0001 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
0002
0003 ============
0004 Early Printk
0005 ============
0006
0007 Mini-HOWTO for using the earlyprintk=dbgp boot option with a
0008 USB2 Debug port key and a debug cable, on x86 systems.
0009
0010 You need two computers, the 'USB debug key' special gadget and
0011 two USB cables, connected like this::
0012
0013 [host/target] <-------> [USB debug key] <-------> [client/console]
0014
0015 Hardware requirements
0016 =====================
0017
0018 a) Host/target system needs to have USB debug port capability.
0019
0020 You can check this capability by looking at a 'Debug port' bit in
0021 the lspci -vvv output::
0022
0023 # lspci -vvv
0024 ...
0025 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
0026 Subsystem: Lenovo ThinkPad T61
0027 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
0028 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
0029 Latency: 0
0030 Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 19
0031 Region 0: Memory at fe227000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
0032 Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
0033 Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
0034 Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME+
0035 Capabilities: [58] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00a0
0036 ^^^^^^^^^^^ <==================== [ HERE ]
0037 Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
0038 Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
0039 ...
0040
0041 .. note::
0042 If your system does not list a debug port capability then you probably
0043 won't be able to use the USB debug key.
0044
0045 b) You also need a NetChip USB debug cable/key:
0046
0047 http://www.plxtech.com/products/NET2000/NET20DC/default.asp
0048
0049 This is a small blue plastic connector with two USB connections;
0050 it draws power from its USB connections.
0051
0052 c) You need a second client/console system with a high speed USB 2.0 port.
0053
0054 d) The NetChip device must be plugged directly into the physical
0055 debug port on the "host/target" system. You cannot use a USB hub in
0056 between the physical debug port and the "host/target" system.
0057
0058 The EHCI debug controller is bound to a specific physical USB
0059 port and the NetChip device will only work as an early printk
0060 device in this port. The EHCI host controllers are electrically
0061 wired such that the EHCI debug controller is hooked up to the
0062 first physical port and there is no way to change this via software.
0063 You can find the physical port through experimentation by trying
0064 each physical port on the system and rebooting. Or you can try
0065 and use lsusb or look at the kernel info messages emitted by the
0066 usb stack when you plug a usb device into various ports on the
0067 "host/target" system.
0068
0069 Some hardware vendors do not expose the usb debug port with a
0070 physical connector and if you find such a device send a complaint
0071 to the hardware vendor, because there is no reason not to wire
0072 this port into one of the physically accessible ports.
0073
0074 e) It is also important to note, that many versions of the NetChip
0075 device require the "client/console" system to be plugged into the
0076 right hand side of the device (with the product logo facing up and
0077 readable left to right). The reason being is that the 5 volt
0078 power supply is taken from only one side of the device and it
0079 must be the side that does not get rebooted.
0080
0081 Software requirements
0082 =====================
0083
0084 a) On the host/target system:
0085
0086 You need to enable the following kernel config option::
0087
0088 CONFIG_EARLY_PRINTK_DBGP=y
0089
0090 And you need to add the boot command line: "earlyprintk=dbgp".
0091
0092 .. note::
0093 If you are using Grub, append it to the 'kernel' line in
0094 /etc/grub.conf. If you are using Grub2 on a BIOS firmware system,
0095 append it to the 'linux' line in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg. If you are
0096 using Grub2 on an EFI firmware system, append it to the 'linux'
0097 or 'linuxefi' line in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg or
0098 /boot/efi/EFI/<distro>/grub.cfg.
0099
0100 On systems with more than one EHCI debug controller you must
0101 specify the correct EHCI debug controller number. The ordering
0102 comes from the PCI bus enumeration of the EHCI controllers. The
0103 default with no number argument is "0" or the first EHCI debug
0104 controller. To use the second EHCI debug controller, you would
0105 use the command line: "earlyprintk=dbgp1"
0106
0107 .. note::
0108 normally earlyprintk console gets turned off once the
0109 regular console is alive - use "earlyprintk=dbgp,keep" to keep
0110 this channel open beyond early bootup. This can be useful for
0111 debugging crashes under Xorg, etc.
0112
0113 b) On the client/console system:
0114
0115 You should enable the following kernel config option::
0116
0117 CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_DEBUG=y
0118
0119 On the next bootup with the modified kernel you should
0120 get a /dev/ttyUSBx device(s).
0121
0122 Now this channel of kernel messages is ready to be used: start
0123 your favorite terminal emulator (minicom, etc.) and set
0124 it up to use /dev/ttyUSB0 - or use a raw 'cat /dev/ttyUSBx' to
0125 see the raw output.
0126
0127 c) On Nvidia Southbridge based systems: the kernel will try to probe
0128 and find out which port has a debug device connected.
0129
0130 Testing
0131 =======
0132
0133 You can test the output by using earlyprintk=dbgp,keep and provoking
0134 kernel messages on the host/target system. You can provoke a harmless
0135 kernel message by for example doing::
0136
0137 echo h > /proc/sysrq-trigger
0138
0139 On the host/target system you should see this help line in "dmesg" output::
0140
0141 SysRq : HELP : loglevel(0-9) reBoot Crashdump terminate-all-tasks(E) memory-full-oom-kill(F) kill-all-tasks(I) saK show-backtrace-all-active-cpus(L) show-memory-usage(M) nice-all-RT-tasks(N) powerOff show-registers(P) show-all-timers(Q) unRaw Sync show-task-states(T) Unmount show-blocked-tasks(W) dump-ftrace-buffer(Z)
0142
0143 On the client/console system do::
0144
0145 cat /dev/ttyUSB0
0146
0147 And you should see the help line above displayed shortly after you've
0148 provoked it on the host system.
0149
0150 If it does not work then please ask about it on the linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
0151 mailing list or contact the x86 maintainers.