JTAG UART error?

Altera_Forum · ‎08-26-2005

I'm wondering if my problem is with the JTAG device?

In my post from the 24th, I removed all of my network stuff (from the kernel and hardware). System changes that I have made are

1) increased I/D cache

2) removed my on-chip memory (using EP2C35 FPGA, so not a lot of spare internal memory)

3) put my network stuff back in.

My system now makes it to the log-in; however, I still usually get login incorrect, or I can only hang out in the terminal for a short period of time before I end up back at the login prompt.

I updated my rc file to set my IP address during boot up. I can telnet into my system without any problems, ping it, hang out in the terminal as long as I want, and the web server stays on-line as well.

Since I can remotely login without any problems, I tend to think my problem is with the JTAG interface. I tried to increasing my jtag_uart buffer sizes, irq thresholds, and the irq value as well. Increasing the thresholds only seem to make the problem worse, and changing the irq value did not seem to have any effect at all, and the buffer size didn't seem to make any changes either.

Here is a copy of what I see now.

setup_arch: No persistant network settings signature at 00FF0000

Built 1 zonelists

Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock0 ro

PID hash table entries: 1024 (order: 10, 16384 bytes)

Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)

Inode-cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)

Memory available: 128000k/131072k RAM, 0k/0k ROM (1420k kernel code, 289k data)

Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)

NET: Registered protocol family 16

Serial: JTAG UART driver $Revision: 1.4 $

ttyJ0 at MMIO 0x80000860 (irq = 7) is a jtag_uart

io scheduler noop registered

io scheduler anticipatory registered

io scheduler deadline registered

io scheduler cfq registered

RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize

smc_probe: 75000 Khz Nios

SMSC LAN91C111 Driver (v2.1), (Linux Kernel 2.6)

eth0: SMC91C11xFD(rev:1) at 0x8001030ÿ IRQ:3 MEMSIZE:8192b NOWAIT:0 ADDR: 00:07:ed:00:00:00

smc_probe: 75000 Khz Nios

Altera NDK flash (AMD): Found 1 x8 devices at 0x0 in 8-bit bank

Amd/Fujitsu Extended Query Table at 0x0040

Altera NDK flash (AMD): CFI does not contain boot bank location. Assuming top.

number of CFI chips: 1

cfi_cmdset_0002: Disabling erase-suspend-program due to code brokenness.

cmdlinepart partition parsing not available

RedBoot partition parsing not available

Using Altera NDK partition definition

Creating 2 MTD partitions on "Altera NDK flash (AMD)":

0x00200000-0x00600000 : "romfs/jffs2"

0x00000000-0x00200000 : "loader/kernel"

NET: Registered protocol family 2

IP: routing cache hash table of

TCP established hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)

TCP bind hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)

TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 8192)

NET: Registered protocol family 1

NET: Registered protocol family 17

VFS: Mounted root (romfs filesystem) readonly.

Freeing unused kernel memory: 60k freed (0x818c000 - 0x819a000)

^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@

^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^

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^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^

^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@expand: from=/ramfs.img to=/dev/ram0

expand: from=/ramfs.img to=/dev/ram1

eth0:PHY 100BaseT

eth0:PHY Full Duplex

^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@

^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^

^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@

^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^

/etc/issue www.microtronix.com June 2005

Welcome to Linux on the Nios II

Nios2 login:

Doug

Altera_Forum · ‎08-29-2005

It looks like the output that you're seeing is coming from your rc file. Can you post it or pm a copy to me? I'll see if I can pin down what might be causing it.

er... quick question... that is what you're asking about right? http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif

Altera_Forum · ‎08-29-2005

Ken,

I don't think my problem is with my rc file, but by all means take a look at it.

I think my problem is with the JTAG UART. At this point, I'm not really sure. I can log into my system through the ethernet port and all works just fine.

My problem seems to be the console, you can see the garbage I get out below. Sometimes it is worse, usually not better. Often when I log in through the console, I get Login Incorrect. When I am able to log in, I usually get booted out within 20 or 30 seconds. If I use the IDE to load my new kernel, I get an "m_state == STATE_DEBUG" error, usually before I get 25% of the code downloaded (it comes in at random times).

Doug

# !/bin/sh# # system startup.

# set up the hostname

/bin/hostname Nios2

# expand and mount the ramdisk

/bin/expand /ramfs.img /dev/ram0

/bin/mount -t ext2 /dev/ram0 /var -n

/bin/expand /ramfs.img /dev/ram1

/bin/mount -t ext2 /dev/ram1 /tmp -n

# mount proc file system

/bin/mount -t proc proc /proc -n

# mount sysfs

/bin/mount -t sysfs sysfs /sys -n

# manually assign ip address (uncomment and edit as appropriate)# note: first ifattach (no args) sets local loopback# /bin/ifattach

/bin/ifattach --addr 129.57.93.54 --mask 255.255.252.0 --net 129.57.92.0 --gw 129.57.92.1 --if eth0

# try and get ip address automatically...# /bin/mkdir /var/dhcpc# /bin/dhcpcd -NRY &

# start up the internet superserver

/bin/inetd &

# start up the web server

/bin/boa &

# mount Linux server:# (uncomment and edit as appropriate)# /bin/mount -t nfs 192.168.1.30:/home /mnt/nfs -n -o nolock

# mount master ide disk partition(s):# (uncomment and edit as appropriate)# /bin/mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/ide0 -n

# that's it... success

exit 0

Altera_Forum · ‎08-29-2005

Yup... you're right, your rc file is definitely clean... looks downright... standard. http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

From the symptoms you're describing, I'm definitely more inclined to agree with you. Some things that you may want to try if possible:

(1) Try a different ByteblasterMV or USB-Blaster cable and see if the symptoms persist

(2) Switch over to using a Serial DB9 connection for your console

Since you're on a custom board, I have no idea if the above is applicable or even possible. But I'll hope that you'll give it a try. Buys me some time to think about the issue. http://forum.niosforum.com/work2/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

Altera_Forum · ‎08-29-2005

Ken,

I'll try another cable and get back with you. However, my cable does work just fine for standard FPGA/config device prgramming. It even works great with my custom flash programmer.

I can't use DB9, not included.

Thanks,

Doug

Altera_Forum · ‎08-29-2005

Doug

Those assertions, that you're seeing, are due to communications failures with the onchip OCI core. I would bet that your issues are being caused by problems in your JTAG interface hardware.

Take a look at this thread (http://www.niosforum.com/forum/index.php?act=st&f=17&t=2344&hl=jtag), for more info.

Cheers,

- slacker

Altera_Forum · ‎08-30-2005

Slacker,

Interesting, thanks for the update and link. I think you're on to something here.

Ken,

I managed to dig up my ByteBlasterMV cable. That works just fine, no problems. After reading the link Slacker gave me, I need to put the JTAG signals on a scope.

Thanks for the help guys,

Doug