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Boot Images

Boot Images

This section will cover image generation and boot flows with QEMU.

PetaLinux provides a simpler way to customize boot flow, however this section will cover lower-level tools available for more complex boot flows, should they be needed.

This section does not cover building the files used when creating the boot images.  If they are not available, they can be built in a PetaLinux project.

Using SD for Boot

Creating the SD Image

We will create the SD image using dd, mkfs, and mcopy.

mcopy is a part of mtools, and can be downloaded through your package manager (e.g. apt-get) or from GNU.org.

dd if=/dev/zero of=qemu_sd.img bs=256M count=1 mkfs.vfat -F 32 qemu_sd.img mcopy -i qemu_sd.img BOOT.BIN ::/ mcopy -i qemu_sd.img Image ::/ mcopy -i qemu_sd.img system.dtb ::/

Booting the Image in QEMU

Booting the Image with AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ MPSoC

To boot with SD on AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ MPSoC, specify:
-boot mode=3
-drive index=0

or

-boot mode=5
-drive index=1

For SD0 or SD1 respectively.

MicroBlaze Machine
qemu-system-aarch64 -M microblaze-fdt \ -nographic \ -hw-dtb ${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/zynqmp-qemu-multiarch-pmu.dtb \ -kernel ${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/pmu_rom_qemu_sha3.elf \ -device loader,file=${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/pmufw.elf \ -device loader,addr=0xfd1a0074,data=0x01011003,data-len=4 \ -device loader,addr=0xfd1a007c,data=0x01010f03,data-len=4 \ -machine-path /tmp/qemu-shm
ARM Machine
qemu-system-aarch64 -M arm-generic-fdt \ -serial mon:stdio \ -m 4G \ -global xlnx,zynqmp-boot.cpu-num=0 \ -global xlnx,zynqmp-boot.use-pmufw=true \ -global xlnx,zynqmp-boot.load-pmufw-cfg=false \ -nographic \ -hw-dtb ${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/zynqmp-qemu-arm.dtb \ -device loader,file=${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/zynqmp_fsbl.elf,cpu-num=1 \ -drive file=qemu_sd.img,if=sd,format=raw,index=0 \ -net nic -net nic -net nic -net nic \ -boot mode=5 \ -machine-path /tmp/qemu-shm

Even though we put the FSBL in the SD image (as a part of BOOT.BIN), it needs to be passed through the command line as an ELF since QEMU does not have a boot ROM to load the FSBL.

Booting the Image with Versal Adaptive SoC

To boot with SD on AMD Versal™ adaptive SoC, specify:
-boot mode=3
-drive index=0

or

-boot mode=5
-drive index=1

For SD0 or SD1 respectively.

MicroBlaze Machine
qemu-system-aarch64 -M microblaze-fdt \ -nographic \ -serial mon:stdio \ -hw-dtb ${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/versal-qemu-multiarch-pmc.dtb \ -device loader,file=${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/pmc_cdo.bin,addr=0xf2000000 \ -device loader,file=${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/plm.elf,cpu-num=1 \ -device loader,file=${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/BOOT_bh.bin,addr=0xf201e000,force-raw \ -device loader,addr=0xf0000000,data=0xba020004,data-len=4 \ -device loader,addr=0xf0000004,data=0xb800fffc,data-len=4 \ -device loader,addr=0xf1110620,data=0x1,data-len=4 \ -device loader,addr=0xf1110624,data=0x0,data-len=4 \ -machine-path /tmp/qemu-shm
ARM Machine
qemu-system-aarch64 -M arm-generic-fdt \ -m 8G \ -nographic \ -serial null \ -serial null \ -serial mon:stdio \ -hw-dtb ${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/versal-qemu-ps.dtb \ -dtb ${PROJ_DIR}/images/linux/system.dtb \ -drive file=qemu_sd.img,if=sd,format=raw,index=1 \ -net nic -net nic \ -boot mode=5 \ -machine-path /tmp/qemu-shm

Even though we put the FSBL in the SD image (as a part of BOOT.BIN), it needs to be passed through the command line as an ELF since QEMU needs access to the boot ROM.

Using QSPI for Boot

This section will cover both single flash and dual parallel mode.
Use the one that is more suited to your needs.

The read and write addresses given in these examples depend on the sizes of your images and how your flash is partitioned.

 

In this example, Our flash is partitioned in the following way for AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ MPSoC:

Partition Start

Partition End

Partition Name

Partition Start

Partition End

Partition Name

0x0

0x1e00000

Boot

0x1e00000

0x1e40000

DTB

0x1e40000

0x4240000

Kernel

and has only one partition on AMD Versal™ adaptive SoC:

Partition Start

Partition End

Partition Name

Partition Start

Partition End

Partition Name

0x0

0x20000000

Flash

If you're not sure how your flash is partitioned, you can view the partitions in a few ways:

  1. On the Linux guest, run cat /proc/mtd

  2. In a PetaLinux project, run petalinux-config and navigate to Subsystem AUTO Hardware Settings → Flash Settings, and change your partitions as desired.
    After configuration the partitions, build your project with petalinux-build.

  3. Unflatten your system.dtb file by doing dtc -I dtb -O dts system.dtb -o system.dts and find the node for spi@ff0f0000 on AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ MPSoC, or spi@f1030000 on AMD Versal™ adaptive SoC.  The flash will be a child node of the SPI node.
    The partitions are defined in the reg property in the format of reg = <partition_start partition_size>;.  Modify them as you see fit.
    Once done, reflatten the DTB by doing dtc -I dts -O dtb system.dts -o system.dtb
    More information on modifying device trees can be found here.

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