Switching to privileged mode in cortex-m3 - cortex-m3

Question

I'm trying to access the SysTick timer of Cortex-M3 so I've to switch to priviledged mode. I'm doing it as
/* Active previlige mode */
asm ("mov r0, #0x0");
asm ("msr control, r0");
asm ("ISB");
But it's not working because I'm unable to write the SYST_CSR register. Any exception entry is required to perform this operation if YES, how?

Answer 1

You cannot raise the mode to privileged directly from user mode (you can change to user mode direct from privileged mode). You have to do it via an SVC call (Supervisor call).
How you raise an SVC call will depend on your compiler if you do it in C, however in assembler you could use asm("svc, #1");
The #1 can be any number. This is made available to the SVC handler. If you want to only use the SVC handler for this purpose only then you don't need to decode the number in the handler and can simply use you assembly above to raise the privilege. However if you want to use the SVC for more than one purpose then you need to decode the number, so that #1 is for raising the privilege, #2 is for doing something else etc. The main thing to know here is that the SVC number will be on the stack you were using when the call was made (either the msp or psp). If you were only ever using one stack then it is easier. You will have to look up the stack frame in user guides.
So you need to Implement an SVC handler. You should be to find some examples on the web. There is a good example in the "Definitive Guide to ARM Cortex-M3 and Cortex M4" book.

Answer 2

Janathan Valvano has SysTick timer code example and other stuff at http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/arm/#Timer
; SysTickInts.s
; Runs on LM4F120/TM4C123
; Use the SysTick timer to request interrupts at a particular period.
; Daniel Valvano
; September 11, 2013
; This example accompanies the book
; "Embedded Systems: Introduction to ARM Cortex M Microcontrollers"
; ISBN: 978-1469998749, Jonathan Valvano, copyright (c) 2013
; Volume 1, Program 9.7
; "Embedded Systems: Real Time Interfacing to ARM Cortex M Microcontrollers",
; ISBN: 978-1463590154, Jonathan Valvano, copyright (c) 2013
; Volume 2, Program 5.12, section 5.7
;
;Copyright 2013 by Jonathan W. Valvano, valvano#mail.utexas.edu
; You may use, edit, run or distribute this file
; as long as the above copyright notice remains
;THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS". NO WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED
;OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
;MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE APPLY TO THIS SOFTWARE.
;VALVANO SHALL NOT, IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL,
;OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER.
;For more information about my classes, my research, and my books, see
;http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/
NVIC_ST_CTRL_R EQU 0xE000E010
NVIC_ST_RELOAD_R EQU 0xE000E014
NVIC_ST_CURRENT_R EQU 0xE000E018
NVIC_ST_CTRL_COUNT EQU 0x00010000 ; Count flag
NVIC_ST_CTRL_CLK_SRC EQU 0x00000004 ; Clock Source
NVIC_ST_CTRL_INTEN EQU 0x00000002 ; Interrupt enable
NVIC_ST_CTRL_ENABLE EQU 0x00000001 ; Counter mode
NVIC_ST_RELOAD_M EQU 0x00FFFFFF ; Counter load value
NVIC_SYS_PRI3_R EQU 0xE000ED20 ; Sys. Handlers 12 to 15 Priority
AREA |.text|, CODE, READONLY, ALIGN=2
THUMB
EXPORT SysTick_Init
; **************SysTick_Init*********************
; Initialize SysTick periodic interrupts, priority 2
; Input: R0 interrupt period
; Units of period are 1/clockfreq
; Maximum is 2^24-1
; Minimum is determined by length of ISR
; Output: none
; Modifies: R0, R1, R2, R3
SysTick_Init
; start critical section
MRS R3, PRIMASK ; save old status
CPSID I ; mask all (except faults)
; disable SysTick during setup
LDR R1, =NVIC_ST_CTRL_R ; R1 = &NVIC_ST_CTRL_R (pointer)
MOV R2, #0
STR R2, [R1] ; disable SysTick
; maximum reload value
LDR R1, =NVIC_ST_RELOAD_R ; R1 = &NVIC_ST_RELOAD_R (pointer)
SUB R0, R0, #1 ; counts down from RELOAD to 0
STR R0, [R1] ; establish interrupt period
; any write to current clears it
LDR R1, =NVIC_ST_CURRENT_R ; R1 = &NVIC_ST_CURRENT_R (pointer)
STR R2, [R1] ; writing to counter clears it
; set NVIC system interrupt 15 to priority 2
LDR R1, =NVIC_SYS_PRI3_R ; R1 = &NVIC_SYS_PRI3_R (pointer)
LDR R2, [R1] ; friendly access
AND R2, R2, #0x00FFFFFF ; R2 = R2&0x00FFFFFF (clear interrupt 15 priority)
ORR R2, R2, #0x40000000 ; R2 = R2|0x40000000 (interrupt 15 priority is in bits 31-29)
STR R2, [R1] ; set SysTick to priority 2
; enable SysTick with core clock
LDR R1, =NVIC_ST_CTRL_R ; R1 = &NVIC_ST_CTRL_R
; ENABLE SysTick (bit 0), INTEN enable interrupts (bit 1), and CLK_SRC (bit 2) is internal
MOV R2, #(NVIC_ST_CTRL_ENABLE+NVIC_ST_CTRL_INTEN+NVIC_ST_CTRL_CLK_SRC)
STR R2, [R1] ; store a 7 to NVIC_ST_CTRL_R
; end critical section
MSR PRIMASK, R3 ; restore old status
BX LR ; return
ALIGN ; make sure the end of this section is aligned
END ; end of file