1 Coresight CPU Debug Module
2 ==========================
4 Author: Leo Yan <leo.yan@linaro.org>
10 Coresight CPU debug module is defined in ARMv8-a architecture reference manual
11 (ARM DDI 0487A.k) Chapter 'Part H: External debug', the CPU can integrate
12 debug module and it is mainly used for two modes: self-hosted debug and
13 external debug. Usually the external debug mode is well known as the external
14 debugger connects with SoC from JTAG port; on the other hand the program can
15 explore debugging method which rely on self-hosted debug mode, this document
16 is to focus on this part.
18 The debug module provides sample-based profiling extension, which can be used
19 to sample CPU program counter, secure state and exception level, etc; usually
20 every CPU has one dedicated debug module to be connected. Based on self-hosted
21 debug mechanism, Linux kernel can access these related registers from mmio
22 region when the kernel panic happens. The callback notifier for kernel panic
23 will dump related registers for every CPU; finally this is good for assistant
30 - During driver registration, it uses EDDEVID and EDDEVID1 - two device ID
31 registers to decide if sample-based profiling is implemented or not. On some
32 platforms this hardware feature is fully or partially implemented; and if
33 this feature is not supported then registration will fail.
35 - At the time this documentation was written, the debug driver mainly relies on
36 information gathered by the kernel panic callback notifier from three
37 sampling registers: EDPCSR, EDVIDSR and EDCIDSR: from EDPCSR we can get
38 program counter; EDVIDSR has information for secure state, exception level,
39 bit width, etc; EDCIDSR is context ID value which contains the sampled value
42 - The driver supports a CPU running in either AArch64 or AArch32 mode. The
43 registers naming convention is a bit different between them, AArch64 uses
44 'ED' for register prefix (ARM DDI 0487A.k, chapter H9.1) and AArch32 uses
45 'DBG' as prefix (ARM DDI 0487A.k, chapter G5.1). The driver is unified to
46 use AArch64 naming convention.
48 - ARMv8-a (ARM DDI 0487A.k) and ARMv7-a (ARM DDI 0406C.b) have different
49 register bits definition. So the driver consolidates two difference:
51 If PCSROffset=0b0000, on ARMv8-a the feature of EDPCSR is not implemented;
52 but ARMv7-a defines "PCSR samples are offset by a value that depends on the
53 instruction set state". For ARMv7-a, the driver checks furthermore if CPU
54 runs with ARM or thumb instruction set and calibrate PCSR value, the
55 detailed description for offset is in ARMv7-a ARM (ARM DDI 0406C.b) chapter
56 C11.11.34 "DBGPCSR, Program Counter Sampling Register".
58 If PCSROffset=0b0010, ARMv8-a defines "EDPCSR implemented, and samples have
59 no offset applied and do not sample the instruction set state in AArch32
60 state". So on ARMv8 if EDDEVID1.PCSROffset is 0b0010 and the CPU operates
61 in AArch32 state, EDPCSR is not sampled; when the CPU operates in AArch64
62 state EDPCSR is sampled and no offset are applied.
65 Clock and power domain
66 ----------------------
68 Before accessing debug registers, we should ensure the clock and power domain
69 have been enabled properly. In ARMv8-a ARM (ARM DDI 0487A.k) chapter 'H9.1
70 Debug registers', the debug registers are spread into two domains: the debug
71 domain and the CPU domain.
77 dbg_clock -->| |**| |<-- cpu_clock
79 dbg_power_domain -->| |**| |<-- cpu_power_domain
85 For debug domain, the user uses DT binding "clocks" and "power-domains" to
86 specify the corresponding clock source and power supply for the debug logic.
87 The driver calls the pm_runtime_{put|get} operations as needed to handle the
90 For CPU domain, the different SoC designs have different power management
91 schemes and finally this heavily impacts external debug module. So we can
92 divide into below cases:
94 - On systems with a sane power controller which can behave correctly with
95 respect to CPU power domain, the CPU power domain can be controlled by
96 register EDPRCR in driver. The driver firstly writes bit EDPRCR.COREPURQ
97 to power up the CPU, and then writes bit EDPRCR.CORENPDRQ for emulation
98 of CPU power down. As result, this can ensure the CPU power domain is
99 powered on properly during the period when access debug related registers;
101 - Some designs will power down an entire cluster if all CPUs on the cluster
102 are powered down - including the parts of the debug registers that should
103 remain powered in the debug power domain. The bits in EDPRCR are not
104 respected in these cases, so these designs do not support debug over
105 power down in the way that the CoreSight / Debug designers anticipated.
106 This means that even checking EDPRSR has the potential to cause a bus hang
107 if the target register is unpowered.
109 In this case, accessing to the debug registers while they are not powered
110 is a recipe for disaster; so we need preventing CPU low power states at boot
111 time or when user enable module at the run time. Please see chapter
112 "How to use the module" for detailed usage info for this.
118 See Documentation/devicetree/bindings/arm/coresight-cpu-debug.txt for details.
121 How to use the module
122 ---------------------
124 If you want to enable debugging functionality at boot time, you can add
125 "coresight_cpu_debug.enable=1" to the kernel command line parameter.
127 The driver also can work as module, so can enable the debugging when insmod
129 # insmod coresight_cpu_debug.ko debug=1
131 When boot time or insmod module you have not enabled the debugging, the driver
132 uses the debugfs file system to provide a knob to dynamically enable or disable
135 To enable it, write a '1' into /sys/kernel/debug/coresight_cpu_debug/enable:
136 # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/coresight_cpu_debug/enable
138 To disable it, write a '0' into /sys/kernel/debug/coresight_cpu_debug/enable:
139 # echo 0 > /sys/kernel/debug/coresight_cpu_debug/enable
141 As explained in chapter "Clock and power domain", if you are working on one
142 platform which has idle states to power off debug logic and the power
143 controller cannot work well for the request from EDPRCR, then you should
144 firstly constraint CPU idle states before enable CPU debugging feature; so can
145 ensure the accessing to debug logic.
147 If you want to limit idle states at boot time, you can use "nohlt" or
148 "cpuidle.off=1" in the kernel command line.
150 At the runtime you can disable idle states with below methods:
152 It is possible to disable CPU idle states by way of the PM QoS
153 subsystem, more specifically by using the "/dev/cpu_dma_latency"
154 interface (see Documentation/power/pm_qos_interface.txt for more
155 details). As specified in the PM QoS documentation the requested
156 parameter will stay in effect until the file descriptor is released.
159 # exec 3<> /dev/cpu_dma_latency; echo 0 >&3
165 The same can also be done from an application program.
167 Disable specific CPU's specific idle state from cpuidle sysfs (see
168 Documentation/cpuidle/sysfs.txt):
169 # echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu$cpu/cpuidle/state$state/disable
175 Here is an example of the debugging output format:
177 ARM external debug module:
178 coresight-cpu-debug 850000.debug: CPU[0]:
179 coresight-cpu-debug 850000.debug: EDPRSR: 00000001 (Power:On DLK:Unlock)
180 coresight-cpu-debug 850000.debug: EDPCSR: handle_IPI+0x174/0x1d8
181 coresight-cpu-debug 850000.debug: EDCIDSR: 00000000
182 coresight-cpu-debug 850000.debug: EDVIDSR: 90000000 (State:Non-secure Mode:EL1/0 Width:64bits VMID:0)
183 coresight-cpu-debug 852000.debug: CPU[1]:
184 coresight-cpu-debug 852000.debug: EDPRSR: 00000001 (Power:On DLK:Unlock)
185 coresight-cpu-debug 852000.debug: EDPCSR: debug_notifier_call+0x23c/0x358
186 coresight-cpu-debug 852000.debug: EDCIDSR: 00000000
187 coresight-cpu-debug 852000.debug: EDVIDSR: 90000000 (State:Non-secure Mode:EL1/0 Width:64bits VMID:0)