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FOX Board LX832
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Install the Phrozen beta patch

written by John Crispin

!!! the SDK PATCH is currently in BETA stage. !!! Sept. 12 2006

Note: This article is still not updated for the new FOX Board LX. Please read the Troubleshooting article to fix the configuration changes on the new FOX Board LX.

Required files

All you have to do, is to get this file

phrozen_sdk_patch_beta1.tar.bz2

Installing the SDK and the patch

The file phrozen_sdk_patch_alpha.tar.bz2 includes everything needed to install a patched SDK on your Linux box. Please note, that you cannot apply the patch to an already installed SDK. the install script inside the archive will download all the needed files and install a fresh SDK and then it applies the patch. In order to achieve all this, execute the following commands:

$ mkdir sdk_patched
$ cd sdk_patched
$ cp "path_to_download"/phrozen_sdk_patch_beta1.tar.bz2
$ tar xvfj phrozen_sdk_patch_beta1.tar.bz2
$ ./install_phrozen_patch.sh

The SDK will now be installed. This takes some time. After install has been completed, simply change directory to the devboard folder and you are ready to use the SDK as normal.

To be able to reuse the already downloaded distfiles directory (109 MBytes), invoke the install script in this form:

$ ./install_phrozen_patch.sh "path_to_already_downloaded_distfiles_directory"

In this way you can have more SDKs with only one distfiles directory.

What new features do you get ?

A number of new hardware drivers and software applications have been added. Here is a list

Drivers

MP3 decoder - VS1011B
WIFI - Dlink C1 Ralink 73 chipset
WIFI - Longshine 8313 - Zydas 1211 chipset
MMC/SD cards
NOKIA 3110/3310 LCD
RC5 infrared decoder
Rotary encoder
CAN Bus - SJA1000 chipset
Updated I2C driver
HD44780 LCD on I2C PCF8574 port expander
SPCAX webcam drivers
Updated USB driver for 2.6 - yes, it really works now !! :)
FOX-VHDL

Basic support for FOXBONE
Framework for catching FOXBONE interrupts
Framebuffer for using a VGA monitor as a console
numerous examples on using FOX-VHDL internal example applications
Updated driver for usb keyboards

Applications

KLONE - demo app
KLONE - vhdl daemon
PHP 5.0.5 with sql-lite
FOX-MP3 player daemon
pop3checkd
rssreader
serial_test
servfox
wireless-tools
inclusion of c++ libs into the sdk
FPKG - package management
FOX-VHDL

microwindows gui
fb_ctl - control the frambuffer
fpga_flash - flash the FPGA directly
foxbone
timebase
foxio
loopback
event
multiply
pwm

Syscalls

A syscall is the mechanisim used by the userspace to access kernel functions

GPIO
FOXBONE

See this article here, to findout how to use the new syscalls.

Scripts

WIFI startup script
/etc/init.d/boottime/ - scripts in this dir will get run automatically at boot time

Nodes under /dev/

All needed nodes will automatically be created

Configuring

There are two ways to configure the SDK, automatic and manual

Automatic configuration

There is a new folder called configs/. In it you find a number of scripts which will configure the SDK to a predefined state. Here is a list of what is currently available.

config_alpmp3 - default image for FOX-MP3
config_linux-2.4 - a clean fimage for 2.4
config_linux-2.6 - a clean fimage for 2.6
config_php - fimage with 2.4 and php & sql-lite
config_vhdl - default fimage for FOX-VHDL
config_vhdl_nofb - fimage for FOX-VHDL without framebuffer support
config_webcam - fimage with support for SERVFOX and SPACX
config_wifi-2.4-B1 - fimage for 2.4 with D-Link B1 and ZD1211 wifi support
config_wifi-2.4-C1 - fimage for 2.4 with D-Link C1 and ZD1211 wifi support
config_wifi-2.6-B1 - fimage for 2.6 with D-Link B1 and ZD1211 wifi support
config_wifi-2.6-C1 - fimage for 2.6 with D-Link C1 and ZD1211 wifi support

Simply run the script inside the configs folder. Then run ./configure inside the devboard folder. Finally run make to build the fimage.

Manual configuration

You are best of by running the config_linux-2.4 or config_linux-2.6 script first. There are many new options in the SDK config and the Kernel config. In the SDK config there is a new option, ACMESYSTEMS. In the Kernel config there are 2 new options, Acmesystems-VHDL and Acmesystems-Third Party. All the options listed above can be configured there.

Contributors

I would like to express my thanks to the following people for there help, comments and support.

Roberto and Sergio -the list would be too long :)
Koan Logic - Makefiles for klone, testing
Fabio Sfuncia - PHP patch, BINMISC, testing
Davide Cantaluppi - Testing
Ivano Monticelli - providing FOXCOM for testing