antis81 / images

Pre-built XTRX packages and firmware images

XTRX FPGA images & pre-compiled binaries

This repository hosts FPGA images and pre-compiled binaries for XTRX. Only rev4 hardware and Ubuntu 16.04 x86_64 binaries are published at this moment, that works well on Ubuntu 18.04 x86_64 as well.

NOTE: rev3 hardware support is phasing out, please contact [email protected] in order to get support.

Please report any problems running pre-compiled libraries from this repository directly this repo's issues.

Structure

• binaries - pre-compiled host binary packages.
• sources - reference source code used for building the binaries. Uses git submodules to reference to the relevant git repositories. See Manual Compilation for more details.
• firmware - FPGA images for reflashing. (not yet published)

Pre-built packages

• Alpine Linux
• Arch Linux
• openSUSE
• Ubuntu 18.04

Manual compilation of host libraries from the sources directory

You need C and C++ compiler to build host libraries. libusb1 is also required if you're using a USB3 adapter. For Debian-based systems:

% sudo apt-get install build-essential libusb-1.0-0-dev cmake dkms python-cheetah python

For Ubuntu 18.04 system you need to install Python 2.7 since python-cheetah is only available for 2.7

First, you need to clone relevant revisions of source modules:

% git submodule init
% git submodule update

Now enter the sources directory and run:

% cd sources
% mkdir -p build
% cd build
% cmake ..
OR if you don't want SoapySDR support:
% cmake -DENABLE_SOAPY=NO ..
% make

When everything is built you can install them:

% sudo make install
% sudo ldconfig

PCIe kernel driver compilation

If you're connecting XTRX over a (mini)PCIe bus, you also need to install a kernel driver.

The easiest way is to use DKMS.

First, make sure DKMS can find the driver sources. make install above will install the driver sources into /usr/local/src while DKMS expect them in /usr/src, so you should create a symlink:

% sudo ln -s /usr/local/src/xtrx-0.0.1-2/ /usr/src/

And now instruct DKMS to build the module:

% sudo /usr/sbin/dkms add -m xtrx -v "0.0.1-2"
% sudo /usr/sbin/dkms build -m xtrx -v "0.0.1-2"
% sudo /usr/sbin/dkms install -m xtrx -v "0.0.1-2"

If everything goes well, you can now load the driver:

modprobe xtrx

and it should appear in /proc/modules with relevant messages in dmesg.

In case you face any issues with DKMS, please report the issue. Meantime, you should be able to build the driver manually. Enter the sources/xtrx_linux_pcie_drv directory and run:

% make
% sudo insmod xtrx.ko

Non root access for /dev/xtrx0

If you want to access XTRX from non-root user (which is the typical case) you need to install udev rules.

cp sources/xtrx_linux_pcie_drv/50-xtrx.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

After that you need to restart udevd and remove and insert the XTRX driver (rmmod xtrx; modprobe xtrx) or reboot the system. On ubuntu-like systems you can restart udev by

udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger

Getting started

Working with XTRX over PCIe bus

PCIe device ID is 10ee:7012:

% lspci -v -d 10ee:
01:00.0 Memory controller: Xilinx Corporation Device 7012
	Subsystem: Xilinx Corporation Device 0007
	Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 255
	Memory at 91510000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=4K]
	Memory at 91500000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=64K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [48] MSI: Enable- Count=1/4 Maskable- 64bit+
	Capabilities: [60] Express Endpoint, MSI 03
	Capabilities: [100] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-00-12-34-56-78

If driver xtrx is loaded correctly, a character device /dev/xtrx0 should appear.

Working with the USB3 adapter

USB3 adapter should appear on your system as USB device 0525:3380. Check it by running lsusb:

% lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0525:3380 Netchip Technology, Inc. 

Testing if XTRX is alive

Run this command to check that your XTRX is connected properly and is not dead:

% test_xtrx -t -l2

Output should be like this

CPU Features: SSE2+ SSE4.1+ AVX+ FMA+
Master: 31999999.863761; RX rate: 3999999.982970; TX rate: 0.000000
RX tunned: 899999999.046326
RX bandwidth: 2500000.000000
RX LNA gain: 15.000000
RX SAMPLES=524288 SLICE=524288 PARTS=1
PROCESSED RX SLICE 0 /0: res 0 TS:       0      65746 us DELTA    118 us LATE    328 us 524288 samples R=    ffdff6ffeffd DELTA=-1553528470
XXXXX Overruns:0 Zeros:0
xAND=[0xffc0,0xffc0,0xff40,0xffc0] xOR=[0xffff,0xffff,0xff7f,0xffdf]
Success!
Processed RX 2 x 3.984 = 7.969 MSPS (WIRE: 31.874542)    TX 2 x 0.000 = 0.000 MSPS (WIRE: 0.000000 MB/s) 

If you see output similar to the one above, XTRX is ready to rock! And you can now build your very own application or install one already coming with the XTRX support:

• GNU Radio: https://github.com/xtrx-sdr/gr-osmosdr
• sdrangel: https://github.com/xtrx-sdr/sdrangel
• gqrx (no special branch, but install XTRX branch of gr-osmosdr first): http://gqrx.dk/
• kalibrate: https://github.com/xtrx-sdr/kalibrate-rtl
• osmo-trx: https://github.com/xtrx-sdr/osmo-trx

FAQ

I don't see XTRX in lspci output

1. XTRX is installed into miniPCIe slot. Make sure that your system actually has PCIe lanes routed. Some system routes only USB lines, in the case XTRX LED near edge will be blinking ON-OFF-ON-OFF-.. pattern with ~3sec period. If this this the case install XTRX in other slots.
2. XTRX is installed into PCIe slot via miniPCIe to PCIe adapter which is not our PCIeX2_FE card. This this rare but we found that some adapters are incompatible in some way (we're investigating the issuie) that prevents system to boot, try another adapter.
3. XTRX is blinking with ON-OFF-OFF-OFF-ON-OFF-OFF-OFF pattern. It means XTRX hasn't been enumerated on PCIe bus. Try to use other PCIe or miniPCIe slot if available. Please contact [email protected] with details of you installation and system details for future assistance.
4. In all other cases fell free to contact us [email protected]

Which board/laptop can I use with XTRX in PCIe mode?

You can use any board/laptop with XTRX with a USB3 adapter. Below asumes that you want to use XTRX in PCIe mode

Generally, your board should have the miniPCIe socket with the PCI lane. Most laptops don't work, since generally they have PCI lane only on half-sized miniPCIe sockets (used for WiFi devices) while full-sized sockets designed mostly for use with SATA and USB lanes only. Industrial SBCs frequently have at least one such socket thus are more suitable for XTRX.

These devices were tested by our customers or us and were reported working fine with XTRX:

• UpSquared by UpBoard
• Jetson TK1 by NVidia
• various devices by LEX, specifically TERA + 2I610DW and 3I610CW
• various SBCs by PC Engines, specifically apu1d4, apu2d4, and apu4b4 (may be suitable for 1 XTRX only, check the specs)
• Newport GW6300 by GATEWORKS
• ROCKPro64 by Pine64
• IPC3 by fit-PC
• ARTiGO A1200 by VIA (see #28)

These SBCs will probably work with XTRX but were not actually tested. Try on your own risk!

• various SBCs by AAEON
• various SBCs by Advantech devices
• various devices by Logic Supply
• MPT-7000V by IBASE; suitable for 1x XTRX only
• Nuvo-5100VTC; seems suitable for 2x XTRX (4x miniPCIe sockets, 2x of them supports USB signals only)
• ECS-9110 by Vecow most likely would work
• EC500-KH and EC70B-SU by DFI most likely would work
• some older versions of Intel NUC which have miniPCIe may work
• most likely Dell Latitide D420 would work; it has full-sized miniPCIe (used for WiFi by default) and no PCI whitelist in BIOS
• some outdated EeePCs like 901 and 701 by asus may work (assuming based on the same premises as for Dell Latitude D420)
• any device with full-featured PCIe x2 socket or USB3+ port if you use XTRX with PCIe x2 Front End or USB 3 Adapter respectively (see CrowdSupply page for details and order) You can also check other SBCs by mentioned vendors.

XTRX installed into miniPCIe slot prevents the system from booting (don't get even to BIOS)

This problem can happen if your motherboard provide SMB signals to miniPCIe connector. Most system doesn't. The XTRX rev.4 use reseved pins that are held in hi-Z. However, during the startup DC/DC chip isn't initialized and XTRX actually pulling down the SMB DATA line that mostly connected to critical to boot chips. We're working on firmware fix but currently hardware modification (cutting the fuse on the bottom side of xtrx near the edge) is the only solution. Cut the fuse with a sharp knife. Make sure not to use much pressure since you can accidently cut other traces.

Systems that known to have such problem

Vendor	Model	Comments
Jetway	NP591
Via	Artigo A1200
Intel	DQ77KB	SMBus even mentioned in the block diagrm doc
Lex	2I610HW	Both miniPCIe have SMBus routed

I connected XTRX directly via microUSB cable and I don't see it lsusb

Unfortunatly USB2 PHY software isn't ready and wasn't pushed in the master. You can check this xtrx-sdr#9 for more deatils and suggestions.

Is Windows driver support planned?

We plan to add Windows PCIe drivers but we don't have specific schedule for this right now. If it's blocking factor please contact us [email protected]. However, all other software layers are windows compatible and USB3380 adapter should work via WinUSB.

I've got a DMA buffer issue on my ARM device

You should probably increase DMA coherent pool using coherent_pool=32M kernel option in case you see following lines in the dmesg output:

[ 7.171608] xtrx: Failed to allocate 31 DMA buffer
[ 7.171632] xtrx 0000:01:00.0: Failed to register TX DMA buffers.

For the details see issue #37.