64-bit RPi4B u-boot hangup with modern rpi firmware: some information (but investigative-toolbox limited)

[Mark Millard]

I tried building u-boot with:

CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_LOG_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_LOG_MAX_LEVEL=7

and the first console output with the somewhat older
firmware (for which the combination boots) was:

initcall: 00000000000ec7b4


U-Boot 2020.10 (Oct 13 2020 - 20:26:59 +0000)

That is display_options, just after serial_init
and console_init_f are executed.

No such output occurs with more modern firmware
(same u-boot).

That means, in the 4 GIByte RPi4B context that
I have access to, that the hang up happens at
some point during the sequence of initialization
steps, on or before display_options:

static const init_fnc_t init_sequence_f[] = {
        setup_mon_len,
#ifdef CONFIG_OF_CONTROL
        fdtdec_setup,
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_TRACE_EARLY
        trace_early_init,
#endif
        initf_malloc,
        log_init,
        initf_bootstage,        /* uses its own timer, so does not need DM */
#ifdef CONFIG_BLOBLIST
        bloblist_init,
#endif
        setup_spl_handoff,
        initf_console_record,
#if defined(CONFIG_HAVE_FSP)
        arch_fsp_init,
#endif
        arch_cpu_init,          /* basic arch cpu dependent setup */
        mach_cpu_init,          /* SoC/machine dependent CPU setup */
        initf_dm,
        arch_cpu_init_dm,
#if defined(CONFIG_BOARD_EARLY_INIT_F)
        board_early_init_f,
#endif
#if defined(CONFIG_PPC) || defined(CONFIG_SYS_FSL_CLK) || defined(CONFIG_M68K)
        /* get CPU and bus clocks according to the environment variable */
        get_clocks,             /* get CPU and bus clocks (etc.) */
#endif
#if !defined(CONFIG_M68K)
        timer_init,             /* initialize timer */
#endif
#if defined(CONFIG_BOARD_POSTCLK_INIT)
        board_postclk_init,
#endif
        env_init,               /* initialize environment */
        init_baud_rate,         /* initialze baudrate settings */
        serial_init,            /* serial communications setup */
        console_init_f,         /* stage 1 init of console */
        display_options,        /* say that we are here */
. . .

I'll note that the use of the list is via:

void board_init_f(ulong boot_flags)
{
        gd->flags = boot_flags;
        gd->have_console = 0;
        
        if (initcall_run_list(init_sequence_f))
                hang();
. . .

where:

/**
 * hang - stop processing by staying in an endless loop
 *
 * The purpose of this function is to stop further execution of code cause
 * something went completely wrong.  To catch this and give some feedback to
 * the user one needs to catch the bootstage_error (see show_boot_progress())
 * in the board code.
 */
void hang(void)
{
#if !defined(CONFIG_SPL_BUILD) || \
                (CONFIG_IS_ENABLED(LIBCOMMON_SUPPORT) && \
                 CONFIG_IS_ENABLED(SERIAL_SUPPORT))
        puts("### ERROR ### Please RESET the board ###\n");
#endif
        bootstage_error(BOOTSTAGE_ID_NEED_RESET);
        if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SANDBOX))
                os_exit(1);
        for (;;)
                ;
}

With the tools I have around, I do not see a way to
find out what was the last element of init_sequence_f
to (at least start to) be called (or if it stopped even
before initcall_run_list would start).


Note: CONFIG_LOG_MAX_LEVEL=7 (without something like
CONFIG_LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL being a smaller figure) is not
reasonable for general use: Its output is massive.

===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com
( dsl-only.net went
away in early 2018-Mar)