| 1 | NXP i.MX 8M Plus and i.MX 8M Mini Evaluation Kits (``imx8mp-evk``, ``imx8mm-evk``) |
| 2 | ================================================================================== |
| 3 | |
| 4 | The ``imx8mp-evk`` and ``imx8mm-evk`` machine models the i.MX 8M Plus |
| 5 | and i.MX 8M Mini Evaluation Kits, based on i.MX 8M Plus and i.MX8M |
| 6 | Mini SoCs. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | Supported devices |
| 9 | ----------------- |
| 10 | |
| 11 | The ``imx8mp-evk`` and ``imx8mm-evk`` machines implement the |
| 12 | following devices: |
| 13 | |
| 14 | * Up to 4 Cortex-A53 cores |
| 15 | * Generic Interrupt Controller (GICv3) |
| 16 | * 4 UARTs |
| 17 | * 3 USDHC Storage Controllers |
| 18 | * 1 Designware PCI Express Controller |
| 19 | * 1 Ethernet Controller |
| 20 | * 2 Designware USB 3 Controllers |
| 21 | * 2 FlexCAN 3 CAN Controllers (``imx8mp-evk`` only) |
| 22 | * 5 GPIO Controllers |
| 23 | * 6 I2C Controllers |
| 24 | * 3 SPI Controllers |
| 25 | * 3 Watchdogs |
| 26 | * 6 General Purpose Timers |
| 27 | * Secure Non-Volatile Storage (SNVS) including an RTC |
| 28 | * Clock Tree |
| 29 | |
| 30 | Boot options |
| 31 | ------------ |
| 32 | |
| 33 | The ``imx8mp-evk`` and ``imx8mm-evk`` machines can start a Linux |
| 34 | kernel directly using the standard ``-kernel`` functionality. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | Direct Linux Kernel Boot |
| 37 | '''''''''''''''''''''''' |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Probably the easiest way to get started with a whole Linux system on the machine |
| 40 | is to generate an image with Buildroot. Version 2024.11.1 is tested at the time |
| 41 | of writing and involves two steps. First run the following commands in the |
| 42 | toplevel directory of the Buildroot source tree: |
| 43 | |
| 44 | For i.MX 8M Plus EVK: |
| 45 | |
| 46 | .. code-block:: bash |
| 47 | |
| 48 | $ make freescale_imx8mpevk_defconfig |
| 49 | $ make |
| 50 | |
| 51 | For i.MX 8M Mini EVK: |
| 52 | |
| 53 | .. code-block:: bash |
| 54 | |
| 55 | $ make freescale_imx8mmevk_defconfig |
| 56 | $ make |
| 57 | |
| 58 | Once finished successfully there is an ``output/image`` subfolder. Navigate into |
| 59 | it and resize the SD card image to a power of two: |
| 60 | |
| 61 | .. code-block:: bash |
| 62 | |
| 63 | $ qemu-img resize sdcard.img 256M |
| 64 | |
| 65 | Now that everything is prepared the machine can be started as follows: |
| 66 | |
| 67 | For i.MX 8M Plus EVK: |
| 68 | |
| 69 | .. code-block:: bash |
| 70 | |
| 71 | $ qemu-system-aarch64 -M imx8mp-evk \ |
| 72 | -display none -serial null -serial stdio \ |
| 73 | -kernel Image \ |
| 74 | -dtb imx8mp-evk.dtb \ |
| 75 | -append "root=/dev/mmcblk2p2" \ |
| 76 | -drive file=sdcard.img,if=sd,bus=2,format=raw,id=mmcblk2 |
| 77 | |
| 78 | For i.MX 8M Mini EVK: |
| 79 | |
| 80 | .. code-block:: bash |
| 81 | |
| 82 | $ qemu-system-aarch64 -M imx8mm-evk -smp 4 -m 2G \ |
| 83 | -display none -serial null -serial stdio \ |
| 84 | -kernel Image \ |
| 85 | -dtb imx8mm-evk.dtb \ |
| 86 | -append "root=/dev/mmcblk2p2" \ |
| 87 | -drive file=sdcard.img,if=sd,bus=2,format=raw,id=mmcblk2 |
| 88 | |
| 89 | KVM Acceleration |
| 90 | ---------------- |
| 91 | |
| 92 | To enable hardware-assisted acceleration via KVM, append |
| 93 | ``-accel kvm`` to the command line. While this speeds up performance |
| 94 | significantly, be aware of the following limitations: |
| 95 | |
| 96 | * The ``imx8mp-evk`` and ``imx8mm-evk`` machines are not included |
| 97 | under the "virtualization use case" of :doc:`QEMU's security |
| 98 | policy </system/security>`. This means that you should not trust that |
| 99 | it can contain malicious guests, whether it is run using TCG or KVM. |
| 100 | If you don't trust your guests and you're relying on QEMU to be the |
| 101 | security boundary, you want to choose another machine such as |
| 102 | ``virt``. |
| 103 | * Rather than Cortex-A53 CPUs, the same CPU type as the host's will be used. |
| 104 | This is a limitation of KVM and may not work with guests with a tight |
| 105 | dependency on Cortex-A53. |
| 106 | * No EL2 and EL3 exception levels are available which is also a KVM limitation. |
| 107 | Direct kernel boot should work but running U-Boot, TF-A, etc. won't succeed. |