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how to bypass BL3-1 arm-trusted-firmware running on Juno

armdev

Hi,

I am trying to take control at EL3 level and want to run my code on Juno. I am using arm-trusted-firmware package running on Juno.

In order to achieve this I am using DS-5 debugger to breakthrough the code and setting the PC to my code but instead of executing next instruction it is jumping back to some 0x400_F000 address.

I am not sure how I can achieve this ? What i simply want is to take control at EL3 level and execute my code. I believe it is possible at BL3-1 level, is it correct ?

I found example for bare-metal applications but the control transfer is happening at EL1-NS mode whereas I need EL3 level control.

Thanks,

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    Hi armdev,

    It isn't a great idea to "bypass" the ARM Trusted Firmware on Juno, because it controls the uploading of the firmware to the system power controller. However once it gets to EL2 or EL1N and spins around (if you're using Ash Wilding's stub, or just stop at UEFI) and you're using DS-5 (or any debugger), you have full control - the ARMv8 architecture actually defines special exception level entry and return instructions (DCPS et al.) which means it can put the core into any exception level you wish.

    You could write a script that essentially sets SCTLR_EL3.M to 0 (disabling the MMU) and load code to the EL3 physical address space (i.e. loadfile EL3:0xNNNNNNNNNN), then set the "PC" to that same address. The debugger should do the right thing when it continues execution.

    Let us know if you have any issues doing the above.

    Ta,

    Matt Sealey

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  • 0

    Hi armdev,

    It isn't a great idea to "bypass" the ARM Trusted Firmware on Juno, because it controls the uploading of the firmware to the system power controller. However once it gets to EL2 or EL1N and spins around (if you're using Ash Wilding's stub, or just stop at UEFI) and you're using DS-5 (or any debugger), you have full control - the ARMv8 architecture actually defines special exception level entry and return instructions (DCPS et al.) which means it can put the core into any exception level you wish.

    You could write a script that essentially sets SCTLR_EL3.M to 0 (disabling the MMU) and load code to the EL3 physical address space (i.e. loadfile EL3:0xNNNNNNNNNN), then set the "PC" to that same address. The debugger should do the right thing when it continues execution.

    Let us know if you have any issues doing the above.

    Ta,

    Matt Sealey

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