Need a Category for HiFive Unleashed

Archive General
1

Can you create a forum category for HiFive Unleashed. Now that some of us have our boards, there will likely be lots of questions.

Like, why doesn’t the USB connector FTDI serial port have console and boot loader output? I used the same commands as on HiFive1 (screen /dev/ttyUSB# 115200) but get no output.

And you might also get feedback like:

Please change the FTDI chip on the board to be powered from the USB port and not the 12V switched power input. That way the USB device is available even when the system is powered off. Otherwise, I can’t start screen until I’ve turned on the board and I’m likely to miss the first boot loader messages.

Also, you have the fan powered from an unswitched rail? So it’s not obvious when looking at the board and seeing the fan running that the system is in fact not powered on. Now that I know to look for LED’s, it’s more obvious, but first impressions…

2

The USB connection provides two serial ports, one has the console, and one is for JTAG. If you aren’t seeing the console, you might be connected to the wrong tty. Try the other one.

It is possible to build a kernel that has VGA output instead of serial for the console, or has the wrong serial driver, etc. Presumably, this should only be an issue if you tried to build your own kernel.

Can you at least ssh in?

3

Good idea!

We now have a forum catetory for the HiFive Unleashed boards:

http://forums.sifive.com/c/hifive-unleashed

-Cheers!
-M

4

FWIW, I created this udev rules file to automagically link /dev/ttyUSB0 to /dev/FU540JTAG and /dev/ttyUSB1 to /etc/FU540CONSOLE.

It works fine if you only have one HiFive Unleashed board connected, but if you have multiple FTDI chips attached to your system, udev can’t figure out which is which, so… your mileage may vary:

/etc/udev/rules.d/99-fu540.rules:
SUBSYSTEM==“tty”, KERNEL==“ttyUSB0”, ATTRS{idVendor}==“0403”, ATTRS{idProduct}==“6010”, MODE=“664”, GROUP=“plugdev”, SYMLINK+="FU540JTAG"
SUBSYSTEM==“tty”, KERNEL==“ttyUSB1”, ATTRS{idVendor}==“0403”, ATTRS{idProduct}==“6010”, MODE=“664”, GROUP=“plugdev”, SYMLINK+=“FU540CONSOLE”

5

Hadn’t gotten to the point of trying to recompile a kernel or anything else.

It was ttyUSB1 not ttyUSB0. I recall the BeagleBoneBlack had a similar FTDI configuration. Silly me didn’t look for all the ttyUSB* devices in /dev…

Unfortunately, mhamrick’s suggestion of a udev rule won’t work for me since I use lots of FTDI chips for serial console’s on lots of different equipment. (routers, network switches, etc mostly, but the occasional server as well.)