Ubuntu Linux and Edgeport/416

Just got shiny new servers and shiny new Edgeports/416 yesterday. Installed Ubuntu Lucid (10.4 LTS) on the servers

Just plugging in the Edgeports manages to produce 4 of the 16 serial ports as /dev/ttyUSB0-3, which is a start. Unplugging and plugging back in makes all 16 appear. However, after a reboot, there are only 4 again. Since these are going to be installed remotely, without an easy way to unplug after a reboot, this is most annoying.

Is there a fix to this?

Thanks

Chris

Hello Chris,

What are the 50xxxxxx part numbers and revisions of the Edgeport/416 units in question?

How are these Edgeport/416 units connected to the PC? Are they connected directly to the PC or going through a USB hub or some other kind of extender device? Are any of the Edgeport/416 units daisy chained through each other?

Do all 16 ports ever get produced, or does this same problem happen 100% of the time where only 4 ports get produced?

Hi Jeremy,

from the label underneath:

PN: (1P) 50001359-01 C - they’re the DB9 variants

They’re connected directly into the PC (server), no hubs, no daisy chaining - we’ve got 2, one each for each server

I get varying numbers of ports… currently sitting at 10, however I have had all 16, but haven’t consistently managed to get them all :frowning:

I get firmware upload errors when ports fail - I can post detailed logs if it would be useful. But I’ve tried various different versions of down3.bin to no avail

Many thanks

Chris

Yes, please post those lots.

logs, even.

Hi jeremy,

Attached are the logs produced when I unplugged the 416, then plugged it back in - I’ve ended up with 10 ports active…

Hi Jeremy

Another sample - I rebooted the machine with the edgeport unplugged, then, after removing power to it, plugged it back into the power, then the usb.

Thanks

Chris

oh - just 4 ports active after this

Chris

Chris,

Are you using the kernel provided with Ubuntu or a vanilla 2.6.35 kernel?

I will try to re-create this issue and get back with you ASAP.

Jeremy: Thanks!

userid0: using ubuntu kernels - I tried the latest one from Maverick to see if it made any difference (which is what I did the tests with), but I get the same behaviour with the latest Lucid kernel (2.6.32, IIRC).

I haven’t yet been able to re-produce this but I did some more research and this issue has been reported to us before.

Try updating the Edgeport firmware by following these instructions:

  1. Download the firmware:

www.brimson.com/downloads/down3.bin.5.32.0

  1. cd /lib/firmware/edgeport

  2. mv down3.bin down3.bin.orig

  3. mv down3.bin.5.3.0 down3.bin

  4. chmod 777 down3.bin

You may need to unplug/replug the Edgeport/416 afterwards.

Does this help?

Hi Jeremy,

I’ve downloaded the firmware, removed power and usb and rebooted, but still the same behaviour. Did manage to get 6 ports recognised at one point, but then, I have got that before.

I’ve also tried daisy chaining them via the onboard usb hub, and, I don’t know if this provides any clues but, none of them worked to start with. Then unplugged/plugged at the computer end, and 8 started working. had to unplug/plug at the hub side to get all 16 working.

This is all running off a couple of Dell R200 servers, if that’s important:

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 3200/3210 Chipset DRAM Controller (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 3200/3210 Chipset Host-Primary PCI Express Bridge (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 02)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IR (ICH9R) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 4 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 21)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 21)
05:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc ES1000 (rev 02)

lsusb

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 107: ID 1608:0247 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 106: ID 1608:0247 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 105: ID 1608:0247 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 104: ID 1608:0247 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 101: ID 1608:0247 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 100: ID 1608:0247 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 099: ID 1608:0247 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 098: ID 1608:0247 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 097: ID 1608:02c7 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 096: ID 1608:02c7 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 094: ID 1608:0184 Inside Out Networks [hex]
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04b4:6560 Cypress Semiconductor Corp. CY7C65640 USB-2.0 “TetraHub”
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Thanks

Chris

Just tried it on another random Linux machine here in the office - completely different hardware (AMD processor, nNvidia chipset) and got exactly the same behaviour. Also tried putting a cheap USB hub in between too.

What are you using to try to reproduce this?

Thanks

Chris

OK, progress of a sort.

Spent a productive day installing various different Linux versions to see what works and what doesn’t.

Tried Ubuntu back to Hardy (8.04). Everything after 8.04 doesn’t work, 8.04 works.

I’ve also tried Centos 5.5 and pjtsubaru’s method to get 2.6.18 working and that’s fine too.

versions:

ubuntu 8.04 is kernel 2.6.24-26 and does work
ubuntu 9.10 is kernel 2.6.27-17 and doesn’t work.

I’m currently compiling a vanilla kernel off kernel.org to see if that’s broken or if its an ubuntu specific problem.

Just for a bit of variety, tried Fedora which also doesn’t work, kernel version 2.6.33.3-85.fc13.x86_64 - not an ubuntu specific problem by the looks of things

Looks like it’s possibly related to the kernel version:

http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-usb/2009/10/8/6253517

Have you tried the latest stable vanilla kernel (2.6.35)?

The bug which the patch applies to has been fixed in the current kernel tree - I hit that on one of my Ubuntu installs - it was I think 9.10 - the CD install kernel didn’t load the edgeport driver at all and stopped with a Null pointer deference as per:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.usb.general/22946/match=2.6.31.2+io_ti

However, the second part of his post here is exactly what I’m seeing!

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.usb.general/23030/match=2.6.31.2+io_ti

Chris

latest vanilla kernel still compiling! I don’t remember it taking quite this long back in the day :slight_smile:

CHris

Vanilla 2.6.35 compiled, still no improvement :frowning: