269 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
269 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
Rebuilding coreboot image generation
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====================================
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Current situation
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-----------------
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ChromeOS (CrOS) probably has the most complex image bundling process in the
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coreboot ecosystem. To make CrOS features more accessible to the wider
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coreboot community, we want to move these capabilities into upstream
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coreboot’s build system.
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Right now, the CrOS build system creates coreboot images, and various
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instances of the payload (with different configuration options), plus some
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more files (eg. EC firmware), then passes them to a CrOS-specific utility
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(`bundle_firmware.py`) to build the final image from that.
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`bundle_firmware` adds a flashmap (fmap) to the final image and creates
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additional CBFS filesystems in fmap regions. It then extracts some files from
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the original CBFS region (that was put in place carefully to later match to
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the default fmap region) and copies some of them into the others, as well as
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putting more data (eg. the bitmap data, keys) as raw data into other fmap
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regions.
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With the recent addition of more files to CBFS, both on the coreboot side
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(dsdt, FSP, and so on) and with ChromeOS specifics (eg. more files describing
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boot screens) we either need to expand the scope of bundle\_firmware or move
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the capability to build complex images to upstream coreboot’s build system.
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This document proposes to do the latter and outlines how this could be
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achieved.
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Problems with the current build system parts
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--------------------------------------------
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One common sentiment is that it should be possible to reuse some of the
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existing mechanisms that are supposed to be supplanted by this.
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The main concern during this design that precluded their use was that none of
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them provides a comprehensive solution to building complex coreboot based
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images:
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* fmap.dts and fmd provide a flash layout, but no assignment of files of regions
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* cbfs-files-y ends up as an internal make variable using
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`weird|formatting|to|deal|with|make’s|limitations`
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* make isn’t powerful enough to deal with ordering these entries in said
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variable to guarantee success if there’s enough room for the files. While that
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could be added, that becomes more make macro work indistinguishable from magic
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that people fail to understand, break and with good reason complain about
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to work around such issues, ChromeOS firmware uses a custom tool with even
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more special cases to finally build the image it needs. If coreboot upstream
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is to support vboot, it should also be powerful enough not to need magic tools
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that only live within downstream projects.
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Requirements
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------------
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A complete ChromeOS coreboot image consists of (depending on the device)
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* platform specific data in raw fmap regions (eg IFD, ME firmware),
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* the bootblock (coming from the bootblock),
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* three copies of coreboot, consisting of the stages (verstage, romstage,
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ramstage) plus data,
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* depthcharge plus data (with each of the coreboot copies),
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* EC firmware files (with each of the coreboot copies),
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* signatures over several parts of the image and
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* some final checksumming over parts of the image to satisfy boot ROM
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tests on ARM
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A complete upstream coreboot image (with fallback/normal switch configuration,
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using a yet to be implemented switching scheme based on fmaps) consists of
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* platform specific data in raw fmap regions (eg IFD, ME firmware),
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* two copies of coreboot, consisting of
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* the bootblock and
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* the stages (romstage, ramstage) plus data,
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* payload plus data (with each of the coreboot copies),
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Since a single platform is potentially built with different payload
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configurations (eg. modding a Chromebook to not use the verified ChromeOS
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boot scheme), some concerns need to be kept separate:
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* Platform requirements that have nothing to do with the payload or boot schemes
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* IFD, ME, … need to copied to the right place
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* boot ROM requirements such as checksums must be honored
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* Payload/boot scheme requirements
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* Having one to three regions with certain files copied into them
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Proposal
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--------
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The proposal is based on manifest files that describe certain aspects of the
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final image.
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The number of manifest files may change over time, but this seems to be a
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reasonable approach for now. As long as coreboot uses fmap and cbfs, there
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should be few need to change the language, since composition is done through
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files.
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The final image is generated by a utility that is handed a number of manifests
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and the size of the flash (derived from `CONFIG_ROM_SIZE`). These manifest files
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deal with different concerns, with the following an example that should match
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current use cases:
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Chipset manifest
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----------------
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The chipset details if there are any non-coreboot regions, and assigns them
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names, locations, sizes and file contents and prepares a region for what is
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“platform visible” (eg. IFD’s BIOS region) that may be of flexible size
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(depending on the flash chip’s size). For the purpose of this document, that
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region is called “BIOS”.
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It can also specify if there’s a post processing requirement on the final
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image.
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coreboot manifest
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-----------------
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coreboot provides lists of the files it generates for each category it’s
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building (eg. bootblock, verstage, romstage, ramstage). They not only contain
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the stages themselves, but also additional files (eg. dsdt belongs to ramstage
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since that’s where it is used)
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Boot method manifest
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--------------------
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The boot method manifest can subdivide the BIOS region, eg. using it directly
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(for coreboot’s “simple” bootblock), splitting it in two (for coreboot’s
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fallback/normal) or in many parts (for ChromeOS, which requires two CBFS
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regions, one for GBB, several for VPD, …).
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It also specifies which of the file lists specified earlier belong in which
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region (eg. with verstage verifying romstage, verstage needs to be only in
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ChromeOS’ RO region, while romstage belongs in RO and both RW regions).
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It can also specify a post processing step that is executed before the
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chipset’s.
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Payload and additional manifests
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--------------------------------
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External components should also provide manifests to add files to categories.
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This way the payload and other components (eg. EC firmware) can be developed
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without needing to touch the central boot method manifest (that likely resides
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in the coreboot tree, given that coreboot needs to deal with choosing fmap
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regions already).
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coreboot build system
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---------------------
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The coreboot build system will be split more distinctly in two phases: The
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first is about building the files (with results like romstage.elf), while the
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second phase covers the assembly of the final image.
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By having a global picture of the final image’s requirements, we can also
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avoid issues where files added earlier may prevent later additions that have
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stricter constraints - without resorting to hacks like
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https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/289491 that reorder the file addition
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manually.
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Example
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-------
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As an example, we’ll define an Intel-based board with a postprocessing tool
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(something that doesn’t exist, but isn’t hard to imagine):
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It specifies an IFD region, an ME, and the BIOS region. After the image is
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built, the entire image needs to be processed (although the tool likely works
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only on a small part of it)
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It’s built in a ChromeOS-like configuration (simplified at places to avoid
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distracting from the important parts), so it has three CBFS regions, and
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several data regions for its own purpose (similar to GBB, FWID, VPD, …). After
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the regions are filled, one data region must be post-processed to contain
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signatures to enable verifying other regions.
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```
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Chipset manifest
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================
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# A region called IFD, starting at 0, ending at 4K
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region IFD: 0 4K
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# Add the specified file “raw” into the region.
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# If the file is smaller than the region, put it at the bottom and fill up
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# with 0xff
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raw IFD: build/ifd.bin align=bottom empty=0xff
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# Call the postprocessor on the data that ends up in IFD (in this example it
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# might lock the IFD)
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postprocess IFD: util/ifdprocess -l
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# a region called ME, starting at 4K, ending at 2M
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region ME: 4K 2M
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raw ME: 3rdparty/blobs/soc/intel/xanadu/me.bin align=bottom empty=0x00
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# a region called BIOS, starting at 2M, filling up the free space
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# filling up fails (build error) if two regions are requested to fill up
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# against each other
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region BIOS: 2M *
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# This would define a region that covers the last 4K of flash.
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# The BIOS region specified above will end right before it instead of
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# expanding to end of flash
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# region AUX: -4K -0
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# specify the tool that post-processes the entire image.
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postprocess image: util/intelchksum/intelchksum.sh
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coreboot manifest
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=================
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# declare that build/verstage.elf belongs into the group ‘verstage’
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# these groups are later referred to by the “cbfs” command.
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group verstage: build/verstage.elf stage xip name=fallback/verstage
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group romstage: build/romstage.elf stage xip name=fallback/romstage
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group ramstage: build/ramstage.elf stage name=fallback/ramstage
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compression=lzma
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group ramstage: build/dsdt.aml compression=lzma
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boot method manifest
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====================
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# Define RO as region inside BIOS, covering the upper half of the image.
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# It’s a build error if the result crosses outside BIOS.
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# math expressions are wrapped with ( ),
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# and mentions of regions therein always refer to their size
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subregion BIOS RO: ( image / 2 ) -0
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# Define RW to cover the rest of BIOS.
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# The order of RW and RO doesn’t matter except to keep comments clearer.
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# Dynamic items like RW (“*”) will be sized to fill unused space after
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# everything else is placed.
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subregion BIOS RW: 0 *
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# It may be necessary to separate the RO/RW definition into another manifest
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# file
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# that defines the RO configuration of the flash
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# Some more subregions, with dynamically calculated sizes
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subregion RW RW_A: 0 ( RW / 2 )
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subregion RW RW_B: * -0
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subregion RW_A FW_MAIN_A: RW_A * -0
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subregion RW_A VBLOCK_A: 0 64K
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# foo +bar specifies start + size, not (start, end)
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# also, start is given as “the end of VBLOCK_A”
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# (while using a region in the “end” field means “start of region”)
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subregion RW_A FWID_A: VBLOCK_A +64
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# To make the example not too verbose, RO only has the CBFS region
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subregion RO BOOTSTUB: 0 *
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# Postprocess the data that ends up in VBLOCK_A,
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# passing the listed regions as additional arguments.
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# Circular dependencies are build errors.
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postprocess VBLOCK_A(FW_MAIN_A): signtool
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# binding files to regions indirectly through groups
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cbfs BOOTSTUB: verstage, romstage, ramstage, payload
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cbfs FW_MAIN_A: romstage, ramstage, payload
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# defining defaults: unless overridden, in all regions that use CBFS (“*”),
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# we want all files to come with SHA256 hashes.
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# Wildcard defaults have lower priority than specific defaults.
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# Other conflicts lead to a build error.
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cbfsdefaults *: hash=sha3
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payload manifest
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================
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group payload: payload.elf payload
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group payload: bootscreen.jpg name=splashscreen.jpg type=splashscreen
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EC firmware manifest
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====================
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# overrides the cbfsdefault above
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group payload: ecrw.bin name=ecrw hash=sha256
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group payload: pdrw.bin name=pdrw hash=sha256
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```
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manifest parsing
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----------------
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The exact BNF is work in progress.
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Some parser rules are
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* one line per statement
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* '#' introduces a command until the end of line
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Some processing rules
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* When there’s a conflict (eg. two statements on what to do to a region,
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overlap, anything that can’t be determined), that is a build error.
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* the order of statements doesn’t matter, enabling simple addition of more
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manifests where the need arises.
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