This is probably closer to Linux/Ubuntu admin than RISC-V registers, but I'll ask for help publicly in the hope that it helps others.
After a misstep in trusting a power source I shouldn't have (hint: don't try to power it from the USB serial cable's power. The board starts to boot, but apparently browns out and relives an enactment of "99 First Dates". Now powering from the USB-C jack.
I inserted the WiFi card (which I know now doesn't show up in lsbusb at all...more on that later.) and a working ethernet cable into the port near the edge. I grab the server image from
https://ubuntu.com/download/risc-v, burn it to a 128G Lexar, bunch the button, wait, type the password, and don't do much else...and I get to a login. Yay! That's pretty amazing.
I have a mostly working system...that's not very much like my Dietpi system, also a Debian system, that's a foot away from it. (I suspect this is where the systemd pile-on/mocking begins.) My serial console is fine. My shell is fine. Of course, when I try do do anything involving neworking, it just isn't configured. Unfortunately, if I follow the playbook, installing networking requires installing networking and querying the state of the network requires installing networking. See why I'm annoyed? :-)
ubuntu@ubuntu:/etc/netplan$ ifconfig -a
Command 'ifconfig' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo apt install net-tools
ubuntu@ubuntu:/etc/netplan$ sudo apt install net-tools
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
net-tools
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 196 kB of archives.
After this operation, 725 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Ign:1 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports lunar/main riscv64 net-tools riscv64 2.10-0.1ubuntu3
Ign:1 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports lunar/main riscv64 net-tools riscv64 2.10-0.1ubuntu3
Ign:1 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports lunar/main riscv64 net-tools riscv64 2.10-0.1ubuntu3
Err:1 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports lunar/main riscv64 net-tools riscv64 2.10-0.1ubuntu3
Temporary failure resolving 'ports.ubuntu.com'
E: Failed to fetch http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/pool/main/n/net-tools/net-tools_2.10-0.1ubuntu3_riscv64.deb Temporary failure resolving 'ports.ubuntu.com'
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?
ubuntu@ubuntu:/etc/netplan$Apparently, things like ifconfig, netstat, route, and everything else one would use to configure a network aren't installed by default...and require networking to install. :-/ I could uuencode and then ckermit it to that system, I suppose, but that seems like playing life on a level harder than intended. :-)
Referencing
https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/network-configuration, I see there is hope for GUI networking admin tools, but of course, we installed the server edition and don't have X11 installed to run them. I learn that 'if' looks like the familiar ifconfig, so I try:
$ sudo ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: end0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 6c:cf:39:00:28:39 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet6 fe80::6ecf:39ff:fe00:2839/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: end1: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether 6c:cf:39:00:28:3a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ffAnd learn that the interface I care about s3ems to be "end0". I tried remembering the incantations (and new spellings) to mark the interface up, declare a route, assign a static address or a DHCP grant, and invariably fail. I also know that nobody that it that way any more. Given how amazingly automatic everything else was (like identifying the extents of my disk and making an appropriately sized volume) I'm guessing that something just left the rails or I have a networing/GUI admin deadlock where experience is doing me more harm than good.
$ netplan status
Online state: offline
DNS Addresses: 127.0.0.53 (stub)
DNS Search: .
● 1: lo ethernet UNKNOWN/UP (unmanaged)
MAC Address: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Addresses: 127.0.0.1/8
::1/128
Routes: ::1 metric 256
● 2: end0 ethernet UP (networkd: zz-all-en)
MAC Address: 6c:cf:39:00:28:39
Addresses: fe80::6ecf:39ff:fe00:2839/64 (link)
Routes: fe80::/64 metric 256
...gives mixed info on whether 'end0' is up or down; it certainly doesn't have a DHCP lease issued to it. The yellow light is blinking away. The green one isn't. There is no X server running, so I've not even tried attaching a monitor yet and don't even know for sure if graphics are even expected to work on this chipset yet; I expected it to act pretty headlessly, like VF1 did.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RISC-V/StarFive%20VisionFive looks so welcoming compared to the earlier hazing rituals like the V55/V68 stuff mentioned before. Did you get yours to a happy place AND on the network? I feel like this is going to be one of those "you DID run the FOO command, didn't you?" things that everyone just knows applies to 2023 Linux and forgot to write down - or that I'm mmissing since I've stared at so many of these guides through the years.
As I didn't have ethernet connected on first boot, I even re-flashed the card and re-installed the OS since I Had nothing to lose. NOthing material changed.
Did you (or anyone else) succeed with the 23.04 Canonical Server image on the VF5r2? Any advice?
I'd like to get my VF5R2 a permanent place on my network for quick-checking RV64 runtime things faster than I can spin QEmu and get my original VF5 back into kernel development duty after my current RISC-V OS development project (Nuttx on CH32V) burns down some more.
Thanx,
RJL