Ixp Installation Procedure
(This report was prepared by IIT Bombay after sucessfully completing the IXP Installation. For any help, please send email to Professor S S S P Rao and a copy to D Sivakumar)
It is advised to go through
manuals given before proceeding.
There are various methods for installing IXP and make it work
depending on various hardware
configurations. This document explains how to install IXP and boot
linux.
- IXP1200 Network Processor with Ethernet Evaluation
Platform
- Host PC running Windows 2000 / Windows NT 4.0 with service
pack 5 or later
- Host running Redhat Linux 6.2 or later. To work on Windows Host
environment, you can have cygwin installed
on NT host and can proceed.
You can find the software necessary in Intel's IXA SDK 2.0 or
Netwinder
site. Software required
is mentioned at the corresponding sections.
- Unpack the Evaluation Board and also remove the system box
cover.
- Install the evaluation board in slot 0 of the backplane
(also called the system slot or J4)
- There will be serial port to the evaluation board. Connect
this to the console port connector
of system box using console cable present in the system box.
- Giving power supply can be done in two methods: better to
refer manual. Check that
it might have been already done.
- There will be one power supply selection switch between
the two power connectors on the rear
of system box. Set it to correct value as per your region (Select 230
in India). Use appropriate
power cable to give power supply.
- At this point you can replace the system box cover unless
you want to configure ethernet platform
in hardware. (This may not be necessary, if curious refer manual for
configuring using hardware).
- Connect a serial line cable from the serial line connector
on the rear of the system box to
a host PC running winNT/win2k.
- Connect the network processor evaluation platform and NT
host to the network
using appropriate cable (connect both to a hub).
Testing Installation
- To see messages by IXP, you have to use console or
hyperterminal. you can do this by
opening hyperterminal in host PC by clicking Start> Programs >
Accessories > Communications
> Hyperterminal.
- Select appropriate serial port COM1/COM2 based on your
connections.
- Set the console to 9600 baud, 8 databits, 1 stop bit, no
parity and no flowcontrol,
- Power up the Evaluation platform and you will see the
following message.
Press space to stop autoboot
15
- Press space before countdown value reaches 0 and you will
see BootMgr prompt. This confirms your
hardware installation part is valid.
Booting Linux
This involves following steps:
- Setting up tftp server
- Burning cygmon into flash
- Booting linux
- Installing Cross hosted tool chain
- Using developer workbench
-
Setting up tftp server
- Download tftp-server rpm that
appropriate to your linux version.
- Login as root and install it by
rpm -ivh tftp-server-*.rpm
- create a directory /tftpboot and set it to 777 permissions
by
mkdir /tftpboot; chmod 777 /tftpboot
- If your Linux version is 7.0 or later, then
- open /etc/xinetd/tftp file
- If there is a line with
disable=yes
change it to disable=no
- There will be another line with
server_args =
-s /tftpboot.
If you are not able to
boot into linux in the end, then it may be because of wrong path
here. It may be searching
/tftpboot/tftpboot directory for images. So set it to "-s
/".
- Reload xinetd by
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd reload
- If your linux version is 6.2 then
- you will have /etc/inetd.conf file. Search for
the line that contains tftp and uncomment it.
- Rerun inetd by /sbin/service inetd reload
- You can test tftp by tftping to this linux host from any
other pc connected to the network.
-
Burning cygmon into flash,
- you need Futil host program called FUtil.exe and flash.img
files for this. These are present
in Intel's IXA SDK or you can download from Netwinder
- Power up the evaluation system and press space to go to
BootMgr prompt.
- press c to configure and select Flash utility as default
OS and leave remaining
as default by pressing enter key. Boot by typing b.
- The program then waits for the host program to run. Here,
before waiting, you may see some
garbage on the console, of just flash version or simply waiting
depending on the version.
- Flash Utility is based on two parts:
FUtil PROM -- boots and runs on the IXP1200
FUtil host -- Runs on a PC running Win2k/winNT.
- A serial cable must be installed between the PC running
the FUtil Host and the serial port
on the Evaluation Board. The user interacts with the FUtil Host
sending commands PROM running on
IXP1200, which modifies the Flash.
- You have to close the hyperterminal at this point to free
the usage of serial port. (Hanging
the connection).
- Goto directory where FUtil.exe and flash.img are present
in the Host PC.
- Type Futil to execute it
- It asks for serial port, specify it appropriately, specify
filename to be flash.img and the
bank to be 0. For the option "Do you wish to skip the Flash
utility block", choose no and for the
rest choose default by simply typing return.
- Now FUtil PROM will modify flash and cygmon is present in
the flash and will be able to boot
linux.
-
Booting Linux
- Initial setup: NThost and evaluation system are connected
to each other by serial port and
network. Linux PC is connected to these through network. Store the
files linux kernel image (zimage)
and ramdisk image (ramdisk_img.gz) in /tftpboot.
- Power up the evaluation system and hit space to enter
BootMgr.
- Press c to configure and select cygmon as default OS. Boot
by typing b.
- At cygmon prompt, set ip address for remote machine and
local machine (IXP) by
s rip IP_of_Linux_PC
s lip IP_for_IXP
- type "gl" or "g0 linux" to boot linux.
It will use tftp to boot linux.
- At the login prompt, login as root. Type password
appropriate to the ramdisk image.
- You have to setup network by
ifup IP_for_IXP subnet_mask broadcast_IP gateway
- This sets the network and starts the portmapper and
microcode debugger daemons.
- This configuration should be done everytime you boot into
linux. (you can use minicom script to avoid this).
-
Installing cross hosted tool chain
- Files needed: ixa-arm-v4b-1.i386.rpm
Get it from netwinder or IXA SDK 2.0.
- add path to /usr/local/armbe/bin
- Otherwise install it by downloading ixp1200_linux.tar.gz
and untar it and read README to compile it.
-
Using developer workbench
- Install Developer Workbench in CD on
NT or win2k pc.
- If you are not running DNS on the IXP1200, add the name of
your NThost to /etc/hosts file.
Do this by typing
cat > /etc/hosts
then type ip_of_NThost domainname_of_NThost
then, ctrl-d to quit.
- If you are not using Intel's IXA SDK ACE programming
Framework, then to debug a microengine C
module, type
insmod /lib/modules/ue.o; rs_udebug &
- This starts the microcode debugger daemon on the IXP1200
network processor. These two files
(ue.o and rs_udebug) are present in the ramdisk image.
- To transfer files onto IXP, you can either set NFS server
on Linux host or you can use ftp.