VxWorks / Tornado II FAQ

PC BSP problems

1 Changes to the default BSP

1.1 sysLib.c extensions

1.2 Setting TOD clock

1.3 Problems with serial port

2 Keyboard problems

3 Network devices

4 Floating point

5 Timestamp driver

6 Video control

Index

PC BSP problems

1 Changes to the default BSP

I do not have a PC-target, so I cannot verify or fix any problems related to this HW. If you have made any changes to the BSP and want to share them with the other VxWorks developers, please send them to me (Johan Borkhuis), so they can be put here.

1.1 sysLib.c extensions

nvRamToAta.c, nvRamToFloppy.c and nvRamToTffs.c are a couple of neats hack for the x86 BSP to allow you to change and save the boot config stuff.
01FAE.cdf adds a few missing bits (END interface selection and SYS_WARM_TYPE) to the project facility.
Toss them into your copy of the pcPentium BSP and change the following line of sysLib.c [427]:

/* includes (source file) */

#include "mem/nullNvRam.c"
#include "vme/nullVme.c"
#include "sysSerial.c"

to:

/* includes (source file) */

#if TRUE
#include "nvRamToFloppy.c"
#else
#include "mem/nullNvRam.c"
#endif
#include "vme/nullVme.c"
#include "sysSerial.c"

1.2 Setting TOD clock

The following files implement reading the hardware time-of-day clock, setting the VxWorks date, and provide the date() command available from the shell. Be careful, the day of the week register is not usually initialzed. Call date ("YYMMDDHHMMSS") first to set it.
ds12887Rtc.c
usrTime.c

1.3 Problems with serial port

Q: When I startup my PC-target nothing happens on my serial port, but the normal keyboard and display are used.

A: Disable the use of the PC-console and enable the use of the serial console.
(From: pwhicker@home.com, Paul Whicker)

2 Keyboard problems

Q: When I want to use the keyboard on my PC-target nothing happens. How can I make this keyboard work?

A: I assume you are not able to input anything from keyboard. Actually, you do not need to do anything to connect to stdin, it is by default. However, if you are using some older machines which has XT type keyboard controller, you may need to change the PC_KBD_TYPE to PC_XT_83_KBD (default is PC_PS2_101_KBD) in config.h.

#define PC_KBD_TYPE  PC_XT_83_KBD
#if FALSE
#define PC_KBD_TYPE  PC_PS2_101_KBD
#endif /* FALSE */

(From: Yusuf Motiwala, motiwala@lucent.com)

3 Network devices

Q: I am using T2/x86 (PentiumPro BSP) and trying to get 3C905B-TXNM PCI NIC working. The NIC itself seems to be fine, 3COM's DOS-based test tool identifies it correctly. I haven't changed anything in the NIC's configuration.

A: The 3c509B NIC is a long-time FAQ - the "B" version has added Plug & Pray support, which is nowhere inthe WRS driver, so what you need to do is to use the 3Com SETUP dirkette under DOS to modify the NIC to disable P&P, and make darn sure the IRQs are set properly, and in synch with your pc486/config.h definition, and you should be just fine.
(From: Leonid Rosenboim, leonid@bitband.com)

Q: How do I get 2 79C973 NIC's working?

A: After a long struggle, I have finally figured out how to set up the AMD x86 BSP drivers to work with 2 79C973 NIC's. I am posting this in response to several other messages I have seen on the subject. I am skipping the steps that are obvious (setting INCLUDE_LN_97X_END in config.h, etc):

In file configNet.h change from:

#define LN_97X_LOAD_STR_0       endLoadStr[0]

To:

#define LN_97X_LOAD_STR_0       endLoadStr[0]
#define LN_97X_LOAD_STR_1       endLoadStr[1]

In file configNet.h change from:

#ifdef INCLUDE_LN_97X_END
    {0, LN_97X_LOAD_FUNC, LN_97X_LOAD_STR_0,
TRUE, NULL, FALSE},
#endif /* INCLUDE_LN_97X_END */

To:

#ifdef INCLUDE_LN_97X_END
    {0, LN_97X_LOAD_FUNC, LN_97X_LOAD_STR_0,
TRUE, NULL, FALSE},
	 {1, LN_97X_LOAD_FUNC, LN_97X_LOAD_STR_1,
TRUE, NULL, FALSE},
#endif /* INCLUDE_LN_97X_END */

In file sysEnd.c, function sysLan97xInitStrCook change from:

    for (pDevTbl = endDevTbl, ix = 0;
        pDevTbl->endLoadFunc != END_TBL_END;
        pDevTbl++, ix++)
    {
        if ((ix + endDevNum) > entryIxMax)
            break;

        if ((UINT32)pDevTbl->endLoadFunc == (UINT32)LN_97X_LOAD_FUNC)
        {
            pDevTbl->unit = endDevNum;

To:

    for (pDevTbl = endDevTbl, ix = 0;
        pDevTbl->endLoadFunc != END_TBL_END;
        pDevTbl++, ix++)
    {
        if ((ix + endDevNum) > entryIxMax)
            break;

        if ((UINT32)pDevTbl->endLoadFunc == (UINT32)LN_97X_LOAD_FUNC)
        {
            /* pDevTbl->unit = endDevNum; */
            pDevTbl->unit = ix;

(From: dhall3859@my-deja.com)

Q: My target is crashing when I initialize the Intel 82559ER with a cable attached.

A: Modify the BIOS setting "PNP OS Installed" from YES to NO. After this the Intel 82559er MUX driver (using END) worked OK. See also question 3 A.
(From: Michiel Meekes, meekes@nlr.nl)

Q: How do I creae a bootrom that uses PXE

The purpose of this is to boot a standard x86 Mainboard diskless from tftp, using INTEL/3COMs PXE bootrom chip:
There are at least two common cards with PXE, the INTEL 82559 (Intel Pro/100+) and the 3Com905 Cards

Step 1:

Configure a DHCP Server (e.g. on linux, like this):
group {
next-server 10.0.1.1;
# option dhcp-class-identifier "PXEClient:Arch:00000:UNDI:002001";
# i have not yet figured this option out
host target {
filename "bootrom.pxe";
hardware ethernet 00:02:b3:5b:f0:65;
fixed-address 10.0.1.55;
}
      
Purpose of this is to provide the PXE with the boot information via bootp/dhcp. According to this, it will try to download bootrom.pxe from 10.0.1.1 using TFTP, it will take the address 10.0.1.55 for it's own interface. hardware address is the MAC address of the interface (PXE will usually display it when it starts up)

Step 2:

Setup the TFTP server (one comes with Tornado)

Step 3:

Create the according bootimage for PXE:
The vxWorks bootloader is compiled to run from 0x8000 per default. However, PXE loads at 0x1c00. Therefore, one way would be prepending the bootloader binary with 1024 bytes of code.
There are 2 caveats:

the bootrom requires a far/intersegment jump entry (to setup cs accordingly)

.code16 prefix is required to create protected mode code

Here is how to generate the bootrom:
// compile the file
as386 test.s

// strip a.out header of the file, create binary
vxcopy a.out test.bin

// limit size to 1024 bytes (equals 0x8000-0x1c00)
dd bs=1 count=1024 if=test.bin of=test.1024

// strip a.out header from bootrom
vxcopy bootrom bootrom.bin

// prepend bootrom with new source
cat test.1024 bootrom.bin > bootrom.pxe
or
copy /b test.1024 + bootrom.bin bootrom.pxe
      

The content of test.s:

.text
.code16
start: nop

/* display alr so we see something on the screen if executing bootrom fails
*/

movb $'a',%al
movb $0x0e,%ah
movw $0x07,%bx
int $0x10

movb $'l',%al
movb $0x0e,%ah
movw $0x07,%bx
int $0x10

movb $'r',%al
movb $0x0e,%ah
movw $0x07,%bx
int $0x10

ljmp $0x0800,$0x0000

.space 1024,0x90

4 Floating point

Q: I am using an SC400 processor (AMD 486 compatible) with floating point emulation in SW. But when I do some floating point emulation I get an exception. It looks like the floating point library is not installed correctly.

A: This is a know problem. It is registered by WindRiver under number SPR28624. The desription and work-around are:

"Tornado 2.0, Intel 80486SX: NaN produced on printf() from shell"

The published workaround is:
"Consider WIND_BASE/target/config/comps/vxWorks/00vxWorks.cdf, specifically around line 1883:

InitGroup usrIosCoreInit {
        INIT_RTN        usrIosCoreInit ();
        SYNOPSIS        core I/O system
        INIT_ORDER      INCLUDE_HW_FP \
                        INCLUDE_SW_FP \
                        INCLUDE_BOOT_LINE_INIT \
                        INCLUDE_IO_SYSTEM \
                        INCLUDE_TTY_DEV \
                        INCLUDE_TYCODRV_5_2 \
                        INCLUDE_SIO \
                        INCLUDE_PC_CONSOLE
        }

It is noted, in reference to 00vxWorks.cdf, that this problem no longer exists with the initialization sequence:

INIT_ORDER      INCLUDE_SW_FP \
                INCLUDE_HW_FP \

In other words, edit WIND_BASE/target/config/comps/vxWorks/00vxWorks.cdf such that the software floating point support is intialized prior to hardware floating point support.
(From: Gerald van Kampen, kam@oce.nl)

5 Timestamp driver

Q. How do I get the Pentium TSC register to free-run as Intel intended? How can I get a more reliable timestamp value and more accurate results from WindView?

A. Use this modified timer/timestamp driver. The 64-bit Pentium TSC register is the hardware timer used for the timestamp driver. It increments at the processor clock rate and is guaranteed never to overflow in 10 years continuous running. The timestamp driver is an interface to a hardware counter that allows WindView to instrument how long kernel calls and interrupts take. The timestamp driver depends on a counter with a rate of at least 100kHz to 1MHz, so the TSC is ideal.
For those interested, Appendix G of the WindView User's Guide describes the timestamp driver interface and how to map it to hardware counters with varying constraints. The 64-bit TSC register never overflows, but the timestamp driver only handles 32-bit values so the 32-bit overflow of the TSC must be handled.
If a hardware counter interrupts when it overflows 32-bits or reaches zero, the timestamp driver uses this interrupt to indicate the overflow. If the counter does *not* interrupt on overflow, like the TSC, then the timestamp driver must produce a timestamp value that increases only within a system tick and it must use the system tick interrupt to reset the timestamp value.
Unfortunately the system tick interrupt is subject to interrupt latency and jitters around an average point in time. Worse still, the timestamp interrupt routine in the original WindRiver driver is called after the system tick interrupt routine. The system tick calls tickAnnounce(), which takes a varying time servicing delays in VxWorks' tasks, semaphore takes, etc, and makes the timestamp value jitter even more. This jitter means that the timestamp value can exceed its period value or be reset before it reaches its period value, and it makes WindView results inaccurate and unreliable - showing a system tick interrupt routine, for example, lasting for a whole tick. The original timestamp driver also resets the TSC every system tick and spoils its use as a high-resolution application timer for very short delays.
This modified driver:

Restores the TSC to a free-running counter so it can be used by application software;
removes a lot of the jitter from the timestamp value;
ensures that the timestamp value always reaches its period value and never exceeds it;
makes WindView results more accurate and reliable.

The modified driver also includes a print routine which you can use to see how it performs in your system. Enter 'period 1,sysTimestampPrint' at the target shell and every second it prints out the timestamp driver value and the rollover adjustment value. You will see the current value change, especially with high network activity from bus-mastering LAN controllers, but it should return to a stable value.

Feedback please to james_marshall@agilent.com with subject 'VxWorks timestamp driver'.

6 Video control

Q: How can I change the video mode on a PC to 320x200?

A: The processor is in Real mode during the boot phase. You can patch romInit.s to make your BIOS calls after the 'cli' in _romInit and before the 'jmp cold' as follows:

        addr16  /* address size: 16 bit address operand for call */
        /* instruction. This is 0x66 opcode in a dump */

        data16  /* operand size: 16 bit data operand for call */
        /* instruction. This is 0x67 opcode in a hex dump */
        call _bios80x43 /* call (real mode) _romBIOS routine */

/* or   call _vesa40x25 */
/* or   call _bios40x25 */

..and then for example:

        .align 4,0x90
_bios80x43:     /* ugly, but it works for me... */
        movb    $0x0f,%ah
        sti
        int     $0x10
        cli
        push    %ax
        mov     $0x1201,%ax
        movb    $0x30,%bl
        sti
        int     $0x10
        cli
        pop     %ax
        movb    $0x00,%ah
        sti
        int     $0x10
        cli
        mov     $0x1112,%ax
        movb    $0x00,%bh
        sti
        int     $0x10
        cli
        ret

        .align 4,0x90
_vesa40x25:                     /* VESA mode */
        movb    $0x4f,%ah       /* mov VESA function into AH reg. */
        movb    $0x02,%al       /* mov "SET MODE" function into AL reg. */
        movb    $0x00,%bh       /* mov "40x25 COLOR" mode into BX reg. */
        movb    $0x01,%bl       /* mov "40x25 COLOR" mode into BX reg. */
        sti                     /* set the int flag,eg unlock interrupts. */
        int     $0x10           /* Call BIOS Int 0x10 (Function in AH reg) */
        cli                     /* clear the int flag,aka disable interrupts.*/
        ret

        .align 4,0x90
_bios40x25:                     /* VGA BIOS mode */
        movb    $0x00,%ah       /* movb "SET MODE" BIOS function into AH reg. */
        movb    $0x01,%al       /* movb "40x25 COLOR" mode into AL reg. */
        sti                     /* set the int flag,eg unlock interrupts. */
        int     $0x10           /* Call BIOS Int 0x10 (Function in AH reg) */
        cli                     /* clear the int flag,aka disable interrupts.*/
        ret

Index

1.1	A	Changes to syslib.c
1.2	A	Setting TOD clock
1.3	A	When I startup my PC-target nothing happens on my serial port, but the normal keyboard and display are used.
2	A	When I want to use the keyboard on my PC-target nothing happens. How can I make this keyboard work?
3	A	I am using T2/x86 (PentiumPro BSP) and trying to get 3C905B-TXNM PCI NIC working. The NIC itself seems to be fine, 3COM's DOS-based test tool identifies it correctly. I haven't changed anything in the NIC's configuration.
	B	How do I get 2 79C973 NIC's working?
	C	My target is crashing when I initialize the Intel 82559ER with a cable attached.
	D	How do I creae a bootrom that uses PXE
4	A	I am using an SC400 processor (AMD 486 compatible) with floating point emulation in SW. But when I do some floating point emulation I get an exception.
5	A	How do I get the Pentium TSC register to free-run as Intel intended?
6	A	How can I change the video mode on a PC to 320x200?