MicroBlaze uClinux Networking

One of uClinux' key strengths is its suite of networking protocols and applications.  This page describes how to get TCP/IP networking up and running on the default hardware target, mbvanilla_net. 

Please note this is NOT an in-depth tutorial on uClinux networking!  That is a deep subject - for information on setting up NFS, boa (webserver) and other networking applications, search the archives and ask around on either the MicroBlaze-uclinux or uclinux-dev mailing lists, and check out the FAQs at ucdot.org.

Preparation

1. Make sure your uClinux sources are up to date and in synch with the uClinux CVS
    
2. Download and apply any necessary patches
    
3. Make sure you have the latest gcc toolchain

Hardware

Build the mbvanilla_net target.  You may need to modify this project slightly to support a board other than the Insight V2MB1000.  If you really must change the base address of the Xilinx EMAC peripheral, make a note of the new address, you'll need it later.

Kernel

Run "make menuconfig" from the uClinux-dist directory, and make the following selections:

• Target Platform Selection
  • [*] Customize Kernel Settings
    • Processor type and features
      • [*] Ethernet driver
    • General Setup
      • [*] Networking support
    • Networking Options
      • [*] Unix domain sockets
      • [*] TCP/IP networking

      If you want NFS support:
       

    • Filesystems
      • Network File Systems
        • [*] NFS file system support
        • [*] Provide NFSv3 client support

      (exit and save)

If for any reason you modified the base address of the Xilinx ethernet MAC in your system.mhs, edit the file uClinux-dist/linux-2.4.x/include/asm-MicroBlaze/xparameters.h to reflect those changes.

Applications

Still within menuconfig, make the following selections.  These are optional, depending on what applications you want to run.  At a minimum, choose ping, inetd and telnetd.  This will allow you to demonstrate basic tcp/ip networking functionality.

• [*] Customize Vendor/User Settings
  • Network Applications
    • [*] inetd
    • [*] ping
    • [*] portmap (if using NFS)
    • [*] telnetd
  • Busybox
    • [*] ifconfig
    • [*] ifconfig: status reporting
    • [*] ifconfig: enable hw option
    • [*] ifconfig: extra options
    • [*] mount
    • [*] mount: loop devices
    • [*] mount: support NFS mounts  (if using NFS)
    • [*] telnet (optional)
    • [*] tftp
    • [*] tftp: put
    • [*] tftp: get

        (exit and save)

Finally run "make dep; make clean; make"

The build should complete without errors.

Testing

After the build, your new image should be sitting in the uClinux-dist/images directory - as image.bin and image.elf.  Using xmd, download and run the kernel image.

When the kernel bootup completes, at the shell prompt enter the following:

Get the ip, netmask and broadcast addresses from your network administrator.

Note that these commands can (should) be added to the vendors/.../rc script, so they are automatically executed on startup.

Then, try to ping yourself (press ^C after a few lines):

Then, try to ping another machine on your local network (in this example I pinged my linux box, 130.102.66.250

Finally, from a different machine on the network, try to telnet into your MicroBlaze (using whatever IP address you assigned in the "ifconfig" command above.