Overview

Mentor Test Device Agent (or MTDA for short) is a relatively small Python application acting as an interface to a test device. It provides mechanisms to remotely turn the device on or off (assuming an IP/USB power switch is available), plug USB devices in or out (also requiring special hardware) or simply access its console (in most cases serial).

Configurations

Base

In its most basic configuration, MTDA may be used with:

• a computer running Ubuntu
• a target device
• a serial connection between the two

In this configuration, power and USB control functions will not be available.

BBB + Power switch

A basic configuration for targets booting from USB (mass storage) may be comprised of:

• a BeagleBone Black connected via Ethernet and running mtda as a daemon
• a target device
• a serial connection between the two
• an Aviosys 8800 power switch (connected via USB to the BBB)
• a USB cable connected to the function port of the BBB and to the target

Pi3 + Power/SD/USB switches

A more sophisticated, yet affordable, configuration may look like this:

• a Raspberry Pi3 connected to your Wi-Fi network and running mtda as a daemon
• a target device
• a serial connection between the two
• an Aviosys 8800 power switch (connected via USB to the Pi3)
• a home-made USB switch (connected via GPIO to the Pi3)
• Samsung's SD-Mux (connected via USB)

In this configuration, the target device may be used from computers running MTDA as a client and connecting to the remote agent.

Setup

For hosts running Ubuntu 18.04 (or later), the following packages need to be installed:

sudo apt-get install \
   python3-daemon python3-dev python3-serial \
   python3-setuptools python3-usb python3-zmq

The setup script should then be used to install command-line scripts and packages:

sudo python3 setup.py install

Samsung SD-Mux

If you have a Samsung SD-Mux device, the following packages should be installed as well:

sudo apt-get install \
   cmake libfdt-dev libpopt-dev

You may then get the sd-mux-ctrl code and build it:

git clone https://git.tizen.org/cgit/tools/testlab/sd-mux
cd sd-mux
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

Configuring MTDA

The agent reads its configuration from mtda.ini. Check the sample configuration file included with this distribution for supported options.

Starting the daemon

The MTDA daemon may be started as follows:

$ sudo mtda-cli -d

A daemon/server process will be needed to collect console output in the background and dispatch it to connected MTDA clients.

Client commands

Here are a few commands supported by mtda:

# Tell the client to connect to a remote MTDA agent
export MTDA_REMOTE=192.168.0.104

# Turn the target on
$ mtda-cli target on

# Send the "run boot_usb" command to the boot-loader
$ mtda-cli console send "run boot_usb\n"

# Get the first line from the console buffer
$ mtda-cli console head

# Return number of lines available from the console buffer
$ mtda-cli console lines
14

# Clear the console buffer
$ mtda-cli console clear
U-Boot 2015.07 (Jan 08 2017 - 16:25:06 +0100)

# Flush the console buffer
$ mtda-cli console clear

# Configure the target prompt
$ mtda-cli console prompt "# "

# Run a command via the console
$ mtda-cli console run "ls /"

# Interact with the console
$ mtda-cli
# The interactive console may alse be invoked as follows:
$ mtda-cli console interactive

# Power off the target
$ mtda-cli target off

# Attach the SD card to the host
$ mtda-cli sd host

# Write a compressed image to the SD card
# Compressed images (gzip'ed or bzip'ed) are supported
$ mtda-cli sd write console-image.wic.bz2
$ mtda-cli sd write console-image.wic.gz

# The SD card may be mounted (if initialized)
$ mtda-cli sd mount 1 # mount 1st partition

# Update the kernel image
# (here boot/kernel on the mounted partition, vmlinuz on the client)
$ mtda-cli sd update boot/kernel vmlinuz

# Attach the SD card to the target
# Partitions will be un-mounted from the host (if any were mounted)
$ mtda-cli sd target

# Power on the target
$ mtda-cli target on

Interactive console

The 'console interactive' command allows remote interaction with the device console. The following key sequences may be used to control MTDA:

• Ctrl + a + a: acquire the target
• Ctrl + a + b: paste console buffer to pastebin.com
• Ctrl + a + i: print target information (power status, SD card, USB ports, etc.)
• Ctrl + a + p: toggle power on/off
• Ctrl + a + q: quit
• Ctrl + a + r: release the target
• Ctrl + a + s: switch SD card between the host and target (target shall be OFF)
• Ctrl + a + t: toggle display of timestamps
• Ctrl + a + u: toggle the 1st USB port on/off