Testing asked, implementing POSTCAR stage

[Arthur Heymans]

Hi

I'm trying to implement a few features on x86 platforms to improve
coreboot. Currently I'm focusing on unifying the bootflow of x86
platforms a little better. An important aspect of that is to make sure
program boundaries within stages are respected, which is mostly an issue
when romstage destroys the stack+environment in which it is running.
Currently many platforms work around it by having code to fetch the
global variables which are either still in the CAR (before CAR tear
down) or somewhere relocated in cbmem after cbmem has been set up.
A better solution is to have CAR being torn down in a separate stage,
which means that romstage can always access global variables where the
linker initially puts them. We call this stage postcar stage.

I have an implementation ready for the following platforms:
* CPU_AMD_MODEL_10XXX or in mainboard terms:
amd/serengeti_cheetah_fam10
asus/kfsn4-dre
hp/dl165_g6_fam10
msi/ms9652_fam10
supermicro/h8dmr_fam10
supermicro/h8qme_fam10
tyan/s2912_fam10
amd/mahogany_fam10
gigabyte/ma78gm
iei/kino-780am2-fam10
jetway/pa78vm5
amd/tilapia_fam10
asus/m4a78-em
asus/m4a785-m
asus/m4a785t-m
asus/m5a88-v
gigabyte/ma785gm
gigabyte/ma785gmt
avalue/eax-785e
amd/bimini_fam10
advansus/a785e-i
asus/kcma-d8
supermicro/h8scm_fam10
asus/kgpe-d16

It would be great if the following patches could be tested (i.e. does it
still boot):
https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/30063/2
https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/30064/2
preferably on a board on which ACPI S3 resume is implemented (select HAVE_ACPI_RESUME).

* NORTHBRIDGE_VIA_VX900 on the VIA EPIA-M850 board
https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/30057/1
https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/30058/3

The only remaining targets that need to be addressed before the special
logic for CAR globals can be dropped are FSP1.0 platforms and geode_lx.
geode_lx still has to implement EARLY_CBMEM (requirement for 4.7 and 4.9 is
coming soon)...

Kind regards

Arthur Heymans

[Peter Stuge]

Arthur Heymans wrote:
> NORTHBRIDGE_VIA_VX900 on the VIA EPIA-M850 board
>
> https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/30057/1
> https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/30058/3

Hmm - maybe I have that board. I'll try to look for it.
> The only remaining targets that need to be addressed before the special
> logic for CAR globals can be dropped are FSP1.0 platforms and geode_lx.
> geode_lx still has to implement EARLY_CBMEM (requirement for 4.7 and 4.9
> is coming soon)...

I could test geode_lx, maybe maybe even do some limited development.

//Peter