Hi Jason, Thank you so much for this information. I will report here if there are any issues. Though we have not used KATCP previously, we are familiarizing ourselves to it and plan to use it in future. This is inline with the scheme you have described. I will try this out now.
Thanks, Nimish On Dec 5, 2012, at 1:36 AM, Jason Manley <[email protected]> wrote: >> From our understanding usbboot is still not working and we have to use >> mmcboot using SD cards. Is that correct? In either case, where can I find >> the instructions and required files? > > Yeah, I don't actually think USB's ever going to work right as long as we > stick with this PPC part... it's got issues with USB! Maybe we must look more > closely at alternatives for ROACH3. > > But ROACH2 can now boot "soloboot" (boots off an onboard FLASH memory) and > still offer a fully functional tcpborphserver3 interface out-of-the-box. This > way, you don't have to fiddle with NFS booting, or preparing SD cards and > worrying about filesystem corruption if you don't shutdown properly (soloboot > filesystem mounts read only). You can now also upload your boffile from your > control computer through KATCP, so no more rsyncing to get your bof files up > there. > > Some notes: > * You can get a command prompt by plugging a USB cable (type A-B) in the > back and, courtesy of an FTDI part, you should get four serial ports. One of > 'em (2 or 3, IIRC) will get you to the PPC. If you're using KATCP, you should > never need to see a ROACH Linux prompt again. > * An SSH server is not installed on soloboot. You can get a command prompt > on the network via telnet, but you have to enable the telnet server (see > /etc/rc.local). > * DHCP is enabled by default, but you can assign a static IP address using > the example in /etc/rc.local if you want. > > If you want all the Linux bells and whistles, you can still stick an SD card > in there. You can use the same filesystem as your ROACH-1, but you'll have to > modify it yourself to use a ROACH-2 compatible tcpborphserver. My suggestion > would be to try'n use the soloboot option first (ie as it ships from digicom). > >> I guess I am pretty much confused on how to get started with ROACH2 boards >> after sifting through the CASPER wiki, so I would appreciate any help on how >> to get started with ROACH2 boards. > > You'll be one of the first CASPER users, so I'll be keen to hear how you get > on. If you're familiar with ROACH-1 and are using the KATCP interface, I > think you'll find it reasonably familiar and can probably just start using > it. All your existing KATCP commands should be compatible. If you've been > using your own Linux code on the PPC, then I'm afraid you're mostly on your > own or at the mercy of the rest of the collaboration. While we've left > support for alternative boot options in place on ROACH-2 (which is probably > what you want to do if you want your own Linux filesystem/commands), SKA-SA > will not be providing or supporting additional filesystems moving forward > (mmcboot, usbboot etc). We're moving towards a model using something like > soloboot where ROACH boards start looking like dumb appliances which makes > maintenance much easier. KATCP is the only interface we can be sure will be > supported in future so I'd suggest you aim to use that in your new designs if > you can. > > Jason
