Bering-uClibc 4.x - User Guide - Appendices - Hardware-Specific Guides

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Appendices - Hardware-Specific Guides
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PC Engines WRAP

TODO Need to copy content from http://leaf.sourceforge.net/doc/bucu-sc1100.html

The recommended Bering-uClibc 4.x disk Image is Bering-uClibc_4.VERSION_i486_syslinux_ser.tar.gz

Hardware / driver details:

  • The IDE controller chip is a National Semiconductor SC1200, and needs kernel Module pata_sc1200.ko
  • The network controller chip is a National Semiconductor DP83816, and needs kernel Module natsemi.ko


PC Engines ALIX

Overview

The ALIX family of small, energy efficient, single-board-computers from manufacturer PC Engines are available in several variants within four "series", all of which use the AMD Geode CPU (either LX700 or LX800) and have an on-board Compact Flash (CF) card socket for storage:

ALIX1 
A miniITX board with 1 LAN connector and a VGA display output
ALIX2 
A 6"x6" board with 2 or 3 LAN connectors, no VGA, an RS-232 console connector and optional USB connectors
ALIX3 
A 100x160mm board with 1 LAN connector and an optional VGA display output
ALIX6 
A 6"x6" board with 2 LAN connectors, intended for mobile telephony integration

Of these, the ALIX2 series is generally preferred for LEAF usage, mainly because of the multiple LAN connectors. In particular, the 2D3 and 2D13 variants are widely used for Bering-uClibc 4.x and perform well.

The following probably only applies to boards in the ALIX2 series.

Bering-uClibc 4.x Disk Image Selection

The ALIX2 boards have an RS-232 console connector and no VGA display output so the recommended Bering-uClibc 4.x disk Image is Bering-uClibc_4.VERSION_geode_syslinux_ser.tar.gz which is tailored for serial consoles.

Hardware / Driver Details

  • The network controller chips are VIA Rhine™ III VT6105M Fast Ethernet Controller (one per LAN port) and need kernel Module via-rhine.ko
    • The first network interface (eth0) supports passive Power-over-Ethernet (not standard 802.3af) and PXE boot.
  • The AMD CS5536 "I/O Companion" chip implements the following functions:
    • IDE disk interface to the Compact Flash card, which needs kernel Module pata-amd.ko.
    • RS-232 interface. Support for this is built into the Bering-uClibc 4.x kernel so no Module is required.
    • I2C interface via the NatSemi SCx200 ACCESS.bus which needs kernel Module scx200_acb.ko (which in turn relies on i2c-core.ko).
      • This is often used in conjunction with the hardware temperature monitoring chip, an LM86 which needs kernel Module lm90.ko (which in turn relies on hwmon.ko).
      • The LM86 does not seem to be installed on all ALIX2 variants. It does work on an ALIX2D13 bought in March 2011.

Installation Notes

Serial Console

As shipped from the factory, the serial console on the ALIX2 series boards is configured for 38400 baud, 8N1, no flow control. For Bering-uClibc 4.0 the _ser disk image is configured for 19200 baud (because some users have reported problems with Serial <-> USB adaptors when running at 38400 baud).

These need to be aligned and need to match the setting of the terminal emulator being used.

The easiest solution is simply to set the terminal emulator to 19200 baud. If the ALIX2 board is still set to 38400 baud the memory test output will not be readable but the [Bering-uClibc 4.x]] output will be OK. If you need to see the memory test change the ALIX2 baud setting to 19200 (press S during the power-on memory test for the setup menu, with the terminal emulator set to match the ALIX2 board setting).

If you want to use a different baud setting in the terminal emulator change 19200 to 38400 (or whatever) in file syslinux/syslinux.cfg and also in file etc/inittab which is embedded within file configdb.lrp


If you don't have easy physical access to an ALIX2 board (or any other device with a serial console) you might like to consider using an Ethernet to Serial "device server" such as those available from Lantronix. These connect to the device's serial port on one side and to an Ethernet network on the other side, and make it possible to access a serial console using telnet or ssh. davidMbrooke uses an MSS100 for this purpose.

Soekris Engineering net4501

Hardware / Driver Details

  • The CPU is a 133 Mhz AMD Elan SC520.
  • The network controller chips are National Semiconductor DP83815 (one per LAN port) and need kernel Module natsemi.ko.


Users Manual is available at http://soekris.com/media/manuals/net4501_manual.pdf


Remaining content is TODO - Volunteers?

Currently reported as NOT WORKING with Bering-uClibc 4.0-beta2. Davidmbrooke 16:46, 5 February 2011 (UTC)


Soekris Engineering net4801

Hardware / Driver Details

  • The CPU is a 233 Mhz NSC SC1100 single chip processor.
  • The network controller chips are National Semiconductor DP83816 (one per LAN port) and need kernel Module natsemi.ko.


Users Manual is available at http://soekris.com/media/manuals/net4801_manual.pdf


Remaining content is TODO - Volunteers?

The recommended Bering-uClibc 4.x disk Image is Bering-uClibc_4.VERSION_i486_syslinux_ser.tar.gz


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