Hello, I came back on a discussion started on April 2011.
The use of the initial patches for the CONFIG_SYS_SKIP_ARM_RELOCATION features has revealed two issues. First issue: the calculation of the relocation offset was done only if the relocation is actually done. So we could reach a point where r9 has a wrong value, since it has never been used before (in my case, this bug happens without JTAG). The first diff moves the relocation offset calculation before the test of a relocation need. Second issue: board_init_r was thinking the memory area for the malloc is just below the code, whereas the board_init_f had allocated some space for the malloc at the end of the SDRAM. If the code is located at the base of the SDRAM with CONFIG_SYS_SKIP_ARM_RELOCATION defined, the malloc area does not point to a correct memory address. The 2 other diff store the calculated malloc start address in a global data member so that it can be used in board_init_r(). Index: arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs/start.S =================================================================== --- arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs/start.S (révision 1083) +++ arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs/start.S (révision 1113) @@ -196,6 +196,10 @@ mov r4, r0 /* save addr_sp */ mov r5, r1 /* save addr of gd */ mov r6, r2 /* save addr of destination */ + /* set relocation offset here for all cases: + relocation or not */ + ldr r0, _TEXT_BASE /* r0 <- Text base */ + sub r9, r6, r0 /* r9 <- relocation offset */ /* Set up the stack */ stack_setup: @@ -218,8 +222,6 @@ /* * fix .rel.dyn relocations */ - ldr r0, _TEXT_BASE /* r0 <- Text base */ - sub r9, r6, r0 /* r9 <- relocation offset */ ldr r10, _dynsym_start_ofs /* r10 <- sym table ofs */ add r10, r10, r0 /* r10 <- sym table in FLASH */ ldr r2, _rel_dyn_start_ofs /* r2 <- rel dyn start ofs */ Index: arch/arm/include/asm/global_data.h =================================================================== --- arch/arm/include/asm/global_data.h (révision 1083) +++ arch/arm/include/asm/global_data.h (copie de travail) @@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ unsigned long mon_len; /* monitor len */ unsigned long irq_sp; /* irq stack pointer */ unsigned long start_addr_sp; /* start_addr_stackpointer */ + unsigned long start_addr_malloc; /* start_addr_malloc */ unsigned long reloc_off; #if !(defined(CONFIG_SYS_NO_ICACHE) && defined(CONFIG_SYS_NO_DCACHE)) unsigned long tlb_addr; Index: arch/arm/lib/board.c =================================================================== --- arch/arm/lib/board.c (révision 1138) +++ arch/arm/lib/board.c (copie de travail) @@ -367,6 +367,7 @@ * reserve memory for malloc() arena */ addr_sp = addr - TOTAL_MALLOC_LEN; + gd->start_addr_malloc = addr_sp; debug ("Reserving %dk for malloc() at: %08lx\n", TOTAL_MALLOC_LEN >> 10, addr_sp); /* @@ -445,7 +446,6 @@ { char *s; bd_t *bd; - ulong malloc_start; #if !defined(CONFIG_SYS_NO_FLASH) ulong flash_size; #endif @@ -473,9 +473,7 @@ post_output_backlog (); #endif - /* The Malloc area is immediately below the monitor copy in DRAM */ - malloc_start = dest_addr - TOTAL_MALLOC_LEN; - mem_malloc_init (malloc_start, TOTAL_MALLOC_LEN); + mem_malloc_init (gd->start_addr_malloc, TOTAL_MALLOC_LEN); #if !defined(CONFIG_SYS_NO_FLASH) puts ("Flash: "); Regards, Anthony Groyer >On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 11:56 PM, Aneesh V <ane...@ti.com> wrote: >> Hi Simon, Wolfgang, >> >> On Thursday 21 April 2011 12:04 AM, Simon Glass wrote: >>> >>> On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 11:35 AM, Albert ARIBAUD<albert.arib...@free.fr> >>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Le 25/03/2011 17:12, Aneesh V a écrit : >>>> >>>>> Another problem I have with relocation is that it makes debugging with >>>>> JTAG debugers more difficult. The addresses of symbols in the ELF >>>>> target are no longer valid. Of course, you can load the symbols at an >>>>> offset from the original location. But one has to first enable debug >>>>> prints, find the relocation offset, use it while loading the symbols >>>>> before you can do source level debugging. >>>> >>>> Actually you don't need recompiling: simply set a breakpoint at the >>>> entry of relocate_code and once you hit the bp, look up r2: it contains >>>> the destination. If you want the offset rather than the absolute >>>> address, set the breakpoint right after the 'sub r9, r6, r0' round line >>>> 222: r9 will then give you the offset. Unload the current symbols, >>>> reload the symbols with the relevant offset, and there you go. >>> >>> I would like to revisit this thread. I'm not sure how other people do >>> development in U-Boot but I like to use an ICE and a source-level >>> debugger for any significant effort. I think it should be possible to >>> use a JTAG debugging just by loading the u-boot ELF file and running. >>> >>> With this patch (or something similar) this is possible. Without it, >>> it is painful. >>> >>> To be clear, we are not talking here about creating a platform that >>> doesn't use relocation, just that for development purposes it is >>> convenient to be able to disable it. >> >> Actually, I am not even sure why relocation shouldn't be disabled in my >> platform for good. It may be useful to have things such as the frame >> buffer at the end of available memory. But, IMHO, that can still be >> done without relocating u-boot. That's what the patch does.Am I missing >> something? > >Well relocation does remove a lot of this ad-hoc positioning of things >at compile time. I think it is desirable. My point is that it is not >engineer-friendly during development, and we should have an easy way >to disable it for debugging / JTAG purposes. > >Regards, >Simon > >> >>> >>> Looking at the December thread >>> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.boot-loaders.u-boot/88067/focus=88262 >>> >>> Aneesh: >>>>> >>>>> Shouldn't we provide a CONFIG option by which users can disable >>>>> Elf relocation? >>> >>> Wolfgang: >>>> >>>> Why should we? It would just make the code even more complicated, and >>>> require a lot of additional test cases. >>> >>> From what I can see this is a new CONFIG option, two ifdefs in the >>> board.c file, and optionally disabling the -pie position-independent >>> executable option to reduce size. It is pretty trivial: >>> >>> arch/arm/config.mk | 2 ++ >>> arch/arm/lib/board.c | 5 +++++ >>> 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) >>> >>> Regards, >>> Simon >>> >>>> >>>> Amicalement, >>>> -- >>>> Albert. >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> U-Boot mailing list >>>> U-Boot@lists.denx.de >>>> http://lists.denx.de/mailman/listinfo/u-boot >>>> >> >_______________________________________________ >U-Boot mailing list >U-Boot@lists.denx.de >http://lists.denx.de/mailman/listinfo/u-boot > _______________________________________________ U-Boot mailing list U-Boot@lists.denx.de http://lists.denx.de/mailman/listinfo/u-boot