Enabling Ethernet Connectivity on Octoclock and Octoclock-G

Application Note Number

AN-800

Revision History

Date	Author	Details
2020-01-13	Sam Reiter	Initial creation

Overview

This application note covers, in detail, the steps required to program an Octoclock or Octoclock-G to allow Ethernet connectivity and communication with UHD. This guide serves as a supplement to the UHD Manual's coverage of the topic. In this guide, we will use Ubuntu 19.10 to program an Octoclock using an ATMEL-ICE programmer.

Verify Current Octoclock Configuration

To get started, we want to make sure that this guide is appropriate for your device(s). Currently shipping Octoclocks will come with the following firmware pre-loaded. You can test which unit you have with a simple ping test:

1. Connect the 6V DC power supply to the Octoclock
2. Connect your Octoclock's RJ-45 port to a host PC via an Ethernet cable
3. Configure your host's Ethernet port to a static connection with the IPV4 address: 192.168.10.1
4. Configure your host's Ethernet port with a subnet mast of: 255.255.255.0
5. Turn your host's Ethernet port off and back on for changes to take effect
6. In a terminal, issue the command:

   ping 192.168.10.3

A successful ping between devices means that your device is already configured with updated firmware and this guide is *not* necessary. At this time, this guide has not been tested for recovering bricked devices.

Tools Required

1. Philips head screwdriver
2. ATMEL-ICE Programmer (or comparable AVR programmer) with SPI/ISP cable
3. Ethernet cable

ATMEL-ICE Configuration

To utilize the ATMEL-ICE programmer, the avrdude utility must be used. The version of avrdude should be >= 6.1. At the time of this guide, version 6.3 is the default install from the Ubunu PPA and programming issues were observed. This guide will cover a build of avrdude 6.1 from source.

Install the following dependencies:

   sudo apt-get install bison flex libftdi1-dev libftdi-dev

Download the avrdude-6.1.tar.gz release here. From this download location, uncompress the directory:

   tar xvzf avrdude-6.1.tar.gz

Enter the source directory

   cd avrdude-6.1/

Run the configure script

   ./configure

Expected output:

<truncated output>

Configuration summary:
----------------------
DO HAVE    libelf
DO HAVE    libusb
DO HAVE    libusb_1_0
DO HAVE    libftdi1
DO HAVE    libftdi (but prefer to use libftdi1)
DON'T HAVE libhid
DO HAVE    pthread
DISABLED   doc
ENABLED    parport
DISABLED   linuxgpio

Build

   make

Install

   sudo make install

Test your avrdude installation

avrdude -?

Expected output

<truncated output>

avrdude version 6.1, URL: <http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/avrdude/>

Download Octoclock Firmware

If UHD is not already installed, install your preferred version with this guide:

[Building and Installing the USRP Open-Source Toolchain (UHD and GNU Radio) on Linux, https://kb.ettus.com/Building_and_Installing_the_USRP_Open-Source_Toolchain_(UHD_and_GNU_Radio)_on_Linux]

Download images for UHD:

   sudo uhd_images_downloader

Verify that you have octoclock_bootloader.hex and octoclock_r4_fw.hex

   ls -l /usr/local/share/uhd/images | grep octoclock

Expected output

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       17332 Jun  6  2019 octoclock_bootloader.hex
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root       22845 Jun  6  2019 octoclock_r4_fw.hex

Change to this directory:

   cd /usr/local/share/uhd/images

Connect Programmer to Octoclock

Begin this guide with the Octoclock unplugged. First, you'll need to remove the top plate from the Octoclock, exposing the PCB. There are 12 screws securing the top plate.

With the top plate removed, locate the 6-pin header (male) for SPI communication with the ATmega128.

Connect the ATMEL-ICE's 6-pin header (female) to the SPI header of the Octoclock as shown below. The tab of the header should be facing the ATmega128 chip.

Note: If you plug the header in backwards, avrdude is expected to return a "please check your connections" message after a programming failure.

If not already done, connect the other end of the SPI cable to the ATMEL-ICE's AVR squid connector, and connect the ATMEL-ICE to the host computer using the micro-usb port. There should be a single LED lit on the programmer.

Supply power to the Octoclock with the 6V power brick. You should see the Octoclock's Power LED come on and 1 additional green LED on the ATMEL-ICE programmer illuminate.

Program the Octoclock

With the terminal that is open in the same directory as the .hex images, run the following command

   sudo avrdude -p atmega128 -c atmelice_isp -P usb -U efuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0x80:m -U lfuse:w:0xEF:m -U flash:w:octoclock_bootloader.hex:i

If you are using a programmer other than the ATMEL-ICE, you will need to change the -c parameter to match your programmer. Valid programmers for your version of avrdude can be found by running:

   avrdude -c help

The expected output from a successful run of avrdude<code> is as follows:

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9702
avrdude: NOTE: "flash" memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be performed
         To disable this feature, specify the -D option.
avrdude: erasing chip
avrdude: reading input file "0xFF"
avrdude: writing efuse (1 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.09s

avrdude: 1 bytes of efuse written
avrdude: verifying efuse memory against 0xFF:
avrdude: load data efuse data from input file 0xFF:
avrdude: input file 0xFF contains 1 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip efuse data:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: 1 bytes of efuse verified
avrdude: reading input file "0x80"
avrdude: writing hfuse (1 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.09s

avrdude: 1 bytes of hfuse written
avrdude: verifying hfuse memory against 0x80:
avrdude: load data hfuse data from input file 0x80:
avrdude: input file 0x80 contains 1 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip hfuse data:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: 1 bytes of hfuse verified
avrdude: reading input file "0xEF"
avrdude: writing lfuse (1 bytes):

Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.09s

avrdude: 1 bytes of lfuse written
avrdude: verifying lfuse memory against 0xEF:
avrdude: load data lfuse data from input file 0xEF:
avrdude: input file 0xEF contains 1 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip lfuse data:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: 1 bytes of lfuse verified
avrdude: reading input file "octoclock_bootloader.hex"
avrdude: can't open input file octoclock_bootloader.hex: No such file or directory
avrdude: read from file 'octoclock_bootloader.hex' failed

avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK (E:FF, H:80, L:EF)

avrdude done.  Thank you.

Increasing Ring Buffers

This applies to Ethernet connected USRPs using a 10 Gb interface (X3xx, N3xx, E320).

Increasing the Ring Buffers on the NIC may help prevent flow control errors at higher rates.

   sudo ethtool -G <interface> tx 4096 rx 4096

DPDK

DPDK is supported on N3xx, X3xx and E320 USRPs. DPDK replaces the traditional Linux networking stack with a low overhead user-land based driver. Additional details of using DPDK can be found in the UHD Manual located at the following link: https://files.ettus.com/manual/page_dpdk.html

Disable Hyper-threading

In some applications which require the highest possible CPU performance per core, disabling hyper-threading can provide roughly a 10% increase in core performance, at the cost of having less core threads. Hyper-threading can be disabled within the BIOs and varies by manufacturer.

Disable KPTI Protections for Spectre/Meltdown

In some cases, disabling the KPTI protections for the Linux Kernel can increase performance by 10-15%. It is important to note the ramification making this modification can have. This modification is only recommended for systems that absolutely require the best performance and are not connected to the internet.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltdown_(security_vulnerability)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(security_vulnerability)

Disabling KPTI protections can be done by adding the lines below to your <code>/etc/default/grub file at GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""

   pti=off spectre_v2=off l1tf=off nospec_store_bypass_disable no_stf_barrier

After modifying the grub file, run the following command to update your configuration and reboot:

   sudo update-grub