Re: [Soekris] net6501: doesn't start if not first unplugged for 8 minutes
On 07/04/17 18:18, David Ruggiero wrote: > > Maybe it's just me ... but this is the part that I find unlikely. Why > > would a huge company like Intel do that? They already admitted that a > > similar problem exists in related chipsets. > > I fully agree - weakest part of my argument. Why would Intel care > about a customer whose total chip purchases amount to a rounding error > in their yearly embedded system sales? Seems like they could just say > "too bad". My succession of little green boxes have now been succeeded by a Netgate/ADI Engineering 2440, which has an Atom C2xxx CPU that has the bug that's been in the press. But due to a fortunate coincidence the bug can be sidestepped in software in this product, and I received an alert from the company I purchased the product from containing information on how to upgrade to a BIOS that works around the problem. So the kind of customer service we enjoyed years ago from Soekris, but no longer. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net6501 donation to pfSense's dev team
On 11/10/16 23:22, Alvar Kusma wrote: > This is where proud company owner may step in and donate board to devs. And replace them when they break. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] [net5501]no boot from flash since debian jessie upgrade
On 07/09/15 14:01, Nicolas wrote: > Did anyone sucessfully run a Jessie on Net5501 ? Yes, I'm running Jessie on my net5501: root@skr03:~# lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Debian Description:Debian GNU/Linux 8.2 (jessie) Release:8.2 Codename: jessie root@skr03:~# uname -a Linux skr03 3.16.0-4-586 #1 Debian 3.16.7-ckt11-1+deb8u3 (2015-08-04) i586 GNU/Linux root@skr03:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : AuthenticAMD cpu family : 5 model : 10 model name : Geode(TM) Integrated Processor by AMD PCS stepping: 2 microcode : 0x8b cpu MHz : 499.890 cache size : 128 KB fdiv_bug: no f00f_bug: no coma_bug: no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 1 wp : yes flags : fpu de pse tsc msr cx8 sep pge cmov clflush mmx mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow vmmcall bogomips: 999.78 clflush size: 32 cache_alignment : 32 address sizes : 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual power management: Something else just occurred to me: perhaps the box is actually working, but you only think that it isn't. Specifically: - Make sure that you've set the serial console up correctly. Meaning that once the kernel is booted it uses the serial port as its console (in my case this means console=ttyS0,9600n8 on the kernel command line). - Set up the serial console in grub - Make sure that there's a getty attached to the serial port - I forget the particulars, but I remember having trouble with the boot process stalling due to hardware flow control on the serial port. You can avoid this by configuring the Soekris BIOS correctly (again: I forget the details) or by unplugging the serial port while the box boots. HTH, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] [net5501]no boot from flash since debian jessie upgrade
On 04/09/15 13:37, Nicolas wrote: > I've plugged in the console cable, and it seems that as soon as it starts > reading from the CF, it hangs : The first thing to try is a different power supply. Many many many people have gone before you who've faced similar symptoms that were magically resolved by a different wallwart. HTH, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Limitations of Net6501 as a network bridge
On 26/06/15 03:09, Jed Clear wrote: I haven't explored iptables in bridge/layer 2 mode, but there is no fundamental reason you can't packet sniff or firewall traffic in bridge mode. The traffic has to pass through your kernel. iptables can be a bit daunting to set up directly. I use shorewall to do so. I haven't used it but shorewall also has a layer 2 mode: http://shorewall.net/bridge-Shorewall-perl.html Shorewall is available in Debian as a package: apt-get install shorewall. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Debian GNU/kFreeBSD on a soekris net4801?
On 16/05/15 04:45, Bryan K. Walton wrote: Hi, I'm curious if anybody has attempted an install of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD (any release version) on a soekris net4801, or other Soekris boxes? If anybody has tried it, I'd be curious to know how it went. I've been using Soekris boxen (4801, 5501) for many years. First Ubuntu until 10.04, then Debian when Ubuntu dropped support for the CPUs those boxen contain. Just this morning I upgraded a 5501 from Debian Wheezy to Jessie. These days I generally prepare my CF images in a qemu vm. Beats having to netboot the box itself (because the boxes I have do not support booting from USB). Here's the command line I used to boot the image, within which I then did the upgrade: # qemu-system-i386 -cpu kvm32 -hda skr03.whatever.img -serial /dev/tty8 -m 512 Then just copy the image to a CF using dd. Remember to use 4K writes (obs=4096), otherwise you'll be waiting all day and all night for that to finish. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Compact Flash lifetime/failure detection?
On 06/01/15 11:32, Philip wrote: The 4G CF card that I use to boot my MiniITX server died over Christmas. I pulled out the card, repartitioned and formatted it and tested it with F3write/F3read and most of the card appears to be unusable. This server is (was) running Debian with the CF card in an IDE adapter. I am now worried that my Soekris could go the same way. That machine is net5501 running FreeBSD. Is there any early warning that I can get of CF card failure? Are there any long life cards that are suitable for a general purpose OS. Should I just forget about CF cards and just boot a normal drive? I am by no means a specialist but I do have some knowledge based on the following: - I have several Soekris devices that boot a regular OS (Ubuntu and Debian) from CompactFlash, using a regular filesystem (ext4); - the company I work for uses CompactFlash cards in embedded systems where CF is the only non-volatile storage. In neither case is CF wearout a problem. A few points to consider: - Flash memory does indeed suffer from a limitation in the number of block erase cycles it can withstand before becoming unreliable. The use of wear leveling spreads out the erase cycles across the cells in the device as evenly as possible, such that failure occurs catastrophically when it finally happens after the erase budget has been used up. - I am not aware of a standardised way of asking a CF device how close it is to wearout. - There are several strategies for avoiding writes to the CF device, including: -- Mount the filesystem with the noatime and nodiratime options. -- Don't log to the CF device but rather to a syslog server on your LAN. If you want to avoid even the minimal syslog reconfiguration that this requires you can use NFS to mount a remote directory to /var/log -- This is not a write-avoidance technique but it also helps to (significantly) overdimension your CF device, then to use only a small partition on it, leaving the rest of the device unused (i.e. unpartitioned/unformatted). This provides more space for the wear levelling algorithm to do its thing. HTH, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] any hints for an adsl pci card for opensbd ?
On 04/05/2014 07:44 PM, Vittorio Cipriani wrote: Hi, I want buy some soekris device to build an openbsd hardened firewall, but I need of an advice about an adsl pci modem card. Anyone could help me ? ADSL-only: Sangoma S518. You'll need drivers though; there's a howto on the Sangoma website. ADSL2+ (with fallback to ADSL): Traverse Viking. No drivers needed because the card presents itself to the system as a Realtek Ethernet interface. You'll probably have to get these second-hand somewhere because I think that they're both end-of-life. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] general impressions of network throughput
On 03/16/2014 09:59 PM, Malcolm Herbert wrote: We will be soon getting a 25Mb/s link and I was wondering what max throughput people had found for various models of Soekris boards - I have some 4801s and a 5501 at the moment but was concerned that these might not have the grunt to cope, especially as it would become my end of a PPPoE link and might also host some static web pages too. I have a 5501, and my ISP upgraded my VDSL2 line to 25.5Mbit/s a couple of months ago. The box runs Debian Wheezy. It terminates the PPPoE link so that the DSL modem's IP stack is not exposed to the internet. I'm able to saturate the internet link, but I have had to make some changes. Principally, I've begun migrating wireless traffic off the box for two reasons: - the box was getting just too crashy under load; - I could not saturate the internet link in one of my main use cases, namely browsing from a wireless client via a proxy server that resides on my LAN. So in this case the box would deal with PPPoE, firewalling (incl NAT), shift the traffic onto the LAN towards the proxy, then bridge it back again to the wireless client. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] general impressions of network throughput
On 03/18/2014 06:12 PM, Alex Pilon wrote: Are you using the in-kernel PPPoE, or the userspace implementation of RP-PPPoE? I used to use userspace PPPoE before my line was upgraded from ADSL to VDSL2. I could not use synchronous mode for the reasons that are well documented on the interweb. So relatively high CPU load (which was fine back then). This is the main thing that I had to change to get things working properly upon the upgrade to VDSL2 (initially 16 Mbit/s a couple of years ago; the upgrade to 25 Mbit/s is much more recent): I switched over to using kernel-mode PPPoE. - the box was getting just too crashy under load; Unfortunately 177 reboots since April first. 30s watchdog. Haven't isolated the cause for failure. Typically the cause is the power supply. But not in my case; my problem remained with several different power supplies, some significantly bigger than the Soekris could ever need. As I said I have now moved most of my wireless traffic off this box's wireless interface and onto the Asus AP (which is still running the proprietary firmware at the moment). My wife's company laptop is the only machine that still uses the Soekris as an AP. She works from home a lot (including video streaming etc), but it seems that if the wireless machinery in our house isn't also pumping traffic at the same time the box is much more stable. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net6501 can't boot with large disk attached
On 05/03/2013 07:35 AM, Lon Willett wrote: I recently hooked up a large external USB disk to a net6501 and made a most unpleasant discovery. The machine hangs when booting. Note that I'm *not* trying to boot from the drive. Just having it hooked up prevents the net6501 from booting. More specifically, I get: --- comBIOS ver. 1.41c 20121115 Copyright (C) 2000-2011 Soekris Engineering. net6501 2048 Mbyte MemoryCPU Atom E6xx 1600 Mhz SATA AHCI BIOS ver. 0.61 20121115 Copyright (C) 2003-2011 Intel Corporation Controller Bus#02, Device#06, Function#00: 02 Ports, 01 Devices Port-00: Hard Disk, INTEL SSDMAEXC020G3 Port-01: No device detected Soekris USB Expansion ROM ver. 1.01 20111203 81: USB --- and then the machine hangs. I tried with a couple of different adapters, so I don't think it likely that that is the problem. This isn't a power supply issue is it? That is: the disk is being powered by its own power supply? Otherwise, if a common power supply is used the current surge when the disk spins up might cause the Soekris to crash. Long shot but I thought I'd ask. HTH, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Hardware failure, error-led constant and interface leds flickering
On 01/21/2013 02:34 PM, Helmut Schlang wrote: What's happening there? First thing to try is a new power supply. Any regulated power supply brick that supplies 12 VDC to a 5.5mmx2.1mm barrel connector (positive centre) will do, but it's good to have some headroom current-wise. So one that supplies 2.5A at 12VDC; moderately more amps is better. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] UK Soekris resellers?
On 09/27/2012 12:06 AM, Stuart Henderson wrote: Are there any UK-based Soekris resellers (other than a rather expensive amazon vendor with no feedback)? Pricing in EUR/USD can be a bit awkward in some cases so there are times this would be useful. Not looking for any myself right at the moment (though I'd been wondering a while, during which time I've bought a couple of pcengines boards from linitx because they'll turn up the next day at a known price) but this mail was prompted by someone asking on IRC and other people mentioning that this had put them off buying hardware.. I bought the first few of my Soekris boxes while I was based in the UK (now back in Belgium), from Soekris Europe. UK delivery was not a problem. Not sure why pricing in EUR/USD would be awkward; that's what exchange rates are for. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris boxen are not silent
On 06/10/2012 08:15 AM, Jan Ceuleers wrote: Is there anything I can do to stop the hissing? So I've now found some time to look into this more: - the problem remains when I remove the wireless card (so leaving only the CompactFlash card installed). - the problem does not change in any way if the motherboard is removed from the metallic base of the standard Soekris case. - I think I have succeeded in locating the source of the noise: it is one or both of L8 and L9 (see http://soekris.kd85.com/images/net5501_top.jpg): the coils near the corner furthest from the power connector. I encased both of these coils using a hot glue gun, and the box is a lot quieter now. Still clearly audible when the box is open and I've got my ear near it, but nearly completely inaudible when the box is closed and installed in its normal place. So thank you for all the suggestions; they have helped. I'll try the same approach with my net4801s if I ever need to use them in a quiet setting. Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris boxen are not silent
On 06/15/2012 09:27 AM, Bob Bishop wrote: I have to say I've never experienced this working with these boxes over many years, but maybe I've just never noticed. OK, back to the OQ then. A couple of questions: - Exactly what do you have plugged into the Soekris board? Ie, is it supplying power to other stuff? If so, what is the total load? - What sort of case is it in? The standard box, or something else? - If it's in a steel box, does the bare board (with any extras but minus its case) still make the noise or is the noise actually coming from the case? It's a 5501 in the standard case with a CompactFlash card and an Atheros WLAN card. I'll try the experiment you suggest (i.e. remove the board from the case). Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris boxen are not silent
On 06/10/2012 08:15 AM, Jan Ceuleers wrote: Hi. I've been using net4801s and a net5501 as broadband routers for use at home for some time now. Generally great and fun. There's just one down side: these boxes are not completely silent, in that they make a strange hissing sound while they're doing actual work (like routing network traffic). So, after a few days here's a summary: So here's a sanity check: are my boxes the only-ones doing this? Apparently so, because nobody said that they are also experiencing this. What's causing it? I thought it was the CPU but given that the 4801s and the 5501 have a different CPU (OK so they're both Geodes) I was thinking perhaps not? There seem to be two camps: some say capacitors and others say coils. Is there anything I can do to stop the hissing? The consensus of opinion here seems to be to pot the components in question, possibly using hot glue. (BTW: boxen is the correct spelling). Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris boxen are not silent
On 06/14/2012 08:08 PM, Bob Bishop wrote: Hi, You (and the other consenting contributors to this thread) are lucky to have hearing good enough to hear these effects. Make the most of it, it won't last. You don't understand. I'm in my late 40s, and in my teens I was a sound equipment rental guy. As a result I've got hearing problems. And yet I still hear the Soekris box hissing. From 5 meters away, with a TV and a piece of furniture in the way. So if I can hear it it's not quiet. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
[Soekris] Soekris boxen are not silent
Hi. I've been using net4801s and a net5501 as broadband routers for use at home for some time now. Generally great and fun. There's just one down side: these boxes are not completely silent, in that they make a strange hissing sound while they're doing actual work (like routing network traffic). I therefore can't really use these boxes for workloads that pump a constant or pulsating amount of traffic through them because the hissing (even though its really not that loud) would drive me bonkers. So here's a sanity check: are my boxes the only-ones doing this? What's causing it? I thought it was the CPU but given that the 4801s and the 5501 have a different CPU (OK so they're both Geodes) I was thinking perhaps not? Is there anything I can do to stop the hissing? Of course I'm aware of the wondrous effects of noise insulation afforded by putting boxes in a different room than where I am; not what I'm asking. Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris boxes are not silent
On 06/10/2012 10:17 AM, Frank Schuhmann wrote: Hello Jan and list. Hi Frank, thanks for your reply. Were these boxes brand new or did you buy them used? Are this hissing was occurring since the first days, you was using the boxes? I bought all my boxes straight from Soekris Europe in the course of the past few years, and they have all exhibited this behaviour from day 1. It is not getting worse (except indeed perhaps with network traffic). I have to add though that only my 5501 is still in use; I occasionally break out the 4801s if I need them for a project. The hissing is louder if the network traffic involves the wireless card than if it doesn't (Atheros AR922X), but there is also hissing for purely wired network traffic. The first choice, you will change the box, perhaps to something like a net6501, because it can handle better the higher load. The box really is not overloaded. It acts as a broadband router (Eth to home network, PPPoE to VDSL modem, firewall, wireless AP). I guess that the fastest the box ever has to go is if I wirelessly download something to my laptop that is hosted on the home network, at something like 20 Mbit/s. Or you are able to solder some newer, with better quality. This is perhaps interesting for you; I mean who is producing noise suppressing capacitors, if this will not be a known problem for the industry companies? ;) Only as an example, please don´t buy these once! http://img.directindustry.com/images_di/photo-m2/noise-suppression-capacitors-2 24759.jpg Don't they mean another kind of noise here? Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris boxes are not silent
On 06/10/2012 11:45 AM, Frank Schuhmann wrote: I don´t really know what the producers of the capacitors mean with low noise suppression, but in normal times this caps don´t do piping or hissing. Right. Well I mean acoustic noise, and I suspect your kind is the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoupling_capacitor And as I said, the issue is not limited to my use of the wireless card. I did not say, but the issue occurs with multiple different makes of wireless card. Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Bridging OpenBSD
Lars Noodén wrote: I've bridged vr0 - vr3 and they show up in the bridge. I've assigned an IP number to vr0 and serve DHCP to that ip range. If I connect to vr0, I can get an address via DHCP. If I connect to the other ports, then I cannot. If I understand correctly, connections from vr1 - vr3 will be bridged to vr0 and will get DHCP from vr0 via the bridge, but that is not happening. I'm a Linux guy and know nothing about *BSD. With Linux you need to assign the IP address to the bridge itself, rather than to any of the interfaces that are part of it. Also the DHCP server needs to be bound to the bridge. HTH, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net5501 inexplicable crashes under load and using wlan - mystery solved
Svenning Sørensen wrote: Two machines sending high rates of UDP packets to each other would make the box hang rather fast, often within a few seconds under certain loads. I made a few fixes to the 3.2.13 driver which seem to have solved the hangs as well as another major problem (the one addressed in 3.3), namely missed timer ticks due to too much work in the via-rhine interrupt handler. It has now been running for a week under high load without hanging at all. Svenning, Would you consider submitting this to netdev once you believe the problem is solved? Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net5501 inexplicable crashes under load and using wlan - mystery solved
On 08/04/12 13:22, Attila Kinali wrote: Could be. I think that's unlikely. I rather think that the wlan card has a spiky power need, probably drawin ~300mA for very short periods. The VIA6105M should have about the same spikyness, but with less power consumption. As both share their power supply vias and capacitors, it's only a matter of time that both spike at the same time, moving one or both subsystems into a operating condition outside the specs. When I had stability problems with my net5501 I solved them by no longer using the first two ethernet ports. I now only use eth2 and eth3 and the box is rock solid. http://lists.soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/2010-December/016953.html As you can see I reported this problem solved in December 2010 (by no longer using the first two Ethernet ports). I've not looked back since; I could test again if anyone's interested. I have an Atheros (ath9k) wireless card: 00:11.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR922X Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01) Subsystem: Atheros Communications Inc. Device 2096 Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 15 Memory at a001 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2 Kernel driver in use: ath9k Kernel modules: ath9k Currently using kernel 2.6.32-40-generic; I'll be upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS once it's been out for a while. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net5501 inexplicable crashes under load and using wlan - mystery solved
On 01/04/12 12:05, Attila Kinali wrote: Can it be fixed? Not really. It's a design issue. The only way to really fix it is to change the design and redo the boards. If you already own a net5501, the only thing you can do is, to patch it up until the crash probability reaches a level where you dont care anymore. And for this you need a soldering iron and some skill using it, as it means modifying a small pitch SMD PCB. Depending on how you use the net5501 this means anything from an hour of soldering to a full day or two of rework. Care to share? ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] VDSL2 modem
On 08/27/2011 08:49 PM, JF Straeten wrote: May I ask which VDSL2 modem you are using with your soekris box (brand and model) ? I don't need (and rather prefer not) a full featured one, just a modem to handle the DSL connexion initiated by software (under Debian GNU/Linux, if it's matter) on the soekris. Unfortunately there remain interoperability issues between VDSL2 implementations which make it a bit risky to just go out and buy hardware and expect it to work properly. If you remember it took quite a while for this to become possible after ADSL was standardised and again (albeit more quickly) after ADSL2+ was. Even if you find a device that works when you start using it, you run the risk of regressions when your service provider upgrades their DSLAM software, which they will be unwilling to help you resolve. A few months ago I requested an upgrade of my broadband line from ADSL to ADSL2+ so that I could continue using an ADSL2+-capable PCI modem in my net5501. Unfortunately my service provider switched me to VDSL2 instead, forcing me to adopt their hideous, hideously over-featured and therefore hideously power-hungry home gateway, which I'm now using purely as a modem in bridging mode. But at least it works. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Determining board revision
On 13/05/11 17:53, Michael Proto wrote: Linux? dmidecode might have such information (I don't have access to a Linux-on-Soekris box to confirm) root@skr03:~# dmidecode # dmidecode 2.9 # No SMBIOS nor DMI entry point found, sorry. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] RAID1
On 04/04/11 14:33, Francesco Trentini wrote: sorry if this is not the proper channel, but I remember a discussion on Soekris list time ago about the possibility of the inclusion of a simple RAID1 chip on board. Due to the imminent new board 6501, and the presence of two SATA interfaces, this will surely be a very welcomed addition allowing to create a simple mirrored bootable array of two disks. Francesco, There is no need for a RAID chip in order to be able to boot from a RAID1. I have been doing so in several machines using Linux's md capabilities for several years. I am not often able to test whether the machine boots when one of the mirror disks has failed (as opposed to just being absent), but on the few occasions where this was the case it has indeed worked properly. Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Some General Advice?
On 31/12/10 20:02, Doug Dodge wrote: Essentially the question I would be asking is what is the BEST setup, best being defined as robust, hassle-free (as much as possible) and one that hits the ‘sweet spot’? The device will be used as a firewall. Hi Doug. If all the machine does is firewalling then you only need storage for the OS, right? And performance is not all that important since you only use the disk during (infrequent) boots? In that case, go with CompactFlash. No heat issues, no power supply issues, no cabling, no noise, etc. Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris net5501-70 crash a lot Temperature
On 06/11/10 16:18, Jan Ceuleers wrote: This seems to be confirmed: the box is much more stable in that it has not crashed since I moved my traffic over to the Ethernet ports that are furthest away from the mini-PCI card. I'd be grateful if others could try and replicate these results. After more than 6 weeks I confirm that the box is stable if I don't use eth0 and eth1. As I keep this machine up-to-date with the Ubuntu repositories (it's running Lucid) it's still possible that this is due to improved software stability rather than my use of different physical ports. I'm therefore still very much interested in data points other than my own. Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris net5501-70 crash a lot Temperature
On 29/10/10 19:40, Jan Ceuleers wrote: Well I've tried something else, namely to use eth2 and eth3 for my traffic instead of eth0 and eth1. This has now been working without crashes for a week, whereas previously it would crash at least once every 2 days, and sometimes as frequently as once an hour. Still not conclusive until it works without crashing for a couple of weeks, but strange nonetheless. This seems to be confirmed: the box is much more stable in that it has not crashed since I moved my traffic over to the Ethernet ports that are furthest away from the mini-PCI card. I'd be grateful if others could try and replicate these results. Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris net5501-70 crash a lot Temperature
All, On 11/10/10 14:10, Soren Kristensen wrote: Jan Ceuleers wrote: I have similar problems with my 5501 crashing very frequently. I've tried two separate power supplies without effect. Some questions to everyone out there: (...) - One data point: when my machine crashes there is no backtrace. So it's a hard lock-up. A couple of question/suggestions: 1) Does it crash without wifi activity ? I responded recently that it does, but very infrequently. 2) If so, have you tried without any wifi drivers loaded but the hardware still in ? I have now tried that for some time. No crashes at all. The ultimate test to figure out if it's software or hardware is to try with a completely different operating system I've not tried that yet, but read on. - When I remove the mini-PCI wifi card the machine becomes rock-solid. I've tried with two different wifi cards, one needing the ath5k driver, the other needing ath9k. Those are the only card types I have, but the machine crashes with either. So this leads me to the following questions: - Could this be an EMI problem? Would it make sense for me to rig up some shielding between the mini-PCI card and the two Ethernet controllers that sit immediately underneath? Doubt it - Could this be a decoupling issue? Does anyone have suggestions as to capacitors to add or change? Doubt that too, the 3.3V power supply have plenty of extra power, at least 3A, the the main 1000uF low ESR capacitor sits just behind the Mini-PCI slot Well I've tried something else, namely to use eth2 and eth3 for my traffic instead of eth0 and eth1. This has now been working without crashes for a week, whereas previously it would crash at least once every 2 days, and sometimes as frequently as once an hour. Still not conclusive until it works without crashing for a couple of weeks, but strange nonetheless. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris net5501-70 crash a lot Temperature
On 22/09/10 23:37, Soren Kristensen wrote: Our experience is that 9 out of 10 times issues with stability is either problems with the power supply or with the software, especially Linux as it seems to have taken long time for a stable VT6105M Linux driver to show up If it's one of the very few instances where it's a hardware issue just contact r...@soekris.com to request service, if under warranty it will be replaced or repaired at no charge. But try another power supply first, and if running Linux, ensure you have the stable drivers. I have similar problems with my 5501 crashing very frequently. I've tried two separate power supplies without effect. Some questions to everyone out there: - Does anyone know as from which kernel version the VT6105M (aka via-rhine) driver is believed to be stable? I've been looking through the git history of this file but can't find anything recent that looks like it might explain crashes. - One data point: when my machine crashes there is no backtrace. So it's a hard lock-up. - When I remove the mini-PCI wifi card the machine becomes rock-solid. I've tried with two different wifi cards, one needing the ath5k driver, the other needing ath9k. Those are the only card types I have, but the machine crashes with either. So this leads me to the following questions: - Could this be an EMI problem? Would it make sense for me to rig up some shielding between the mini-PCI card and the two Ethernet controllers that sit immediately underneath? - Could this be a decoupling issue? Does anyone have suggestions as to capacitors to add or change? Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris net5501-70 crash a lot Temperature
Hi Soren, On 11/10/10 14:10, Soren Kristensen wrote: A couple of question/suggestions: 1) Does it crash without wifi activity ? Yes it does. I've had it crash in the middle of the night, when all of the laptops in the house were powered off. Happened only once though. And when it crashes it's usually during heavy network traffic; wired or wireless. Oh and BTW: my main server happens to have nearly the same NIC (yeah I know: a main server whose network interface is only 100 Mbit/s :-) and it doesn't crash like this. It's a Via VT6102 Rhine-II instead of the VT6105M Rhine-III that's in the 5501. Runs exactly the same OS, and it is the very same driver that is used for both parts. 2) If so, have you tried without any wifi drivers loaded but the hardware still in ? No I haven't tried that yet. Will do so and report back. The ultimate test to figure out if it's software or hardware is to try with a completely different operating system True. I can try that as well. Would be a shame though: I run the same version of Ubuntu on all the machinery here, which is great from a admin perspective. Thanks for your reponse Soren. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris net5501-70 crash a lot Temperature
On 11/10/10 16:11, Andrey Safonov wrote: 2. I write my own driver for VT6105M for this board, but this is an alpha version now. I don't have place (http/ftp) for share it. If someone have such place - I can send sources my email. It works OK for me and I'm using it now instead standard Linux driver. Andrey, Would you be willing to submit it to the Linux networking people for review and possible inclusion? The relevant mailing list is net...@vger.kernel.org Thanks, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Soekris net5501-70 crash a lot Temperature
On 11/10/10 16:16, Soren Kristensen wrote: Oe thing about drivers, our small slow embedded computers can provoke driver/software errors that are normally masked by faster processors, Understood. The CPU on my server is a 1.5GHz Via C7, which indeed has between 1.5 and three times the bogomips rating of the net5501 Geode CPU (depending on whether it's running at 800MHz or 1.5 GHz). Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] FreeBSD 7.3, net4501, ntpd gpsd?
On 01/10/10 20:49, Goran Sandin wrote: I have problem with the NMEA output from my GPS. Goran, I suggest you ask your question on news:comp.protocols.time.ntp Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] VSDL2 pci modem for Soekris
Mads, On 23/08/10 19:07, Mads Hjorth wrote: Hi, I just upgraded to a new internet provider (fullrate in denmark) and they are using the VSDL2 protocol. I had hoped for ADSL2+ so I could use my existing traverse viking pci card, but I don´t think it will play wity VSDL2. Is there a similar pci card, maybe even with phone lines, to plug into a soekris and cut down n the numbers of little boxes with blinking lights? Mads Although I'd also be interested in the answer to the question that you ask (I've been looking for such a card myself), I'd suggest giving it a go with your Traverse card. Many VDSL2 DSLAM line cards are backwards compatible with ADSL2+. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] DSL modem recommendations?
Ted Phelps wrote: FWIW, I have a Viking in my net4801, and I find that it runs too hot. I'm currently running with the top of the case removed and it's fine, even in the heat of the Brisbane summer. Aside from that, the card works a treat! I've had heat issues as well, until I upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 (kernel 2.6.31) and now the machine runs a full 4 degrees cooler. No more sudden resets. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] DSL modem recommendations?
Scott Newell wrote: We're upgrading our ADSL connection at work, and I'm told we need to get a new modem. (I guess the ancient Westell we're using now isn't good enough anymore.) So, does anyone have a favorite model, or models to avoid? It'll be connected to a '4521 acting as our router. I have good experience with Sangoma S518 (ADSL-only) and S519 (ADSL2+) cards. I've used the S518 both in the UK (BT) and Belgium (Belgacom). The OEM is Traverse (www.traverse.com.au), and they call these cards Pulsar and Viking, respectively. Both are working great in net4801 boxes. Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Debian install on 4801, eth0 won't work.
William Estrada wrote: I wanted to install a small system image, so that is way I went the Debootstrap route. The standard installs, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc. all seam to install the world for you, like M$ does. My build was relatively small ( 1/2 gig ). r...@skr03:~# df . Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/sda5 6973240870264 5748748 14% / That's an Ubuntu Karmic server install (with manpages, Squid, Apache, what have you). No X though. The CF card is overdimensioned, but it's cheap and building a custom install is (to me) just not worth the maintenance hassle. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Debian install on 4801, eth0 won't work.
William Estrada wrote:
I'm new to Debian, how do I install this driver??
William,
(Re-posting to the list as well. Can the list owner please automatically add an
appropriate Reply-To header?).
I agree with Andy, you may have been bitten by the persistent net rules (put in
place by udev and then applied from then on).
A few things to do:
1. find out which ethernet interfaces you have and which drivers are attached
to them as follows:
# ls -l /sys/class/net/eth*/device/driver
2. if, as Andy and I suspect, you can find all three of your interfaces but
with unexpected names (such as eth{345}), then you indeed have the udev problem
described above. The idea of these udev rules is to guarantee that the names of
your network interfaces will always be the same, regardless of boot order
(particularly, regardless of the order in which network device drivers are
loaded, as this is where races might occur or changes might be made from one
kernel release to the next).
Inspect the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules . You will find, for
each of the network interfaces that this disk image has ever seen, a binding of
the MAC address to a device name. You can either manually edit this (so that
the rule for your eth0's MAC address actually maps it to eth0 rather than to
eth3 or whatever), or just delete all of the rules that are currently wrong.
Just deleting the rules works, because those rules are automatically generated
upon boot, when the system finds a network interface with a MAC address for
which no rule exists yet.
3. if in fact you don't find any network interfaces then you may indeed have a
driver problem. Find out whether the driver exists on your system as follows:
# find /lib/modules/`uname -r` -name natsemi.ko
Also verify that it's not blacklisted:
# cd /etc/modprobe.d
# fgrep -r natsemi *
Hope this helps.
Jan
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[Soekris] Ubuntu 9.10 won't boot on net4801 due to kernel bug in sc1200 module
A Linux kernel bug was introduced in the sc1200 module in the 2.6.29 era. The bug causes an oops during boot, so Linux can essentially not be booted on the net4801 since that time. The bug was found in September and has been fixed in Linus's tree, but it's taken until recently for that fix to be submitted to stable. It does not yet seem to have been merged there. The Ubuntu Karmic release later this week, which is based on Linux 2.6.31, will therefore also not have the fix. http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernelm=125484259025909w=2 http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernelm=125632236230166w=2 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/454575 Hope this helps. Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Net5501 and Crux
TechKid PC wrote: I do not have a serial cable. The way I have currently been testing the device is by simply watching the disk activity light. I strongly suggest that you get a serial cable to that you can see what the BIOS is telling you. ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Installing Debian Linux from a CD
Robin, Robin Kipp wrote: that's an interesting idea, hehe... :-) The only problem is this also requires a running Linux I could use to copy the kernel onto the CF card which I don't have :-( A LiveCD comes to mind (e.g. http://www.knoppix.net/) This way you can just boot a laptop into Linux without installing. You'll need a CF adapter (e.g. one that you hook up to USB). Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] PCI ADSL modem.
Andy, andyk365 wrote: We supply the ADSL2+ card you're talking about in the UK now. It presents as a realtek ethernet NIC and as far as we are aware works well with xBSD. You can check it out at http://www.oem-router-solutions.co.uk http://www.oem-router-solutions.co.uk - if you have any questions you need answered reply to this post or you can emailus directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] This looks remarkably similar to the Sangoma S519 card (http://wiki.sangoma.com/wanpipe-linux-adsl2-support). Remarkably identical indeed. I'm also interested, but am as worried as others are here at the potential for IP addressing overlap that this device presents: you need to talk to it by browsing or telnetting to 192.168.1.1 which may not be an option on devices that already have this address and/or subnet active on another interface. Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net4801 ppp throughput?
Malcolm Herbert wrote: What sort of throughput do others see in this configuration? Not sure if this is relevant, but I've got a Sangoma S518 (ADSL) card in a net4801 with 4640 kbps downlink speed and 512 kbps up. This is the raw bandwidth, within which I'm establishing a PPP session using pppd. The box is able to saturate this. The traffic also gets NATted, firewalled and routed by the box. HTH, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Sudden reboot when high traffic on net4801
Gregory, Gregory Colpart wrote: When I start Iperf[*] between Box1 and Box2... Soekris net4801 always reboots after few seconds! I use OpenBSD 4.3 on the Soekris and I test with PF enabled (first seconds, speed is about 25 MBps) and without PF enabled (first seconds, speed is about 80 MBps). I don't do OpenBSD, but are you sure that this is really a spontaneous reboot? One other possibility that I can think of is that it might be a watchdog reboot triggered by high CPU load or whatever. I don't know how *BSD works in this respect, but the watchdog functionality that I use in Linux does have the ability to reboot the machine based on a number of criteria (not just a hard crash), CPU load being one of them. HTH, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] NIC interrupt on net4801
Antoine, Antoine Zen-Ruffinen wrote: I'm using a net4801 with a RTOS on it. On the net4801, all the 3 NS dp83816 NIC share the same interrupt (10). That cause me trouble because my RTOS is not able to differentiate where the interrupt came from. Is there a way to change the interrupt vector from those NIC? 'fraid not. This is hard-wired for the reasons set out in the post below. http://lists.soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/2005-April/008092.html Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] ADSL modem + Soekris
Lars Noodén wrote: I'm considering the possibility of entirely replacing my home ADSL modem / hub with a Soekris unit. Which DSL modem cards work well on Soekris with OpenBSD or Debian GNU/Linux ? I'm using a Sangoma S518 in a net4801. This card fits the standard case (although you obviously need to make additional holes for the LEDs and the line connector). I also have a CM9 wifi minipci card and a CF card (no hard disk) in this box. The 1.5A power supply more than suffices (I've used a hard disk instead of a CF card in this box for a while and that worked fine). I've used this card successfully in the UK (BT; Fujitsu DSLAM) and in Belgium (Belgacom; Alcatel-Lucent DSLAM). Others report success from around the world; google is your friend. At the moment that box is still running an ancient 2.4 Linux kernel, but I'm working on an upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10 at the moment. Sangoma's drivers are very feature-rich. They are also quite stable (although I have no experience with them under a 2.6 kernel). You do need to recompile your kernel, because the version of the Sangoma drivers that has been included in the upstream kernel is quite old. The Sangoma driver pack is able to automatically upgrade your kernel tree, and you can then build and install both your kernel and the Sangoma drivers quite easily. The package also comes with a fairly easy to use interactive configuration tool. On a different subject, I'd actually be interested in my options if I wanted to upgrade from ADSL to ADSL2+ or VDSL(2): does anyone know of low-profile PCI cards that coudl do this? Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] VPN throughput on 5501s
der Mouse wrote: I put accelerator in quotes because I found that, in those tests, using the crypto hardware (a 1411, I think it was) actually impaired throughput. Apparently the penalty of crossing the kernel/user boundary outweighed the benefit from the crypto hardware. I kind of like the approach taken by Via: they built crypto acceleration into the CPU so that it can be used both in the kernel and in userland without penalty. Cheerz, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] net5501 and linux results
Hans, Hans Harder wrote: Jan, never looked at it, seems it was default on. When I test it with or without readahead, it makes no difference. Hans I would not expect to see a performance difference depending on whether read-ahead was on or off if the test method is hdparm -tT, because I believe that it only tests sequential reads anyway. Any difference would only be discernable in a test that involves significant seeking. I'm just wondering whether, on a solid state device, it makes sense to invest in read-ahead in order to avoid the situation where a process is accessing a file sequentially, but another process is causing the heads to be moved to another cylinder before the first process has a chance to access the next sector which would have been possible without moving the heads in the first place. Such a speculative investment aimed at avoiding needless seeks probably makes less sense on a solid state device than on a physical disk. But the above is theory; I'd be interested in real-world opinions. Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] PCI Cards Case sizes for 4801 and 5501's.
Justin, Justin Derrick wrote: I'd be interested in hearing from anyone using a non-network (lan1641, etc.) PCI card with any of the Soekris line to extend its functionality beyond network routing, etc. These are perhaps more examples of what you call network routing, but a number of Sangoma's WAN interface cards (E1/T1, ADSL) are known to work well with Soekris boards. I myself have a Sangoma S518 working in a Soekris net4801. Soekris sell 4801 + Sangoma A101u bundles, so these presumably work together as well. Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] PCI Cards Case sizes for 4801 and 5501's.
Martin, Martin Johnson wrote: I myself have a Sangoma S518 working in a Soekris net4801 Hi Jan, Out of interest, what OS are you using? On that Soekris (which at the moment is in fact sitting unused in a drawer) I've installed Linux 2.4.31. I've used it for approximately 8 months while I was still working in the UK; now that I've moved back to Belgium I keep it around for if/when my main ADSL modem dies. In fact, I'm considering bringing the card into use by installing it in the Soekris that I currently only use as a wireless access point. I don't expect any problems doing that. The Sangoma drivers and scripts are well-polished; installation was quite easy. But that is the case only because I have a net4801 with a hard disk, dedicated to compiling and installing new software, which I then roll out on the other CF-only soekris boxen I'm running pfSense at the moment, but I'm not sure that it will easily support the S518 card, even though there are some FreeBSD drivers on the Sangoma FTP server. I have no experience with FreeBSD at all. But judging from the maturity of the Linux drivers I'm sure they've done a good job on those as well. Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
Re: [Soekris] Can't access serial console, but boots OK
Saúl Ibarra wrote: I've tested the null modem cable, by doing a loopback test and it's working . I put a m0n0wall image to a 1GB CF and the unit boots, I'm able to access m0n0wall GUI at 192.168.1.1 http://192.168.1.1. But I can't access serial console in order to configure comBIOS. I've tested every speed in Hyperterminal with 8-N-1 and no flow control, but I get nothing. Is my board faulty? Is there anything I can try? Or another way to update comBIOS? Thanks in advance... Saúl, There is no other way to update the BIOS. But first of all, are you sure that you have the right kind of cable (that is: cross-over rather than straight-through)? See section 3.2.1 at http://doc.m0n0.ch/quickstartsoekris/ Cheers, Jan ___ Soekris-tech mailing list Soekris-tech@lists.soekris.com http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
