may still need
+board-specific installer/boot-configuration support in a distro.
+
+To some extent, this model assumes that a board has a separate boot flash
+that contains U-Boot, and that the user has somehow installed U-Boot to this
+flash before running the distro installer. Even on boards that do not conform
+to this aspect of the model, the extent of the board-specific support in the
+distro installer logic would be to install a board-specific U-Boot package to
+the boot partition during installation. This distro-supplied U-Boot can still
+implement the same features as on any other board, and hence the distro's boot
+configuration file generation logic can still be board-agnostic.
+
+Locating Bootable Disks
+-----------------------
+
+Typical desktop/server PCs search all (or a user-defined subset of) attached
+storage devices for a bootable partition, then load the bootloader or boot
+configuration files from there. A U-Boot board port that enables the features
+mentioned in this document will search for boot configuration files in the
+same way.
+
+Thus, distros do not need to manipulate any kind of bootloader-specific
+configuration data to indicate which storage device the system should boot
+from.
+
+Distros simply need to install the boot configuration files (see next
+section) in an ext2/3/4 or FAT partition, mark the partition bootable (via
+the MBR bootable flag, or GPT legacy_bios_bootable attribute), and U-Boot (or
+any other bootloader) will find those boot files and execute them. This is
+conceptually identical to creating a grub2 configuration file on a desktop
+PC.
+
+Note that in the absence of any partition that is explicitly marked bootable,
+U-Boot falls back to searching the first valid partition of a disk for boot
+configuration files. Other bootloaders are recommended to do the same, since
+I believe that partition table bootable flags aren't so commonly used outside
+the realm of x86 PCs.
+
+U-Boot can also search for boot configuration files from a TFTP server.
+
+Boot Configuration Files
+------------------------
+
+The standard format for boot configuration files is that of extlinux.conf, as
+handled by U-Boot's "syslinux" (disk) or "pxe boot" (network). This is roughly
+as specified at BootLoaderSpec_:
+
+
+... with the exceptions that the BootLoaderSpec document:
+
+* Prescribes a separate configuration per boot menu option, whereas U-Boot
+ lumps all options into a single extlinux.conf file. Hence, U-Boot searches
+ for /extlinux/extlinux.conf then /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf on disk, or
+ pxelinux.cfg/default over the network.
+
+* Does not document the fdtdir option, which automatically selects the DTB to
+ pass to the kernel.
+
+One example extlinux.conf generated by the Fedora installer is::
+
+ # extlinux.conf generated by anaconda
+
+ ui menu.c32
+
+ menu autoboot Welcome to Fedora. Automatic boot in # second{,s}. Press a key for options.
+ menu title Fedora Boot Options.
+ menu hidden
+
+ timeout 50
+ #totaltimeout 9000
+
+ default Fedora (3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl+lpae) 22 (Rawhide)
+
+ label Fedora (3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl) 22 (Rawhide)
+ kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl
+ append ro root=UUID=8eac677f-8ea8-4270-8479-d5ddbb797450 console=ttyS0,115200n8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 drm.debug=0xf
+ fdtdir /boot/dtb-3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl
+ initrd /boot/initramfs-3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl.img
+
+ label Fedora (3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl+lpae) 22 (Rawhide)
+ kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl+lpae
+ append ro root=UUID=8eac677f-8ea8-4270-8479-d5ddbb797450 console=ttyS0,115200n8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 drm.debug=0xf
+ fdtdir /boot/dtb-3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl+lpae
+ initrd /boot/initramfs-3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl+lpae.img
+
+ label Fedora-0-rescue-8f6ba7b039524e0eb957d2c9203f04bc (0-rescue-8f6ba7b039524e0eb957d2c9203f04bc)
+ kernel /boot/vmlinuz-0-rescue-8f6ba7b039524e0eb957d2c9203f04bc
+ initrd /boot/initramfs-0-rescue-8f6ba7b039524e0eb957d2c9203f04bc.img
+ append ro root=UUID=8eac677f-8ea8-4270-8479-d5ddbb797450 console=ttyS0,115200n8
+ fdtdir /boot/dtb-3.16.0-0.rc6.git1.1.fc22.armv7hl+lpae
+
+
+Another hand-crafted network boot configuration file is::
+
+ TIMEOUT 100
+
+ MENU TITLE TFTP boot options
+
+ LABEL jetson-tk1-emmc
+ MENU LABEL ../zImage root on Jetson TK1 eMMC
+ LINUX ../zImage
+ FDTDIR ../
+ APPEND console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty1 loglevel=8 rootwait rw earlyprintk root=PARTUUID=80a5a8e9-c744-491a-93c1-4f4194fd690b
+
+ LABEL venice2-emmc
+ MENU LABEL ../zImage root on Venice2 eMMC
+ LINUX ../zImage
+ FDTDIR ../
+ APPEND console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty1 loglevel=8 rootwait rw earlyprintk root=PARTUUID=5f71e06f-be08-48ed-b1ef-ee4800cc860f
+
+ LABEL sdcard
+ MENU LABEL ../zImage, root on 2GB sdcard
+ LINUX ../zImage
+ FDTDIR ../
+ APPEND console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty1 loglevel=8 rootwait rw earlyprintk root=PARTUUID=b2f82cda-2535-4779-b467-094a210fbae7
+
+ LABEL fedora-installer-fk
+ MENU LABEL Fedora installer w/ Fedora kernel
+ LINUX fedora-installer/vmlinuz
+ INITRD fedora-installer/initrd.img.orig
+ FDTDIR fedora-installer/dtb
+ APPEND loglevel=8 ip=dhcp inst.repo=http://10.0.0.2/mirrors/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/armhfp/os/ rd.shell cma=64M
+
+U-Boot Implementation
+=====================
+
+Enabling the distro options
+---------------------------
+
+In your board's defconfig, enable the DISTRO_DEFAULTS option by adding
+a line with "CONFIG_DISTRO_DEFAULTS=y". If you want to enable this
+from Kconfig itself, for e.g. all boards using a specific SoC then
+add a "imply DISTRO_DEFAULTS" to your SoC CONFIG option.
+
+In your board configuration file, include the following::
+
+ #ifndef CONFIG_SPL_BUILD
+ #include <config_distro_bootcmd.h>
+ #endif
+
+The first of those headers primarily enables a core set of U-Boot features,
+such as support for MBR and GPT partitions, ext* and FAT filesystems, booting
+raw zImage and initrd (rather than FIT- or uImage-wrapped files), etc. Network
+boot support is also enabled here, which is useful in order to boot distro
+installers given that distros do not commonly distribute bootable install
+media for non-PC targets at present.
+
+Finally, a few options that are mostly relevant only when using U-Boot-
+specific boot.scr scripts are enabled. This enables distros to generate a
+U-Boot-specific boot.scr script rather than extlinux.conf as the boot
+configuration file. While doing so is fully supported, and
+CONFIG_DISTRO_DEFAULTS exposes enough parameterization to boot.scr to
+allow for board-agnostic boot.scr content, this document recommends that
+distros generate extlinux.conf rather than boot.scr. extlinux.conf is intended
+to work across multiple bootloaders, whereas boot.scr will only work with
+U-Boot. TODO: document the contract between U-Boot and boot.scr re: which
+environment variables a generic boot.scr may rely upon.
+
+The second of those headers sets up the default environment so that $bootcmd
+is defined in a way that searches attached disks for boot configuration files,
+and executes them if found.
+
+Required Environment Variables
+------------------------------
+
+The U-Boot "syslinux" and "pxe boot" commands require a number of environment
+variables be set. Default values for these variables are often hard-coded into
+CONFIG_EXTRA_ENV_SETTINGS in the board's U-Boot configuration file, so that
+the user doesn't have to configure them.
+
+fdt_addr:
+ Mandatory for any system that provides the DTB in HW (e.g. ROM) and wishes
+ to pass that DTB to Linux, rather than loading a DTB from the boot
+ filesystem. Prohibited for any other system.
+
+ If specified a DTB to boot the system must be available at the given
+ address.
+
+fdt_addr_r:
+ Mandatory. The location in RAM where the DTB will be loaded or copied to when
+ processing the fdtdir/devicetreedir or fdt/devicetree options in
+ extlinux.conf.
+
+ This is mandatory even when fdt_addr is provided, since extlinux.conf must
+ always be able to provide a DTB which overrides any copy provided by the HW.
+
+ A size of 1MB for the FDT/DTB seems reasonable.
+
+fdtfile:
+ Mandatory. the name of the DTB file for the specific board for instance
+ the espressobin v5 board the value is "marvell/armada-3720-espressobin.dtb"
+ while on a clearfog pro it is "armada-388-clearfog-pro.dtb" in the case of
+ a board providing its firmware based DTB this value can be used to override
+ the DTB with a different DTB. fdtfile will automatically be set for you if
+ it matches the format ${soc}-${board}.dtb which covers most 32 bit use cases.
+ AArch64 generally does not match as the Linux kernel put the dtb files under
+ SoC vendor directories.
+
+ramdisk_addr_r:
+ Mandatory. The location in RAM where the initial ramdisk will be loaded to
+ when processing the initrd option in extlinux.conf.
+
+ It is recommended that this location be highest in RAM out of fdt_addr_r,
+ kernel_addr_r, and ramdisk_addr_r, so that the RAM disk can vary in size
+ and use any available RAM.
+
+kernel_addr_r:
+ Mandatory. The location in RAM where the kernel will be loaded to when
+ processing the kernel option in the extlinux.conf.
+
+ The kernel should be located within the first 128M of RAM in order for the
+ kernel CONFIG_AUTO_ZRELADDR option to work, which is likely enabled on any
+ distro kernel. Since the kernel will decompress itself to 0x8000 after the
+ start of RAM, kernel_addr_r should not overlap that area, or the kernel will
+ have to copy itself somewhere else first before decompression.
+
+ A size of 16MB for the kernel is likely adequate.
+
+kernel_comp_addr_r:
+ Optional. This is only required if user wants to boot Linux from a compressed
+ Image(.gz, .bz2, .lzma, .lzo) using the booti command. It represents the
+ location in RAM where the compressed Image will be decompressed temporarily.
+ Once the decompression is complete, the decompressed data will be moved to
+ kernel_addr_r for booting.
+
+kernel_comp_size:
+ Optional. This is only required if user wants to boot Linux from a compressed
+ Image using booti command. It represents the size of the compressed file. The
+ size has to at least the size of loaded image for decompression to succeed.
+
+pxefile_addr_r:
+ Mandatory. The location in RAM where extlinux.conf will be loaded to prior
+ to processing.
+
+ A size of 1MB for extlinux.conf is more than adequate.
+
+scriptaddr:
+ Mandatory, if the boot script is boot.scr rather than extlinux.conf. The
+ location in RAM where boot.scr will be loaded to prior to execution.
+
+ A size of 1MB for extlinux.conf is more than adequate.
+
+For suggestions on memory locations for ARM systems, you must follow the
+guidelines specified in Documentation/arm/Booting in the Linux kernel tree.
+
+For a commented example of setting these values, please see the definition of
+MEM_LAYOUT_ENV_SETTINGS in include/configs/tegra124-common.h.
+
+Boot Target Configuration
+-------------------------
+
+The `config_distro_bootcmd.h` file defines $bootcmd and many helper command
+variables that automatically search attached disks for boot configuration files
+and execute them. Boards must provide configure <config_distro_bootcmd.h> so
+that it supports the correct set of possible boot device types. To provide this
+configuration, simply define macro BOOT_TARGET_DEVICES prior to including
+<config_distro_bootcmd.h>. For example::
+
+ #ifndef CONFIG_SPL_BUILD
+ #define BOOT_TARGET_DEVICES(func) \
+ func(MMC, mmc, 1) \
+ func(MMC, mmc, 0) \
+ func(USB, usb, 0) \
+ func(PXE, pxe, na) \
+ func(DHCP, dhcp, na)
+ #include <config_distro_bootcmd.h>
+ #endif
+
+Each entry in the macro defines a single boot device (e.g. a specific eMMC
+device or SD card) or type of boot device (e.g. USB disk). The parameters to
+the func macro (passed in by the internal implementation of the header) are:
+
+- Upper-case disk type (MMC, SATA, SCSI, IDE, USB, DHCP, PXE, VIRTIO).
+- Lower-case disk type (same options as above).
+- ID of the specific disk (MMC only) or ignored for other types.
+
+User Configuration
+==================
+
+Once the user has installed U-Boot, it is expected that the environment will
+be reset to the default values in order to enable $bootcmd and friends, as set
+up by <config_distro_bootcmd.h>. After this, various environment variables may
+be altered to influence the boot process:
+
+boot_targets:
+ The list of boot locations searched.
+
+ Example: mmc0, mmc1, usb, pxe
+
+ Entries may be removed or re-ordered in this list to affect the boot order.
+
+boot_prefixes:
+ For disk-based booting, the list of directories within a partition that are
+ searched for boot configuration files (extlinux.conf, boot.scr).
+
+ Example: / /boot/
+
+ Entries may be removed or re-ordered in this list to affect the set of
+ directories which are searched.
+
+boot_scripts:
+ The name of U-Boot style boot.scr files that $bootcmd searches for.
+
+ Example: boot.scr.uimg boot.scr
+
+ (Typically we expect extlinux.conf to be used, but execution of boot.scr is
+ maintained for backwards-compatibility.)
+
+ Entries may be removed or re-ordered in this list to affect the set of
+ filenames which are supported.
+
+scan_dev_for_extlinux:
+ If you want to disable extlinux.conf on all disks, set the value to something
+ innocuous, e.g. setenv scan_dev_for_extlinux true.
+
+scan_dev_for_scripts:
+ If you want to disable boot.scr on all disks, set the value to something
+ innocuous, e.g. setenv scan_dev_for_scripts true.
+
+boot_net_usb_start:
+ If you want to prevent USB enumeration by distro boot commands which execute
+ network operations, set the value to something innocuous, e.g. setenv
+ boot_net_usb_start true. This would be useful if you know your Ethernet
+ device is not attached to USB, and you wish to increase boot speed by
+ avoiding unnecessary actions.
+
+boot_net_pci_enum:
+ If you want to prevent PCI enumeration by distro boot commands which execute
+ network operations, set the value to something innocuous, e.g. setenv
+ boot_net_pci_enum true. This would be useful if you know your Ethernet
+ device is not attached to PCI, and you wish to increase boot speed by
+ avoiding unnecessary actions.
+
+Interactively booting from a specific device at the u-boot prompt
+=================================================================
+
+For interactively booting from a user-selected device at the u-boot command
+prompt, the environment provides predefined bootcmd_<target> variables for
+every target defined in boot_targets, which can be run be the user.
+
+If the target is a storage device, the format of the target is always
+<device type><device number>, e.g. mmc0. Specifying the device number is
+mandatory for storage devices, even if only support for a single instance
+of the storage device is actually implemented.
+
+For network targets (dhcp, pxe), only the device type gets specified;
+they do not have a device number.
+
+Examples:
+
+ - run bootcmd_usb0
+ boots from the first USB mass storage device
+
+ - run bootcmd_mmc1
+ boots from the second MMC device
+
+ - run bootcmd_pxe
+ boots by tftp using a pxelinux.cfg
+
+The list of possible targets consists of:
+
+- network targets
+
+ * dhcp
+ * pxe
+
+- storage targets (to which a device number must be appended)
+
+ * mmc
+ * sata
+ * scsi
+ * ide
+ * usb
+ * virtio
+
+Other *boot* variables than the ones defined above are only for internal use
+of the boot environment and are not guaranteed to exist or work in the same
+way in future u-boot versions. In particular the <device type>_boot
+variables (e.g. mmc_boot, usb_boot) are a strictly internal implementation
+detail and must not be used as a public interface.
+
+.. _BootLoaderSpec: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/BootLoaderSpec/
+
+.. sectionauthor:: (C) Copyright 2014 Red Hat Inc.
+.. sectionauthor:: Copyright (c) 2014-2015, NVIDIA CORPORATION. All rights reserved.
+.. sectionauthor:: Copyright (C) 2015 K. Merker <merker@debian.org>