Bare Metal Wiki

This wiki is intended as a repository of information on the development of open source software and hardware for bare-metal Arm® and RISC-V SoCs.

We focus on the ARMv8-A architecture in 64-bit mode, AArch64, as implemented by the Cortex® A-53, and the Freedom FE310-G002 32-bit RISC-V SoC on the SiFive HiFive1 Rev B dev board.

For a quick start, you should check out the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ page or the HiFive1 Rev B page.

• Electronics LearningLab (upgraded)
• Raspberry Pi 3 B+
• HiFive1 Rev B
• FL2K Synth / RTL-SDR Receiver
• Orange Pi PC 2
• 12V LiPo Battery Management

• GNU binutils-gdb: Current binutils and GDB git repository
• GNU GCC git repository
• Raspberry Pi Firmware git repository
• Goswin von Brederlow: raspbootcom.cc
• bzt: raspbootin64
• OpenOCD: Open On-Chip Debugger git repository
• ARM: GNU Toolchain for the A-profile Architecture
• ARM: GNU Toolchain for the R and M-profile Architectures
• SEGGER®: Embedded Studio
• SEGGER: J-Link® Software and Documentation Pack (Beta)
• VC4ASM: Macro assembler for Broadcom VideoCore IV
• PiMD: Pi (Instruction) Multiple Data SIMD intrinsics library for the Broadcom VideoCoreIV-AG100-R GPU by Patrick Koenig & Nate Horan
• doe300/VC4CL: OpenCL implementation running on the VideoCore IV GPU of the Raspberry Pi models
• OsmoCom.org - FL2k SDR Synthe
• OsmoCom.org - RTL-SDR Receiver

• bztsrc/raspi3: Bare metal Raspberry Pi 3 tutorials
• organix/pijFORTHos: A bare-metal FORTH operating system for Raspberry Pi
• AZO234/RaspberryPi_BareMetal: Bare-metal examples for Raspberry Pi 1/2/3
• sakaki-/gentoo-on-rpi3-64bit: 64-bit Gentoo image for the Raspberry Pi 3 model B and B+
• OpenBSD/arm64 port of OpenBSD to various 64-bit ARM based systems
• OpenSUSE for Raspberry Pi 3
• Weird Machines

This section contains links to the official manufacturers' product pages for target hardware.

• Raspberry Pi Foundation: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
• Xunlong: Orange Pi PC 2
• SiFive: HiFive1 Rev B
• WINGONEER: CP2102 USB 2.0 to TTL UART
• SEGGER: J-Link EDU
• Olimex: ARM-USB-TINY-H

This section contains links to the original sources of hardware reference documentation which cannot be included here due to copyright. Please do not add or upload the contents of copyrighted material to this wiki or link to sources other than the original owner or authorized publisher.

• ARM: Bare-metal Boot Code for ARMv8-A Processors
• ARM Cortex®-A Series Programmer’s Guide for ARMv8-A
• ARM Architecture Reference Manual ARMv8, for ARMv8-A architecture profile
• ARM Cortex-A53 MPCore Processor Technical Reference Manual
• Arm Cortex-A53 MPCore Processor Advanced SIMD and Floating-point Extension Technical Reference Manual
• USENIX: AutoLock: Why Cache Attacks on ARM Are Harder Than You Think

• Broadcom® BC2837 ARM Peripherals
• Broadcom VideoCore® IV 3D Architecture Reference Guide

• SEGGER: J-Link / J-Trace User Guide

• Olimex® ARM-USB-TINY-H, ARM-USB-TINY OpenOCD Arm JTAG Debuggers User's Manual

• OpenOCD: Installation and configuration resources
• Remote Debugging of Raspberry Pi with JTAG interface by Arseny Kurnikov
• Presentation on Remote Debugging of Raspberry Pi with JTAG interface by Arseny Kurnikov
• SysProgs: Preparing Raspberry PI for JTAG Debugging
• SUSE Blog: Debugging Raspberry Pi 3 with JTAG
• linux-sunxi community wiki: UART
• Gentoo Wiki: Rasberry Pi Serial Ports

• OpenBSD Journal: Getting OpenBSD running on Raspberry Pi 3
• Routines Excluded: Installing OpenBSD 6.3 on Raspberry pi 3
• TuM'Fatig: Running OpenBSD on Raspberry Pi 3
• OpenSUSE Forum: Tumbleweed aarch64 on Raspberry Pi-3B: enabling switchable boot media
• Raspberry Pi Playground: Hacking The GPU For Fun And Profit (Pt. 1)
• Raspberry Pi Playground: Hacking The GPU For Fun And Profit (Pt. 2)

The next upcoming AUGH will be held on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 1600h UTC.

List of All AUGHs

• Sunday May 5, 2019 at 1800h UTC
  • Unboxing the SiFive HiFive1 Rev B
• Saturday April 13, 2019 at 1800h UTC
  • Building a Miuzei case for the Raspberry Pi 3 B+
  • Using an ATmega32 to bitbang JTAG - Part 2: JTAG Signalling and Initialization
• Saturday April 6, 2019 at 1800h UTC
  • Using an ATmega32 to bitbang JTAG - Part 1: External Interrupt Handling and TCK
• Saturday March 30, 2019 at 1800h UTC
  • Modifying ribbon cables for logic analyzer snooping
  • Analyzing and decoding UART and JTAG traffic using Saleae Logic
  • Discussion on interpreting eye diagrams
• Saturday, March 23, 2019 at 1800h UTC
  • Installing SEGGER Embedded Studio, J-Link tools, and the ARM GNU toolchain
  • Building a binutils and GCC cross-toolchain for aarch64-elf
  • Using raspbootin64, raspbootcom, and a CP2102 USB-UART adapter to boot bare-metal kernels on the Raspberry Pi 3 B+
• Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 1800h UTC
  • The inAUGHural meeting!
  • Building a Miuzei case for the Raspberry Pi 3 B+
  • Formatting SD cards & installing an OS using NOOBS

The Bare Metal Wiki and AUGH are a small collaboration by three hackers in their spare time:

• Rob Crowther (weilawei)
• Anthony Russell-Smith
• Luke Dyson (massspec)

We do our best to provide accurate and useful information to enable others to build and create, but we can't guarantee than any of this will be correct, working, or useful for any purpose.

Arm® and Cortex® are registered trademarks of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere.

BROADCOM® and VideoCore® are registered trademarks of Avago Technologies International Sales Pte. Ltd..

Orange Pi™ is a trademark of the Shenzhen Xunlong Software CO., Limited.

Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Olimex®, logo and combinations thereof, are registered trademarks of Olimex Ltd..

SEGGER® and J-Link® are registered trademarks of SEGGER Microcontroller GmbH & Co. KG..

SiFive® and HiFive® are registered trademarks of SiFive, Inc..

This website and its owners have no affiliation with Arm Limited or its subsidiaries, Avago Technologies International Sales Pte. Ltd. or its subsidiaries, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Shenzhen Xunlong Software CO., Limited, SEGGER Microcontroller GmbH & Co. KG., Olimex Ltd., SiFive, Inc., or any other organizations or persons mentioned here, unless explicitly stated otherwise.