Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Firmware / FPGA bitstream for USRP2 Rev 4

[Omid F]

I copied the latest txrx.bin and u3_rev3.bin on a new 256MB SD-card. Then I verified and made sure it is properly copied. Still no success. LEDs don't turn on. I also tried some of the older firmware/fpga. Same results!

When I use the original SD-card, the LEDs turn on properly, but for some reason the USRP2 seems to be suppressing my ethernet interface. The ethernet interface on my laptop looks dead; its light is off and it even won't send any packets out upon each "find_usrps" call. 

Whereas when I use the newly programmed SD card, or when there is no SD-card in the USRP2, the ethernet interface on laptop is alive and at least it properly sends ethernet packets out upon each call to "fins_usrps." Very strange situation!

Any help is highly appreciated.
Omid

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 12:56 PM, Omid F <address@hidden> wrote:

Thanks for your response. Please find detailed explanations below.

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 8:50 PM, Matt Ettus <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> On 02/11/2010 05:47 PM, Omid F wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I get a new Rev4 USRP2 two weeks ago, and have not yet been able to
>> connect to it.
>>
>> I tried both the binary and the source code on different machines
>> running different versions of Ubuntu (9.4, 9.10). I simply get "No USRP2
>> found." when I call find_usrps.
>
> Is there only one line of output that says No USRP2 found, or are there other lines of output?  Are you using a release of GNU Radio or a build from git?

I do "sudo find_usrps" and I only get one line of output that says No USRP2 found. I have tried both the binary and the git builds, but for the rest of this email I am using GNU Radio 3.2.2 installed from the binary distribution on Ubuntu 9.10 from the following source repositories:

deb http://gnuradio.org/ubuntu stable main
deb-src http://gnuradio.org/ubuntu stable main
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu jaunty main universe

 
>>
>> I have reached a point that I am almost certain there is something wrong
>> on the USRP2 side. The LEDs look fine though (6 of them flash at
>> startup, 2 remain on).
>
> It is extremely unlikely that there is nothing wrong with your USRP2, as they are all 100% tested before shipping.  There are many other variables.  Is the USRP2 connected directly to the ethernet card?  Are you certain it is a gigabit ethernet card?  Can you send the output of dmesg after connecting the USRP2?  Do you have a TTL serial adapter?

I have connected the ethernet card (which is a gigabit one) directly to the USRP2 and assign a manual IP using "ifconfig eth0 10.0.0.2." 

This is the output from $lspci | grep Ethernet:
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)

The output from dmesg | egrep '(eth0|Intel)' after connecting to USRP2:

[    0.000000]   Intel GenuineIntel
[    0.010000] Performance Counters: Core2 events, Intel PMU driver.
[    0.139852] CPU0: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     T7300  @ 2.00GHz stepping 0a
[    0.291578] CPU1: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     T7300  @ 2.00GHz stepping 0a
[    1.243274] e1000e: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - 1.0.2-k2
[    1.243279] e1000e: Copyright (c) 1999-2008 Intel Corporation.
[    1.522705] 0000:00:19.0: eth0: (PCI Express:2.5GB/s:Width x1) 00:1a:6b:3a:0c:ee
[    1.522708] 0000:00:19.0: eth0: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection
[    1.522744] 0000:00:19.0: eth0: MAC: 6, PHY: 6, PBA No: ffffff-0ff
[   25.421065] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: PCI INT B -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[   25.421094] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   26.450512] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready

And this is from ifconfig:

eth0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1a:6b:3a:0c:ee  
          inet addr:10.0.0.2  Bcast:10.255.255.255  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Memory:fe200000-fe220000 

Please note that with the original SD-card, despite the lights being on, I don't see anything going out of my machine when I call find_usrps (using wireshark). But when I connect the USRP2 to my laptop without the SD-card, the light on the ethernet interface on the laptop goes on and for every call to find_usrps I can see an ethernet packet going out (on wireshark).

>>
>> As a last resort, I tried to reprogram (a new) SD card. I followed the
>> instructions on USRP2FAQ and copied txrx.bin and u2_rev3.bin on the new
>> SD card. This time, even the LEDs don't light up, and of course I still
>> cannot connect to the USRP2.
>
> Then you did not copy the files correctly.  You'll need to follow the instructions again, as those instructions work.  If the LEDs don't light up, then the files are not on there and nothing will work.

I will re-do this with a new SD-card and report the results.

 
>>
>> How do I know which version of firmware and FPGA bitstream I should use?
>> Is there a u2_rev4.bin available (since my USRP2 is revision 4)?
>> Any hints on what I might be doing wrong?
>
> No, rev3 and rev4 use the same .bin files.
>
> Matt

I highly appreciate your time.
Thanks,
Omid