Biffboot Community Edition (1MB flash devices only)

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

I'll soon be releasing a free (as in Beer) version of Biffboot [1].

There are two benefits to this:

- An opportunity to upgrade your 1MB Bifferboard to the latest
Biffboot for free
- Potential to convert an Addonics NAS dongle to a 'Bifferboard'
without charge

This will theoretically work on devices with 16MB DRAM since I've
moved all memory allocations to below 16MB (or think I have :-)). But
for the moment that's completely untested.

I'm currently looking for beta testers, so please contact me if
interested.

regards,
Biff.

[1] There will be some restrictions on the license, e.g. for personal
use only, not for resale etc... TBD.

[Richard]

Hi,
OK, I received the .bin file (many thanks), but no instructions.
Presumably this is to be loaded using bb_eth_upload or bb_upload ?

Cheers,
Richard

[MRX]

I'm also interested in this update.
I have a first generation Bifferboard, this is supported?
How can we apply this update (i.e. do we need jtag?)

Regards,
MRX

[Andrew Scheller]

> I have a first generation Bifferboard, this is supported?
> How can we apply this update (i.e. do we need jtag?)

"first generation" bifferboards are 1MB devices, which is what this supports.
Yes, you need jtag to flash this new biffboot. The bb_upload scripts
can only upload a new kernel (by talking to the biffboot bootloader),
not the bootloader itself.

Andrew

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

On Feb 11, 5:45 pm, Andrew Scheller <ya...@loowis.durge.org> wrote:
> Yes, you need jtag to flash this new biffboot.

Indeed you do, unless you want to take a big risk and try to do it
from within Linux.

Just a reminder that the JTAG solution (hardware and software) has
been reduced in price and is as cheap as it's going to get (£15). We
have 6 more in stock and won't be making up any more as there isn't
much demand for them. After that you'll have to get the Xilinx one
(or equivalent) or make your own up (not too hard if you can solder).

See: http://www.bifferos.com/buy/000040.html

best regards,
Biff.

[MRX]

>
> > Yes, you need jtag to flash this new biffboot.
> Indeed you do, unless you want to take a big risk and try to do it
> from within Linux.
>
> Just a reminder that the JTAG solution (hardware and software) has
> been reduced in price and is as cheap as it's going to get (£15).  We
> have 6 more in stock and won't be making up any more as there isn't
> much demand for them.  After that you'll have to get the Xilinx one
> (or equivalent) or make your own up (not too hard if you can solder).

I have a jtag cable that i have used to resque a edimax br6104k board.
Can i use this one for the bifferboard too?

If so,

How can i obtain the software? (i see only the software + cable
option)

Regards,

MRX

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

On Feb 13, 11:35 am, MRX <jrooz...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have a jtag cable that i have used to resque a edimax br6104k board.
> Can i use this one for the bifferboard too?

No, I don't believe so. I'm pretty sure the design for the Edimax was
quite different to the RDC. Isn't the Edimax wiggler compatible?

> How can i obtain the software? (i see only the software + cable
> option)

We no longer sell the software on it's own because we reduced the
price of the cable + software to the same price as the software. If
you are crazy enough to want only the software without the hardware
for the same price then please contact me off-list to arrange that. I
suppose you will save some money on postage at least!

regards,
Biff.

[Richard]

Hi,

> I'll soon be releasing a free (as in Beer) version of Biffboot [1].

> I'm currently looking for beta testers, so please contact me if
> interested.

OK, I've managed to install Biffboot 3.7. I couldn't upload a kernel
over ethernet, but I think that that's because my network connection
doesn't 'come live' quickly enough after power on; uploading over
serial worked.

My only query so far - when I try to use tftpflash, the bifferboard
uses 00:01:02:03:04:05 as its MAC in the BOOTP request - is this
expected ? I did set the MAC properly when installing the biffboot
flash file - it shows up correctly in the boot banner, and in
wireshark if I allow the kernel to boot.

Cheers,
Richard

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

Thanks Richard. So you tried bb_eth_upload and tftpflash and neither
of them worked? I fixed the problem with the wrong MAC and that'll be
in the next version, but I'm surprised if you can't make ethernet
flashing work at all. Did you try bb_eth_upload with the two
different MAC addresses? You can also try to set the NIC to
promiscuous mode. What happens when you just leave the default MAC
address (00:01:02:03:04:05), can you make it work like that?

regards,
Biff.

[Richard]

Hi,

On Feb 19, 10:48 pm, "biffe...@yahoo.co.uk" <biffe...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

> Thanks Richard.  So you tried bb_eth_upload and tftpflash and neither
> of them worked?  I fixed the problem with the wrong MAC and that'll be
> in the next version, but I'm surprised if you can't make ethernet
> flashing work at all.  Did you try bb_eth_upload with the two
> different MAC addresses?  You can also try to set the NIC to
> promiscuous mode.  What happens when you just leave the default MAC
> address (00:01:02:03:04:05), can you make it work like that?

I only played with tftpflash briefly, and stopped when I saw the wrong
MAC (partly because I haven't found much in the way of documentation
for it).

I can't get bb_eth_upload to work at all, with straight cable, cross-
over cable or switch. I do see packets going out (via wireshark, and
flashing lights on the switch), but nothing coming back in except in
one case - when I set the NIC to promiscuous mode, but gave the
correct MAC to bb_eth_upload, the board went into NIC console mode,
and wireshark recorded packets coming in with the 00:01:02:03:04:05
MAC; this was the only case where I saw packets coming out of the
board (if I gave bb_eth_upload the 00:01:02:03:04:05 MAC, the board
would not go into NIC console mode).

One curiosity I noticed - when powered up, the board prints "NIC up
in: 1234ms" - sometime this time is reported as 7000 to 8000 ms, even
thought it actually took only 2 or 3 seconds.

Richard

[Richard]

Hi,
Update: I reflashed the bootloader with the MAC set to
00:01:02:03:04:05 (ie using the biffboot file as you sent it to me),
and found that bb_eth_upload now works. The downside, of course, is
that when the board has booted, it still has that value as its MAC.

Cheers,
Richard

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

That's what I was hoping (that it would work with the default mac).
That probably means I've now fixed it. I don't understand the
7-8000mS delay though, that's still a mystery.

thanks,
Biff.

[Richard]

Hi,
This evening I got around to installing a dhcp server and a tftp
server on my laptop, so I could test tftpflash. It works, but with
some oddities:

BIFFBOOT>
tftpflash
Obtaining IP
address..
My IP:
291.861.341.111
Server IP:
291.861.341.511
Boot file:
bz7
656297 byte image received from
291297.861297.341297.511297
Next step will overwrite your existing kernel/rootfs, are you sure? (y/
n): y

The IP addresses are printed backwards, as is the file byte length.
The IP address in the 'received from' string is a blend of the correct
server IP address and the first few digits of the (backwards) file
length, again printed backwards (the correct IP addresses are
192.168.143.11 or 15); I suspect that this accounts for the odd NIC up
times as well.

Printing apart, it all seemed to work OK - the kernel was replaced and
ran with no problems - both immediately and after a power cycle.

Cheers,

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

Fixed that one too thanks. A simple casting error.

Probably of relevance to this thread I needed to refresh my memory
about how to get a system in 1MB of flash with a more recent kernel/
buildroot. See https://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/boards-with-1mb-flash/buildroot

It was just for my benefit and is a bit scrappy, so if someone wants
to improve it....

[Richard]

Hi,
Yup, that's useful. One question though - there are no patches
mentioned for the 3.3 kernel. Is that all in the kernel source now ?

Thanks,
Richard


On Feb 25, 1:11 am, "biffe...@yahoo.co.uk" <biffe...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

> Fixed that one too thanks.  A simple casting error.
>
> Probably of relevance to this thread I needed to refresh my memory
> about how to get a system in 1MB of flash with a more recent kernel/

> buildroot.  Seehttps://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/boards-with-1mb-flash/...

[biff...@yahoo.co.uk]

On Feb 25, 9:49 pm, Richard <paul.stan...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> One question though - there are no patches
> mentioned for the 3.3 kernel. Is that all in the kernel source now ?

No. It boots, but with some of the issues described here:
https://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/s3282-kernel-issues

Also, there is a silly kernel bug that's been introduced - when you
select lzma compression for the initrd it doesn't work, you have to
select bzip2 instead (or probably the other ones work). Fortunately
this makes little difference - the kernel itself is still compressed
with lzma, it only affects the initrd.

I'm unlikely to submit any of these patches to LKML, it's a waste of
effort since the kernel x86 port maintainers want the RDC version to
function 100% correctly when the same binary is executed on other x86
CPUs. Unfortunately this requirement increases the effort involved by
an order of magnitude, think: How would you do this at run-time:
https://github.com/bifferos/openwrt/blob/master/target/linux/rdc/patches-2.6.37/160-kexec-fix.patch

:-(.

regards,
Biff.

[Richard]

Hi,

> I'm unlikely to submit any of these patches to LKML, it's a waste of
> effort since the kernel x86 port maintainers want the RDC version to
> function 100% correctly when the same binary is executed on other x86
> CPUs

That sounds like a strange requirement. Ah well, I guess I'll stick
with my 2.6.30.5 kernel.
Thanks for the info,
Richard

[Richard]

Hi,
I am starting a project which will require two bifferboards on the
network at the same time; I can't do this at the moment, since all of
my boards now use the same 00:01:02:03:04:05 MAC from the beta
Biffboot. Is there likely to be an update, or should I switch back to
the original Biffboots that they came with ?

Thanks,
Richard


On Feb 25, 1:11 am, "biffe...@yahoo.co.uk" <biffe...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

> Fixed that one too thanks.  A simple casting error.
>
> Probably of relevance to this thread I needed to refresh my memory
> about how to get a system in 1MB of flash with a more recent kernel/

> buildroot.  Seehttps://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/boards-with-1mb-flash/...