CAAM issue in Variscite iMX8m mini EVK

[Sudharsun]

Hi,

I am currently working on the Secure Boot implementation for the Variscite VAR-SOM i.MX8M Mini EVK.

I have generated the private and public keys using OpenSSL and successfully signed the FIT image. However, when I stop the boot process in U-Boot and manually load the FIT image, I encounter errors indicating that CAAM (Cryptographic Acceleration and Assurance Module) is not initialized/configured properly.

I have attached the relevant error logs below for reference.

Could you please review them and suggest possible solutions to resolve this issue at the earliest?

Log:

u-boot=> ext4ls mmc 1:1 /boot
<DIR> 1024 .
<DIR> 1024 ..
30843306 fitImage.signed
u-boot=> ext4load mmc 1:1 ${loadaddr} /boot/fitImage.signed
30843306 bytes read in 1282 ms (22.9 MiB/s)
u-boot=> iminfo ${loadaddr}

## Checking Image at 40480000 ...
FIT image found
FIT description: Signed FIT Image
Created: 2026-02-11 10:13:37 UTC
Image 0 (kernel)
Description: Linux kernel
Created: 2026-02-11 10:13:37 UTC
Type: Kernel Image
Compression: uncompressed
Data Start: 0x404800c0
Data Size: 30792192 Bytes = 29.4 MiB
Architecture: AArch64
OS: Linux
Load Address: 0x40200000
Entry Point: 0x40200000
Hash algo: sha256
Hash value: 6c93585fae1f9fa935271aef6c32e7c908a1127cc1a973c2b9d085092bbaf0fb
Image 1 (fdt)
Description: Device Tree Blob
Created: 2026-02-11 10:13:37 UTC
Type: Flat Device Tree
Compression: uncompressed
Data Start: 0x421ddbb8
Data Size: 49293 Bytes = 48.1 KiB
Architecture: AArch64
Hash algo: sha256
Hash value: 7e517bd42c9792e66532d20497e503e4bb490f3ac54f4a4f3edeee6cd8d8c8d9
Default Configuration: 'conf'
Configuration 0 (conf)
Description: unavailable
Kernel: kernel
FDT: fdt
Sign algo: sha256,rsa2048:dev
Sign value: 019c2d9cbeead8b464936f7cd32f8a845e06f3dde00ee376f4ebbdcdcade94a01463af9eb087ab942bb5ca6b022377e43e1890ef56e79d02d7e19ba8b30d411960cd48e1f1b420c8f4a93f3cb0266dc0c5163aea566
Timestamp: 2026-02-11 10:13:37 UTC
## Checking hash(es) for FIT Image at 40480000 ...
Hash(es) for Image 0 (kernel): sha256Error: Address arguments are not aligned
CAAM was not setup properly or it is faulty
error!
Bad hash value for 'hash' hash node in 'kernel' image node
Bad hash in FIT image!
u-boot=> bootm ${loadaddr}
## Loading kernel from FIT Image at 40480000 ...
Using 'conf' configuration
Verifying Hash Integrity ... OK
Trying 'kernel' kernel subimage
Description: Linux kernel
Created: 2026-02-11 10:13:37 UTC
Type: Kernel Image
Compression: uncompressed
Data Start: 0x404800c0
Data Size: 30792192 Bytes = 29.4 MiB
Architecture: AArch64
OS: Linux
Load Address: 0x40200000
Entry Point: 0x40200000
Hash algo: sha256
Hash value: 6c93585fae1f9fa935271aef6c32e7c908a1127cc1a973c2b9d085092bbaf0fb
Verifying Hash Integrity ... sha256Error: Address arguments are not aligned
CAAM was not setup properly or it is faulty
error!
Bad hash value for 'hash' hash node in 'kernel' image node
Bad Data Hash
ERROR: can't get kernel image

[AldoG]

Hello,

I don't know which uboot version you are running, but could you check if you have the following enabled in your uboot defconfig

CONFIG_ARCH_MISC_INIT=y

Best regards/Saludos,
Aldo.