Content Comparison

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The guide will give a technical overview about the product and by the end of it you should be able to boot an operating system and begin testing your application.

Revision and Notes

Hardware Setup

Product Specifications

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Before powering up the board for the first time it is recommended to select the boot media. In order to configure the boot media, please refer to the following DIP switch:

The following shows how to set the switches on the boot source selector:

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The switches on the boot source SW1 selector must be set as follows:

The following shows how to set the switches on the boot source selector:

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Download a pre-built snapshot image from SolidRun Images

Those images are built with the suffix of the commit ID of organised by branch, build-date and commit id from the GitHub - SolidRun/lx2160a_build  project that you can clone and build by yourself.

You can build your own image using the script in here – GitHub - SolidRun/lx2160a_build

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Use the following commands for writing the image to an SD card:

xz -dc lx2160acex7_2000_700lx2160a_....img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4k4M conv=fdatasyncfsync

• For more information, please visit Flashing an SD Card .

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Please insert the micro USB into your device, then you can refer to Serial Connection for installing necessary serial connection software in Linux/Windows. Stop

6. Install rootfs Image to eMMC (or microSD)

The default images are designed to simplify installation of rootfs to eMMC, booting only into a minimal initramfs. For access to a full featured rootfs, install the contained image to either eMMC or the very same microSD:

 Stop the u-boot count down by clicking any key –

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To flash to eMMC run the following commands (it will wipre wipe your data on the eMMC device).

load mmc 0:1 0xa4000000 ubuntu-core.img
mmc dev 1
mmc write 0xa4000000 0 0xd2000

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Alternatively flash to the same microSD card used to boot:

load mmc 0:1 0xa4000000 ubuntu-core.img
mmc dev 0
mmc write 0xa4000000 0 0xd2000

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Boot the machine by running ‘boot’ in u-boot.

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67. Final stages

The following stages need to be done in order to finalise the imaging:

1. Run fdisk /dev/mmcblk0mmcblk1 if using SD, or run if using fdisk /dev/mmcblk1mmcblk0 eMMC.

2. Recreate the first partition by deleting it and then creating a new partition that starts at block 131072 and extends to the end of the drive (or less depending on your needs).

3. Write the new partition, when prompt about ‘Do you want to remove the signature?’ then answer with No.

4. Run resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p1mmcblk1p1 if using SD Card, or Run resize2fs /dev/mmcblk1p1mmcblk0p1 if using eMMC.

5. In this stage the root partition should be big enough to start populating it; but first update the RTC clock.

6. Connect the RJ45 to your network with internet access (and DHCP server); and then run dhclient .

7. Update the RTC clock by running ntpdate pool.ntp.org and then hwclock -w.

8. Run apt-update commands below and then populate the root filesystem as you wish.

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

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For some SFP modules that work on SolidRun networking hardware platforms, please refer to SFP Modules .

Using the built-in NICs

In case of SERDES configuration of 8 18 (default build) then dpmac.3 to dpmac.10 can be exposed. Those are 8x10Gbps 8x10 interfaces where first 4 dpmac.3 to dpmac.6 can be obtained by using a 40G to 4x10G splitter cable (or so called octopus cable) when connected to HoneyComb / ClearFog CX QSFP28 port and are exposed on QSFP connector, the remaining dpmac.7 to dpmac.10 are on the 2×2 2x2 SFP+ connector cage..

The 4 ports on QSFP can be accessed via 40G to 4x10G or 100G to 4x25G splitter cables (so called octopus cable), for 25Gbps speed Linux device-tree needs to be changed.

The SFP+ ports are designed for 10G. They can still support 25G with active modules (i.e. fiber or RJ45) however with some risk of noise between connector and CPU.

Ports are activated using NXP’s “restool” package. For example – dpmac.9 is the SFP+ port on the upper row and left towards PCB edge –

ls-addni dpmac.9

and then a new ethX ethernet interface is attached to the kernel.

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1. Make sure that the kernel is booted with the following variables in the command line –

   Code Block
   default_hugepagesz=1024m hugepagesz=1024m hugepages=2 isolcpus=1-15 iommu.passthrough=1

   If using the above installation of Ubuntu then the /extlinux/extlinux.conf file should look as follows (the default installation with the addition of isolcpus=1-15 iommu.passthrough=1) –

   Code Block
   TIMEOUT 30 DEFAULT linux MENU TITLE linux-lx2160a boot options LABEL primary MENU LABEL primary kernel LINUX /boot/Image   FDT /boot/fsl-lx2160a-cex7.dtb  APPEND console=ttyAMA0,115200 earlycon=pl011,mmio32,0x21c0000 default_hugepagesz=1024m hugepagesz=1024m hugepages=2 isolcpus=1-15 iommu.passthrough=1 pci=pcie_bus_perf root=PARTUUID=30303030-01 rw rootwait

2. From build/dpdk directory under the lx2160a_build project, search for dynamic_dpl.sh and testpmd files and copy them over to the LX2160A Ubuntu root filesystem

3. Run the following that will generate 10Gbps traffic on dpmac.10 using only a single core. Can be used to generate traffic on dpmac.1 and other interfaces –

dynamic_dpl.sh dpmac.10
export DPRC=dprc.2
testpmd -c 0x3 -n 1 -- --txd=1500 --txpkts=1500 --tx-first --auto-start --forward-mode=txonly --stats-period=10

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An alternative way to run testpmd in interactive mode is as follows –

dynamic_dpl.sh dpmac.10
export DPRC=dprc.2
testpmd -c 0x3 -n 1 -- --txd=1500 -i
set fwd txonly
set txpkts 1500
show port info 0
show config txpkts
start

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Gentoo is a free and open-source distribution with a rolling-release model.
The bootloader and kernel provided are recent enough to install Gentoo from the eMMC Ubuntu to the NVMe or SATA device.

 apt install btrfs-progs
 mkfs.btrfs /dev/nvme0n1p1
 mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt
 cd /mnt
# change 20200609 with what's available here http://distfiles.gentoo.org/experimental/arm64/
 wget http://distfiles.gentoo.org/experimental/arm64/stage3-arm64-20200609.tar.bz2
 mount --rbind /dev dev
 mount --make-rslave dev
 mount -t proc /proc proc
 mount --rbind /sys sys
 mount --make-rslave sys
 mount --rbind /tmp tmp
 cp /etc/resolv.conf etc
 chroot . /bin/bash
 env-update && . /etc/profile
 emerge-webrsync
 emerge superadduser openssh vim
# Set the root password
 passwd 
# enable root login
 vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config 
# or create your user
 superadduser your_user
 ln -s /etc/init.d/net.{lo,eth0}
 rc-update add sshd default
 reboot

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• You can build your own image using the script in here – GitHub - SolidRun/lx2160a_build

• Generating UEFI firmware for the LX2160a - GitHub - SolidRun/lx2160a_uefi

• Using HoneyComb LX2K as a Desktop - https://github.com/Wooty-B/LX2K_Guide

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