The dmesg log did not include any mentioning of "spi", "spidev" or "tpm". I included some debug messages in the linux kernel. Specifically the modules in question and rebuilt the kernel. Now when the modules are loaded they print those messages in the dmesg log. I'm not sure if it will be appropriate to dumo the entire dmesg log ... but here it is:
[ 0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0
[ 0.000000] Linux version 4.19.73+ (ivan@tinkerboard) (gcc version 6.3.0 20170516 (Debian 6.3.0-18+deb9u1)) #3 SMP PREEMPT Thu Nov 7 11:33:44 UTC 2019
[ 0.000000] CPU: ARMv7 Processor [413fc082] revision 2 (ARMv7), cr=10c5387d
[ 0.000000] CPU: PIPT / VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache
[ 0.000000] OF: fdt: Machine model: TI AM335x BeagleBone Black
[ 0.000000] Memory policy: Data cache writeback
[ 0.000000] efi: Getting EFI parameters from FDT:
[ 0.000000] efi: UEFI not found.
[ 0.000000] cma: Reserved 48 MiB at 0x9c800000
[ 0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 130560
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 1148 pages used for memmap
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
[ 0.000000] Normal zone: 130560 pages, LIFO batch:31
[ 0.000000] CPU: All CPU(s) started in SVC mode.
[ 0.000000] AM335X ES2.1 (sgx neon)
[ 0.000000] random: get_random_bytes called from start_kernel+0xa0/0x510 with crng_init=0
[ 0.000000] percpu: Embedded 18 pages/cpu s43724 r8192 d21812 u73728
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s43724 r8192 d21812 u73728 alloc=18*4096
[ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 129412
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyO0,115200n8 bone_capemgr.uboot_capemgr_enabled=1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 ro rootfstype=ext4 rootwait coherent_pool=1M net.ifnames=0 rng_core.default_quality=100 quiet
[ 0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Memory: 437628K/522240K available (13312K kernel code, 1152K rwdata, 4420K rodata, 1024K init, 355K bss, 35460K reserved, 49152K cma-reserved, 0K highmem)
[ 0.000000] Virtual kernel memory layout:
vector : 0xffff0000 - 0xffff1000 ( 4 kB)
fixmap : 0xffc00000 - 0xfff00000 (3072 kB)
vmalloc : 0xe0000000 - 0xff800000 ( 504 MB)
lowmem : 0xc0000000 - 0xdfe00000 ( 510 MB)
pkmap : 0xbfe00000 - 0xc0000000 ( 2 MB)
modules : 0xbf000000 - 0xbfe00000 ( 14 MB)
.text : 0x(ptrval) - 0x(ptrval) (14304 kB)
.init : 0x(ptrval) - 0x(ptrval) (1024 kB)
.data : 0x(ptrval) - 0x(ptrval) (1153 kB)
.bss : 0x(ptrval) - 0x(ptrval) ( 356 kB)
[ 0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[ 0.000000] ftrace: allocating 42332 entries in 125 pages
[ 0.000000] rcu: Preemptible hierarchical RCU implementation.
[ 0.000000] rcu: RCU restricting CPUs from NR_CPUS=2 to nr_cpu_ids=1.
[ 0.000000] Tasks RCU enabled.
[ 0.000000] rcu: Adjusting geometry for rcu_fanout_leaf=16, nr_cpu_ids=1
[ 0.000000] NR_IRQS: 16, nr_irqs: 16, preallocated irqs: 16
[ 0.000000] IRQ: Found an INTC at 0x(ptrval) (revision 5.0) with 128 interrupts
[ 0.000000] OMAP clockevent source: timer2 at 24000000 Hz
[ 0.000017] sched_clock: 32 bits at 24MHz, resolution 41ns, wraps every 89478484971ns
[ 0.000036] clocksource: timer1: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 79635851949 ns
[ 0.000046] OMAP clocksource: timer1 at 24000000 Hz
[ 0.000743] timer_probe: no matching timers found
[ 0.000987] Console: colour dummy device 80x30
[ 0.001015] WARNING: Your 'console=ttyO0' has been replaced by 'ttyS0'
[ 0.001020] This ensures that you still see kernel messages. Please
[ 0.001024] update your kernel commandline.
[ 0.001083] Calibrating delay loop... 995.32 BogoMIPS (lpj=1990656)
[ 0.046902] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[ 0.047197] Security Framework initialized
[ 0.047211] Yama: becoming mindful.
[ 0.047357] AppArmor: AppArmor initialized
[ 0.047469] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.047482] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.048580] CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
[ 0.048646] CPU0: Spectre v2: using BPIALL workaround
[ 0.049138] CPU0: thread -1, cpu 0, socket -1, mpidr 0
[ 0.071012] Setting up static identity map for 0x80100000 - 0x80100060
[ 0.078924] rcu: Hierarchical SRCU implementation.
[ 0.090154] EFI services will not be available.
[ 0.094931] smp: Bringing up secondary CPUs ...
[ 0.094946] smp: Brought up 1 node, 1 CPU
[ 0.094958] SMP: Total of 1 processors activated (995.32 BogoMIPS).
[ 0.094964] CPU: All CPU(s) started in SVC mode.
[ 0.096698] devtmpfs: initialized
[ 0.111359] VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 3 part 30 variant c rev 3
[ 0.112019] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 7645041785100000 ns
[ 0.112044] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.116031] xor: measuring software checksum speed
[ 0.154906] arm4regs : 1212.000 MB/sec
[ 0.194894] 8regs : 1090.000 MB/sec
[ 0.234893] 32regs : 1087.000 MB/sec
[ 0.274894] neon : 1668.000 MB/sec
[ 0.274902] xor: using function: neon (1668.000 MB/sec)
[ 0.274919] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[ 0.276322] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[ 0.282465] DMA: preallocated 1024 KiB pool for atomic coherent allocations
[ 0.315538] l4_wkup_cm:clk:0010:0: failed to disable
[ 0.355700] audit: initializing netlink subsys (disabled)
[ 0.357041] cpuidle: using governor menu
[ 0.363013] audit: type=2000 audit(0.352:1): state=initialized audit_enabled=0 res=1
[ 0.365229] OMAP GPIO hardware version 0.1
[ 0.377915] No ATAGs?
[ 0.377935] hw-breakpoint: debug architecture 0x4 unsupported.
[ 0.378464] omap4_sram_init:Unable to allocate sram needed to handle errata I688
[ 0.378474] omap4_sram_init:Unable to get sram pool needed to handle errata I688
[ 0.407078] raid6: using algorithm neonx8 gen() 0 MB/s
[ 0.407090] raid6: .... xor() 0 MB/s, rmw enabled
[ 0.407098] raid6: using neon recovery algorithm
[ 0.414670] edma 49000000.edma: TI EDMA DMA engine driver
[ 0.418116] SCSI subsystem initialized
[ 0.419081] libata version 3.00 loaded.
[ 0.419401] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[ 0.419462] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[ 0.419595] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[ 0.420272] media: Linux media interface: v0.10
[ 0.420322] videodev: Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[ 0.420454] pps_core: LinuxPPS API ver. 1 registered
[ 0.420462] pps_core: Software ver. 5.3.6 - Copyright 2005-2007 Rodolfo Giometti <
giom...@linux.it>
[ 0.420483] PTP clock support registered
[ 0.421078] omap-mailbox 480c8000.mailbox: omap mailbox rev 0x400
[ 0.423293] Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Initialized.
[ 0.424113] NetLabel: Initializing
[ 0.424126] NetLabel: domain hash size = 128
[ 0.424131] NetLabel: protocols = UNLABELED CIPSOv4 CALIPSO
[ 0.424230] NetLabel: unlabeled traffic allowed by default
[ 0.425331] clocksource: Switched to clocksource timer1
[ 0.588124] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.6.0
[ 0.588237] VFS: Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.589161] AppArmor: AppArmor Filesystem Enabled
[ 0.601771] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[ 0.602873] tcp_listen_portaddr_hash hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 6144 bytes)
[ 0.602909] TCP established hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[ 0.602951] TCP bind hash table entries: 4096 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[ 0.603010] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 4096 bind 4096)
[ 0.603140] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[ 0.603164] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[ 0.603366] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[ 0.616601] RPC: Registered named UNIX socket transport module.
[ 0.616613] RPC: Registered udp transport module.
[ 0.616618] RPC: Registered tcp transport module.
[ 0.616623] RPC: Registered tcp NFSv4.1 backchannel transport module.
[ 0.617270] Unpacking initramfs...
[ 1.013375] random: fast init done
[ 1.048798] Freeing initrd memory: 7624K
[ 1.049861] hw perfevents: enabled with armv7_cortex_a8 PMU driver, 5 counters available
[ 1.052495] Initialise system trusted keyrings
[ 1.052915] workingset: timestamp_bits=14 max_order=17 bucket_order=3
[ 1.060670] zbud: loaded
[ 1.068280] NFS: Registering the id_resolver key type
[ 1.068325] Key type id_resolver registered
[ 1.068331] Key type id_legacy registered
[ 1.068348] nfs4filelayout_init: NFSv4 File Layout Driver Registering...
[ 1.068713] fuse init (API version 7.27)
[ 1.079438] Key type asymmetric registered
[ 1.079454] Asymmetric key parser 'x509' registered
[ 1.079549] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 245)
[ 1.083914] io scheduler noop registered
[ 1.083927] io scheduler deadline registered
[ 1.084244] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
[ 1.084254] io scheduler mq-deadline registered
[ 1.086977] pinctrl-single 44e10800.pinmux: 142 pins, size 568
[ 1.088417] gpio-of-helper ocp:gpio_helper: ready
[ 1.089052] gpio-of-helper ocp:cape-universal: ready
[ 1.091812] wkup_m3_ipc 44e11324.wkup_m3_ipc: could not get rproc handle
[ 1.093653] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 6 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
[ 1.097170] 44e09000.serial: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x44e09000 (irq = 30, base_baud = 3000000) is a 8250
[ 1.114117] console [ttyS0] enabled
[ 1.116978] omap_rng 48310000.rng: Random Number Generator ver. 20
[ 1.121746] random: crng init done
[ 1.126641] omap2_mcspi 48030000.spi: chipselect 0 already in use
[ 1.132882] spi_master spi0: spi_device register error /ocp/spi@48030000/channel@0
[ 1.140531] spi_master spi0: Failed to create SPI device for /ocp/spi@48030000/channel@0
[ 1.141495] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[ 1.197371] davinci_mdio 4a101000.mdio: davinci mdio revision 1.6, bus freq 1000000
[ 1.197388] davinci_mdio 4a101000.mdio: detected phy mask fffffffe
[ 1.197781] MDIO: davinci_mdio: dt: updated phy_id[0] from phy_mask[fffffffe]
[ 1.215408] libphy: 4a101000.mdio: probed
[ 1.215436] davinci_mdio 4a101000.mdio: phy[0]: device 4a101000.mdio:00, driver SMSC LAN8710/LAN8720
[ 1.216548] cpsw 4a100000.ethernet: Detected MACID = 04:a3:16:e2:e6:83
[ 1.216684] cpsw 4a100000.ethernet: initialized cpsw ale version 1.4
[ 1.216694] cpsw 4a100000.ethernet: ALE Table size 1024
[ 1.216735] cpsw 4a100000.ethernet: cpts: overflow check period 1250 (jiffies)
[ 1.219775] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[ 1.219845] ehci-platform: EHCI generic platform driver
[ 1.220047] ehci-omap: OMAP-EHCI Host Controller driver
[ 1.220615] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 1.223530] am335x-phy-driver 47401300.usb-phy: 47401300.usb-phy supply vcc not found, using dummy regulator
[ 1.223685] am335x-phy-driver 47401300.usb-phy: Linked as a consumer to regulator.0
[ 1.226861] am335x-phy-driver 47401b00.usb-phy: 47401b00.usb-phy supply vcc not found, using dummy regulator
[ 1.227052] am335x-phy-driver 47401b00.usb-phy: Linked as a consumer to regulator.0
[ 1.230548] musb-hdrc musb-hdrc.1: MUSB HDRC host driver
[ 1.230590] musb-hdrc musb-hdrc.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[ 1.230904] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002, bcdDevice= 4.19
[ 1.230914] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[ 1.230923] usb usb1: Product: MUSB HDRC host driver
[ 1.230930] usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 4.19.73+ musb-hcd
[ 1.230937] usb usb1: SerialNumber: musb-hdrc.1
[ 1.231793] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 1.231854] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[ 1.243115] omap_rtc 44e3e000.rtc: already running
[ 1.243806] omap_rtc 44e3e000.rtc: registered as rtc0
[ 1.244932] i2c /dev entries driver
[ 1.245271] Driver for 1-wire Dallas network protocol.
[ 1.247604] omap_wdt: OMAP Watchdog Timer Rev 0x01: initial timeout 60 sec
[ 1.248073] softdog: initialized. soft_noboot=0 soft_margin=60 sec soft_panic=0 (nowayout=0)
[ 1.249568] cpuidle: enable-method property 'ti,am3352' found operations
[ 1.250183] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
[ 1.250190] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
[ 1.250690] omap_gpio 44e07000.gpio: Could not set line 6 debounce to 200000 microseconds (-22)
[ 1.250701] omap_hsmmc 48060000.mmc: Got CD GPIO
[ 1.251307] omap_hsmmc 48060000.mmc: Linked as a consumer to regulator.1
[ 1.278053] sdhci-pltfm: SDHCI platform and OF driver helper
[ 1.279787] ledtrig-cpu: registered to indicate activity on CPUs
[ 1.280294] omap-aes 53500000.aes: OMAP AES hw accel rev: 3.2
[ 1.280604] omap-aes 53500000.aes: will run requests pump with realtime priority
[ 1.283161] omap-sham 53100000.sham: hw accel on OMAP rev 4.3
[ 1.287243] hidraw: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
[ 1.287956] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[ 1.287966] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[ 1.289066] remoteproc remoteproc0: wkup_m3 is available
[ 1.292492] gnss: GNSS driver registered with major 240
[ 1.295881] wireguard: WireGuard 0.0.20190913 loaded. See
www.wireguard.com for information.
[ 1.295893] wireguard: Copyright (C) 2015-2019 Jason A. Donenfeld <
Ja...@zx2c4.com>. All Rights Reserved.
[ 1.297003] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[ 1.313279] mmc0: host does not support reading read-only switch, assuming write-enable
[ 1.315487] mmc0: new high speed SDHC card at address 59b4
[ 1.326383] mmcblk0: mmc0:59b4 USDU1 14.9 GiB
[ 1.332949] mmcblk0: p1 p2
[ 1.374224] Segment Routing with IPv6
[ 1.374380] mip6: Mobile IPv6
[ 1.374401] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[ 1.374549] Key type dns_resolver registered
[ 1.374557] mpls_gso: MPLS GSO support
[ 1.374894] ThumbEE CPU extension supported.
[ 1.374911] Registering SWP/SWPB emulation handler
[ 1.374922] omap_voltage_late_init: Voltage driver support not added
[ 1.382033] PM: Cannot get wkup_m3_ipc handle
[ 1.387903] registered taskstats version 1
[ 1.387914] Loading compiled-in X.509 certificates
[ 1.388055] zswap: loaded using pool lzo/zbud
[ 1.391408] Btrfs loaded, crc32c=crc32c-generic
[ 1.391522] AppArmor: AppArmor sha1 policy hashing enabled
[ 1.410283] PM: Cannot get wkup_m3_ipc handle
[ 1.414888] remoteproc remoteproc0: powering up wkup_m3
[ 1.414909] remoteproc remoteproc0: Booting fw image am335x-pm-firmware.elf, size 217168
[ 1.415201] remoteproc remoteproc0: remote processor wkup_m3 is now up
[ 1.415223] wkup_m3_ipc 44e11324.wkup_m3_ipc: CM3 Firmware Version = 0x193
[ 1.417029] PM: bootloader does not support rtc-only!
[ 1.419348] omap_rtc 44e3e000.rtc: setting system clock to 2019-11-22 10:39:38 UTC (1574419178)
[ 1.420108] ALSA device list:
[ 1.420117] No soundcards found.
[ 1.427235] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1024K
[ 1.427965] Run /init as init process
[ 5.582671] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 6.610953] systemd[1]: systemd 241 running in system mode. (+PAM +AUDIT +SELINUX +IMA +APPARMOR +SMACK +SYSVINIT +UTMP +LIBCRYPTSETUP +GCRYPT +GNUTLS +ACL +XZ +LZ4 +SECCOMP +BLKID +ELFUTILS +KMOD -IDN2 +IDN -PCRE2 default-hierarchy=hybrid)
[ 6.611694] systemd[1]: Detected architecture arm.
[ 6.639435] systemd[1]: Set hostname to <beaglebone>.
[ 6.642911] systemd[1]: Failed to bump fs.file-max, ignoring: Invalid argument
[ 8.042232] systemd[1]: Started Dispatch Password Requests to Console Directory Watch.
[ 8.049928] systemd[1]: Created slice system-serial\x2dgetty.slice.
[ 8.051138] systemd[1]: Listening on fsck to fsckd communication Socket.
[ 8.051326] systemd[1]: Reached target Swap.
[ 8.051971] systemd[1]: Listening on initctl Compatibility Named Pipe.
[ 8.053871] systemd[1]: Listening on Journal Audit Socket.
[ 8.768535] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
[ 9.711198] systemd-journald[245]: Received request to flush runtime journal from PID 1
[ 13.605928] *** FUNCTION CALLED: int __init tpm_init(void): major = 0, minor = 0;
[ 13.709981] *** FUNCTION CALLED: class_create(THIS_MODULE, "tpm") success.
[ 13.857163] *** FUNCTION CALLED: class_create(THIS_MODULE, "tpmrm") success.
[ 13.908264] *** FUNCTION CALLED: alloc_chrdev_region(&tpm_devt, 0, 2 * TPM_NUM_DEVICES, "tpmrm") success.
[ 14.310132] *** FUNCTION CALLED: struct tpm_chip *tpm_chip_alloc(struct device *pdev, const struct tpm_class_ops *ops);
[ 15.774425] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 20.595432] net eth0: initializing cpsw version 1.12 (0)
[ 20.690889] SMSC LAN8710/LAN8720 4a101000.mdio:00: attached PHY driver [SMSC LAN8710/LAN8720] (mii_bus:phy_addr=4a101000.mdio:00, irq=POLL)
[ 20.708209] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 21.439148] using random self ethernet address
[ 21.439168] using random host ethernet address
[ 21.987725] using random self ethernet address
[ 21.987744] using random host ethernet address
[ 22.726736] cpsw 4a100000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[ 22.726831] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[ 23.030818] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[ 23.030931] 8021q: adding VLAN 0 to HW filter on device eth0
My debug messages start with "*** FUNCTION CALLED:". They aren't very useful. They just show that certain functions were called. The most useful information they show is the fact that the major and minor numbers are both 0. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be the case in this stage of the loading process, but the code as much as I could understand it, sugessted that those shold be the vaild numbers. I.e. Those aren't some uninitialized variables that would be changed later.