Server not responsive / what do I do with the ethernet port?

[jadafi]

I am a bloody beginner, so this is probably very simple...
I was able to build and load. Flash gets stuck at 10% saying that a two read was not as expected. But from my understanding it should suffice to load the bitstream into the FPGA.
I get no response to the blink test. I think I have the ethernet cable plugged in incorrectly/something is not set up properly in that regard. Can I connect the Ethernet cable directly to the host PC or do I have to connect it to my LAN? When looking at the ethernet ports the left one is the one to use, right? In which order should I plug in, start client, load bitstream ?
I am sorry for all that confusion...

[enjoy-digital]

Hi @jadafi,

can you try to ping the board at 192.168.1.20 (default IP address: https://github.com/enjoy-digital/colorlite/blob/master/colorlite.py#L113) If this is not responding, can you try with the bitstream attached here: litex-hub/litex-boards#43 (comment)? (at 192.168.1.50 with this).

Once ping will be responding, the rest should work as described in the README.

[jadafi]

I'm loosing all packets...

ping 192.168.1.50
PING 192.168.1.50 (192.168.1.50) 56(84) bytes of data.
^C
--- 192.168.1.50 ping statistics ---
225 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 229361ms

when capturing the packets at my ethernet card I get lots of ARP requests:

169	20.250407015	QiHardwa_00:00:00	Broadcast	ARP	60	Who has 192.168.1.100? Tell 192.168.1.50

Not quite sure but it seems like it searches for some 192.168.1.100 which is not present.

[enjoy-digital]

@jadafi: i'm not sure which bitstream you are running. (if it try to reach 192.168.1.100, it's probably more a bitstream with just the MAC and a CPU). Can you give more information: which version of the board are you using? which command are you using to build to bitstream? to load it?

[jadafi]

Hey, I build the bitstream from https://github.com/litex-hub/litex-boards.git (the colorlight target) using multiple different build options.

Currently I am back to trying to get the bitstream from this (colorlite) repo to work. My current problem is that I do not have a ftdi at hand -> I am using a dirtyJtag to upload the bitstream. Is loading sufficient (--load) or do I have to write to flash (--flash)?

[enjoy-digital]

--load is sufficient yes.

[jadafi]

Can I replace the load step by running (in the gateware folder): With BSDLLFE5U25FCABGA256.bsm in the same folder.

jtag 
jtag> bsdl path .
jtag> cable dirtyjtag
jtag> detect
jtag> svf colorlite.svf ref_freq=600000

[jadafi]

Just to be sure: I have the ethernet cable directly connected to the PC. Is that correct?

[enjoy-digital]

@jadafi: sorry i'm not familiar with dirtyJtag. Having the Ethernet cable directly connected to the PC is fine yes. I think you first have to verify if you are able to load a bitstream correctly. To do so, you can try to replace https://github.com/enjoy-digital/colorlite/blob/master/colorlite.py#L85-L86 with:

counter = Signal(32)
self.sync += counter.eq(counter + 1)
self.comb += platform.request("user_led_n").eq(counter[26])

and then verify that after loading the bitsteam, the led is blinking correcly. Once ok, you can try to ping the board at the configured ip address.

[jadafi]

Well It does blink, when I insert your code, but still no ping :/

[enjoy-digital]

Can you provide the generated bitstream? With the command that is used to generate it?

[jadafi]

I am currently not in reach of my pc. Currently setting up a new machine. Pls stand by

[rednaz1337]

Hi, did you get this running? Because I have the same problem, even with the prebuilt bitstream, the board won't respond to pings.

[wlcx]

No ping replies (or any network activity) here either. I am using:

• colorlite b52aa38
• latest litex
• nextpnr-ecp5 93faa752
• yosys Yosys 0.9+3624 (git sha1 4c925a32)
• ecppack Version 1.0-176-gf93243b

I'm using a glasgow to program the svf, and get a blinking LED with the above snippet
I'm not sure if I'm messing something up in the build however - since I don't have an openocd compatible cable I am running:

• /colorlite.py --ip-address=192.168.1.50 --flash which exits with an openocd error due to lack of cable
• ./build_colorlite.sh in build/gateware
• then flashing the resulting svf with a glasgow.

[enjoy-digital]

Hi @jadafi, @rednaz1337, @wlcx,

I just updated the design with 959f447 and tested it. An update was required to take into account the LiteEth fixes from enjoy-digital/liteeth#51.

Please find attached the .svf generated with: ./colorlite.py --build --load.

Note that this project uses a revision 7.0 of the ColorLight 5A-75B, it should be possible to run it on another revision, but maybe with minor adaptations.

Florent

colorlite_2020_11_23.zip

[VisionShilin]

Hi,

I used the colorlite.svf in colorlite_2020_11_23.zip.
The led is blinking correctly while there is still not ping response.

Lin

[enjoy-digital]

Hi VisionShilin,

can you provide more information:

• Is it a ColorLight 5A-75B revision 7.0?
• Are you using the Ethernet port near the 5V connector?
• How are you powering the board?
• Can you try with the board directly connected to your computer? or be sure you are using a Gibabit Ethernet switch? (100Mbps is not supported by the ECP5 RGMII PHY).

Thanks

[VisionShilin]

Hi VisionShilin,

can you provide more information:

• Is it a ColorLight 5A-75B revision 7.0?
• Are you using the Ethernet port near the 5V connector?
• How are you powering the board?
• Can you try with the board directly connected to your computer? or be sure you are using a Gibabit Ethernet switch? (100Mbps is not supported by the ECP5 RGMII PHY).

Thanks

Hi,
Thanks.
I found the reason why there was no ping response. I didn't use the Ethernet port near the 5V connector. Now I can ping the board successfully by using the Ethernet port near the 5V connector.
By the way, the test_flash.py reported error: "socket.timeout: timed out". Any suggestion?
Thank you very much again.

Lin

[enjoy-digital]

For test_flash.py, make sure open litex_server before: lxserver --udp --udp-ip=192.168.1.20. I just tested it:

./test_flash.py 
00ef4016
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff
ff

[VisionShilin]

Thanks.

[rednaz1337]

Thanks a lot, this finally works! I used a 10/100Mbit switch before. Using a gigabit switch and the newest commit it works! 😄