Running the pre-built NFS-root image on the FPGA

In this step, we want to test the Ethernet functionality on an FPGA board. The system will use the Ethernet 100Base-T connection at 100 MBaud to communicate with the LowRISC Linux system.

Run the pre-built FPGA demo

The files you may need:

Download and write the bitstream

cd $TOP/fpga/board/nexys4_ddr
curl -L https://github.com/lowRISC/lowrisc-chip/releases/download/v0.5-rc2/nexys4ddr.bit > nexys4ddr.bit
curl -L https://github.com/lowRISC/lowrisc-chip/releases/download/v0.5-rc2/boot0001.bin > boot0001.bin
curl -L https://github.com/lowRISC/lowrisc-chip/releases/download/v0.5-rc2/rootfs.bzip2 | bzip2 -d > rootfs.ext2

Convert the bitstream to quad-spi memory format

vivado -mode batch -source $TOP/fpga/common/script/cfgmem.tcl -tclargs "xc7a100t_0" nexys4ddr.bit

Burn the quad-spi memory (Ensure the MODE switch is set to QSPI)

vivado -mode batch -source $TOP/fpga/common/script/program_cfgmem.tcl -tclargs "xc7a100t_0" nexys4ddr.bit.mcs

Access the boot-loader and connect to the UART console.

First check the available serial ports:

ls -l /dev/*USB*

which should result in a response similar to:

crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 1 Apr 14 16:32 /dev/ttyUSB1

In this case the device is user and group only access, so you need to be a member of the group dialout to use it.

microcom -p /dev/ttyUSB1

This needs a separate terminal window as it takes over the screen. Alternatively a separate VGA display and USB keyboard may be used. You should see a display similar to the below a short delay after the PROG button is pushed.

Selftest iteration 1
Selftest matches=4/4, delay = 5
Selftest iteration 2
Selftest matches=8/8, delay = 5
Selftest iteration 3
Selftest matches=16/16, delay = 7
Selftest iteration 4
Selftest matches=32/32, delay = 13
Selftest iteration 5
Selftest matches=64/64, delay = 26
Selftest iteration 6
Selftest matches=128/128, delay = 52
Selftest iteration 7
Selftest matches=256/256, delay = 103
Selftest iteration 8
Selftest matches=375/375, delay = 151
Hello LowRISC! Thu Dec 21 18:02:20 2017
MAC = eee1:e2e3e4e5
MAC address = ee:e1:e2:e3:e4:e5.
IP Address:  192.168.0.51
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Enabling interrupts

Ethernet server preparation

We need to make some changes on the server to enable this option. Obviously the modern systemd commands can be used where supported. As of Ubuntu 16.04.3 the old methods still work via wrapper scripts as below.

For this particular demo the server needs to have a fixed IP address 192.168.0.53. The client is preprogrammed to 192.168.0.51 These numbers may be changed in various necessary places in the source code but this is outside the scope of this demo. This is a private range reserved for private networks, secondary ethernet ports, home NAT hubs and the like. If you have Wifi this may be used to maintain internet connectivity on the server. Network manager may be used to change the IP otherwise manually from the command line.

First of all create a suitable NFSroot mount point:

sudo mkdir /mnt/poky-dev
sudo mount -t ext2 -o loop rootfs.ext2 /mnt/poky-dev
sudo vi /etc/xinetd.d/time
#Change the first occurence of "disable=yes" to "disable=no". This enables the time service.
sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd restart
sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server stop
sudo vi /etc/exports
#Add the following to the end of the file. "/mnt/poky-dev 192.168.0.51(rw,sync,no_root_squash)"
#Mount the previously downloaded rootfs onto the designated mount point (stored in initial_0001 in riscv-tools)
sudo mount -t ext2 -o loop rootfs.ext2 /mnt/poky-dev
#Restart the NFS server
sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server start

The dangerous option no_root_squash which allows the NFS client to run as root on the server, is mitigated by the confinement of the mount to the area of the loopback which we have set up. If access to host files is desired this may be done by copying on the host, or with a second mount point without no_root_squash inside the server’s filing system

Ethernet booting

cd $TOP/fpga/board/nexys4_ddr
make etherboot

You should see a display similar to the following:

Clear blocks requested
........
Report blocks requested
Report md5 requested
md5(0x86e00000,5272576) = 5f460062003d4b7293709df08dd09d71
Boot requested
Disabling interrupts
Ethernet interrupt status = 0
Load 5272576 bytes to memory address 86e00000 from boot.bin of 5272576 bytes.
load elf to DDR memory
Section[0]: memcpy(0x80000000,0x0x86e01000,0x6c70);
memset(0x80006c70,0,0x58);
Section[1]: memcpy(0x80007000,0x0x86e08000,0x4fcc20);
Boot the loaded program...
Goodbye, booter ...
      vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
          vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
rrrrrrrrrrrrr       vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr      vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr    vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr    vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr    vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr      vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv  
rrrrrrrrrrrrr       vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv    
rr                vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv      
rr            vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv      rr
rrrr      vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv      rrrr
rrrrrr      vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv      rrrrrr
rrrrrrrr      vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv      rrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrr      vvvvvvvvvvvvvv      rrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrr      vvvvvvvvvv      rrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrr      vvvvvv      rrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr      vv      rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr          rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr      rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr  rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

   INSTRUCTION SETS WANT TO BE FREE
[    0.000000] Linux version 4.6.2-gf7aa0f9 (jrrk2@jrrk2-iMac) (gcc version 6.1.0 (GCC) ) #1 Thu Dec 21 19:36:57 GMT 2017
[    0.000000] Available physical memory: 114MB
[    0.000000] Initial ramdisk at: 0xffffffff80016958 (781719 bytes)
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000080600000-0x00000000877fffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000080600000-0x00000000877fffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000080600000-0x00000000877fffff]
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 28785
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: 
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[    0.000000] Sorting __ex_table...
[    0.000000] Memory: 110464K/116736K available (2601K kernel code, 144K rwdata, 548K rodata, 856K init, 239K bss, 6272K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS:0 nr_irqs:0 0
[    0.000000] clocksource: riscv_clocksource: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 7645041785100 ns
[    0.000000] Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using timer frequency.. 0.50 BogoMIPS (lpj=2500)
[    0.000000] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.000000] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.000000] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.090000] devtmpfs: initialized
[    0.120000] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[    0.150000] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.360000] clocksource: Switched to clocksource riscv_clocksource
[    0.430000] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.460000] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[    0.470000] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[    0.470000] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[    0.480000] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[    0.480000] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[    0.490000] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.510000] RPC: Registered named UNIX socket transport module.
[    0.510000] RPC: Registered udp transport module.
[    0.510000] RPC: Registered tcp transport module.
[    0.510000] RPC: Registered tcp NFSv4.1 backchannel transport module.
[    2.770000] Unpacking initramfs...
[    5.040000] hid_keyboard address 40020000, remapped to ffffffff78002000
[    5.040000] hid_display address 40028000, remapped to ffffffff78010000
[    5.390000] console [xuart_console0] enabled
[    5.400000] keyb_timer is started
[    5.440000] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 6144 bytes)
[    5.460000] workingset: timestamp_bits=61 max_order=15 bucket_order=0
[    6.000000] io scheduler noop registered (default)
[    9.100000] lowrisc-digilent-ethernet: Lowrisc ethernet platform (40012000-40013FFF) mapped to ffffffff78008000
[    9.130000] libphy: GPIO Bitbanged LowRISC: probed
[    9.140000] Probing lowrisc-0:01
[    9.150000] SMSC LAN8710/LAN8720 lowrisc-0:01: attached PHY driver [SMSC LAN8710/LAN8720] (mii_bus:phy_addr=lowrisc-0:01, irq=-1)
[    9.200000] lowrisc_digilent_ethernet lowrisc_digilent_ethernet: Lowrisc Ether100MHz registered
[    9.300000] Card inserted, mask changed to 4
[    9.330000] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    9.340000] Key type dns_resolver registered
[    9.360000] mmc0: mmc_rescan_try_freq: trying to init card at 5000000 Hz
[    9.530000] Freeing unused kernel memory: 856K (ffffffff80000000 - ffffffff800d6000)
[    9.550000] This architecture does not have kernel memory protection.
Running the initial fake init
[   10.030000] Open device, request interrupt
Setting the clock ...
[   10.910000] mmc0: new SDHC card at address 0007
[   10.930000] blk_queue_max_hw_sectors: set to minimum 8
[   10.950000] mmcblk0: mmc0:0007 SD08G 7.42 GiB 
[   11.020000]  mmcblk0: p1 p2 p3
Mounting the nfs partition ...
Switch to nfs root
INIT: version 2.88 booting
bootlogd: cannot find console device 4:0 under /dev
[   46.690000] random: dd urandom read with 103 bits of entropy available
[   60.370000] random: nonblocking pool is initialized
hwclock: can't open '/dev/misc/rtc': No such file or directory
INIT: Entering runlevel: 2
Configuring network interfaces... ifup skipped for nfsroot interface eth0
run-parts: /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/nfsroot: exit status 1
Starting Dropbear SSH server: dropbear.
hwclock: can't open '/dev/misc/rtc': No such file or directory
Starting syslogd/klogd: done

Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro) 2.0+snapshot-20171219 qemuriscv64 /dev/console

qemuriscv64 login: 

The first boot will take considerably longer than subsequent boots due to the ssh keys having to be regenerated. In addition at first there will be no root password. You should login as root and set this up with the ‘passwd’ command. In this case the password will be stored remotely on the NFS image.

Mount an SD card inside RISC-V Linux

To discover whether an SD is recognized by the kernel:

cat /proc/partitions

If an SD card is formated in FAT32 and inserted, it should look like:

major minor  #blocks  name

 179        0    7782400 mmcblk0
 179        1      32768 mmcblk0p1
 179        2     614400 mmcblk0p2
 179        3    1048576 mmcblk0p3

To mount a DOS file system from this card:

root@qemuriscv64:~# mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt
root@qemuriscv64:~# ls -l /mnt
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root          2048 Jan  1  1980 DIR
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       5272272 Dec 22 11:22 boot0000.bin
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       5272272 Dec 22 11:22 boot0001.bin

After you finished with the SD card, remember to unmount it.

umount /mnt

To mount a manually created ext2 chroot partition from this card:

mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt
mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
chroot /mnt

This partition should be prepared in advance using a card reader on the Workstation. See the list of downloads above.

In principle it could be created live from the NFS partition, but performance limitations make this non-viable at the moment.

After you finished with the chroot partition, remember to unmount it.

exit
umount /mnt/proc
umount /mnt

The final partition is designated as swap. This will be handy if you wish to attempt heavy duty tasks such as compilation.

root@qemuriscv64:~# swapon /dev/mmcblk0p3
[  983.110000] Adding 1048572k swap on /dev/mmcblk0p3.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:1048572k SS
root@qemuriscv64:~# free
     total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        111320      10088     101232        196         36       5200
-/+ buffers/cache:       4852     106468
Swap:      1048572          0    1048572
root@qemuriscv64:~#