(ARMv7 A15 dual core)
I ve
covered how I set up my home LAVA lab and how I got
two iMX.53 boards running, the next step was to sort out the LAVA server.
My initial setup relied on using my Thinkpad as the server. This was somewhat convenient as that s how I develop the code, but didn t help me run jobs like health checks because the laptop was usually somewhere other than on the home LAN. There had been a long-standing problem with using LAVA on ARM the uwsgi support didn t compile but the code being used was old. As the same code has been in Debian for a long time, I suspected that this was fixed with a newer version. So as part of migrating LAVA to django1.6, apache2.4, postgres9.3, django-tables2 0.13 and a few other updated dependencies, I have been using the version of uwsgi from Debian unstable for quite a while without problems on x86. A simple tweak to the LAVA setup scripts and a newer version of uwsgi became available and it builds just fine on armhf. (I haven t tried armel because Linaro is ARMv7 or newer and we don t test with ARMv5/ARMv6 boards, so there s no point in trying armel it s not likely to be an issue for this fix though.) (Only the current lava-deployment-tool methods need to actually compile uwsgi directly from upstream without any patches the packaging which will replace l-d-t uses precompiled binaries, just as any admin would expect.)
That initial install was on one of the iMX.53 boards, which ran as slowly as anyone who has used an iMX.53 would expect. I haven t run test jobs on that install, it had a hard enough time serving the frontend.
Clearly some more cores would be a good step and when an arndale became available for the home lab, the next step was to get a SATA drive onto the arndale, put Debian unstable on that and then deploy LAVA to the arndale using the
Debian packages. As a bonus, these packages are built for django1.6 (using an unreleased branch).
Sounds simple enough. It works on iMX.53, it should work on an arndale. Well, it does but only after some unexpected faff.
arndale, u-boot and SATA
I hate u-boot every single time I ever touch it, the little I know about any other u-boot device is completely useless. Uniformity is a good thing infinite permutations are just rope to hang ourselves with
cute embedded nonsense hacks and I m bored of that whole scene.
So, boot the arndale, interrupt the bootloader to get to the prompt. What s the first thing most people would want? help. Denied this particular u-boot has been compiled without the ability to display any help messages. u-boot has just sunk further into the depths of please can we have something else which is uniform across devices .
OK, well maybe I can get by without help. sata init unknown command sata . (Go away, do something else for a bit.)
The arndale isn t one of the newest boards in the ARMv7 world, LAVA has been using them for a while, so someone has probably done some work to fix this . nope. There s a workaround a nice detailed guide by
Phil Endecott which details that the kernel needs to continue to be loaded from SD and then the SATA can be used for just the rootfs.
Mildly annoyed (I was hoping to be able to update the arndale kernel without the hassle of mounting the SD card at all), the rest was straight-forward.
Preparing the SATA and installing Debian
Due to the complexity of some of the transitions currently ongoing in Debian ahead of the Jessie release freeze, uwsgi is not in Debian testing right now so this install has to be Debian unstable. That s OK, I ve been running Debian unstable on all my machines for several years now usually updating ~5 times a week.
# parted /dev/sda -s unit mb mktable msdos
# parted /dev/sda -s unit mb mkpart primary 1 -- "-0"
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/root/
(note the in the mkpart command, that catches me out most times I try this. Without it, the special -0 gets interpreted as an option to parted but parted doesn t then tell you how to fix it, it just complains about an unknown option.)
The SD image I am using is a LAVA master image, based on Ubuntu, so it was easy to put debootstrap onto it.
# apt-get install debootstrap
# debootstrap --arch=armhf sid /mnt/root/ http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian
# chroot /mnt/root/
Inside the chroot, it s Debian as usual:
apt-get update
apt-get install emdebian-archive-keyring
passwd
emdebian-archive-keyring is a package I (ab)use to sign my LAVA packaging as it has the advantage of being in Debian and Ubuntu going back to the time of Lenny, so it is always available from a repository which has already been authenticated to apt and doesn t involve downloading some random key from a website.
I use passwd manually because this rootfs won t be using auto-login, it will have regular users. root passwords can be automated, if necessary.
Thinking about login, remember to give the rootfs a usable tty. (The LAVA master image has a nasty habit of mangling editors like nano and vi when used over serial, so I m using echo.) For the arndale you need:
# echo T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttySAC2 115200 vt102 >> ./etc/inittab
# echo >> ./etc/securetty
# echo ttySAC2 >> ./etc/securetty
Then to make the hostname useful, adapt this to your needs:
echo 127.0.0.1 arndale.codehelp arndale >> ./etc/hosts
Finally, get the network running at boot and add the LAVA repository:
# echo auto lo eth0 > ./etc/network/interfaces.d/arndale
# echo iface lo inet loopback >> ./etc/network/interfaces.d/arndale
# echo iface eth0 inet dhcp >> ./etc/network/interfaces.d/arndale
# echo deb http://people.linaro.org/~neil.williams/lava sid main >> ./etc/apt/sources.list.d/lava.list
# apt-get update
# exit
Once the LAVA packaging is finalised, the packages will be uploaded to a normal Linaro PPA, I ll update the packages to use an official download location and we ll move to using sane version string handling. For now, the packages are still in development.
Code for the packaging is in Alioth but there are issues with anonymous access to the pkg-linaro-lava repositories currently, so I ve also pushed to http://github.com/Linaro if you are interested in building the packages yourself. See also my
packaging guide which is also linked from the Links page on my own site.
With that done, time to reboot, set the SATA drive as the rootfs using the horrid u-boot and install LAVA.
# reboot
> setenv bootargs console=tty0 console=ttySAC2,115200n8 drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid-1920x1080.fw root=/dev/sda1
> boot
login
# apt-get install postgresql
After this operation, 63.0 MB of additional disk space will be used.
# apt-get install lava-server
After this operation, 231 MB of additional disk space will be used.
# a2dissite 000-default
# a2ensite lava-server
# apache2ctl restart
# service lava-server restart
Take note of the IP address of your new ARM LAVA server and sign in with your regular details, e.g. using OpenID before creating a temporary superuser:
# lava-server manage createsuperuser --username default --email=user@example.com
Choose a temporary password, log out, log in as the temporary superuser, promote your regular user to superuser and default owner of unrestricted devices in the django admin interface. Finally, log out and login as regular user to delete the temporary user. (Yes, that probably could do with some improvement remind me later and I ll see if a known user can be promoted from the command line.)
See also
Senthil s recent post on LAVA unit tests. Getting those to run without so many steps is also on the TODO list.
Results
IP Address: 127.0.0.1
Is Master? : True
Uptime: 6:02:23.700000
Architecture: armv7l
Platform: Linux-3.10.1.0-1-linaro-arndale-armv7l-with-debian-jessie-sid
Insignal Arndale evaluation board based on EXYNOS5250
System memory: 1998MiB
Next!
I m working on some code upstream to make it easier to add devices from the command line. The aim is that a set of simple commands will set up an initial device, run a job on that device and submit a result bundle to the LAVA server as job #1. This gives some assurance that everything has gone well.
Now I can finally add health checks for the iMX.53 boards and start regular tests on those boards. The cubie boards will wait for a later blog post, there are interesting problems with the bootloader and serial connections. That s a whole different rant.
Sarah dropped Zoe around this morning at about 8:30am. She was still a bit
feverish, but otherwise in good spirits, so I decided to stick with my plan for
today, which was a tour
of the Port of Brisbane.
Originally the plan had been to do it with Megan and her Dad, Jason, but Jason
had some stuff to work on on his house, so I offered to take Megan with us to
allow him more time to work on the house uninterrupted.
I was casting around for something to do to pass the time until Jason dropped
Megan off at 10:30am, and I thought we could do some foot painting. We searched
high and low for something I could use as a foot washing bucket, other than the
mop bucket, which I didn't want to use because of potential chemical residue. I
gave up because I couldn't anything suitable, and we watched a bit of TV
instead.
Jason dropped Megan around, and we immediately jumped in the car and headed out
to the Port. I missed the on ramp for the M4 from Lytton Road, and so we took
the slightly longer Lytton Road route, which was fine, because we had plenty of
time to kill.
The plan was to get there for about 11:30am, have lunch in the observation cafe
on the top floor of the visitor's centre building, and then get on the tour bus
at 12:30pm. We ended up arriving much earlier than 11:30am, so we looked around
the foyer of the visitor's centre for a bit.
It was quite a nice building. The foyer area had some displays, but the most
interesting thing (for the girls) was an interactive webcam of the shore bird
roost across the street. There was a tablet where you could control the camera
and zoom in and out on the birds roosting on a man-made island. That passed the
time nicely. One of the staff also gave the girls Easter eggs as we arrived.
We went up to the cafe for lunch next. The view was quite good from the 7th
floor. On one side you could look out over the bay, notably Saint Helena
Island, and on the other side you got quite a good view of the port operations
and the container park.
Lunch didn't take all that long, and the girls were getting a bit rowdy,
running around the cafe, so we headed back downstairs to kill some more time
looking at the shore birds with the webcam, and then we boarded the bus.
It was just the three of us and three other adults, which was good. The girls
were pretty fidgety, and I don't think they got that much out of it. The tour
didn't really go anywhere that you couldn't go yourself in your own car, but
you did get running commentary from the driver, which made all the difference.
The girls spent the first 5 minutes trying to figure out where his voice was
coming from (he was wired up with a microphone).
The thing I found most interesting about the port operations was the amount of
automation. There were three container terminals, and the two operated by DP
World and Hutchinson Ports employed fully automated overhead cranes for moving
containers around. Completely unmanned, they'd go pick a container from the
stack and place it on a waiting truck below.
What I found even more fascinating was the Patrick terminal, which used fully
automated straddle carriers, which would, completely autonomously move about
the container park, pick up a container, and then move over to a waiting truck
in the loading area and place it on the truck. There were 27 of these things
moving around the container park at a fairly decent clip.
Of course the girls didn't really appreciate any of this, and half way through
the tour Megan was busting to go to the toilet, despite going before we started
the tour. I was worried about her having an accident before we got back, she
didn't, so it was all good.
I'd say in terms of a successful excursion, I'd score it about a 4 out of 10,
because the girls didn't really enjoy the bus tour all that much. I was hoping
we'd see more ships, but there weren't many (if any) in port today. They did
enjoy the overall outing. Megan spontaneously thanked me as we were leaving,
which was sweet.
We picked up the blank cake I'd ordered from Woolworths on the way through on
the way home, and then dropped Megan off. Zoe wanted to play, so we hung around
for a little while before returning home.
Zoe watched a bit more TV while we waited for Sarah to pick her up. Her fever
picked up a bit more in the afternoon, but she was still very perky.
Wow. 3G delta. I haven t booted this laptop for a while I think I m finally ready to make the move from gnome2 to gnome3. There are bits that still annoy me, but I think it s off to a good start. Upgrading perl from 5.10 to 5.14.
(Don t be surprised if that becomes a dead link search for APC Smart Slot Master Switch Power Distribution Unit).
Talking of power, I m looking to use SATA drives with these boards and the boards themselves come with a variety of wall wart plugs or USB cables, so a number of IEC sockets are needed not the usual plugs:
I read a lot this year - I'll write more about that and reflections on
Implementing software to replace legacy systems is always a challenge, especially when you're dealing with a system with as much legacy as sendmail, which was first introduced as delivermail in 1979.
Entered monthly 10km races in Regent's Park, reducing my time from 55:07 in January 4th to 43:28 on December 1st.
February
Entered the 
Had my lute returned after it was damaged.
April
Had a time-trial bike built and raced my 
More biking, including a long ride with my brother. Also performed on the viola da gamba in Bach's St John Passion with 
Two big concerts: Monn's Cello concerto in G minor with the 
Amongst more triathlon preperation, I performed in a 
Raced my 
Whilst procrastinating about writing some letters, I 
Started cooking a little more adventurously.
November
Performed Geminiani's arrangement of Corelli's La Folia in the Fitzwilliam Museum with Le Petit Orchestre.
December
Ramped up my running volume so I could go over 1000km for the year. (
All these components may be running on a single host or they may be distributed across different servers and workstations in a LAN. The OpenMAMA market data bus ties them together.
External data sources
These are external sources of data. These could be currency trading firms, stock brokers, bullion dealers or even Bitcoin exchanges. Some exchanges don't provide data services directly to the general public and they distribute their price data through third-party data vendors such as Reuters and Bloomberg.
Feed handlers
The feed handlers manage the connections to external data sources. These are typically daemon processes that implement the wire protocols used by the external vendors for transmitting data over the public internet or a leased line. They typically use a point-to-point topology such as TCP connections.
The feed handlers publish the data into the market data bus.
In practice, the feed handler may be a proprietary application provided by the data vendor or it may simply be a 
Accounting/billing software
There are many free accounting applications today, including 
I just received an USB headset from Plantronics. Since it has a
keypad on it, with buttons to mute the microphone and to adjust the
volume, it appears as both a sound card and a keyboard. Problem: that
keyboard sends a mouse ButtonPress 1 (yes, a mouse button event,
do not ask me how that is materially and logically possible) when the
microphone is muted, and only sends the corresponding ButtonRelease
1 when it is unmuted. As a result, the pointer behaves as if
the mouse button was pressed continuously, rendering the desktop quite
unusable.This situation has been the object of 
Recently (actually 3 weeks ago) 
The