Status of SBSA Reference Platform in QEMU

This repository contains my attempt to track status of SBSA Reference Platform in QEMU ("-M sbsa-ref") in a bit more organized way.

Scripts

There are some scripts provided:

Name	Function
boot-sbsa-ref.py	Boot QEMU with several options enabled.
check-sbsa.py	Check "sbsa-ref" against SBSA checklists.
fetch-os-images.py	Fetches images listed in os.yml file.
parse-bsa-log.py	Parse BSA ACS logs. Needs verbose logs and core name.
parse-sbsa-log.py	Parse SBSA ACS logs. Needs verbose logs, core name and SBSA level.
run-gathering-logs.sh	Gather (S)BSA ACS logs.
run-parsing-logs.sh	Parse all (S)BSA ACS logs.

YAML files

Operating Systems for tests

The os.yml file lists several operating systems I use to test SBSA Reference Platform.

Tried to keep format simple:

osname:
  file: disks/OSNAME.ext
  force-name: true
  force-download: true
  reset: false
  type: hdd
  url: https://example.org/OSNAME.ext
  paywall_url: https://developers.redhat.com/products/rhel/download

Argument	Description
file	path to local copy of disk image
force-name	forces name from 'file' field, useful for too generic names (like 'boot.iso' used by CentOS)
force-download	forces download even if file is present (for places where images are updated on server without changing name)
type	ISO by default, 'hdd' if disk image
url	URL to disk image
paywall_url	URL to page where image can be downloaded

There is fetch-os-images.py script to download images listed in os.yml file. When run without arguments it will try to download all entries.

(S)BSA ACS

There are two yaml files with results of (S)BSA ACS runs:

• status-bsa.yml
• status-sbsa.yml

Format is simple:

31:
  level: '7'
  status:
    cortex-a57: FAIL
    cortex-a72: FAIL
    max: PASS
    neoverse-n1: FAIL
  tags: S_L7PE_04
  title: Checks ASIMD Int8 matrix multiplc

There is test number ("31"), it's title, tags assigned in ACS (or not as two SBSA ACS tests lack such information), SBSA level (only in "status-sbsa.yml" file) and status.

Status information is split to core names. Supported cpu cores are:

• Cortex-A57/A72 are Arm v8.0 so they lack many extensions
• Neoverse-N1 is Arm v8.2
• Neoverse-V1 is Arm v8.4
• Neoverse-N2 is Arm v9.0
• max has everything QEMU supports

Boot sbsa-ref script

The "boot-sbsa-ref.py" script has several arguments:

Argument	Default	Description
--cmd		provides EFI command to run in UEFI shell (in 100x31 text mode)
--cpu	neoverse-v1	allows to choose cpu core
--gdb		makes QEMU wait for GDB connection
--gfx		open window with graphics card output
--no-reset		do not add 'reset -c' command to be run after "--cmd" command to quit QEMU
--numa		adds some simple NUMA setup
--os		allows to run OS installer (Alpine, CentOS Stream 8/9, Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, NetBSD 9/10, OpenBSD, RHEL 9)
--smp	4	controls amount of cpu cores
--virt		allows to boot "virt" instead of "sbsa-ref" (requires own firmware files)

OS installer images need to be fetched first into "disks/" directory. For NetBSD 9 and OpenBSD disk images are used, other OSes use ISO files.

Virt machine gets SMMUv3 and newer GIC to be closer to SBSA Reference Platform. Also XHCI usb controller is added.

Firmware files

In "firmware" directory I placed several firmware blobs (compressed with xz so unpack them before use):

filename	Platform Version	GIC ITS	USB
202109-tfa2.5-SBSA_FLASH0.fd.xz	0.0	-	EHCI
its-ehci-SBSA_FLASH0.fd.xz	0.3	✔	EHCI
SBSA_FLASH0.fd.xz	0.3	✔	XHCI

Notes:

• Firmware which exposes EHCI controller does not give working USB. BSD systems may refuse to boot.
• GIC ITS also exposes SMMU and allows complex PCI Express setup.