RE: How is the arm 'virt' machine reset vector determined?

[ckim]

Hi, Thanks again! (Qemu requires knowledge to use it. 😊 )
Chan Kim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2021 7:09 PM
> To: Chan Kim <ckim@etri.re.kr>
> Cc: qemu-discuss <qemu-discuss@nongnu.org>
> Subject: Re: How is the arm 'virt' machine reset vector determined?
> 
> On Tue, 16 Feb 2021 at 06:34, <ckim@etri.re.kr> wrote:
> > I’m trying to run a simple baremetal program and I tried to put the
> program in 0x00000000 (flash).
> >
> > But using debugger, I found the PC value is starting from 0x40000000.
> (start of RAM area)
> >
> > How is this reset vector determined in ‘virt’ machine? (I understand in
> armv8, it is configured by H/W).
> 
> The initial starting address depends on your command line options:
>  * if you pass a Linux kernel with -kernel, then we boot it as
>    the Linux kernel requires, which includes setting the CPU state
>    up to match the kernel boot protocol, and starting it via a little
>    stub bootloader a few instructions long at the base of RAM.
>    The -kernel option assumes that anything it is handed that is
>    not an ELF file is a Linux kernel.
>  * if you pass an ELF file either via -kernel or via the "generic
>    loader" device, then we start at the entry point specified by
>    the ELF file
>  * otherwise, we start the emulation in the same way that hardware
>    does, with a CPU reset to the reset vector at address 0.
>    Unless you have passed QEMU a firmware image to be loaded into the
>    flash that is at address 0 (using either -bios or -drive if=pflash)
>    then this will cause the emulated CPU to either execute NOPs or to
>    go into an infinite loop of exceptions, depending on whether it's
>    32-bit or 64-bit...)
> 
> So for a bare metal program you want to load it via either:
>  * -bios
>  * -drive if=pflash...
>  * as an ELF file where you have made sure the ELF entry point is
>    set to the address you want execution to start from
> 
> thanks
> -- PMM