U-boot could not initialize timer

dzourn · June 28, 2023, 11:02am

I am trying to deploy Keystone Enclave on VF2. By following this guide I manage to boot u-boot spl → opensbi (with sm monitor extension) → u-boot proper, but u-boot crashes displaying this error.

U-Boot SPL 2023.07-rc2-00170-g62df7a3944-dirty (Jun 27 2023 - 15:03:29 +0300)
DDR version: dc2e84f0.
Trying to boot from MMC2

OpenSBI v1.1
   ____                    _____ ____ _____
  / __ \                  / ____|  _ \_   _|
 | |  | |_ __   ___ _ __ | (___ | |_) || |
 | |  | | '_ \ / _ \ '_ \ \___ \|  _ < | |
 | |__| | |_) |  __/ | | |____) | |_) || |_
  \____/| .__/ \___|_| |_|_____/|____/_____|
        | |
        |_|

[SM] Initializing ... hart [1]
[SM] Keystone security monitor has been initialized!
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Platform Name             : StarFive VisionFive 2 v1.3B
Platform Features         : medeleg
Platform HART Count       : 5
Platform IPI Device       : aclint-mswi
Platform Timer Device     : aclint-mtimer @ 4000000Hz
Platform Console Device   : uart8250
Platform HSM Device       : ---
Platform Reboot Device    : ---
Platform Shutdown Device  : ---
Firmware Base             : 0x80000000
Firmware Size             : 388 KB
Runtime SBI Version       : 1.0

Domain0 Name              : root
Domain0 Boot HART         : 1
Domain0 HARTs             : 0*,1*,2*,3*,4*
Domain0 Region00          : 0x0000000002000000-0x000000000200ffff (I)
Domain0 Region01          : 0x0000000080000000-0x000000008007ffff ()
Domain0 Region02          : 0x0000000000000000-0xffffffffffffffff (R,W,X)
Domain0 Next Address      : 0x0000000040200000
Domain0 Next Arg1         : 0x0000000040287d48
Domain0 Next Mode         : S-mode
Domain0 SysReset          : yes

Boot HART ID              : 1
Boot HART Domain          : root
Boot HART Priv Version    : v1.11
Boot HART Base ISA        : rv64imafdcbx
Boot HART ISA Extensions  : none
Boot HART PMP Count       : 8
Boot HART PMP Granularity : 4096
Boot HART PMP Address Bits: 34
Boot HART MHPM Count      : 2
Boot HART MIDELEG         : 0x0000000000000222
Boot HART MEDELEG         : 0x000000000000b109
initcall: 000000004024c9e6


U-Boot 2023.07-rc2-00170-g62df7a3944-dirty (Jun 27 2023 - 15:03:29 +0300)

initcall: 0000000040215dba
U-Boot code: 40200000 -> 40287D60  BSS: -> 4028E738
initcall: 0000000040215c90
initcall: 0000000040215e90
CPU:   rv64imafdc_zba_zbb
initcall: 0000000040216510
Model: StarFive VisionFive 2 v1.3B
initcall: 0000000040215e60
initcall: 0000000040215e48
DRAM:  initcall: 0000000040200fda
initcall: 00000000402161b4
Monitor len: 0008E738
Ram size: 200000000
Ram top: 100000000
initcall: 0000000040215e40
initcall: 0000000040215c80
initcall: 0000000040215f10
initcall: 0000000040215f14
initcall: 0000000040215f18
initcall: 0000000040215d70
Reserving 569k for U-Boot at: fff71000
initcall: 0000000040215fe4
Reserving 8316k for malloc() at: ff752000
initcall: 0000000040215f38
Reserving 112 Bytes for Board Info at: ff751f90
initcall: 0000000040215d42
Reserving 392 Bytes for Global Data at: ff751e00
initcall: 0000000040215f80
Reserving 30432 Bytes for FDT at: ff74a720
initcall: 0000000040215f1c
initcall: 0000000040215f20
initcall: 0000000040215f30
initcall: 0000000040216226
initcall: 0000000040200fde
initcall: 0000000040216014

RAM Configuration:
Bank #0: 40000000 8 GiB

DRAM:  8 GiB
initcall: 0000000040216240
initcall: 0000000040215d26
New Stack Pointer is: ff74a710
initcall: 0000000040215de6
initcall: 0000000040215f24
initcall: 0000000040215f28
initcall: 0000000040215cb6
Relocation Offset is: bfd71000
Relocating to fff71000, new gd at ff751e00, sp at ff74a710
initcall: 0000000040215f34
initcall: 0000000040215f04
initcall: 0000000040215c94
Could not initialize timer (err -19)

resetting ...
reset not supported yet
### ERROR ### Please RESET the board ###

I also found this mailing list describing a similar error on a different SoC.

Does anyone have a solution?

ruabmbua · June 29, 2023, 4:34pm

I got the same problem this week trying to boot with upstream u-boot.
The timer is not yet initialized, I also sent a mail to the u-boot mailing list (but it is held back for moderation?).

I figured out, that the timer is implemented in riscv_timer, and this driver will only initialize the timer, when the boot hart CPU driver is loaded.
Unfortunately it seems this never happens.

I managed to set up JTAG, and I will try to debug the code some more.

ruabmbua · June 29, 2023, 4:37pm

Also there were some problems in the guide around creating a bootable sd card, it did not work for me, or would load a SPL from somewhere else on the SD card.

After fixing this timer issue I will probably send some patches upstream for the bug + update the documentation with my findings regarding creating an actually bootable sd card image reliably.

ruabmbua · June 29, 2023, 8:50pm

For reference, here is my post to the mailing list with more details:
https://lists.denx.de/pipermail/u-boot/2023-June/521220.html

Stat_headcrabed · June 30, 2023, 12:44pm

Btw, you say that

the boot ROM searches for the SPL by looking for the offset of its partition in the GPT with a specific GUID. Not sure where this information comes from, but testing showed, that its probably not true.

What actually happens?

Stat_headcrabed · June 30, 2023, 12:56pm

Also, seems there are already some discussions about that initcall sequence problem: [v4,00/11] Add ethernet driver for StarFive JH7110 SoC - Patchwork

ruabmbua · June 30, 2023, 7:08pm

It seems like its just reading the first two sectors, and parsing a header there.
The header can point to a backup sector in case its crc is bad.

Unfortunately the first two sectors are protective MBR and GPT header, so thats a bit unfortunate. The Tools/spl_tool at master · starfive-tech/Tools · GitHub can patch these two first sectors with the -i option. It makes it both a valid GPT header + a SPL header that points to the backup sector (usually in a partition with the Sifive BBL GUID).

mzs · June 30, 2023, 7:35pm

It looks for the GPT GUID of the partition
(For the JH7100, but this part is the same as the JH7110):
https://github.com/starfive-tech/JH7100_ddrinit/blob/starfive/gpt/gpt.c#L34-L43

And this shows that it actually is the same, from the JH7110 Boot Guide:
https://doc-en.rvspace.org/VisionFive2/Boot_UG/JH7110_SDK/bootrom.html

secondary boot GPT GUID primary: 2E54B353-1271-4842-806F-E436D6AF6985
AKA as partition type 198 or “HiFive BBL”
(if the primary is corrupt, fails CRC, then it “should”, but may not, look for the backup):
secondary boot GPT GUID backup: 2E54B353-1271-4842-806F-E436D6AF6984

From U-boot:
https://github.com/starfive-tech/u-boot/blob/JH7110_VisionFive2_devel/include/configs/starfive-visionfive2.h#L97-L99

#define TYPE_GUID_LOADER1 5B193300-FC78-40CD-8002-E86C45580B47
#define TYPE_GUID_LOADER2 2E54B353-1271-4842-806F-E436D6AF6985
#define TYPE_GUID_SYSTEM  0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4

5B193300-FC78-40CD-8002-E86C45580B47
partition type 197 or “HiFive FSBL”

2E54B353-1271-4842-806F-E436D6AF6985
partition type 198 or “HiFive BBL”

0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4
partition type 20 or “Linux filesystem”

ruabmbua · July 2, 2023, 9:59am

I tried reverting the patch mentioned in the thread, and it seems like it is working!

Thanks for finding it.

Stat_headcrabed · August 21, 2023, 5:12pm

A fix series for this problem are sent by someone, maybe you could try and and add a tested-by? [v2,0/2] introduce EVT_DM_POST_INIT_R to fix VF2 boot fail - Patchwork

ruabmbua · August 21, 2023, 6:04pm

Took a look at it, works perfectly with both the defconfig, and my custom config.
I already responded on the mailing list (but its held for review for whatever reason…)