1 Power-On-Self-Test support in U-Boot
2 ------------------------------------
4 This project is to support Power-On-Self-Test (POST) in U-Boot.
6 1. High-level requirements
8 The key requirements for this project are as follows:
10 1) The project shall develop a flexible framework for implementing
11 and running Power-On-Self-Test in U-Boot. This framework shall
12 possess the following features:
16 The framework shall allow adding/removing/replacing POST tests.
17 Also, standalone POST tests shall be supported.
21 The framework shall allow run-time configuration of the lists
22 of tests running on normal/power-fail booting.
26 The framework shall support manual running of the POST tests.
28 2) The results of tests shall be saved so that it will be possible to
29 retrieve them from Linux.
31 3) The following POST tests shall be developed for MPC823E-based
38 o) Serial channels test
39 o) Watchdog timer test
45 4) The LWMON board shall be used for reference.
49 This section details the key points of the design for the project.
50 The whole project can be divided into two independent tasks:
51 enhancing U-Boot/Linux to provide a common framework for running POST
52 tests and developing such tests for particular hardware.
54 2.1. Hardware-independent POST layer
56 A new optional module will be added to U-Boot, which will run POST
57 tests and collect their results at boot time. Also, U-Boot will
58 support running POST tests manually at any time by executing a
59 special command from the system console.
61 The list of available POST tests will be configured at U-Boot build
62 time. The POST layer will allow the developer to add any custom POST
63 tests. All POST tests will be divided into the following groups:
65 1) Tests running on power-on booting only
67 This group will contain those tests that run only once on
68 power-on reset (e.g. watchdog test)
70 2) Tests running on normal booting only
72 This group will contain those tests that do not take much
73 time and can be run on the regular basis (e.g. CPU test)
75 3) Tests running in special "slow test mode" only
77 This group will contain POST tests that consume much time
78 and cannot be run regularly (e.g. strong memory test, I2C test)
80 4) Manually executed tests
82 This group will contain those tests that can be run manually.
84 If necessary, some tests may belong to several groups simultaneously.
85 For example, SDRAM test may run in both normal and "slow test" mode.
86 In normal mode, SDRAM test may perform a fast superficial memory test
87 only, while running in slow test mode it may perform a full memory
90 Also, all tests will be discriminated by the moment they run at.
91 Specifically, the following groups will be singled out:
93 1) Tests running before relocating to RAM
95 These tests will run immediately after initializing RAM
96 as to enable modifying it without taking care of its
97 contents. Basically, this group will contain memory tests
100 2) Tests running after relocating to RAM
102 These tests will run immediately before entering the main
103 loop as to guarantee full hardware initialization.
105 The POST layer will also distinguish a special group of tests that
106 may cause system rebooting (e.g. watchdog test). For such tests, the
107 layer will automatically detect rebooting and will notify the test
110 2.1.1. POST layer interfaces
112 This section details the interfaces between the POST layer and the
115 The following flags will be defined:
117 #define POST_POWERON 0x01 /* test runs on power-on booting */
118 #define POST_NORMAL 0x02 /* test runs on normal booting */
119 #define POST_SLOWTEST 0x04 /* test is slow, enabled by key press */
120 #define POST_POWERTEST 0x08 /* test runs after watchdog reset */
121 #define POST_ROM 0x100 /* test runs in ROM */
122 #define POST_RAM 0x200 /* test runs in RAM */
123 #define POST_MANUAL 0x400 /* test can be executed manually */
124 #define POST_REBOOT 0x800 /* test may cause rebooting */
125 #define POST_PREREL 0x1000 /* test runs before relocation */
127 The POST layer will export the following interface routines:
129 o) int post_run(bd_t *bd, char *name, int flags);
131 This routine will run the test (or the group of tests) specified
132 by the name and flag arguments. More specifically, if the name
133 argument is not NULL, the test with this name will be performed,
134 otherwise all tests running in ROM/RAM (depending on the flag
135 argument) will be executed. This routine will be called at least
136 twice with name set to NULL, once from board_init_f() and once
137 from board_init_r(). The flags argument will also specify the
138 mode the test is executed in (power-on, normal, power-fail,
141 o) void post_reloc(ulong offset);
143 This routine will be called from board_init_r() and will
144 relocate the POST test table.
146 o) int post_info(char *name);
148 This routine will print the list of all POST tests that can be
149 executed manually if name is NULL, and the description of a
150 particular test if name is not NULL.
152 o) int post_log(char *format, ...);
154 This routine will be called from POST tests to log their
155 results. Basically, this routine will print the results to
156 stderr. The format of the arguments and the return value
157 will be identical to the printf() routine.
159 Also, the following board-specific routines will be called from the
162 o) int board_power_mode(void)
164 This routine will return the mode the system is running in
165 (POST_POWERON, POST_NORMAL or POST_SHUTDOWN).
167 o) void board_poweroff(void)
169 This routine will turn off the power supply of the board. It
170 will be called on power-fail booting after running all POST
173 o) int post_hotkeys_pressed(gd_t *gd)
175 This routine will scan the keyboard to detect if a magic key
176 combination has been pressed, or otherwise detect if the
177 power-on long-running tests shall be executed or not ("normal"
178 versus "slow" test mode).
180 The list of available POST tests be kept in the post_tests array
181 filled at U-Boot build time. The format of entry in this array will
189 int (*test)(bd_t *bd, int flags);
194 This field will contain a short name of the test, which will be
195 used in logs and on listing POST tests (e.g. CPU test).
199 This field will keep a name for identifying the test on manual
200 testing (e.g. cpu). For more information, refer to section
201 "Command line interface".
205 This field will contain a detailed description of the test,
206 which will be printed on user request. For more information, see
207 section "Command line interface".
211 This field will contain a combination of the bit flags described
212 above, which will specify the mode the test is running in
213 (power-on, normal, power-fail or manual mode), the moment it
214 should be run at (before or after relocating to RAM), whether it
215 can cause system rebooting or not.
219 This field will contain a pointer to the routine that will
220 perform the test, which will take 2 arguments. The first
221 argument will be a pointer to the board info structure, while
222 the second will be a combination of bit flags specifying the
223 mode the test is running in (POST_POWERON, POST_NORMAL,
224 POST_SLOWTEST, POST_MANUAL) and whether the last execution of
225 the test caused system rebooting (POST_REBOOT). The routine will
226 return 0 on successful execution of the test, and 1 if the test
229 The lists of the POST tests that should be run at power-on/normal/
230 power-fail booting will be kept in the environment. Namely, the
231 following environment variables will be used: post_poweron,
232 powet_normal, post_slowtest.
236 The results of tests will be collected by the POST layer. The POST
237 log will have the following format:
240 --------------------------------------------
242 <test-specific output>
244 --------------------------------------------
247 Basically, the results of tests will be printed to stderr. This
248 feature may be enhanced in future to spool the log to a serial line,
249 save it in non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), transfer it to a dedicated
250 storage server and etc.
252 2.1.3. Integration issues
254 All POST-related code will be #ifdef'ed with the CONFIG_POST macro.
255 This macro will be defined in the config_<board>.h file for those
256 boards that need POST. The CONFIG_POST macro will contain the list of
257 POST tests for the board. The macro will have the format of array
258 composed of post_test structures:
260 #define CONFIG_POST \
262 "On-board peripherals test", "board", \
263 " This test performs full check-up of the " \
264 "on-board hardware.", \
265 POST_RAM | POST_SLOWTEST, \
269 A new file, post.h, will be created in the include/ directory. This
270 file will contain common POST declarations and will define a set of
271 macros that will be reused for defining CONFIG_POST. As an example,
272 the following macro may be defined:
276 "Cache test", "cache", \
277 " This test verifies the CPU cache operation.", \
278 POST_RAM | POST_NORMAL, \
282 A new subdirectory will be created in the U-Boot root directory. It
283 will contain the source code of the POST layer and most of POST
284 tests. Each POST test in this directory will be placed into a
285 separate file (it will be needed for building standalone tests). Some
286 POST tests (mainly those for testing peripheral devices) will be
287 located in the source files of the drivers for those devices. This
288 way will be used only if the test subtantially uses the driver.
290 2.1.4. Standalone tests
292 The POST framework will allow to develop and run standalone tests. A
293 user-space library will be developed to provide the POST interface
294 functions to standalone tests.
296 2.1.5. Command line interface
298 A new command, diag, will be added to U-Boot. This command will be
299 used for listing all available hardware tests, getting detailed
300 descriptions of them and running these tests.
302 More specifically, being run without any arguments, this command will
303 print the list of all available hardware tests:
306 Available hardware tests:
309 enet - SCC/FCC ethernet test
310 Use 'diag [<test1> [<test2>]] ... ' to get more info.
311 Use 'diag run [<test1> [<test2>]] ... ' to run tests.
314 If the first argument to the diag command is not 'run', detailed
315 descriptions of the specified tests will be printed:
319 This test verifies the arithmetic logic unit of CPU.
321 This test verifies the CPU cache operation.
324 If the first argument to diag is 'run', the specified tests will be
325 executed. If no tests are specified, all available tests will be
328 It will be prohibited to execute tests running in ROM manually. The
329 'diag' command will not display such tests and/or run them.
331 2.1.6. Power failure handling
333 The Linux kernel will be modified to detect power failures and
334 automatically reboot the system in such cases. It will be assumed
335 that the power failure causes a system interrupt.
337 To perform correct system shutdown, the kernel will register a
338 handler of the power-fail IRQ on booting. Being called, the handler
339 will run /sbin/reboot using the call_usermodehelper() routine.
340 /sbin/reboot will automatically bring the system down in a secure
341 way. This feature will be configured in/out from the kernel
344 The POST layer of U-Boot will check whether the system runs in
345 power-fail mode. If it does, the system will be powered off after
346 executing all hardware tests.
348 2.1.7. Hazardous tests
350 Some tests may cause system rebooting during their execution. For
351 some tests, this will indicate a failure, while for the Watchdog
352 test, this means successful operation of the timer.
354 In order to support such tests, the following scheme will be
355 implemented. All the tests that may cause system rebooting will have
356 the POST_REBOOT bit flag set in the flag field of the correspondent
357 post_test structure. Before starting tests marked with this bit flag,
358 the POST layer will store an identification number of the test in a
359 location in IMMR. On booting, the POST layer will check the value of
360 this variable and if it is set will skip over the tests preceding the
361 failed one. On second execution of the failed test, the POST_REBOOT
362 bit flag will be set in the flag argument to the test routine. This
363 will allow to detect system rebooting on the previous iteration. For
364 example, the watchdog timer test may have the following
368 #define POST_WATCHDOG \
370 "Watchdog timer test", "watchdog", \
371 " This test checks the watchdog timer.", \
372 POST_RAM | POST_POWERON | POST_REBOOT, \
373 &watchdog_post_test \
378 int watchdog_post_test(bd_t *bd, int flags)
380 unsigned long start_time;
382 if (flags & POST_REBOOT) {
386 /* disable interrupts */
387 disable_interrupts();
388 /* 10-second delay */
390 /* if we've reached this, the watchdog timer does not work */
397 2.2. Hardware-specific details
399 This project will also develop a set of POST tests for MPC8xx- based
400 systems. This section provides technical details of how it will be
403 2.2.1. Generic PPC tests
405 The following generic POST tests will be developed:
409 This test will check the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) of CPU. The
410 test will take several milliseconds and will run on normal
415 This test will verify the CPU cache (L1 cache). The test will
416 run on normal booting.
420 This test will examine RAM and check it for errors. The test
421 will always run on booting. On normal booting, only a limited
422 amount of RAM will be checked. On power-fail booting a fool
423 memory check-up will be performed.
427 This test will verify the following ALU instructions:
429 o) Condition register istructions
431 This group will contain: mtcrf, mfcr, mcrxr, crand, crandc,
432 cror, crorc, crxor, crnand, crnor, creqv, mcrf.
434 The mtcrf/mfcr instructions will be tested by loading different
435 values into the condition register (mtcrf), moving its value to
436 a general-purpose register (mfcr) and comparing this value with
437 the expected one. The mcrxr instruction will be tested by
438 loading a fixed value into the XER register (mtspr), moving XER
439 value to the condition register (mcrxr), moving it to a
440 general-purpose register (mfcr) and comparing the value of this
441 register with the expected one. The rest of instructions will be
442 tested by loading a fixed value into the condition register
443 (mtcrf), executing each instruction several times to modify all
444 4-bit condition fields, moving the value of the conditional
445 register to a general-purpose register (mfcr) and comparing it
446 with the expected one.
448 o) Integer compare instructions
450 This group will contain: cmp, cmpi, cmpl, cmpli.
452 To verify these instructions the test will run them with
453 different combinations of operands, read the condition register
454 value and compare it with the expected one. More specifically,
455 the test will contain a pre-built table containing the
456 description of each test case: the instruction, the values of
457 the operands, the condition field to save the result in and the
460 o) Arithmetic instructions
462 This group will contain: add, addc, adde, addme, addze, subf,
463 subfc, subfe, subme, subze, mullw, mulhw, mulhwu, divw, divwu,
466 The test will contain a pre-built table of instructions,
467 operands, expected results and expected states of the condition
468 register. For each table entry, the test will cyclically use
469 different sets of operand registers and result registers. For
470 example, for instructions that use 3 registers on the first
471 iteration r0/r1 will be used as operands and r2 for result. On
472 the second iteration, r1/r2 will be used as operands and r3 as
473 for result and so on. This will enable to verify all
474 general-purpose registers.
476 o) Logic instructions
478 This group will contain: and, andc, andi, andis, or, orc, ori,
479 oris, xor, xori, xoris, nand, nor, neg, eqv, cntlzw.
481 The test scheme will be identical to that from the previous
484 o) Shift instructions
486 This group will contain: slw, srw, sraw, srawi, rlwinm, rlwnm,
489 The test scheme will be identical to that from the previous
492 o) Branch instructions
494 This group will contain: b, bl, bc.
496 The first 2 instructions (b, bl) will be verified by jumping to
497 a fixed address and checking whether control was transfered to
498 that very point. For the bl instruction the value of the link
499 register will be checked as well (using mfspr). To verify the bc
500 instruction various combinations of the BI/BO fields, the CTR
501 and the condition register values will be checked. The list of
502 such combinations will be pre-built and linked in U-Boot at
505 o) Load/store instructions
507 This group will contain: lbz(x)(u), lhz(x)(u), lha(x)(u),
508 lwz(x)(u), stb(x)(u), sth(x)(u), stw(x)(u).
510 All operations will be performed on a 16-byte array. The array
511 will be 4-byte aligned. The base register will point to offset
512 8. The immediate offset (index register) will range in [-8 ...
513 +7]. The test cases will be composed so that they will not cause
514 alignment exceptions. The test will contain a pre-built table
515 describing all test cases. For store instructions, the table
516 entry will contain: the instruction opcode, the value of the
517 index register and the value of the source register. After
518 executing the instruction, the test will verify the contents of
519 the array and the value of the base register (it must change for
520 "store with update" instructions). For load instructions, the
521 table entry will contain: the instruction opcode, the array
522 contents, the value of the index register and the expected value
523 of the destination register. After executing the instruction,
524 the test will verify the value of the destination register and
525 the value of the base register (it must change for "load with
526 update" instructions).
528 o) Load/store multiple/string instructions
531 The CPU test will run in RAM in order to allow run-time modification
532 of the code to reduce the memory footprint.
534 2.2.1.2 Special-Purpose Registers Tests
540 To verify the data cache operation the following test scenarios will
545 - turn on the data cache
546 - switch the data cache to write-back or write-through mode
547 - invalidate the data cache
548 - write the negative pattern to a cached area
551 The negative pattern must be read at the last step
555 - turn on the data cache
556 - switch the data cache to write-back or write-through mode
557 - invalidate the data cache
558 - write the zero pattern to a cached area
559 - turn off the data cache
560 - write the negative pattern to the area
561 - turn on the data cache
564 The negative pattern must be read at the last step
566 3) Write-through mode test
568 - turn on the data cache
569 - switch the data cache to write-through mode
570 - invalidate the data cache
571 - write the zero pattern to a cached area
572 - flush the data cache
573 - write the negative pattern to the area
574 - turn off the data cache
577 The negative pattern must be read at the last step
579 4) Write-back mode test
581 - turn on the data cache
582 - switch the data cache to write-back mode
583 - invalidate the data cache
584 - write the negative pattern to a cached area
585 - flush the data cache
586 - write the zero pattern to the area
587 - invalidate the data cache
590 The negative pattern must be read at the last step
592 To verify the instruction cache operation the following test
593 scenarios will be used:
597 - turn on the instruction cache
598 - unlock the entire instruction cache
599 - invalidate the instruction cache
600 - lock a branch instruction in the instruction cache
601 - replace the branch instruction with "nop"
602 - jump to the branch instruction
603 - check that the branch instruction was executed
607 - turn on the instruction cache
608 - unlock the entire instruction cache
609 - invalidate the instruction cache
610 - jump to a branch instruction
611 - check that the branch instruction was executed
612 - replace the branch instruction with "nop"
613 - invalidate the instruction cache
614 - jump to the branch instruction
615 - check that the "nop" instruction was executed
617 The CPU test will run in RAM in order to allow run-time modification
622 The memory test will verify RAM using sequential writes and reads
623 to/from RAM. Specifically, there will be several test cases that will
624 use different patterns to verify RAM. Each test case will first fill
625 a region of RAM with one pattern and then read the region back and
626 compare its contents with the pattern. The following patterns will be
629 1) zero pattern (0x00000000)
630 2) negative pattern (0xffffffff)
631 3) checkerboard pattern (0x55555555, 0xaaaaaaaa)
632 4) bit-flip pattern ((1 << (offset % 32)), ~(1 << (offset % 32)))
633 5) address pattern (offset, ~offset)
635 Patterns #1, #2 will help to find unstable bits. Patterns #3, #4 will
636 be used to detect adherent bits, i.e. bits whose state may randomly
637 change if adjacent bits are modified. The last pattern will be used
638 to detect far-located errors, i.e. situations when writing to one
639 location modifies an area located far from it. Also, usage of the
640 last pattern will help to detect memory controller misconfigurations
641 when RAM represents a cyclically repeated portion of a smaller size.
643 Being run in normal mode, the test will verify only small 4Kb regions
644 of RAM around each 1Mb boundary. For example, for 64Mb RAM the
645 following areas will be verified: 0x00000000-0x00000800,
646 0x000ff800-0x00100800, 0x001ff800-0x00200800, ..., 0x03fff800-
647 0x04000000. If the test is run in power-fail mode, it will verify the
650 The memory test will run in ROM before relocating U-Boot to RAM in
651 order to allow RAM modification without saving its contents.
655 This section describes tests that are not based on any hardware
656 peculiarities and use common U-Boot interfaces only. These tests do
657 not need any modifications for porting them to another board/CPU.
661 For verifying the I2C bus, a full I2C bus scanning will be performed
662 using the i2c_probe() routine. If any I2C device is found, the test
663 will be considered as passed, otherwise failed. This particular way
664 will be used because it provides the most common method of testing.
665 For example, using the internal loopback mode of the CPM I2C
666 controller for testing would not work on boards where the software
667 I2C driver (also known as bit-banged driver) is used.
669 2.2.2.2. Watchdog timer test
671 To test the watchdog timer the scheme mentioned above (refer to
672 section "Hazardous tests") will be used. Namely, this test will be
673 marked with the POST_REBOOT bit flag. On the first iteration, the
674 test routine will make a 10-second delay. If the system does not
675 reboot during this delay, the watchdog timer is not operational and
676 the test fails. If the system reboots, on the second iteration the
677 POST_REBOOT bit will be set in the flag argument to the test routine.
678 The test routine will check this bit and report a success if it is
683 The RTC test will use the rtc_get()/rtc_set() routines. The following
684 features will be verified:
688 This will be verified by reading RTC in polling within a short
689 period of time (5-10 seconds).
691 o) Passing month boundaries
693 This will be checked by setting RTC to a second before a month
694 boundary and reading it after its passing the boundary. The test
695 will be performed for both leap- and nonleap-years.
697 2.2.3. MPC8xx peripherals tests
699 This project will develop a set of tests verifying the peripheral
700 units of MPC8xx processors. Namely, the following controllers of the
701 MPC8xx communication processor module (CPM) will be tested:
703 o) Serial Management Controllers (SMC)
705 o) Serial Communication Controllers (SCC)
707 2.2.3.1. Ethernet tests (SCC)
709 The internal (local) loopback mode will be used to test SCC. To do
710 that the controllers will be configured accordingly and several
711 packets will be transmitted. These tests may be enhanced in future to
712 use external loopback for testing. That will need appropriate
713 reconfiguration of the physical interface chip.
715 The test routines for the SCC ethernet tests will be located in
718 2.2.3.2. UART tests (SMC/SCC)
720 To perform these tests the internal (local) loopback mode will be
721 used. The SMC/SCC controllers will be configured to connect the
722 transmitter output to the receiver input. After that, several bytes
723 will be transmitted. These tests may be enhanced to make to perform
724 "external" loopback test using a loopback cable. In this case, the
725 test will be executed manually.
727 The test routine for the SMC/SCC UART tests will be located in