xref: /OK3568_Linux_fs/kernel/Documentation/riscv/boot-image-header.rst (revision 4882a59341e53eb6f0b4789bf948001014eff981)
1*4882a593Smuzhiyun=================================
2*4882a593SmuzhiyunBoot image header in RISC-V Linux
3*4882a593Smuzhiyun=================================
4*4882a593Smuzhiyun
5*4882a593Smuzhiyun:Author: Atish Patra <atish.patra@wdc.com>
6*4882a593Smuzhiyun:Date:   20 May 2019
7*4882a593Smuzhiyun
8*4882a593SmuzhiyunThis document only describes the boot image header details for RISC-V Linux.
9*4882a593Smuzhiyun
10*4882a593SmuzhiyunTODO:
11*4882a593Smuzhiyun  Write a complete booting guide.
12*4882a593Smuzhiyun
13*4882a593SmuzhiyunThe following 64-byte header is present in decompressed Linux kernel image::
14*4882a593Smuzhiyun
15*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u32 code0;		  /* Executable code */
16*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u32 code1;		  /* Executable code */
17*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u64 text_offset;	  /* Image load offset, little endian */
18*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u64 image_size;		  /* Effective Image size, little endian */
19*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u64 flags;		  /* kernel flags, little endian */
20*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u32 version;		  /* Version of this header */
21*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u32 res1 = 0;		  /* Reserved */
22*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u64 res2 = 0;		  /* Reserved */
23*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u64 magic = 0x5643534952; /* Magic number, little endian, "RISCV" */
24*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u32 magic2 = 0x05435352;  /* Magic number 2, little endian, "RSC\x05" */
25*4882a593Smuzhiyun	u32 res3;		  /* Reserved for PE COFF offset */
26*4882a593Smuzhiyun
27*4882a593SmuzhiyunThis header format is compliant with PE/COFF header and largely inspired from
28*4882a593SmuzhiyunARM64 header. Thus, both ARM64 & RISC-V header can be combined into one common
29*4882a593Smuzhiyunheader in future.
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31*4882a593SmuzhiyunNotes
32*4882a593Smuzhiyun=====
33*4882a593Smuzhiyun
34*4882a593Smuzhiyun- This header can also be reused to support EFI stub for RISC-V in future. EFI
35*4882a593Smuzhiyun  specification needs PE/COFF image header in the beginning of the kernel image
36*4882a593Smuzhiyun  in order to load it as an EFI application. In order to support EFI stub,
37*4882a593Smuzhiyun  code0 should be replaced with "MZ" magic string and res3(at offset 0x3c) should
38*4882a593Smuzhiyun  point to the rest of the PE/COFF header.
39*4882a593Smuzhiyun
40*4882a593Smuzhiyun- version field indicate header version number
41*4882a593Smuzhiyun
42*4882a593Smuzhiyun	==========  =============
43*4882a593Smuzhiyun	Bits 0:15   Minor version
44*4882a593Smuzhiyun	Bits 16:31  Major version
45*4882a593Smuzhiyun	==========  =============
46*4882a593Smuzhiyun
47*4882a593Smuzhiyun  This preserves compatibility across newer and older version of the header.
48*4882a593Smuzhiyun  The current version is defined as 0.2.
49*4882a593Smuzhiyun
50*4882a593Smuzhiyun- The "magic" field is deprecated as of version 0.2.  In a future
51*4882a593Smuzhiyun  release, it may be removed.  This originally should have matched up
52*4882a593Smuzhiyun  with the ARM64 header "magic" field, but unfortunately does not.
53*4882a593Smuzhiyun  The "magic2" field replaces it, matching up with the ARM64 header.
54*4882a593Smuzhiyun
55*4882a593Smuzhiyun- In current header, the flags field has only one field.
56*4882a593Smuzhiyun
57*4882a593Smuzhiyun	=====  ====================================
58*4882a593Smuzhiyun	Bit 0  Kernel endianness. 1 if BE, 0 if LE.
59*4882a593Smuzhiyun	=====  ====================================
60*4882a593Smuzhiyun
61*4882a593Smuzhiyun- Image size is mandatory for boot loader to load kernel image. Booting will
62*4882a593Smuzhiyun  fail otherwise.
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