This document provides instructions to create a riscv disk image, a riscv boot loader (berkeley bootloader (bbl)) and also points to the associated gem5 scripts to run riscv Linux full system simulations. The boot loader bbl is compiled with a Linux kernel and a device tree as well.
The used disk image is based on busybox and UCanLinux. It is built using the instructions, mostly from here.
All components are cross compiled on an x86 host using a riscv tool chain.
We assume the following directory structure while following the instructions in this README file:
riscv-fs/ |___ gem5/ # gem5 source code (to be cloned here) | |___ riscv-disk # built disk image will go here | |___ device.dts # device tree file to use with bbl | |___ riscv-gnu-toolchain # riscv tool chain for cross compilation | |___ riscv64-sample # UCanLinux source | |__linux # linux source | |__busybox # busybox source | |__riscv-pk # riscv proxy kernel source (bbl) | |__RootFS # root file system for disk image | | |___ configs-riscv-fs | |___ system # gem5 system config files | |___ run_riscv.py # gem5 run script | | |___ README.md # This README file
We use RISC-V GNU Compiler Toolchain. To build the toolchain, follow the following instructions, assuming you are in the riscv-fs directory.
# install required libraries sudo apt-get install -y autoconf automake autotools-dev curl python3 libmpc-dev libmpfr-dev libgmp-dev gawk build-essential bison flex texinfo gperf libtool patchutils bc zlib1g-dev libexpat-dev # clone riscv gnu toolchain source git clone https://github.com/riscv/riscv-gnu-toolchain cd riscv-gnu-toolchain # change the prefix to your directory # of choice for installation of the # toolchain ./configure --prefix=/opt/riscv # build the toolchain make linux -j$(nproc)
Update the PATH environment variable so that the following instructions can figure out where to find the riscv toolchain.
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/riscv/bin/
*Note: The above step is necessary and might cause errors while cross compiling different components for riscv if other methods are used to point to the toolchain.
Clone the UCanLinux source.
# going back to base riscv-fs directory cd ../ git clone https://github.com/UCanLinux/riscv64-sample
This source contains already built bootloader and disk images as well. Though the given disk image might be usable with gem5, the bbl (bootloader image) will not work with gem5 and we need to compile bbl with an input device tree (.dts) file separately. The following sections provide instructions to build both bbl and disk images.
Clone the latest LTS Linux kernel (v5.10):
cd riscv64-sample/ git clone --depth 1 --branch v5.10 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
To configure and compile the kernel:
cd linux # copy the kernel config from the riscv64-sample # directory (cloned previously) cp ../kernel.config .config # configure the kernel and build it make ARCH=riscv CROSS_COMPILE=riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu- menuconfig make ARCH=riscv CROSS_COMPILE=riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu- all -j$(nproc)
This should generate a vmlinux image in the linux directory.
To build the bootloader, clone the RISCV proxy kernel (pk) source, which is an application execution environment and contains the bbl source as well.
# going back to base riscv64-sample directory cd ../ git clone https://github.com/riscv/riscv-pk.git cd riscv-pk mkdir build cd build apt-get install device-tree-compiler # copy the device tree file from riscv-fs cp ../../../device.dts . ../configure --host=riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu --with-payload=../../linux/vmlinux --prefix=/opt/riscv/ --with-dts=device.dts make -j$(nproc) chmod 755 bbl # optional: strip the bbl binary riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu-strip bbl
This will produce a bbl bootloader binary with linux kernel in riscv-pk/build directory.
Clone and compile the busybox:
# going back to riscv64-sample directory cd ../.. git clone git://busybox.net/busybox.git cd busybox git checkout 1_30_stable # checkout the latest stable branch make menuconfig cp ../sample/busybox.config .config # optional make menuconfig make CROSS_COMPILE=riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu- all -j$(nproc) make CROSS_COMPILE=riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu- install
Next, we will be setting up a root file system:
# going back to riscv64-sample directory cd ../.. mkdir RootFS cd RootFS cp -a ../skeleton/* . # copy linux tools/binaries from busbybox (created above) cp -a ../busybox/_install/* . # install modules from linux kernel compiled above cd ../linux/ make ARCH=riscv CROSS_COMPILE=riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu- INSTALL_MOD_PATH=../RootFS modules_install # install libraries from the toolchain built above cd ../RootFS cp -a /opt/riscv/sysroot/lib . # create empty directories mkdir dev home mnt proc sys tmp var cd etc/network mkdir if-down.d if-post-down.d if-pre-up.d if-up.d # build m5 util for riscv and move # it to the root file system as well cd ../../../ cd gem5/util/m5 scons -C util/m5 build/riscv/out/m5 cp build/riscv/out/m5 ../../../RootFS/sbin/
Create a disk of 512MB size.
cd ../../../ dd if=/dev/zero of=riscv_disk bs=1M count=512
Making and mounting a root file system on the disk:
mkfs.ext2 -L riscv-rootfs riscv_disk sudo mkdir /mnt/rootfs sudo mount riscv_disk /mnt/rootfs sudo cp -a RootFS/* /mnt/rootfs sudo chown -R -h root:root /mnt/rootfs/ df /mnt/rootfs # make sure you are in riscv64-sample dir cd ../riscv64-sample sudo umount /mnt/rootfs
The disk image riscv_disk is ready to use.
Note: If you need to resize the disk image once it is created, you can do the following:
e2fsck -f riscv_disk resize2fs ./riscv_disk 512M
Also, if it is required to change the contents of the disk image, it can be mounted as:
mount -o loop riscv_disk [some mount directory]
gem5 scripts which can configure a riscv full system and run simulation are available in configs-riscv-fs/. The main script run_riscv.py expects following arguments:
bbl: path to the bbl (berkeley bootloader) binary with kernel payload.
disk: path to the disk image to use.
cpu_type: cpu model (atomic, simple).
num_cpus: number of cpu cores.
An example use of this script is the following:
[gem5 binary] -re configs/run_exit.py [path to bbl] [path to the disk image] atomic 4
To interact with the simulated system's console:
telnet localhost 3457 (this port number comes from `simerr` file)
The default linux system based on this README, has both login and password set as root.