Copyright 2017,2018 IBM
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This document describes a protocol for host to BMC communication via the mailbox registers present on the Aspeed 2400 and 2500 chips. This protocol is specifically designed to allow a host to request and manage access to a flash device(s) with the specifics of how the host is required to control this described below.
Version specific protocol functionalities are represented by the version number in brackets next to the definition of the functionality. (e.g. (V2) for version 2 specific funtionality). All version specific functionality must also be implemented by proceeding versions up to and not including the version a command was removed.
"mbox" is the name we use to represent a protocol we have established between the host and the BMC via the Aspeed mailbox registers. This protocol is used for the host to control access to the flash device(s).
Prior to the mbox protocol, the host uses a backdoor into the BMC address space (the iLPC-to-AHB bridge) to directly manipulate the BMCs own flash controller.
This is not sustainable for a number of reasons. The main ones are:
Every piece of the host software stack that needs flash access (HostBoot, OCC, OPAL, ...) has to have a complete driver for the flash controller, update it on each BMC generation, have all the quirks for all the flash chips supported etc... We have 3 copies on the host already in addition to the one in the BMC itself.
There are serious issues of access conflicts to that controller between the host and the BMC.
It's very hard to support "BMC reboots" when doing that
It's slow
Last but probably most important, having that backdoor open is a security risk. It means the host can access any address on the BMC internal bus and implant malware in the BMC itself. So if the host is a "bare metal" shared system in some kind of data center, not only the host flash needs to be reflashed when switching from one customer to another, but the entire BMC flash too as nothing can be trusted. So we want to disable it.
To address all these, we have implemented a new mechanism that we call mbox.
When using this mechanism, the BMC is solely responsible for directly accessing the flash controller. All flash erase and write operations are performed by the BMC and the BMC only. (We can allow direct reads from flash under some circumstances but we tend to prefer going via memory).
The host uses the mailbox registers to send "commands" to the BMC, which responds via the same mechanism. Those commands allow the host to control a "window" (which is the LPC -> AHB FW space mapping) that is either a read window or a write window onto the flash.
When set for writing, the BMC makes the window point to a chunk of RAM instead. When the host "commits" a change (via MBOX), then the BMC can perform the actual flashing from the data in the RAM window.
The idea is to have the LPC FW space be routed to an active "window". That window can be a read or a write window. The commands allow to control which window and which offset into the flash it maps.
A read window can be a direct window to the flash controller space (ie. 0x3000_0000) or it can be a window to a RAM image of a flash. It doesn't have to be the full size of the flash per protocol (commands can be used to "slide" it to various parts of the flash) but if it's set to map the actual flash controller space at 0x3000_0000, it's probably simpler to make it the full flash. The host makes no assumption, it's your choice what to provide. The simplest implementation is to just route to the flash read/only.
A write window has to be a chunk of BMC memory. The minimum size is not defined in the spec, but it should be at least one block (4k for now but it should support larger block sizes in the future). When the BMC receive the command to map the write window at a given offset of the flash, the BMC should copy that portion of the flash into a reserved memory buffer, and modify the LPC mapping to point to that buffer.
The host can then write to that window directly (updating the BMC memory) and send a command to "commit" those updates to flash.
Finally, there is a RESET_STATE. It's the state in which the bootloader in the SEEPROM of the POWER9 chip will find what it needs to load HostBoot. The details are still being ironed out: either mapping the full flash read only or reset to a "window" that is either at the bottom or top of the flash. The current implementation resets to point to the full flash.
The mbox userspace is available on GitHub This is Apache licensed but we are keen to see any enhancements you may have.
The kernel driver is still in the process of being upstreamed but can be found in the OpenBMC Linux kernel staging tree:
https://github.com/openbmc/linux/commit/85770a7d1caa6a1fa1a291c33dfe46e05755a2ef
The Autotools of this requires the autoconf-archive package for your system
The Aspeed mailbox consists of 16 (8 bit) data registers see Layout for their use. Mailbox interrupt enabling, masking and triggering is done using a pair of control registers, one accessible by the host the other by the BMC. Interrupts can also be raised per write to each data register, for BMC and host. Write triggered interrupts are configured using two 8 bit registers where each bit represents a data register and if an interrupt should fire on write. Two 8 bit registers are present to act as a mask for write triggered interrupts.
Byte 0: COMMAND Byte 1: Sequence Byte 2-12: Arguments Byte 13: Response code Byte 14: Host controlled status reg Byte 15: BMC controlled status reg
Note: when the BMC is writing a response to the mbox registers (as described above), the "Response Code" (Register 13) must be the last register written to. Writing register 13 will trigger an interrupt to the host indicating a complete response has been written. Triggering the interrupt by writing register 13 prior to completing the response may lead to a data race, and must, therefore, be avoided.
What we essentially have is a set of registers which either the host or BMC can write to in order to communicate to the other which will respond in some way. There are 3 basic types of communication.
Messages usually originate from the host to the BMC. There are special cases for a back channel for the BMC to pass new information to the host which will be discussed later.
To initiate a request the host must set a command code (see Commands) into mailbox data register 0, and generate a sequence number (see Sequence Numbers) to write to mailbox register data 1. After these two values, any command-specific data should be written (see Layout). The host must then generate an interrupt to the BMC by using bit 0 of its control register and wait for an interrupt on the response register. Generating an interrupt automatically sets bit 7 of the corresponding control register. This bit can be used to poll for messages.
On receiving an interrupt (or polling on bit 7 of its Control Register) the BMC should read the message from the general registers of the mailbox and perform the necessary action before responding. On responding the BMC must ensure that the sequence number is the same as the one in the request from the host. The BMC must also ensure that mailbox data register 13 is a valid response code (see Responses). The BMC should then use its control register to generate an interrupt for the host to notify it of a response.
BMC to host communication is also possible for notification of events from the BMC. This requires that the host have interrupts enabled on mailbox data register 15 (or otherwise poll on bit 7 of mailbox status register 1). On receiving such a notification the host should read mailbox data register 15 to determine the event code which was set by the BMC (see BMC Event notifications in Commands for detail). Events which are defined as being able to be acknowledged by the host must be with a BMC_EVENT_ACK command.
When a host wants to communicate with the BMC via the mbox protocol the first thing it should do it call MBOX_GET_INFO in order to establish the protocol version which each understands. Before this, the only other commands which are allowed are RESET_STATE and BMC_EVENT_ACK.
After this, the host can open and close windows with the CREATE_READ_WINDOW, CREATE_WRITE_WINDOW and CLOSE_WINDOW commands. Creating a window is how the host requests access to a section of flash. It is worth noting that the host can only ever have one window that it is accessing at a time - hence forth referred to as the active window.
When the active window is a write window the host can perform MARK_WRITE_DIRTY, MARK_WRITE_ERASED and WRITE_FLUSH commands to identify changed blocks and control when the changed blocks are written to flash.
Independently, and at any point not during an existing mbox command transaction, the BMC may raise asynchronous events with the host to communicate a change in state.
Given that a majority of command and response arguments are specified as a multiple of block size it is necessary for the host and BMC to agree on a protocol version as this determines the block size. In V1 it is hard coded at 4K, in V2 the BMC chooses and in V3 the host is allowed to request a specific block size with the actual size chosen communicated back to the host as a response argument to MBOX_GET_INFO. Thus the host must always call MBOX_GET_INFO before any other command which specifies an argument in block size.
When invoking MBOX_GET_INFO the host must provide the BMC its highest supported version of the protocol. The BMC must respond with a protocol version less than or equal to that requested by the host, or in the event that there is no such value, an error code. In the event that an error is returned the host must not continue to communicate with the BMC. Otherwise, the protocol version returned by the BMC is the agreed protocol version for all further communication. The host may at a future point request a change in protocol version by issuing a subsequent MBOX_GET_INFO command.
In order to access flash contents, the host must request a window be opened at the flash offset it would like to access with the CREATE_{READ,WRITE}_WINDOW commands. The host may give a hint as to how much data it would like to access or otherwise set this argument to zero. The BMC must respond with the LPC bus address to access this window and the window size. The host must not access past the end of the active window. On returning success to either of the create window commands the BMC must guarantee that the window provided contains data which correctly represents the state of flash at the time the response is given.
There is only ever one active window which is the window created by the most recent CREATE_READ_WINDOW or CREATE_WRITE_WINDOW call which succeeded. Even though there are two types of windows there can still only be one active window irrespective of type. A host must not write to a read window. A host may read from a write window and the BMC must guarantee that the window reflects what the host has written there.
A window can be closed by calling CLOSE_WINDOW in which case there is no active window and the host must not access the LPC window after it has been closed. If the host closes an active write window then the BMC must perform an implicit flush. If the host tries to open a new window with an already active window then the active window is closed (and implicitly flushed if it was a write window). If the new window is successfully opened then it is the new active window, if the command fails then there is no active window and the previously active window must no longer be accessed.
The host must not access an LPC address other than that which is contained by the active window. The host must not use write management functions (see below) if the active window is a read window or if there is no active window.
The BMC has no method for intercepting writes that occur over the LPC bus. Thus the host must explicitly notify the BMC of where and when a write has occurred. The host must use the MARK_WRITE_DIRTY command to tell the BMC where within the write window it has modified. The host may also use the MARK_WRITE_ERASED command to erase large parts of the active window without the need to write 0xFF. The BMC must ensure that if the host reads from an area it has erased that the read values are 0xFF. Any part of the active window marked dirty/erased is only marked for the lifetime of the current active write window and does not persist if the active window is closed either implicitly or explicitly by the host or the BMC. The BMC may at any time or must on a call to WRITE_FLUSH flush the changes which it has been notified of back to the flash, at which point the dirty or erased marking is cleared for the active window. The host must not assume that any changes have been written to flash unless an explicit flush call was successful, a close of an active write window was successful or a create window command with an active write window was successful - otherwise consistency between the flash and memory contents cannot be guaranteed.
The host is not required to perform an erase before a write command and the BMC must ensure that a write performs as expected - that is if an erase is required before a write then the BMC must perform this itself (unless the no_erase flag is set in the MARK_WRITE_DIRTY command in which case the BMC will blindly write without a prior erase (V3)).
The host may lock an area of flash using the MARK_LOCKED command. Any attempt to mark dirty or erased this area of flash must fail with the LOCKED_ERROR response code. The host may open a write window which contains a locked area of flash however changes to a locked area of flash must never be written back to the backing data source (i.e. that area of flash must be treated as read only with respect to the backing store at all times). An attempt to lock an area of flash which is not clean in the current window must fail with PARAM_ERROR. Locked flash regions must persist across a BMC reboot or daemon restart. It is only possible to clear the lock state through a clear_locked dbus command. (V3)
The BMC can raise events with the host asynchronously to communicate to the host a change in state which it should take notice of. The host must (if possible for the given event) acknowledge it to inform the BMC it has been received.
If the BMC raises a BMC Reboot event then the host must renegotiate the protocol version so that both the BMC and the host agree on the block size. A BMC Reboot event implies a BMC Windows Reset event. If the BMC raises a BMC Windows Reset event then the host must assume that there is no longer an active window - that is if there was an active window it has been closed by the BMC and if it was a write window then the host must not assume that it was flushed unless a previous explicit flush call was successful.
The BMC may at some points require access to the flash and the BMC daemon must set the BMC Flash Control Lost event when the BMC is accessing the flash behind the BMC daemons back. When this event is set the host must assume that the contents of the active window could be inconsistent with the contents of flash.
RESET_STATE 0x01 GET_MBOX_INFO 0x02 GET_FLASH_INFO 0x03 CREATE_READ_WINDOW 0x04 CLOSE_WINDOW 0x05 CREATE_WRITE_WINDOW 0x06 MARK_WRITE_DIRTY 0x07 WRITE_FLUSH 0x08 BMC_EVENT_ACK 0x09 MARK_WRITE_ERASED 0x0a (V2) GET_FLASH_NAME 0x0b (V3) MARK_LOCKED 0x0c (V3)
SUCCESS 1 PARAM_ERROR 2 WRITE_ERROR 3 SYSTEM_ERROR 4 TIMEOUT 5 BUSY 6 (V2) WINDOW_ERROR 7 (V2) SEQ_ERROR 8 (V2) LOCKED_ERROR 9 (V3)
Sequence numbers are included in messages for correlation of commands and responses. V1, V2 and V3 of the protocol permit either zero or one commands to be in progress (yet to receive a response).
For generality, the host must generate a sequence number that is unique with respect to the previous command (one that has received a response) and any in-progress commands. Sequence numbers meeting this requirement are considered valid. The BMC's response to a command must contain the same sequence number issued by the host as found in the relevant command.
Sequence numbers may be reused in accordance with the constraints outlined above. However, it is not an error if the BMC receives a GET_MBOX_INFO with an invalid sequence number. For all other cases, the BMC must respond with SEQ_ERROR if the constraints are violated. If the host receives a SEQ_ERROR response it must consider any in-progress commands to have failed. The host may retry the affected command(s) after generating a suitable sequence number.
SUCCESS - Command completed successfully
PARAM_ERROR - Error with parameters supplied or command invalid
WRITE_ERROR - Error writing to the backing file system
SYSTEM_ERROR - Error in BMC performing system action
TIMEOUT - Timeout in performing action
BUSY - Daemon in suspended state (currently unable to access flash) - Retry again later
WINDOW_ERROR - Command not valid for active window or no active window - Try opening an appropriate window and retrying the command
SEQ_ERROR - Invalid sequence number supplied with command
LOCKED_ERROR - Tried to mark dirty or erased locked area of flash
Block size refers to an agreed value which is used as a unit for the arguments of various commands and responses. Having a block size multiplier allows us to specify larger values with fewer command and response fields.
In V1 block size is hard coded to 4K. In V2 it is variable and must be queried with the GET_MBOX_INFO command. In V3 the host can request a given block size however it is ultimately up to the daemon to choose a block size which is returned as part of the GET_MBOX_INFO command response. The host must respect the daemons choice. The ability for the host to request a block size is provided such that it can choose an appropriate size to be able to utilise commands which only operate at the block level.
Note that for simplicity block size must always be a power-of-2. Block size must also be greater than or equal to 4K. This is due to the fact that we have a 28-bit LPC address space and commands which return an LPC address do so in 16 bits, thus we need at least a 12-bit unit to ensure that we can specify the entire address space. This additionally allows us to specify flash addresses of at least 256MB.
Sizes and addresses are specified in either bytes - (bytes) or blocks - (blocks) Sizes and addresses specified in blocks must be converted to bytes by multiplying by the block size.
Command:
RESET_STATE
Added in: V1
Arguments:
-
Response:
-
Notes:
This command is designed to inform the BMC that it should put
host LPC mapping back in a state where the SBE will be able to
use it. Currently, this means pointing back to BMC flash
pre mailbox protocol. Final behavior is still TBD.
Command:
GET_MBOX_INFO
Added in: V1
Arguments:
V1:
Args 0: API version
V2:
Args 0: API version
V3:
Args 0: API version
Args 1: Requested block size (shift)
Response:
V1:
Args 0: API version
Args 1-2: default read window size (blocks)
Args 3-4: default write window size (blocks)
V2:
Args 0: API version
Args 1-2: reserved
Args 3-4: reserved
Args 5: Block size as power of two (encoded as a shift)
Args 6-7: Suggested Timeout (seconds)
V3:
Args 0: API version
Args 1-2: reserved
Args 3-4: reserved
Args 5: Block size as power of two (encoded as a shift)
Args 6-7: Suggested Timeout (seconds)
Args 8: Num Allocated Flash IDs
Notes:
The suggested timeout is a hint to the host as to how long
it should wait after issuing a command to the BMC before it
times out waiting for a response. This is the maximum time
which the BMC thinks it could take to service any command which
the host could issue. This may be set to zero to indicate that
the BMC does not wish to provide a hint in which case the host
must choose some reasonable value.
The host may desire a specific block size and thus can request
this by giving a hint to the daemon (may be zero). The daemon
may use this to select the block size which it will use however
is free to ignore it. The value in the response is the block
size which must be used for all further requests until a new
size is negotiated by another call to GET_MBOX_INFO. (V3)
Command:
GET_FLASH_INFO
Added in: V1
Arguments:
V1, V2:
-
V3:
Args 0: Flash ID
Response:
V1:
Args 0-3: Flash size (bytes)
Args 4-7: Erase granule (bytes)
V2, V3:
Args 0-1: Flash size (blocks)
Args 2-3: Erase granule (blocks)
Command:
CREATE_{READ/WRITE}_WINDOW
Added in: V1
Arguments:
V1:
Args 0-1: Requested flash offset (blocks)
V2:
Args 0-1: Requested flash offset (blocks)
Args 2-3: Requested flash size to access (blocks)
V3:
Args 0-1: Requested flash offset (blocks)
Args 2-3: Requested flash size to access (blocks)
Args 4: Flash ID
Response:
V1:
Args 0-1: LPC bus address of window (blocks)
V2, V3:
Args 0-1: LPC bus address of window (blocks)
Args 2-3: Window size (blocks)
Args 4-5: Flash offset mapped by window (blocks)
Notes:
The flash offset which the host requests access to is always
taken from the start of flash - that is it is an absolute
offset into flash.
LPC bus address is always given from the start of the LPC
address space - that is it is an absolute address.
The requested access size is only a hint. The response
indicates the actual size of the window. The BMC may
want to use the requested size to pre-load the remainder
of the request. The host must not access past the end of the
active window.
The flash offset mapped by the window is an absolute flash
offset and must be less than or equal to the flash offset
requested by the host. It is the responsibility of the host
to use this information to access any offset which is required.
The requested window size may be zero. In this case the
BMC is free to create any sized window but it must contain
atleast the first block of data requested by the host. A large
window is of course preferred and should correspond to
the default size returned in the GET_MBOX_INFO command.
If this command returns successfully then the created window
is the active window. If it fails then there is no active
window.
Command:
CLOSE_WINDOW
Added in: V1
Arguments:
V1:
-
V2:
Args 0: Flags
Response:
-
Notes:
Closes the active window. Any further access to the LPC bus
address specified to address the previously active window will
have undefined effects. If the active window is a
write window then the BMC must perform an implicit flush.
The Flags argument allows the host to provide some
hints to the BMC. Defined Values:
0x01 - Short Lifetime:
The window is unlikely to be accessed
anytime again in the near future. The effect of
this will depend on BMC implementation. In
the event that the BMC performs some caching
the BMC daemon could mark data contained in a
window closed with this flag as first to be
evicted from the cache.
Command:
MARK_WRITE_DIRTY
Added in: V1
Arguments:
V1:
Args 0-1: Flash offset to mark from base of flash (blocks)
Args 2-5: Number to mark dirty at offset (bytes)
V2:
Args 0-1: Window offset to mark (blocks)
Args 2-3: Number to mark dirty at offset (blocks)
Args 4 : Don't Erase Before Write (V3)
Response:
-
Notes:
The BMC has no method for intercepting writes that
occur over the LPC bus. The host must explicitly notify
the daemon of where and when a write has occurred so it
can be flushed to backing storage.
Offsets are given as an absolute (either into flash (V1) or the
active window (V2)) and a zero offset refers to the first
block. If the offset + number exceeds the size of the active
window then the command must not succeed.
The host can give a hint to the daemon that is doesn't have to
erase a flash area before writing to it by setting ARG[4]. This
means that the daemon will blindly perform a write to that area
and will not try to erase it before hand. This can be used if
the host knows that a large area has already been erased for
example but then wants to perform many small writes.
Command
WRITE_FLUSH
Added in: V1
Arguments:
V1:
Args 0-1: Flash offset to mark from base of flash (blocks)
Args 2-5: Number to mark dirty at offset (bytes)
V2:
-
Response:
-
Notes:
Flushes any dirty/erased blocks in the active window to
the backing storage.
In V1 this can also be used to mark parts of the flash
dirty and flush in a single command. In V2 the explicit
mark dirty command must be used before a call to flush
since there are no longer any arguments. If the offset + number
exceeds the size of the active window then the command must not
succeed.
Command:
BMC_EVENT_ACK
Added in: V1
Arguments:
Args 0: Bits in the BMC status byte (mailbox data
register 15) to ack
Response:
*clears the bits in mailbox data register 15*
Notes:
The host should use this command to acknowledge BMC events
supplied in mailbox register 15.
Command:
MARK_WRITE_ERASED
Added in: V2
Arguments:
V2:
Args 0-1: Window offset to erase (blocks)
Args 2-3: Number to erase at offset (blocks)
Response:
-
Notes:
This command allows the host to erase a large area
without the need to individually write 0xFF
repetitively.
Offset is the offset within the active window to start erasing
from (zero refers to the first block of the active window) and
number is the number of blocks of the active window to erase
starting at offset. If the offset + number exceeds the size of
the active window then the command must not succeed.
Command:
GET_FLASH_NAME
Added in: V3
Arguments:
Args 0: Flash ID
Response:
Args 0 : Flash Name Length (bytes)
Args 1-10: Flash Name / UID
Notes:
Describes a flash with some kind of identifier useful to the
host system. This is typically a null-padded string.
The length in the response is the number of response arguments
as part of the flash name field which the host should expect to
have been populated.
Command:
MARK_LOCKED
Added in: V3
Arguments:
Args 0-1: Flash offset to lock (blocks)
Args 2-3: Number to lock at offset (blocks)
Args 4: Flash ID
Response:
-
Notes:
Lock an area of flash so that the host can't mark it dirty or
erased. If the requested area is within the current window and
that area is currently marked dirty or erased then this command
must fail with PARAM_ERROR.
If the BMC needs to tell the host something then it simply writes to Byte 15. The host should have interrupts enabled on that register, or otherwise be polling it.
Events which must be ACKed:
0x01: BMC Reboot 0x02: BMC Windows Reset (V2)
Events which cannot be ACKed (BMC will clear when no longer applicable):
0x40: BMC Flash Control Lost (V2) 0x80: BMC MBOX Daemon Ready (V2)
Events which must be ACKed: The host should acknowledge these events with BMC_EVENT_ACK to let the BMC know that they have been received and understood.
0x01 - BMC Reboot: Used to inform the host that a BMC reboot has occurred. The host must perform protocol version negotiation again and must assume it has no active window. The host must not assume that any commands which didn't respond as such succeeded. 0x02 - BMC Windows Reset: (V2) The host must assume that its active window has been closed and that it no longer has an active window. The host is not required to perform protocol version negotiation again. The host must not assume that any commands which didn't respond as such succeeded.
Events which cannot be ACKed: These events cannot be acknowledged by the host and a call to BMC_EVENT_ACK with these bits set will have no effect. The BMC will clear these bits when they are no longer applicable.
0x40 - BMC Flash Control Lost: (V2) The BMC daemon has been suspended and thus no longer controls access to the flash (most likely because some other process on the BMC required direct access to the flash and has suspended the BMC daemon to preclude concurrent access). The BMC daemon must clear this bit itself when it regains control of the flash (the host isn't able to clear it through an acknowledge command). The host must not assume that the contents of the active window correctly reflect the contents of flash while this bit is set. 0x80 - BMC MBOX Daemon Ready: (V2) Used to inform the host that the BMC daemon is ready to accept command requests. The host isn't able to clear this bit through an acknowledge command, the BMC daemon must clear it before it terminates (assuming it didn't terminate unexpectedly). The host should not expect a response while this bit is not set. Note that this bit being set is not a guarantee that the BMC daemon will respond as it or the BMC may have crashed without clearing it.