Now that we'll be using FreeBSD 7.1…

zcline · Jan 25, 2009, 7:23 AM

Any chance we could get the following changes merged?

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=128803

This will allow my Alix 2d3 to work with the picolcd 4x20 device. This does with with a 7.0 kernel with the changes.

And the latest geode.c
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/i386/i386/geode.c

As well as compiling the kernel with CPU_GEODE and CPU_SOEKRIS. This allows control over the blinking LEDs on the front. I can confirm this works with 7.0 as well.

Thanks and I'd be more than happy to help test any of this stuff!

eri-- · Jan 25, 2009, 12:17 PM

AFAIK you do not need anything patched in kernel to have picolcd working!

zcline · Jan 25, 2009, 5:22 PM

@ermal:

AFAIK you do not need anything patched in kernel to have picolcd working!

For the newer 4x20 model you definitely do. It attaches to the HID driver and doesn't allow LCDProc to use it. If you recompile your kernel with the above patch, it then attaches to the generic usb driver, and this allows the device to work with LCDProc. I spent a week learning about it :)

marcusone · Jan 25, 2009, 9:24 PM

Has this been added to pfSense? Would love to have my picoLCD work with it!

Thanks,

cmb · Jan 25, 2009, 10:29 PM

@zcline:

Any chance we could get the following changes merged?

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=128803

That's now in http://snapshots.pfsense.org/FreeBSD7/RELENG_1_2/pfSense-Full-Update-1.2.3-20090125-1637.tgz and newer

@zcline:

And the latest geode.c
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/i386/i386/geode.c

The latest there is what is in 7.1 already.

@zcline:

As well as compiling the kernel with CPU_GEODE and CPU_SOEKRIS. This allows control over the blinking LEDs on the front.

NOTES is light on info on those.

CPU_GEODE is for the SC1100 Geode embedded processor. This option

is necessary because the i8254 timecounter is toast.

CPU_SOEKRIS enables support www.soekris.com hardware.

Those options work with any hardware or are they specific to Geode and Soekris respectively?

marcusone · Jan 26, 2009, 5:05 PM

Sweet… thank you very much! I got my picolcd working...although I think the LCDProc package is now a bit, what's that term people like to use on here... ganked? ... It runs, and makes a connection, however causes the package sync script (or whatever is running) to pause for sometime. Other than that it doesn't appear to affect the use of the Firewall/System. I will likely remove the package and manually setup the LCDd and lcdproc executables and settings.

Thanks again... I hope this and an updated LCDProc package make it into a full release soon.

dotdash · Jan 26, 2009, 5:10 PM

@cmb:

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/i386/i386/geode.c
The latest there is what is in 7.1 already.

Version 1.11 from HEAD supports the Alix LEDs as /dev/led
I put in a feature request a while ago. http://cvstrac.pfsense.org/tktview?tn=1784,23

Revision 1.11: download - view: text, markup, annotated - select for diffs
Sun Feb 10 19:14:42 2008 UTC (11 months, 2 weeks ago) by phk
Branches: MAIN
CVS tags: HEAD
Diff to: previous 1.10: preferred, colored
Changes since revision 1.10: +74 -43 lines
Add support for PC Engines ALIX boards.

marcusone · Jan 26, 2009, 5:15 PM

I just thought of another question… Are these changes also in the 2.0 ALPHA snapshots?

zcline · Jan 26, 2009, 9:04 PM

@cmb:

That's now in http://snapshots.pfsense.org/FreeBSD7/RELENG_1_2/pfSense-Full-Update-1.2.3-20090125-1637.tgz and newer

Awesome!

@cmb:

NOTES is light on info on those.

CPU_GEODE is for the SC1100 Geode embedded processor. This option

is necessary because the i8254 timecounter is toast.

CPU_SOEKRIS enables support www.soekris.com hardware.

Those options work with any hardware or are they specific to Geode and Soekris respectively?

Actually, I am not sure, but most of the soekris hardware used to use the geode processor. I am actually running an alix with that chip, from pc-engines. Those two options worked to enable the LEDs, as mentioned by dotdash.

cmb · Jan 27, 2009, 7:09 AM

@marcusone:

I just thought of another question… Are these changes also in the 2.0 ALPHA snapshots?

Yes.

xbipin · Jan 28, 2009, 2:51 PM

any way to make the led blink on alix2c3 as i tried all commands and it still wont run the other 2 led, just the first from the left remains on when powered on and no changes after that

dotdash · Jan 28, 2009, 3:38 PM

Accessing the LEDs via /dev/led makes things easier- that's why I'd like to see the geode.c from HEAD mfc'd. The 2.0 branch will have this when it gets switched to FreeBSD 8. There are several code examples of programs to access the LEDs on the Alix around- there is a quite nice one for OpenBSD, but not having the skills to adapt it, I used a patched version of the wrap reset button program from m0n0wall that I found on the m0n0wall forum. It has the ability to turn the individual LEDs on or off. A search for 'Alix LED' should point you to other posts on this.

xbipin · Jan 28, 2009, 4:02 PM

@dotdash:

Accessing the LEDs via /dev/led makes things easier- that's why I'd like to see the geode.c from HEAD mfc'd. The 2.0 branch will have this when it gets switched to FreeBSD 8. There are several code examples of programs to access the LEDs on the Alix around- there is a quite nice one for OpenBSD, but not having the skills to adapt it, I used a patched version of the wrap reset button program from m0n0wall that I found on the m0n0wall forum. It has the ability to turn the individual LEDs on or off. A search for 'Alix LED' should point you to other posts on this.

can u provide more details on the patched software for reset button?

dotdash · Jan 28, 2009, 4:08 PM

Here is the original post by oldman on the m0n0 forum-
http://forum.m0n0.ch/index.php/topic,2210.msg7085.html#msg7085

Here is the link to an image with the binary compiled for FreeBSD 7 and with a simple script to turn on LED 2 when the box boots: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,13875.0.html

Please direct further questions over there, as we've gotten off-topic here.