xref: /aosp_15_r20/external/coreboot/Documentation/releases/coreboot-4.16-relnotes.md (revision b9411a12aaaa7e1e6a6fb7c5e057f44ee179a49c)
1coreboot 4.16
2========================================================================
3
4The 4.16 release was done on February 25th, 2022.
5
6Since 4.15 there have been more than 1770 new commits by more than 170
7developers.  Of these, more than 35 contributed to coreboot for the
8first time.
9
10Welcome to the project!
11
12Thank you to all the developers who continue to make coreboot the
13great open source firmware project that it is.
14
15New mainboards:
16---------------
17* Acer Aspire VN7-572G
18* AMD Chausie
19* ASROCK H77 Pro4-M
20* ASUS P8Z77-M
21* Emulation QEMU power9
22* Google Agah
23* Google Anahera4ES
24* Google Banshee
25* Google Beadrix
26* Google Brya4ES
27* Google Crota
28* Google Dojo
29* Google Gimble4ES
30* Google Herobrine_Rev0
31* Google Kingler
32* Google Kinox
33* Google Krabby
34* Google Moli
35* Google Nereid
36* Google Nivviks
37* Google Primus4ES
38* Google Redrix4ES
39* Google Skyrim
40* Google Taeko4ES
41* Google Taniks
42* Google Vell
43* Google Volmar
44* Intel Alderlake-N RVP
45* Prodrive Atlas
46* Star Labs Star Labs StarBook Mk V (i3-1115G4 and i7-1165G7)
47* System76 gaze16 3050
48* System76 gaze16 3060
49* System76 gaze16 3060-b
50
51Removed mainboards:
52-------------------
53* Google ->  Corsola
54* Google ->  Nasher
55* Google ->  Stryke
56
57Added processors:
58-----------------
59* src/cpu/power9
60* src/soc/amd/sabrina
61
62Submodule Updates
63-----------------
64* /3rdparty/amd_blobs (6 commits)
65* /3rdparty/arm-trusted-firmware (965 commits)
66* /3rdparty/blobs (30 commits)
67* /3rdparty/chromeec (2212 commits)
68* /3rdparty/intel-microcode (1 commits)
69* /3rdparty/qc_blobs (13 commits)
70* /3rdparty/vboot (44 commits)
71
72Plans to move platform support to a branch:
73-------------------------------------------
74After the 4.18 release in November 2022, we plan to move support for any
75boards still requiring RESOURCE_ALLOCATOR_V3 to the 4.18 branch.  V4 was
76introduced more than a year ago and with minor changes most platforms
77were able to work just fine with it. A major difference is that V3 uses
78just one continuous region below 4G to allocate all PCI memory BAR's. V4
79uses all available space below 4G and if asked to, also above 4G too.
80This makes it important that SoC code properly reports all fixed
81resources.
82
83Currently only AGESA platforms have issues with it. On Gerrit both
84attempts to fix AMD AGESA codebases to use V4 and compatibility modes
85inside the V4 allocator have been proposed, but both efforts seem
86stalled. See the (not yet merged) documentation
87[CR:43603](https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/43603) on it's
88details. It looks like properly reporting all fixed resources is the
89issue.
90
91At this point, we are not specifying which platforms this will include
92as there are a number of patches to fix these issues in flight.
93Hopefully, all platforms will end up being migrated to the v4 resource
94allocator so that none of the platforms need to be supported on the
95branch.
96
97Additionally, even if the support for the platform is moved to a branch,
98it can be brought back to ToT if they're fixed to support the v4
99allocator.
100
101Plans for Code Deprecation
102--------------------------
103As of release 4.18 (November 2022) we plan to deprecate LEGACY_SMP_INIT.
104This also includes the codepath for SMM_ASEG. This code is used to start
105APs and do some feature programming on each AP, but also set up SMM.
106This has largely been superseded by PARALLEL_MP, which should be able to
107cover all use cases of LEGACY_SMP_INIT, with little code changes. The
108reason for deprecation is that having 2 codepaths to do the virtually
109the same increases maintenance burden on the community a lot, while also
110being rather confusing.
111
112A few things are lacking in PARALLEL_MP init:
113- Support for !CONFIG_SMP on single core systems. It's likely easy to
114  extend PARALLEL_MP or write some code that just does CPU detection on
115  the BSP CPU.
116- Support SMM in the legacy ASEG (0xa0000 - 0xb0000) region. A POC
117  showed that it's not that hard to do with PARALLEL_MP
118  https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/58700
119
120No platforms in the tree have any hardware limitations that would block
121migrating to PARALLEL_MP / a simple !CONFIG_SMP codebase.
122
123Significant changes
124-------------------
125This is, of course, not a complete list of all changes in the 4.16
126coreboot release, but a sampling of some of the more interesting and
127significant changes.
128
129### Option to disable Intel Management Engine
130Disable the Intel (Converged Security) Management Engine ((CS)ME) via
131HECI based on Intel Core processors from Skylake to Alder Lake. State is
132set based on a CMOS value of `me_state`. A value of `0` will result in a
133(CS)ME state of `0` (working) and value of `1` will result in a (CS)ME
134state of `3` (disabled). For an example CMOS layout and more info, see
135[cse.c](https://review.coreboot.org/plugins/gitiles/coreboot/+/refs/heads/master/src/soc/intel/common/block/cse/cse.c).
136
137
138### Add [AMD] apcb_v3_edit tool
139apcb_v3_edit.py tool edits APCB V3 binaries. Specifically it will inject
140up to 16 SPDs into an existing APCB. The APCB must have a magic number
141at the top of each SPD slot.
142
143
144### Allow enable/disable ME via CMOS
145Add .enable method that will set the CSME state. The state is based on
146the new CMOS option me_state, with values of 0 and 1. The method is very
147stable when switching between different firmware platforms.
148
149This method should not be used in combination with USE_ME_CLEANER.
150
151State 1 will result in:
152ME: Current Working State   : 4
153ME: Current Operation State : 1
154ME: Current Operation Mode  : 3
155ME: Error Code              : 2
156
157State 0 will result in:
158ME: Current Working State   : 5
159ME: Current Operation State : 1
160ME: Current Operation Mode  : 0
161ME: Error Code              : 0
162
163
164### Move LAPIC configuration to MP init
165Implementation for setup_lapic() did two things -- call enable_lapic()
166and virtual_wire_mode_init().
167
168In PARALLEL_MP case enable_lapic() was redundant as it was already
169executed prior to initialize_cpu() call.  For the !PARALLEL_MP case
170enable_lapic() is added to AP CPUs.
171
172
173### Add ANSI escape sequences for highlighting
174Add ANSI escape sequences to highlight a log line based on its loglevel
175to the output of "interactive" consoles that are meant to be displayed
176on a terminal (e.g. UART). This should help make errors and warnings
177stand out better among the usual spew of debug messages. For users whose
178terminal or use case doesn't support these sequences for some reason (or
179who simply don't like them), they can be disabled with a Kconfig.
180
181While ANSI escape sequences can be used to add color, minicom (the
182presumably most common terminal emulator for UART endpoints?) doesn't
183support color output unless explicitly enabled (via -c command line
184flag), and other terminal emulators may have similar restrictions, so in
185an effort to make this as widely useful by default as possible I have
186chosen not to use color codes and implement this highlighting via
187bolding, underlining and inverting alone (which seem to go through in
188all cases). If desired, support for separate color highlighting could be
189added via Kconfig later.
190
191
192### Add cbmem_dump_console
193This function is similar to cbmem_dump_console_to_uart except it uses
194the normally configured consoles. A console_paused flag was added to
195prevent the cbmem console from writing to itself.
196
197
198### Add coreboot-configurator
199A simple GUI to change CMOS settings in coreboot's CBFS, via the
200nvramtool utility.  Testing on Debian, Ubuntu and Manjaro with coreboot
2014.14+, but should work with any distribution or coreboot release that
202has an option table. For more info, please check the
203[README](https://web.archive.org/web/20220225194308/https://review.coreboot.org/plugins/gitiles/coreboot/+/refs/heads/master/util/coreboot-configurator/README.md).
204
205
206### Update live ISO configs to NixOS 21.11
207Update configs so that they work with NixOS 21.11. Drop `iasl` package
208since it was replaced with `acpica-tools`.
209
210
211### Move to U-Boot v2021.10
212Move to building the latest U-Boot.
213
214
215### Support systems with >128 cores
216Each time the spinlock is acquired a byte is decreased and then the
217sign of the byte is checked. If there are more than 128 cores the sign
218check will overflow. An easy fix is to increase the word size of the
219spinlock acquiring and releasing.
220
221
222### Add [samsung] sx9360 [proximity sensor] driver
223Add driver for setting up Semtech sx9360 SAR sensor.
224The driver is based on sx9310.c. The core of the driver is the same, but
225the bindings are slightly different.
226
227Registers are documented [in the kernel tree:](https://web.archive.org/web/20220225182803/https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-iio/patch/[email protected]/)
228Documentation/devicetree/bindings/iio/proximity/semtech,sx9360.yaml
229
230
231### Add driver for Genesys Logic [SD Controller] GL9750
232The device is a PCIe Gen1 to SD 3.0 card reader controller to be
233used in the Chromebook. The datasheet name is GL9750S and the revision
234is 01.
235
236The patch disables ASPM L0s.
237
238
239### Add support for Realtek RT8125
240The Realtek RT8168 and RT8125 have a similar programming interface,
241therefore add the PCI device ID for the RT8125 into driver for support.
242
243
244### Add Fibocom 5G WWAN ACPI support
245Support PXSX._RST and PXSX.MRST._RST for warm and cold reset.
246PXSX._RST is invoked on driver removal.
247
248build dependency:
249  soc/intel/common/block/pcie/rtd3
250
251This driver will use the rtd3 methods for the same parent in the device
252tree. The rtd3 chip needs to be added on the same root port in the
253devicetree separately.
254
255
256### Fix bug in vr_config
257The `cpu_get_power_max()` function returns the TDP in milliwatts, but
258the vr_config code interprets the value in watts. Divide the value by
2591000 to fix this.
260
261This also fixes an integer overflow when `cpu_get_power_max()` returns
262a value greater than 65535 (UINT16_MAX).
263
264
265### Make mixed topology work
266When using a mixed memory topology with DDR4, it's not possible to boot
267when no DIMMs are installed, even though memory-down is available. This
268happens because the DIMM SPD length defaults to 256 when no DIMM SPD is
269available. Relax the length check when no DIMMs are present to overcome
270this problem.
271
272
273### Add FSP 2.3 support
274FSP 2.3 specification introduces following changes:
275
2761. FSP_INFO_HEADER changes
277   Updated SpecVersion from 0x22 to 0x23
278   Updated HeaderRevision from 5 to 6
279   Added ExtendedImageRevision
280   FSP_INFO_HEADER length changed to 0x50
281
2822. Added FSP_NON_VOLATILE_STORAGE_HOB2
283
284Following changes are implemented in the patch to support FSP 2.3:
285
286- Add Kconfig option
287- Update FSP build binary version info based on ExtendedImageRevision
288  field in header
289- New NV HOB related changes will be pushed as part of another patch
290
291
292### Join hash calculation for verification and measurement
293This patch moves the CBFS file measurement when CONFIG_TPM_MEASURED_BOOT
294is enabled from the lookup step into the code where a file is actually
295loaded or mapped from flash. This has the advantage that CBFS routines
296which just look up a file to inspect its metadata (e.g. cbfs_get_size())
297do not cause the file to be measured twice. It also removes the existing
298inefficiency that files are loaded twice when measurement is enabled
299(once to measure and then again when they are used). When CBFS
300verification is enabled and uses the same hash algorithm as the TPM, we
301are even able to only hash the file a single time and use the result for
302both purposes.
303
304
305### Skip FSP Notify APIs
306Alder Lake SoC deselects Kconfigs as below:
307- USE_FSP_NOTIFY_PHASE_READY_TO_BOOT
308- USE_FSP_NOTIFY_PHASE_END_OF_FIRMWARE
309to skip FSP notify APIs (Ready to boot and End of Firmware) and make
310use of native coreboot driver to perform SoC recommended operations
311prior booting to payload/OS.
312
313Additionally, created a helper function `heci_finalize()` to keep HECI
314related operations separated for easy guarding again config.
315
316TODO: coreboot native implementation to skip FSP notify phase API (post
317pci enumeration) is still WIP.
318
319
320### Add support for PCIe Resizable BARs
321Section 7.8.6 of the PCIe spec (rev 4) indicates that some devices can
322indicates support for "Resizable BARs" via a PCIe extended capability.
323
324When support this capability is indicated by the device, the size of
325each BAR is determined in a different way than the normal "moving
326bits" method. Instead, a pair of capability and control registers is
327allocated in config space for each BAR, which can be used to both
328indicate the different sizes the device is capable of supporting for
329the BAR (powers-of-2 number of bits from 20 [1 MiB] to 63 [8 EiB]), and
330to also inform the device of the size that the allocator actually
331reserved for the MMIO range.
332
333This patch adds a Kconfig for a mainboard to select if it knows that it
334will have a device that requires this support during PCI enumeration.
335If so, there is a corresponding Kconfig to indicate the maximum number
336of bits of address space to hand out to devices this way (again, limited
337by what devices can support and each individual system may want to
338support, but just like above, this number can range from 20 to 63) If
339the device can support more bits than this Kconfig, the resource request
340is truncated to the number indicated by this Kconfig.
341