linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2] arm64: dts: qcom: sm8550: Fix DTBO boot failure

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Message-ID: <487e4605-0a21-48d6-8b77-9ce2799ad212@kernel.org>
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2026 08:51:18 +0100
From: Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@...nel.org>
To: Aaron Kling <webgeek1234@...il.com>
Cc: Bjorn Andersson <andersson@...nel.org>,
 Konrad Dybcio <konradybcio@...nel.org>, Rob Herring <robh@...nel.org>,
 Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk+dt@...nel.org>, Conor Dooley
 <conor+dt@...nel.org>, Kumar Sharma <quic_vksharma@...cinc.com>,
 linux-arm-msm@...r.kernel.org, devicetree@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Pavan Kondeti <pavan.kondeti@....qualcomm.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] arm64: dts: qcom: sm8550: Fix DTBO boot failure

On 08/02/2026 16:10, Aaron Kling wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 8, 2026 at 3:07 AM Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzk@...nel.org> wrote:
>>
>> On 08/02/2026 02:16, Aaron Kling via B4 Relay wrote:
>>> From: Pavan Kondeti <pavan.kondeti@....qualcomm.com>
>>>
>>> ABL requires certain things in the base dtb to apply a dtbo. Namely:
>>>
>>> * A label named qcom_tzlog must exist, but doesn't have to contain any
>>>   specific properties
>>> * The timer node must have a label named arch_timer
>>>
>>> This aligns the sm8550 soc dtsi with those requirements. Without these
>>> in the base dtb, when ABL attempts to apply any dtbo, it will fail to
>>> the bootloader menu.
>>>
>>
>> Incomplete DCO chain.
>>
>>> Co-authored-by: Aaron Kling <webgeek1234@...il.com>
>>> Signed-off-by: Aaron Kling <webgeek1234@...il.com>
>>> ---
>>> With a current mainline sm8550 base dtb, ABL will fail to apply any dtbo
>>> and fail back to the bootloader menu. There are two changes needed:
>>
>> Since when? We were testing SM8550 (me on QRD) all the time and there
>> was no problem.
>>
>> You need to provide details which hardware needs it, if this is about to
>> expected, but honestly, we don't add such nodes/labels for downstream
>> bootloader. Qualcomm should fix the bootloder instead.
> 
> This discussion has been ongoing in a couple places. It is needed on
> all semi-recent recent qcom socs. See this chain [0] on my sm8550


Explanation must be in this commit, not in other places.

> questions thread and the previous revision of this series [1]. This
> has been a known issue for a while, see this comment [2] on the gunyah
> watchdog series, which is what the series was based on.

But that [2] still speaks about overlay. You are suppose to boot
standard kernel with typical setup - concatenated DTB.

If you want some other ways, like choosing overlays by ABL or whatever
else, you need to fix ABL.

You want to use some custom boot way of ABL, but it's broken... yet it
is no reason to add these properties. What if I want to boot DTJUNK
files via my custom ABJUNK - can I add such things to upstream? No.

You cannot add properties to support custom boot of ABL if that boot is
broken.
> 
> My current understanding is that the qcom_tzlog and arch_timer labels
> are required period for abl to apply a dtbo. And this setup will only


Best regards,
Krzysztof