Marcin Juszkiewicz - alix

Coreboot is awesome

2010-10-05T10:54:00+02:00

Two weeks ago I was updating Award BIOS on Alix.1c board and failed — computer bricked :(

But there was a way to get it to working state again — PC Engines (vendor or Alix boards) has LPC1a adapter with extra BIOS chip. I contacted them and few days later it arrived here (I will send it back as it is loaned).

Use is simple: plug into LPC connector, boot machine, reprogram on-board flash chip, power off, unplug lpc1a, power on. But I decided to make a use of it and decided to migrate from Award BIOS to coreboot with some extra payload.

As I use only Linux on Alix I tried FILO first. It booted to prompt but refused to see files on CompactFlash card. GRUB v2 supports coreboot but did not run so I tried SeaBIOS instead. And that was it — clean, fast boot to GRUB from CF card.

There is one problem which I did not solved yet: VGA BIOS rom does not work for me. But I will rather do not spend time on it as framebuffer under Linux works without it and I do not plan to run FreeDOS or other systems which would do VGA BIOS calls. Other option is to use SGABIOS which redirects input/output from video card to serial port — works fine.

But the nicest moment was still before me. When I disabled all debug output in coreboot and SeaBIOS I got HUGE improvement in boot time. Linux was loading in a time which previously was needed for Award BIOS to make a beep sound…

New multi I/O card installed

2009-04-30T13:57:00+02:00

Some days ago I exchanged my MOS9835 based I/O card with newer version based on MOS9845. Old one had one parallel port (which I never used) and two serial ports. New one do not have parallel port but has 6 serial ports instead. Why so much?

The answer is simple — more devices on desk require more ports. I could go into USB-serial adapters and buy bunch of them and create set of udev rules to make them stick with device node names. But I read too many stories when such adapters works when 2 of them are used but adding 3rd breaks config. So I bought PCI card.

Is it useful? Yes, it is. Does it add new problems? Few, but simple ones.

First problem is to get proper numbering of ports. As mainboard used in desktop has one serial port already I wanted it to be /dev/ttyS0 and additional ones to be /dev/ttyS[1-6]. But fun starts in kernel config…

There are few options which controls amount of serial ports in total (named CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS) and amount of runtime registered ports (named CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_RUNTIME_UARTS). To get sane numbering I had to play with those values a bit. I set NR_UARTS to “10” (just in case) and then RUNTIME_UARTS to “7” so ports works like I wanted.

Next thing is guessing which port is which ttySx node. I did that by connecting devices and checking with “picocom” which one is which. Now connectors are signed with number on one side :D

Serial cables needs to be described

Last thing was adding names to device nodes as it is easier to use /dev/ttyALIX then remember that Alix is connected to /dev/ttyS2 port. So currently I have this config:

Port	device
ttyS1	BeagleBoard
ttyS2	Alix.1c
ttyS3	not used yet
ttyS4	at91sam9263ek
ttyS5	atngw100
ttyS6	edb9301

I use also serial cable with BUG but as it has female connector I use USB adapter with it. Have to buy female->male cable for it so it will use ttyS3…

This is how it looks on desktop side:

Connectors jungle in my desktop

And one more thing — few readers suggested to use cards which adds 8 serial ports. I have to admit that I was thinking about it but decided against it. I already have lot of cables under desk and adding such hydra (card connector -> 8 cables with DB9 connector) would make it even harder to organize.

Next cables to organize would be network — each device on desk wants at least one Ethernet cable…

Does Vortex86sx based devices are worth something?

2009-02-20T16:39:00+01:00

At FOSDEM 2009 I grabbed one Vortex86SX based device — Koala Nano PC which is available at Koan software. Device came with Ångström distribution and was running 2.6.26 kernel. I wanted to get something more fresh on it and after some fighting I booted 2.6.29-rc5 kernel today.

Device use Vortex86SX SoC which is based on 486SX core. Yes — this is x86 machine without FPU. Overall speed of that is… nearly not existing.

First benchmark which came to my mind was “hdparm -T /dev/sda”. Results were dramatic: 9-13 MB/s for cached reads (with 133MHz memory and 300MHz cpu). I decided to compare against other devices:

Device	Arch	CPU	CPU speed	memory type	cached reads
Koala Nano PC	x86	vortex86sx	300MHz	DDR2	9-13MB/s
old PC	x86	pentium2	266MHz	EDO DRAM	33MB/s
ATNGW100	av32	AT32AP700x	130MHz	SDRAM	35MB/s
ASUS WL-500gP	mips	bcm3302	266MHz		46MB/s
Freecom FSG-3	arm	ipx42x	266MHz		43MB/s
iBook G3	ppc	g3	300MHz	SDRAM	65MB/s
AT91SAM9263-EK	arm	at91sam9263	180MHz	SDRAM	62-63MB/s
Compulab	arm	pxa270	312MHz	SDRAM	74MB/s
NSLU2	arm	ixp420	266MHz	SDRAM	74MB/s
Koala nano33	x86	vortex86dx	1GHz	DDR2	74MB/s
Nokia N810	arm	omap2420	400MHz	SDRAM	82MB/s
AT91SAM9G20-EK	arm	at91sam9G20	400MHz	SDRAM	96MB/s
Linkstation pro duo	arm	ixp4xx	266MHz		147MB/s
BeagleBoard	arm	omap3530	500MHz	mDDR	152MB/s
Alix.1c	x86	geodelx	500MHz	DDR	209MB/s
kirkwood reference board¹	arm	kirkwood	1200MHz	DDR2	209MB/s
BUG	arm	i.mx31	533MHz	DDR	294MB/s
my desktop	x86	core2quad	2400MHz	DDR2	3300-3500MB/s
Cliff’s desktop	x86	Core-i7 920 Quad	2.67GHz	DDR3	6400-7200MB/s

But remember that this test is not so good for benchmarking — I am preparing better set of tests to really compare speed of devices. So far it contains openssl speed and MP3 encoding/decoding.

But device has also few nice things. Everything is integrated so 12x12cm box is enough to keep everything inside. It has ATA controller, FastEthernet, graphics based on XGI core (with accelerated framebuffer able to do 1680x1050 resolution) and working USB. There is a place to put 2.5” HDD inside (normally it boots from CompactFlash card), second Ethernet or WiFi are available options…

But what is use for such slow device? There are lot of ARM based ones which offer similar (or better) functionality and are faster… But wait — there is one use: event displays as this machine has nicely working framebuffer (I got even 1680x1050 resolution).

UPDATE: added results from iBook G3 300MHz and some other machines.

kirkwood reference board uses same cpu as SheevaPlug device. ↩

Alix.1c and Koala MiniPC case

2008-12-11T22:51:00+01:00

Today I got case for Alix.1c mainboard. For reminding: this is PC Engines board in mini-ITX format, powered by AMD Geode LX800.

Package arrived from Koan Software and contained one of their products: MiniPC 2PCI case.

Package contents

There were many addons in the box:

60W 12V AC adapter
2.5” ATA -> Slim DVD/CD adapter
PCI riser for 2 slots
wall mounting elements
2.5” ATA 3.5” ATA adapters
bracket for 3 DB9 connectors (additional serials anyone?)

AC adapter is added because case contains small PSU with few connectors. I do not use it because Alix.1c mainboard consists similar one already (and lack ATX power connector).

Inside view

Inside case there is a lot of space available:

Inside view

There are mounting places for 3.5” HDD, 2.5” HDD and slim DVD/CD drive (signal adapter attached). There are also 2 fans (60mm each) but I left them not connected (Alix does not require cooling and lack sockets for fans).

Front panel

Front view

Front panel has 2 USB sockets, HDD and power leds and power button. As usual in mini-ITX cases there is no Reset button. Not present in my case (but available as option) is CompactFlash slot accessible from front. I did not ordered it because Alix has such one integrated.

Summary

Case is very high quality made — no sharp edges, easy access to all peripherals. And all those addons which are in a box makes overall cost smaller. If someone is searching for good mini-ITX case then MiniPC ones are good choice (and there is smaller version without place for PCI cards).

PCI 3.3V :(

As I wrote before I plan to make router based on Alix.1c — but after putting it into case I discovered one problem with board itself. It has 3.3V PCI slot so I have no use of PCI riser which was added to case. Will search for VIA one because it is universal (3.3V/5V) so I will get slots (but have to remember that cards have to accept 3.3V signals).

Is it time to replace WRT54GS?

2008-12-04T21:50:00+01:00

Since few months I have 10/1Mbps network connection (downlink/uplink). Recently it was downgraded to 1/1Mbps and I had no idea why. Finally it appeared that my router was the problem…

Exact reason was QoS which I enabled few days ago. It looks like DD-WRT which I use now can not handle it on WRT54GS without degrading network speed. For now I disabled this but it is not an option because I plan to use VoIP more in next months so I need warranty that it will get all bandwidth it needs never mind what else would be running.

Current plans are to make use of Alix 1.c which I have from PC Engines. Soon I will have nice case for it so the only things to buy will be miniPCI WiFi card (friends suggested getting one of Atheros based ones) and 1GbE network card. I already have 2GB CompactFlash for rootfs and spare 2.5” hdd which will be used for storage.

This configuration should be fast enough to have more functions then just router/AP. I plan to make it also printer/scanner server and probably there will be some more to add.

Bought case for Alix board

2007-09-03T22:44:00+02:00

Today evening I was in IKEA shop near my house and bought GLIS box (blue). Tomorrow I plan to fit ALIX board into it — will require few holes (for Ethernet, VGA, USB, Power ports) and hard disk mounting but will fit and there will be space left. This will allow to put it under desk where is place for all my headless machines.

x86 architecture mess

2007-08-26T22:35:00+02:00

x86 architecture is total mess when it comes to naming. Basically there were “i386”, “i486”, “i586”, “i686” — nothing more was used. But this gives lot of problems.

First one — which optimisations can be used on “i686”? It has MMX for sure but does it have SSE? SSEv2? SSEv3? 3DNow! technology? It depends on cpu… for example PentiumPro (the first “i686”) has MMX but lack any other addons. Athlon64 will have most of them (or even all in newest cores) but under 32bit Linux it still be “i686”.

Second thing is how Linux recognize CPU. On ALIX board I have AMD Geode LX which has MMX and 3DNow! but lack SSE. According to some data it is “i686” but under Linux it is “i586”:

root@alix:~$ uname -m
i586

Currently I am running Ångström on it but is it built with “i686” optimisations…

Why Alix board is nice and why not quite

2007-08-08T23:03:00+02:00

There are nice things in Alix board design and few not quite nice.

Nice ones:

only 12V voltage needed (small external PSU is in package)
DC-DC converter on board (so no need for ATX PSU or PicoPSU + 12V external PSU)
slot for CompactFlash storage on board (no need for CF->ATA adapter)
miniPCI slot
low profile (board has height of dual USB connector)
22 GPIO lines
256MB of RAM soldered on board (so no space taken by memory slot)
no fan, no heatsink

What I do not like:

lack of ATX back cover for ports (so when you put it in case you will get big hole for dust)
lack of memory slot (even SO-DIMM one if someone want more then 256MB RAM)
ATA connector is 44 pin one for 2.5” harddisks (looks like it is impossible to buy 2.5”->2.5” cable in Poland)

So if someone know where to buy 2.5” -> 2.5” ATA cable in Poland then please write in comment.