Pizza4 Micro Server (CM4 Edge Computer)

[geerlingguy]

I just noticed the PIzza4 from a post on Twitter: https://www.openembed.com/products-list/13

It looks like it has:

1. Dual Gigabit Ethernet (looks like it uses a Realtek PCIe chip for the 2nd slot)
2. Built-in 3-way PCIe Switch (PI7C9X2G404SV)
3. Dual full-size HDMI
4. 1x M.2 M Key slot (full size)
5. 1x M.2 A+E Key slot
6. 2x USB (2.0? 3.0?)
7. Custom designed enclosure
8. USB Type-C for Power? OTG?

This is... a rather full-featured tiny board! I like it.

[YumingChang02]

I've received my unit!!
5. 1x M.2 A+E Key slot the slot is a miniPCIe port (with PCIe gen2x1 and USB2)
6. 2x USB (2.0? 3.0?), its USB2 (seems to be powered off Microchip USB2514B, located between second Ethernet port and the stacked USB ports)
8. USB Type-C can both provide power and flash EMMC (haven't tested OTG yet), To flash onboard EMMC, there is a jumper around where the power button is on the PCB (the yellow jumper is also included in the box from seeed studio)

I got my unit with a black cover, which seems to be aluminum heatsink

*Added an i210 NIC via mini-pcie

Seems that different NIC performance differs ( intel i210 and RTL8111 are behind PLx chip )
number on edges of the middle triangle are speed between clients
number extended from node is speed between cm4 and client ( cm4 as server )

• Issues found now
  • using openwrt with custom configurations config.buildinfo
  • routing speed is around 8xx Mbps 900+Mbps, however direct connection from PIzza to pfsense can go up to 9xx Mbps
    • PIzza <--[ switch ]--> pfsense : Wireguard speed can reach around 700Mbps via iperf3 single side
    • In order to reach 900+ Mbps ( i got around 906Mbps ), flow offload options need to be set
      • add option flow_ofloading '1' to config defaults to /etc/config/firewall
  • the MAC address of realtek 8111H seems odd ( showing 00:00:00:00:00:05 )

[AllizomFoxfire]

I hate to be a threadjacker, but I haven't found any other people with hands-on experience with this device that might be willing to answer a few questions. I bought this unit because it's just about the only way to get your hands on a CM4 these days and it comprises just about all of the solutions I wanted anyway. However, there is zero documentation provided by Seeed or OpenEmbed and I just want to get a non-stock image on it.

Doing so is like herding cats and I've been a Sys Admin for nearly 25 years. It seems that after putting on the jumper it's defaulting to looking at the USB-C port for the next boot device but can't find anything as that occupied by the power source. It will not look any further at the USB 2.0 ports where I have a flash drive with an image installed.

I have tried to change the boot order, but you can't do that on this device as it's lacking the pins. So am I stuck without a CM4 dev board or a USBC power splitter? I'd rather do it programmatically as surely if this product were meant for mass market they wouldn't intend people to be buying those products just to use it.

I have tried contacting both Seeed and OpenEmbed, but have gotten no response. Please feel free to point me in any direction that may get me a proper solution.

Thanks in advance!

[mthird]

@YumingChang02 The M.2 slot is on the opposite side of the board.

I'm also having trouble getting through to OpenEmbed and Seeed to get help. The onboard PCIE slot doesn't work and neither does the RTL8111H. My guess is the USB3 chip isn't being activated but I have no way of knowing.

Very frustrating ...

Edit - just realized YumingChang02 was doing a diff of Jeff's list.
Edit 2 - the 2nd onboard NIC is an 8168 attached to the PCI switch. Totally different than their other dual gigabit carrier board.

[mthird]

@AllizomFoxfire I used a USB-C cable from my laptop to power and provide the OTG target. It typically takes a half dozen plug/unplug cycles before the board will boot, but it does eventually let me run rpiboot.

[mthird]

I finally got the 2nd NIC to work by updating to the latest nightly firmware using: sudo rpi-update!

[mthird]

Also, now that I realized there is no USB3 chip on board, putting the LTE modem into USB2 mode solved my remaining problem.

[AllizomFoxfire]

@mthird Well, I have two of these units on my desk now after thinking one was faulty. I had them send me another in exchange as I could only get it into RPI boot once. Immediately following that one instance a package arrived in which I had bought some new USB-C super-speed cables which absolutely do NOT work as OTG cables. I had no idea this was the case. It took me days to figure this out by pure trial and error.

Now I have properly changed the boot order to 0xf34516 to reflect the NVME > emmc > USB storage > RPIBOOT failsafe > loop. The 4 and 5 are really interchangeable as there are no USB3 ports, and as you said, that is the one major shortcoming of this device as the bus exists since the second gigabit ethernet sits on it.

Otherwise, this is a fantastic little device that ticks every other box on the list of what I could want in a micro server.

[duckgogo]

@AllizomFoxfire I think Pizza 4 cannot boot from NVME, as it uses PCIe switch