Back to home page

OSCL-LXR

 
 

    


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.