Discussion and support forum for http://www.embedded-projects.net/
You are not logged in.
I'm having a lot of trouble with my ethernet connection on the grasshopper.
I'm running the stock U-boot that came on the board, and a root FS compiled from the sources from ICnova, and trying to access over NFS.
When doing the NFS boot, the transfer is sporadic, and slow. The hashes come up in bursts, and sometimes the transfer doesn't complete at all.
When the kernel does boot, I get a sea of these messages:
eth0: link up (100/Full) eth0: link down eth0: link up (100/Full) eth0: link down eth0: link up (100/Full) eth0: link down eth0: link up (100/Full) eth0: link down eth0: link up (100/Full) eth0: link down eth0: link up (100/Full) nfs: server 129.169.118.97 OK eth0: link down eth0: link up (100/Full) eth0: link down eth0: link up (100/Full) nfs: server 129.169.118.97 not responding, still trying nfs: server 129.169.118.97 not responding, still trying nfs: server 129.169.118.97 OK nfs: server 129.169.118.97 OK eth0: link down eth0: link up (100/Full)
The board's been like this since I bought it. I've checked the ethernet PHY, it's a DAVICOM DM9161AEP, which is the correct one I think.
Any ideas on what the problem might be? I'm pretty short for time, so if it's something I can fix rather than getting a new one, I'm game.
I thought about soldering an ethernet cable to the pins on the board in case it's the jack, but that would bypass the isolating transformers. Is this a problem?
Offline
It look's your ethernet-cable isn't connected correctly, either on the Boards or on the router's side.
best regrads
Offline
I've since tried different ethernet cables, and a crossover direct into the computer, and the problem remains. I then tried replacing the ethernet jack with another (which also had the included transformer).
I agree it looks like a dodgy connection somewhere, but I don't see where it could be.
Offline
Update- I bought a new grasshopper from a different supplier here in the UK.
I've been really careful not to do anything to this one that might break it! The kernel that was on the board originally works great with ethernet, but the kernel I compiled gives me the eth0: link up/down messages!
This implies that it's a software problem I'm experiencing...
I downloaded the sources from http://www.ic42.de/Linux-Images/icnova.iso. The only thing that I've changed is to enable framebuffer devices, and to change the target device from OEMPlus to ICnova Base.
Is there a way of getting the config file that the stock kernel was compiled with?
Any help would be very much appriciated, I'm running out of patience with this board....
EDIT: Also, the ethernet problem doesn't occur in UBoot on this board
Last edited by joerick (2010-02-09 12:34:03)
Offline
Hello,
please do "cp base.config .config" In your Buildroot directory and do a make afterwards. Now you should get a correctly configured kernel.
best regards
Offline
I think I've found the problem. I have no idea why it was causing what I have been seeing, but I'm seeing a lot fewer problems now.
I was running the board off the USB bus. I think there wasn't enough power coming down the wire and that was causing some components on the board to fail, but not the CPU. Perhaps the brownout threshold is too low?
Anyway, my original board is going again. Hopefully somebody else with the same problem will find this thread and it will save them their sanity!
Offline