| .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+ |
| .. sectionauthor:: Copyright 2011 The Chromium OS Authors |
| .. Copyright 2023-2024 Linaro Ltd. |
| |
| Devicetree Control in U-Boot |
| ============================ |
| |
| This feature provides for run-time configuration of U-Boot via a flattened |
| devicetree (fdt). |
| |
| This feature aims to make it possible for a single U-Boot binary to support |
| multiple boards, with the exact configuration of each board controlled by |
| a flattened devicetree (fdt). This is the approach taken by Linux kernel for |
| ARM and RISC-V and has been used by PowerPC for some time. |
| |
| The fdt is a convenient vehicle for implementing run-time configuration |
| for three reasons: |
| |
| - There is already excellent infrastructure for the fdt: a compiler checks |
| the text file and converts it to a compact binary format, and a library |
| is already available in U-Boot (libfdt) for handling this format |
| - It is extensible since it consists of nodes and properties in a nice |
| hierarchical format |
| - It is fairly efficient to read incrementally |
| |
| The U-Boot Makefile infrastructure allows for building the devicetree blob |
| and embedding it in the U-Boot image. This is useful since it allows U-Boot |
| to configure itself according to what it finds there. If you have a number |
| of similar boards with different peripherals, you can describe the features |
| of each board in the devicetree file, and have a single generic source base. |
| |
| To enable this feature, select `OF_CONTROL` via Kconfig. |
| |
| |
| What is a Flattened Devicetree? |
| ------------------------------- |
| |
| An fdt can be specified in source format as a text file. To read about |
| the fdt syntax, take a look at `the devicetree specification`_. |
| |
| There is also a `devicetree compiler mailing list`_ for the compiler and |
| associated tools. |
| |
| In case you are wondering, OF stands for Open Firmware. This follows the |
| convention used in Linux. |
| |
| |
| Tools |
| ----- |
| |
| To create flattened device trees the device tree compiler is used. This is |
| provided by U-Boot automatically. If you have a system version of dtc |
| (typically in the 'device-tree-compiler' package), that system version is |
| currently not used. |
| |
| If you want to build your own dtc, it is kept here:: |
| |
| git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/dtc/dtc.git |
| |
| You can decode a binary file with:: |
| |
| dtc -I dtb -O dts <filename.dtb> |
| |
| That repo also includes `fdtget`/`fdtput` for reading and writing properties in |
| a binary file. U-Boot adds its own `fdtgrep` for creating subsets of the file. |
| |
| |
| Where do I get a devicetree file for my board? |
| ---------------------------------------------- |
| |
| The devicetree files and devicetree bindings are maintained as part of the Linux |
| kernel git repository. Traditionally, U-Boot placed copies of devicetree source |
| files from the Linux kernel into `arch/<arch>/dts/<name>.dts`. However, this |
| required each board maintainer to manually keep their devicetree in sync with |
| the Linux kernel and often led to divergence between these copies. |
| |
| U-Boot rather maintains a Git subtree as `dts/upstream/` sub-directory. It is |
| regularly synced with the Linux kernel and hence no need for manual devicetree |
| sync. You may find that the `dts/upstream/` already has a suitable devicetree |
| file for your board. Look in `dts/upstream/src/<arch>/<vendor>`. |
| |
| If not you might find other boards with suitable files that you can |
| modify to your needs. Look in the board directories for files with a |
| .dts extension. |
| |
| Failing that, you could write one from scratch yourself! |
| |
| |
| Resyncing with devicetree-rebasing |
| ---------------------------------- |
| |
| The `devicetree-rebasing repository`_ maintains a mirror copy of |
| devicetree files along with the bindings synced at every Linux kernel major |
| release or intermediate release candidates. The U-Boot maintainers regularly |
| sync the `dts/upstream/` subtree from the devicetree-rebasing repo whenever |
| the next branch opens (refer: :doc:`../release_cycle`) with the latest mainline |
| Linux kernel release. To sync the `dts/upstream/` subtree, run:: |
| |
| ./tools/update-subtree.sh pull dts <devicetree-rebasing-release-tag> |
| |
| If required it is also possible to cherry-pick fixes from the |
| devicetree-rebasing repository prior to next sync, usage:: |
| |
| ./tools/update-subtree.sh pick dts <devicetree-rebasing-commit-id> |
| |
| |
| Configuration |
| ------------- |
| |
| SoC/board maintainers are encouraged to migrate to use synced copies from |
| `dts/upstream/src/<arch>/<vendor>`. To do that add `imply OF_UPSTREAM` for the |
| SoC being used via Kconfig and set `DEFAULT_DEVICE_TREE=<vendor>/<name>` when |
| prompted by Kconfig. |
| |
| However, if `dts/upstream/` hasn't yet received devicetree source file for your |
| newly added board support then one option is that you can add the corresponding |
| devicetree source file as `arch/<arch>/dts/<name>.dts`. To select that add `# |
| CONFIG_OF_UPSTREAM is not set` and set `DEFAULT_DEVICE_TREE=<name>` when |
| prompted by Kconfig. Another option is that you can use the "pick" option of |
| `tools/update-subtree.sh` mentioned above to bring in the commits that you |
| need. |
| |
| This should include your CPU or SoC's devicetree file. On top of that any U-Boot |
| specific tweaks (see: :ref:`dttweaks`) can be made for your board. |
| |
| If `OF_EMBED` is selected by Kconfig, then it will be picked up and built into |
| the U-Boot image (including u-boot.bin). This is suitable for debugging |
| and development only and is not recommended for production devices. |
| |
| If `OF_SEPARATE` is selected by Kconfig, then it will be built and placed in |
| a u-boot.dtb file alongside u-boot-nodtb.bin with the combined result placed |
| in u-boot.bin so you can still just flash u-boot.bin onto your board. If Kconfig |
| option `SPL_FRAMEWORK` is enabled, then u-boot.img will be built to include the |
| device tree binary. |
| |
| If `OF_BOARD` is selected by Kconfig, a board-specific routine will provide the |
| devicetree at runtime, for example if an earlier bootloader stage creates |
| it and passes it to U-Boot. |
| |
| If `BLOBLIST` is selected by Kconfig, the devicetree may come from a bloblist |
| passed from a previous stage, if present. |
| |
| If `SANDBOX` is selected by Kconfig, then it will be read from a file on |
| startup. Use the -d flag to U-Boot to specify the file to read, -D for the |
| default and -T for the test devicetree, used to run sandbox unit tests. |
| |
| You cannot use more than one of these options at the same time. |
| |
| To use a devicetree file that you have compiled yourself, pass |
| EXT_DTB=<filename> to 'make', as in:: |
| |
| make EXT_DTB=boot/am335x-boneblack-pubkey.dtb |
| |
| Then U-Boot will copy that file to u-boot.dtb, put it in the .img file |
| if used, and u-boot-dtb.bin. |
| |
| If you wish to put the fdt at a different address in memory, you can |
| define the "fdtcontroladdr" environment variable. This is the hex |
| address of the fdt binary blob, and will override either of the options. |
| Be aware that this environment variable is checked prior to relocation, |
| when only the compiled-in environment is available. Therefore it is not |
| possible to define this variable in the saved SPI/NAND flash |
| environment, for example (it will be ignored). After relocation, this |
| variable will be set to the address of the newly relocated fdt blob. |
| It is read-only and cannot be changed. It can optionally be used to |
| control the boot process of Linux with bootm/bootz commands. |
| |
| To use this, put something like this in your board header file:: |
| |
| #define CFG_EXTRA_ENV_SETTINGS "fdtcontroladdr=10000\0" |
| |
| Build: |
| |
| After the board configuration is done, fdt supported u-boot can be built in two |
| ways: |
| |
| # build the default dts which is selected by DEFAULT_DEVICE_TREE Kconfig:: |
| |
| $ make |
| |
| # build the user specified dts file:: |
| |
| $ make DEVICE_TREE=<dts-file-name> |
| |
| |
| .. _dttweaks: |
| |
| Adding tweaks for U-Boot |
| ------------------------ |
| |
| With `dts/upstream` Git subtree, it is ensured that devicetree files in U-Boot |
| are an exact copy of those in Linux kernel available under |
| `dts/upstream/src/<arch>/<vendor>`. |
| |
| U-Boot is of course a very different project from Linux, e.g. it operates under |
| much more restrictive memory and code-size constraints. Where Linux may use a |
| full clock driver with Common Clock Format (CCF) to find the input clock to the |
| UART, U-Boot typically wants to output a banner as early as possible before too |
| much code has run. |
| |
| A second difference is that U-Boot includes different phases. For SPL, |
| constraints are even more extreme and the devicetree is shrunk to remove |
| unwanted nodes, or even turned into C code to avoid access overhead. |
| |
| U-Boot automatically looks for and includes a file with updates to the standard |
| devicetree for your board, searching for them in `arch/<arch>/dts/` in this |
| order:: |
| |
| <orig_filename>-u-boot.dtsi |
| <CONFIG_SYS_SOC>-u-boot.dtsi |
| <CONFIG_SYS_CPU>-u-boot.dtsi |
| <CONFIG_SYS_VENDOR>-u-boot.dtsi |
| u-boot.dtsi |
| |
| Only one of these is selected but of course you can #include another one within |
| that file, to create a hierarchy of shared files. |
| |
| |
| External .dtsi fragments |
| ------------------------ |
| |
| Apart from describing the hardware present, U-Boot also uses its |
| control dtb for various configuration purposes. For example, the |
| public key(s) used for Verified Boot are embedded in a specific format |
| in a /signature node. |
| |
| As mentioned above, the U-Boot build system automatically includes a |
| `*-u-boot.dtsi` file, if found, containing U-Boot specific |
| quirks. However, some data, such as the mentioned public keys, are not |
| appropriate for upstream U-Boot but are better kept and maintained |
| outside the U-Boot repository. You can use `DEVICE_TREE_INCLUDES` Kconfig |
| option to specify a list of .dtsi files that will also be included when |
| building .dtb files. |
| |
| |
| Devicetree bindings schema checks |
| --------------------------------- |
| |
| With devicetee-rebasing Git subtree, the devicetree bindings are also regularly |
| synced with Linux kernel as `dts/upstream/Bindings/` sub-directory. This |
| allows U-Boot to run devicetree bindings schema checks which will bring |
| compliance to U-Boot core/drivers regarding usage of devicetree. |
| |
| Dependencies |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| The DT schema project must be installed in order to validate the DT schema |
| binding documents and validate DTS files using the DT schema. For installation |
| instructions, refer to the `DT schema project page`_. |
| |
| Several executables (dt-doc-validate, dt-mk-schema, dt-validate) will be |
| installed. Ensure they are in your PATH (~/.local/bin by default). |
| |
| You should also install yamllint (used by dtschema when present). On Debian/ |
| Ubuntu systems:: |
| |
| apt install yamllint |
| |
| Running checks |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| In order to perform validation of DTB files, use the ``dtbs_check`` target:: |
| |
| make dtbs_check |
| |
| It is also possible to run checks with a subset of matching schema files by |
| setting the ``DT_SCHEMA_FILES`` variable to 1 or more specific schema files or |
| patterns (partial match of a fixed string). Each file or pattern should be |
| separated by ':'. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| make dtbs_check DT_SCHEMA_FILES=trivial-devices.yaml:rtc.yaml |
| make dtbs_check DT_SCHEMA_FILES=/gpio/ |
| make dtbs_check DT_SCHEMA_FILES=trivial-devices.yaml |
| |
| |
| Relocation, SPL and TPL |
| ----------------------- |
| |
| U-Boot can be divided into three phases: TPL, SPL and U-Boot proper. |
| |
| The full devicetree is available to U-Boot proper, but normally only a subset |
| (or none at all) is available to TPL and SPL. See 'Pre-Relocation Support' and |
| 'SPL Support' in doc/driver-model/design.rst for more details. |
| |
| |
| Using several DTBs in the SPL (SPL_MULTI_DTB_FIT Kconfig option) |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| In some rare cases it is desirable to let SPL be able to select one DTB among |
| many. This usually not very useful as the DTB for the SPL is small and usually |
| fits several platforms. However the DTB sometimes include information that do |
| work on several platforms (like IO tuning parameters). |
| In this case it is possible to use SPL_MULTI_DTB_FIT Kconfig option. This option |
| appends to the SPL a FIT image containing several DTBs listed in SPL_OF_LIST. |
| board_fit_config_name_match() is called to select the right DTB. |
| |
| If board_fit_config_name_match() relies on DM (DM driver to access an EEPROM |
| containing the board ID for example), it possible to start with a generic DTB |
| and then switch over to the right DTB after the detection. For this purpose, |
| the platform code must call fdtdec_resetup(). Based on the returned flag, the |
| platform may have to re-initialise the DM subsystem using dm_uninit() and |
| dm_init_and_scan(). |
| |
| |
| Limitations |
| ----------- |
| |
| Devicetrees can help reduce the complexity of supporting variants of boards |
| which use the same SOC / CPU. |
| |
| However U-Boot is designed to build for a single architecture type and CPU |
| type. So for example it is not possible to build a single ARM binary |
| which runs on your AT91 and OMAP boards, relying on an fdt to configure |
| the various features. This is because you must select one of |
| the CPU families within arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs (omap or at91) at build |
| time. Similarly U-Boot cannot be built for multiple cpu types or |
| architectures. |
| |
| It is important to understand that the fdt only selects options |
| available in the platform / drivers. It cannot add new drivers (yet). So |
| you must still have the Kconfig option to enable the driver. For example, |
| you need to enable SYS_NS16550 Kconfig option to bring in the NS16550 driver, |
| but can use the fdt to specific the UART clock, peripheral address, etc. |
| In very broad terms, the Kconfig options in general control *what* driver |
| files are pulled in, and the fdt controls *how* those files work. |
| |
| History |
| ------- |
| |
| U-Boot configuration was previous done using CONFIG options in the board |
| config file. This eventually got out of hand with nearly 10,000 options. |
| |
| U-Boot adopted devicetrees around the same time as Linux and early boards |
| used it before Linux (e.g. snow). The two projects developed in parallel |
| and there are still some differences in the bindings for certain boards. |
| While there has been discussion of having a separate repository for devicetree |
| files, in practice the Linux kernel Git repository has become the place where |
| these are stored, with U-Boot taking copies via |
| `devicetree-rebasing repository`_ and adding tweaks with u-boot.dtsi files. |
| |
| .. _the devicetree specification: https://www.devicetree.org/specifications/ |
| .. _devicetree compiler mailing list: https://www.spinics.net/lists/devicetree-compiler/ |
| .. _devicetree-rebasing repository: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/devicetree/devicetree-rebasing.git |
| .. _DT schema project page: https://github.com/devicetree-org/dt-schema/tree/main |