FFE: PolarFire Icicle Kit with HSS 2022.10 does not boot

[Heinrich Schuchardt]

The package u-boot-microchip is used to boot the PolarFire Icicle board.

The boot sequence starts with the HSS firmware provided by the vendor Microchip and continues via U-Boot and GRUB into Linux.

The memory of the board it partitioned into parts that are reserved for usage by the non-Linux core(s) and memory used for the Linux world. This layout has been adjusted with version HSS 2022.10.

U-Boot has to respect this layout. Microchip has provided two patches for it.

[ Impact ]

HSS 2022.10 is the on that Microchip is preparing for supporting Linux distributions with PCIe support on the PolarFire Icicle Kit.

Without the provided patches for U-Boot Linux cannot be booted on a board with HSS 2022.10.

[ Test Plan ]

The only binary package affected by the source code changes is u-boot-microchip.

 * detailed instructions how to reproduce the bug

   Flash HSS 2022.10 onto the PolarFireIcicle kit.
   Write our daily build Kinetic image for the board to an SD-card.
   Booting fails as can be observed on UART 2.

 * For verification of the change replace the content of the U-Boot partition (partition type EF02) with file ./usr/lib/u-boot/microchip_icicle/u-boot.payload from package u-boot microchip.

[ Where problems could occur ]

 * As the code changes are strictly restricted to the u-boot-microchip board the only problem could be that this board which has not been supported before the Kinetic release does not boot.

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

I agree with Utkarsh (who reviewed this FFe earlier) that we should try getting this in, if possible. So +1 on the FFe. Let's get this sponsored ASAP before final freeze.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

What happens to boards that do not have the HSS firmware version 2022.10? If users need to upgrade the firmware version before being able to install Ubuntu we should add that to the release notes (probably in the known issues section) for Ubuntu 22.10.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I'm going to accept this but still want to sort out the release notes / my question.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package u-boot - 2022.07+dfsg-1ubuntu4

---------------
u-boot (2022.07+dfsg-1ubuntu4) kinetic; urgency=medium

  * Adjust u-boot-microchip on PolarFire Icicle Kit for the changed memory
    layout of the HSS 2022.10 firmware (LP: #1992776)

 -- Heinrich Schuchardt <email address hidden> Thu, 13 Oct 2022 12:12:03 +0200

[Heinrich Schuchardt (xypron)]

Updating the HSS is required before installing Ubuntu. An image for the PolarFire Icicle Board has not been provided before. I think we need to describe the dependency on https://ubuntu.com/download/risc-v as many users never read release notes.

[Heinrich Schuchardt (xypron)]

We did not release an image for 2022.10.