FreeBSD on PicoStation M2HP

After tplink, it was time to play with picostation m2hp.

I’ve learned a bunch of things from this experience and this entire bring up would have been impossible without the help from loos@ and adrian@

First of all, a usb-ttl serial adapter is needed to connect to the board:

Here,
black – GND
white – TX
green – RX

When you power it on, the boot up sequence looks like this:

U-Boot 1.1.4.2-s564 (Jul 19 2012 - 10:41:56)

Board: Ubiquiti Networks XM board (rev 1.0 e302)
DRAM: 32 MB
Flash: 8 MB
PCIe WLAN Module found (#1).
Net: eth0, eth1
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0


Here is where you should top the autoboot and it will drop into uboot>.

ar7240> printenv
bootdelay=1
baudrate=115200
ethaddr=00:15:6d:0d:00:00
mtdids=nor0=ar7240-nor0
partition=nor0,0
mtddevnum=0
mtddevname=u-boot
filesize=10000
fileaddr=81000000
serverip=192.168.1.254
ethact=eth0
mtdparts=mtdparts=ar7240-nor0:256k(u-boot),64k(u-boot-env),1024k(kernel),5760k(rootfs),256k(cfg),64k(EEPROM)
bootcmd=bootm 0x9f050000
bootargs=console=tty0 root=31:03 rootfstype=squashfs init=/init
ipaddr=192.168.1.20
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial

Environment size: 452/65532 bytes
ar7240>


Again, mtdparts an important piece here to see how uboot expects the image layout:

mtdparts=ar7240-nor0:256k(u-boot),64k(u-boot-env),1024k(kernel),5760k(rootfs),256k(cfg),64k(EEPROM)


I picked up a working openwrt image and tried to load it.
My setup looks like this:

Black power adapter has 2 cables going to it:
o POE (yellow)- power over ethernet – which connects to the board
o LAN (green)- which connects to my working router

Laptop act as a tftp server here which is also connected to the router (via gray cable). This way laptop and board are both in the same network.
laptop has a tftp server running and I’ve assigned 192.168.1.254 to that network interface (em0 in my case) with “ifconfig alias”. This is because as you can see in uboot’s printenv, uboot expects the tftp server to be running at that address.
The board will obviously act as a tftp client.

Now, to transfer the image, after generating the image (which we will look into in a bit), copy that into /tftpboot on the server.

This is how you put board into “urescue” mode:

Board: Ubiquiti Networks XM board (rev 1.0 e302)
DRAM: 32 MB
Flash: 8 MB
PCIe WLAN Module found (#1).
Net: eth0, eth1
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
ar7240> ping 192.168.1.254
Using eth0 device
host 192.168.1.254 is alive
ar7240> urescue
Setting default IP 192.168.1.20
Starting TFTP server...
Using eth0 (192.168.1.20), address: 0x81000000
Waiting for connection: /


Now, board is waiting for image. Send it from the tftp server:

% tftp 192.168.1.20
tftp> bin
tftp> put PICOSTATION_M2HP.initial.img
Sent 5994346 bytes during 15.2 seconds in 11709 blocks
tftp>


board receiving the image:

Receiving file from 192.168.1.18:18401
Received 6040751 bytes
Firmware Version: XM.ar7240.FreeBSD


Alright this was the basics of how to upload a valid image onto the board. Fun part is to generate a *valid* image that board will accept.
I tried a bunch of different kenrconf’s available in the freebsd-wifi-build project but board was not accepting the generated images. After accepting the image, it used to fail like this:

Firmware check failed! (-2)

This error was coming from uboot which was proprietary and I could not find this error in any opensourced version of uboot.

General consensus about the reasons for this error was:
– bad layout of the firmware image
– wrong header (something that this uboot is not liking)

loos@ showed me a trick to look at images with hexdum. After looking at openwrt’s working image by “hexdump -c image”, I found out that uboot was expecting something along the lines of “XS2.ar7240.FreeBSD” as version string in its header. If it does not see “ar7240” in the header, it would fail the check.

So, after all that and with ray@ suggestion of using lzma’ed kernel, I could boot up the board which later failed at mounting the rootfs:

U-Boot 1.1.4.2-s594 (Dec 5 2012 - 15:23:07)

jmg@ suspected that /dev/map/rootfs.uncompress doesn’t exist for some reason as error: 19 is ENODEV and asked me to enable debugging in g_uncompress.c
I did not find anything useful after enabling debugs:

flash/spi0.uncompress: media sectorsize 512, mediasize 8388608
flash/spi0.uncompress: no CLOOP magic
map/u-boot.uncompress: media sectorsize 512, mediasize 262144
map/u-boot.uncompress: no CLOOP magic
map/u-boot-env.uncompress: media sectorsize 512, mediasize 65536
map/u-boot-env.uncompress: no CLOOP magic
map/kernel.uncompress: media sectorsize 512, mediasize 1048576
map/kernel.uncompress: no CLOOP magic
map/rootfs.uncompress: media sectorsize 512, mediasize 6684672
map/rootfs.uncompress: no CLOOP magic
map/cfg.uncompress: media sectorsize 512, mediasize 262144
map/cfg.uncompress: no CLOOP magic
map/eeprom.uncompress: media sectorsize 512, mediasize 65536
map/eeprom.uncompress: no CLOOP magic

mountroot>


Later loos@ caught that the problem was the rootfs start point in the hints file.

Specially we had to specify:
hint.map.3.start=0x130000

Because mtdparts specify 0x130000 as rootfs offset.

After this bring up part was done:

U-Boot 1.1.4.2-s594 (Dec 5 2012 - 15:23:07)

login: root
No home directory.
Logging in with home = "/".
# uname -a
FreeBSD freebsd-wifi-build 10.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 10.0-CURRENT #6 r254676M: Tue Aug 27 11:11:27 UTC 2013 [email protected]:/usr/home/hirenp/work/freebsd/head/obj/mipseb/mips.mips/usr/home/hirenp/work/freebsd/head/src/sys/AP91 mips
# df -k
Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/map/rootfs.uncompress 21851 20633 -529 103% /
devfs 1 1 0 100% /dev
/dev/md0 828 8 756 1% /tmp
/dev/md1 828 56 708 7% /var
/dev/md2 828 436 328 57% /etc
# pciconf -lv
none0@pci0:0:0:0: class=0x028000 card=0xe3020777 chip=0x002a168c rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Atheros Communications Inc.'
device = 'AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)'
class = network
# ifconfig
arge0: flags=8943 metric 0 mtu 1500
options=80000
ether 12:00:00:18:3c:02
media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX )
status: active
arge1: flags=8802 metric 0 mtu 1500
ether 12:00:00:18:3c:03
media: Ethernet 1000baseT
status: active
lo0: flags=8049 metric 0 mtu 16384
options=600003
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
bridge0: flags=8843 metric 0 mtu 1500
ether d2:c4:a8:63:0e:57
inet 192.168.1.20 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
id 00:00:00:00:00:00 priority 32768 hellotime 2 fwddelay 15
maxage 20 holdcnt 6 proto rstp maxaddr 2000 timeout 1200
root id 00:00:00:00:00:00 priority 32768 ifcost 0 port 0
member: arge0 flags=143
ifmaxaddr 0 port 5 priority 128 path cost 200000
#


Next up was figuring out networking.

I loaded all needed modules:

# kldstat
Id Refs Address Size Name
1 22 0x80050000 2d8f10 kernel
2 1 0xc0081000 1078 if_ath_pci.ko
3 1 0xc0083000 11e4bc if_ath.ko
4 4 0xc01a2000 606fc wlan.ko
5 2 0xc0203000 4924 bridgestp.ko
6 1 0xc0208000 6d90 if_bridge.ko
7 1 0xc020f000 a5e0 random.ko
8 1 0xc021a000 3ac wlan_xauth.ko
9 1 0xc021b000 27e4 wlan_tkip.ko
#


But if loading if_ath_pci failed in:

ath0: at device 0.0 on pci0
ath0: ath_pci_attach: EEPROM firmware @ 0x8046c000
[ath]: default pwr offset: -5 dBm != EEPROM pwr offset: 0 dBm; curves will be adjusted.
ath0: ath_getchannels: unable to collect channel list from hal, status 12
device_attach: ath0 attach returned 22


Turning up debugging level:

# sysctl hw.ath.hal.debug=25600000000
hw.ath.hal.debug: 0 -> 2147483647

device_attach: ath0 attach returned 22


Error here was: isEepromValid: invalid regulatory domain/country code 0x2a
What it meant was that hal regdomain needed to be updated with country code 0x2a

Just to hack that up for time being, adrian@ suggested to set it to 0x0 which worked.


Index: dev/ath/ath_hal/ah_regdomain.c
===================================================================
--- dev/ath/ath_hal/ah_regdomain.c (revision 255320)
+++ dev/ath/ath_hal/ah_regdomain.c (working copy)
@@ -169,6 +169,10 @@
if (regDomainPairs[i].regDmnEnum == rd)
return AH_TRUE;
}
+ if (rd == 42) {
+ rd = 0;
+ return AH_TRUE;
+ }
HALDEBUG(ah, HAL_DEBUG_REGDOMAIN,
"%s: invalid regulatory domain/country code 0x%x\n", __func__, rd);
return AH_FALSE;


The kernconf and hints file are committed as r255086.

This is how you can generate the image:

$ cd ~
$ mkdir -p work/freebsd/head
$ cd work/freebsd/head
$ svn checkout svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/head src
$ svn checkout http://freebsd-wifi-build.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ build
$ cd build/programs/ubnt-mkfwimage
$ make
$ su
# make install
# exit
$ cd ~/work/freebsd/head/src
$ ../build/build/bin/build picostation_m2hp buildworld buildkernel
$ su
# mkdir /tftpboot
# ../build/build/bin/build picostation_m2hp installworld installkernel distribution mfsroot fsimage uboot ubnt
# exit


On successful completion, resulting image PICOSTATION_M2HP.initial.img will be in /tftpboot.

My entire effort/rant has been also recorded at freebsd-embedded@

FreeBSD current on Lenovo T420 Laptop (dogfood)

I used PC-BSD for about 6 months on my laptop. It is nice but it has it’s own issues. I thought of PC-BSD as a closed source project but to my ignorance, it is also an open source project. It does some serious magic foo with the wrappers around all the GUI things, though. I do not even know how it fetches/emulates FreeBSD from underneath those wrappers. Anyways, I did not feel like spending more time on it.

I recently switched to running freebsd-current on my Lenovo T420. Here is what I had to do to set it up:

1) Picked up the latest snap from here and put it on a usb stick.

2) Because T420s cannot do gpt based installs (more details here), I followed this from FreeBSD wiki to setup mbr with zfs. Setting up ZFS is a huge PIA. I am still not sure why this is not a part of the installer like regular ufs setup.

3) Checked out ports and installed devel/subversion so that I can checkout stuff (and things).

4) I checked out FreeBSD head, did buildworld/installworld and buildkernel/installkernel.

5) To setup basic Display/X setup:
For X:
x11/xdm
x11-servers/xorg-server

For nvidia display drivers:
x11/nvidia-driver
x11/nvidia-settings
x11/nvidia-xconfig

I also added nvidia_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf to load nvidia driver module /dev/nvidiactl on bootup.

For keyboard:
x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard
if not installed, you may see following error in Xorg.0.log:
(EE) Failed to load module “keyboard” (module does not exist, 0)

For Mouse:
x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse
if not installed, you may see following error in Xorg.0.log:
(EE) Failed to load module “mouse” (module does not exist, 0)

For mouse, I also have following in /etc/rc.conf

moused_port="/dev/psm0"
moused_enable="YES"


Now, I am not sure why xf86-input-keyboard and xf86-input-mouse have to be explicitly installed and not as dependencies to xorg-server. Who likes an X without a keyboard or a mouse? But again, what do I know?

For fonts:
x11-fonts/xorg-fonts
x11-fonts/webfonts

Now to get xorg.conf, do:
# Xorg -configure

For nvidia drivers, also do:
# nvidia-xconfig

Then I tinkered with xorg.conf for a bit to get it all working the way I wanted.

In particular, I had to edit “Screen” section to be:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection


Just for reference, my “InputDevice” section looks like this:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection


Xorg logs i.e /var/log/Xorg.0.log is your friend. Use is if you have trouble setting things up.

6) Window manager
I use spectrwm as my window manager. After installing it from ports, to start it automatically with X, my ~/.xinitrc looks like this:

$ cat .xinitrc
#!/bin/sh

/usr/local/bin/spectrwm
/usr/local/bin/xscreensaver


xscreensaver is obviously for screen saver functionality.

7) Browsers:
I primarily use firefox with vimperator plugin.

To make flash work on firefox, I followed instructions in section 7.2.1.2 of this from freebsd handbook.

I also keep chromium around for any other sane soul who does not like browsing on my default firefox+vimperator setup.

Other needed ports:
vim
screen

Storage subsystem jargons

Standards in order of their creation/availability:
SCSI (Serial Computer System Interface), oldest
ATA (IDE) : AT Attachment, later became PATA (Parallel ATA)
SATA (Serial ATA) : better than SCSI
SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) : better than SATA

SCSI/SATA controls RAID.

SAS : costlier, better for critical functions, server applications
SATA: cheaper, used for personal computers

SAS controller can access SATA drives but that’s not true the other way around.

SAS and SATA drives can operate in the same environment while SCSI and ATA cannot. For example, using faster SAS drives for primary storage and offloading older data to cheaper SATA disks in the same subsystem, something that could not be achieved with SCSI and ATA.

CAM (Common Access Method) : a specification for SCSI
CAM provides a formal description of the interfaces in a SCSI subsystem.
Benefits: providing round-robin prioritized transaction queuing, guaranteed transaction ordering even during error recovery, and a straight forward error recovery model that increases system robustness.

CAM is not perfect, a lot of issues related to implementation of the standard.

More to come about CAM and RAID.

Credits:
http://people.freebsd.org/~gibbs/ARTICLE-0001.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2007/sas_sata.asp

Freebsd on Freebsd using QEMU

My system looks like this:


$ uname -a
FreeBSD xxxx.xxx.net 9.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE #0: Tue Jan 3 07:46:30 UTC 2012 [email protected]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64


1) Install qemu from /usr/ports/emulators/qemu

2) Load following 2 modules:

$ sudo kldload aio
$ sudo kldload kqemu


3) Get iso of the guest OS, in my case its FreeBSD so I got one from:
ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/9.1/

4) Create qemu image: (‘man 1 qemu-img’ for more information)

$ qemu-img create -f qcow2 ~/qemu/fbsd9_1beta.img 8G



$ ls -l ~/qemu/
total 652448
-rw-r--r-- 1 hpanchasara hpanchasara 667693056 Aug 7 12:43
FreeBSD-9.1-BETA1-amd64-disc1.iso
-rw-r--r-- 1 hpanchasara hpanchasara 262144 Aug 7 12:44 fbsd9_1beta.img


Then I tried to launch it with: (‘man 1 qemu’ for more information)

$ qemu -boot d -hda ~/qemu/fbsd9_1beta.img -m 512M -cdrom ~/qemu/FreeBSD-9.1-BETA1-amd64-disc1.iso -localtime


But got following errors:

Listing a few to help the web-crawler which intern helps some lost soul like me:
“CPU doesn’t support long mode”
“Can’t work out which disk we are booting from…”
“panic: free: guard1 fail @ …”

Asking “the Internet” helped me narrow down the root causes to following:

1) 32 bit host cannot have 64 bit guest – which was not the case for me.
2) Machine should be virtualization capable – it is.
from /var/run/dmesg.boot, it should have VMX or SVM under “Features”.

FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE #0: Tue Jan 3 07:46:30 UTC 2012
[email protected]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz (3392.37-MHz K8-class CPU)
Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x206a7 Family = 6 Model = 2a Stepping = 7
Features=0xbfebfbff
Features2=0x179ae3bf
AMD Features=0x28100800
AMD Features2=0x1
TSC: P-state invariant, performance statistics


3) Virtualization support should be enabled in bios – it was enabled.

$ sudo dmidecode | grep VME
VME (Virtual mode extension)


4) Use of incorrect qemu binary – that was the culprit.

“qemu” has different binary versions depending on the platform/systems:

$ qemu
qemu qemu-system-mips qemu-system-ppcemb
qemu-img qemu-system-mips64 qemu-system-sh4
qemu-system-arm qemu-system-mips64el qemu-system-sh4eb
qemu-system-cris qemu-system-mipsel qemu-system-sparc
qemu-system-m68k qemu-system-ppc qemu-system-sparc64
qemu-system-microblaze qemu-system-ppc64 qemu-system-x86_64


Using following I could successfully launch the guest FreeBSD instance:

$ qemu-system-x86_64 -boot d -hda ~/qemu/fbsd9_1beta.img -m 512 -cdrom ~/qemu/FreeBSD-9.1-BETA1-amd64-disc1.iso -localtime


On this first launch, it does FreeBSD install from the specified iso to the .img file. This is a typical FreeBSD installation process.

One the installation is done, you I could launch the VM via:

$ qemu-system-x86_64 -boot c -hda ~/qemu/fbsd9_1beta.img


Adding a printer in FreeBSD

To add a line printer in FreeBSD, you need following:

1) lpd daemon should be enabled and running.

lpd(8) is the print spooler. It accepts printing jobs and sends them to printers defined in /etc/printcap

=> to enable, add following entry in /etc/rc.conf
lpd_enable=”YES”

This entry will start lpd on next reboot.
You can also start it manually:
# lpd

=> make sure its running
# ps awwux | grep lpd
root 1525 0.0 0.0 10072 1620 ?? Is Wed11AM 0:00.00 /usr/sbin/lpd

2) Update /etc/printcap file with printer details:

For example, if printer name is “holi” and it’s sitting at holi.example.com,

lp|holi|holi laser printer:\
:[email protected]:\
:sd=/var/spool/output/lpd:\
:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:\
:sh:

You can also setup different filters.

Look up “man printcap” for the details.