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bfe-core1106-sdk/docs/decisions/0006-qemu-device-sim.md
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BFE Engineering c756622c96 docs: reposition as the 86 Panel development environment
The repo's documentation framed it as a support repo for one product
(WardenOS). Since going public the real audience is anyone with a Luckfox
Pico 86 Panel: a maintained 6.18 kernel, an off-device development loop,
and a device simulator that exist nowhere else for this board. Reframe the
README and top-level docs board-first, with WardenOS documented as the
downstream consumer it is (ADR-0008).

Also an editorial pass over the whole doc set:
- every H1/H2 is now a short title, not a sentence (ADRs, qemu/, patches/,
  drivers/, architecture, NPU feasibility, config-lint, payload); workflow
  flowchart titles fixed at the source in tools/flowgen.py and regenerated
  with fresh bench numbers
- README Quick Start commands verified against the scripts; requirements
  corrected (curl, bare python, gcc >= 14) and the MC/DC gate added as a
  step (run green locally on gcc 14.2)
- dropped the 'needs python (not python3)' vendor dig: build-kernel.sh
  inherited the same requirement (filed #10 to remove it)
- glossed MC/DC and HPMCU on first use; marked the tests/uboot-ab
  reference as flare-edge; deduplicated the three-simulator list into the
  root README table
2026-08-30 22:19:12 -06:00

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# ADR 0006 — QEMU Device Simulator
**Status:** Accepted (2026-08-29).
## Context
The two existing simulators cannot test the *device*: `lvglsim` (flare-edge)
is an SDL rendering harness, and `sim/` models registers behind driver seams.
Init ordering, the daemons as real processes, networking/enrollment against
FLARE, OTA, and the watchdog were testable only on a bench panel — flare-edge's
fault suite marks five scenarios "HIL, human prompts", its Playwright e2e needs
a live panel on the LAN, and its OTA desk test stops at "reached APPLYING".
Two ways to emulate the panel were considered:
1. **A custom RV1106 QEMU board model.** Nothing exists upstream or in the
community, so this means writing VOP/CRU/GRF/eMMC/HPMCU device models from
scratch and maintaining them against QEMU — months of work that duplicates
what `sim/` already models in Rust. It still could not run the boot chain:
BootROM is mask ROM and the DDR-init/idblock stages are closed rkbin blobs.
2. **The generic `-M virt` machine, entering at `-kernel zImage`.** The
forward-ported 6.18.46 config is multi_v7-derived and already carries
`ARCH_VIRT` plus the full virtio set — the canonical RV1106 zImage boots
virt **unmodified** (verified 2026-08-29). Peripherals become virtio
substitutes; SoC-block behavior stays in `sim/`, bridged in (the RS485
chardev bridge) rather than re-modeled.
## Decision
Option 2. `qemu/` holds the harness: `qemu-system-arm -M virt,highmem=off
-cpu cortex-a7 -smp 1 -m 256M` (the RV1106G3's shape), one canonical kernel
image plus an optional additive config fragment (`qemu/configs/virt.fragment`
via the `WARDEN_KCONFIG_FRAGMENT` hook — PCI/pci-serial/i6300esb/WireGuard/
virtio-gpu/virtio-input; the RV1106 build is byte-identical with the variable
unset). The VM carries the device's real 12-partition `blkdevparts=` A/B
layout on a virtio disk and populates the `/dev/block/by-name/` contract.
The name is `qemu/`, not any variant of "sim" — the wikis already warn that
"sim" is two different things.
Notable mechanics: `highmem=off` because the non-LPAE 32-bit kernel cannot
reach virt's default 40-bit PCIe ECAM; `-global virtio-mmio.force-legacy=false`
because virtio-gpu/input are VERSION_1-only devices.
## Consequences
- Everything below the kernel is **out of scope**: BootROM, idblock, U-Boot,
the real BCB-driven A/B selection and bootcount auto-revert. The initramfs
`warden.slot=` switch emulates U-Boot's *choice*, not the mechanism. The
untested A/B rollback chain stays bench territory.
- Display, input, network, and storage are **substitutes** (virtio), not
models. "Boots/works under emulation" is never evidence of "works on
silicon"; the VM narrows which claims need a panel.
- The VM is the first environment that runs production userspace binaries on
a non-RV1106 physical memory map, which makes it a canary for baked-in
hardware assumptions (it immediately found flare-edge #106, a fatal SIGBUS
in flared's HPMCU probe, and #107, a Y2038 time_t truncation in the UI).
- The guest deliberately deviates from production in documented ways
(`WARDEN_FLARE_INSECURE=1` for the desk mock portal, `WARDEN_HPMCU=0`);
qemu/README.md carries the emulated-vs-not table.
- The kernel-build CI job gains a fail-closed qemu boot smoke; hosted runners
build (but cannot boot) the initramfs and disk image.