Unable to communicate via ethernet port

Hi Geoff,

Did you set those addresses on the laptop and Zedboard?  Or did a DHCP server set them?
Are the laptop and Zedboard plugged into a switch, router, direct between, something else?
Have you validated the ethernet cables work with your laptop and something else (try both cables on your laptop?
Are the cables TIA/EIA568A or B?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIA/EIA-568
http://www.utm.edu/staff/leeb/568/568.htm

Hopefully with these questions and maybe a few more, we can come to the root of your problem!

--Dan

Hi Dan,

No DHCP is involved. The ZedBoard address is what it starts with (192.168.1.10/24) and I manually set 192.168.1.1/24 on the host.

Both straight and crossover cables meet TIA-568-B2. The straight is Cat5E and the crossover Cat6. Both work elsewhere and are of commercial manufacture (where else but from China! :-)

No switches are involved - which is why I tried the crossover. I have found that some NIC's are smart enough to sense the cable type and work - and some are not. I wasn't sure if this is so in this case - from either the ZedBoard or laptop points of view.

The host is sensing 1Gb. Is this what the ZedBoard is? How can I tell what the ZedBoard has negotiated? When I connect the cable the ZedBoard says "xemacps eQ00b000.ps7-ethernet: link up (1000/FULL)". I presume this means 1000Mb. The host says it's sending packets - none being received.

If the cables cannot deal with 1Gb, would they not negotiate down to 100Mb?

Geoff.

Geoff,

The link can go up (electrically) and still not pass packets.  Kind of a pain (and I know you tried cross-over), but can you try plugging into a switch/hub?  I've never actually used it as you have indicated.

Both the ZedBoard and MicroZed are Gigabit.  The 1000/FULL does indicate a Full Duplex Gigabit connection.

This shouldn't matter, but you might want to also try changing your laptop's IP form 1.1 to 1.5 or something like that.  Again, both of these things should not matter, but we are troubleshooting!  I'd like to help get you to the bottom of this as quick as we can so you can get going with your project!

Thanks!

--Dan

Today I purchased and installed a small Gigabit switch and connected both the laptop and ZedBoard to it using two TIA/EIA-568-B2 cables. No go.

I tried changing IP addresses on both as suggested. No go.

I even tried changing networks - to 10.0.0.0/8  (10.0.0.2 & 10.0.0.3 with a netmask of 255.0.0.0)  No go.

Is it significant that only the amber LED on the ZedBoard's ethernet connect illuminates? The laptop doesn't have any LED's showing network traffic.

Can you please confirm that the ZedBoard will drop to 100Base-t if a non-Gb connection is offered? I have other non-Windows computers but none of them have a Gigabit NIC.

Both computers show packets are being transmitted (TX counts increment) when pinging. Neither shows any packets being received - counts remain at 0.

On the ZedBoard, the output of ifconfig eth0 show 0's everywhere except the TX Packets. No errors, none dropped, no overruns, carrier 0, etc, etc.

Very sad. I had high hopes for this board with its FPGA (I purchased the I/O Carrier board also - complete with power supply errata! ;-). It is no good to me without a CPU with functioning ethernet. But I am beat. I have no idea what else to try, other than get a non-Windows machine. I would be very surprised if the NIC is broken, when it's straight out of the box so to speak. I can't of course determine this one way or the other. Maybe I will purchase another one to satisfy my curiosity.

Geoff.





Geoff.

Hello Geoff,

Just to make sure, you are using a MicroZed board? You mention ZedBoard in your post several times and they are different boards. As I understand your original post you have booted up the provided Linux as shown in the 'Getting Started Guide' and do get a prompt on your terminal. Can you 'ping' your self, that is if ifconfig shows your IP address as 192.168.1.1 you can ping that address successfully at the 'zynq' prompt?

You should be able to connect directly to another computer as you mention or even to a switch or router as long as there is no IP conflict. You should be able to 'ping' to or from any valid IP address on your network. The NIC will auto negotiate to a lower rate if needed.

If you confirm that you are running Linux on the MicroZed and are still unable to connect via the Ethernet it looks like you may have a broken board. It that case please contact me directly via private email and I will get you an RMA so that we can replace your board.

-Gary

Hi Gary,

On the "Quick Start" Instruction sheet that came with it it says it's a MicrZed Evaluation Kit.

On boot up I am presented with the "zynq> " prompt (no quotes). Very Linux like.

ifconfig shows its IP address as 192.168.1.10. I am able to ping that address but nothing else on that network.

I therefore think the NIC is U/S.

I blame my confusion on my son (he will appreciate that!) I think he uses ZedBoards at Uni as he keeps referring to them as such. I thought they were one and the same - it was on his recommendation I purchase the MicroZed. He's more into the FPGA side of things whereas I am more into the embedded CPU part of it. If I can get it going! :-)

I'll send you an email to take this further.

Geoff.

I left a PM for Gary yesterday. So far no response, but I am not familiar with this particular forum - maybe it didn't work. Possibly a 4th July holiday in the USA got in the way.

Gary, please let me know if you got it or not. Either way hopefully we can pick this up early next week.


Cheers,

Geoff.

A new, replacement, microzed board arrived yesterday. All works well. 10 out of 10 to Avnet for taking the effort to send me this replacement with no fuss at all, given that it had to ship to Australia.

Many thanks guys!

Geoff Roberts.

Hi,
To connect the Zedboard to laptop when executing XAPP1026 designs, should I need to cross-over cable or just a straight ethernet cable?

Thanks,
Naveen

Just a straight ethernet cable will work although a crossover cable should work as well.
 
If you are making a direct connection to your laptop you should remember to set the laptop IP address to a fixed IP since it will not be getting an IP address from the Zedboard. You should also turn off your laptop wireless ethernet adapter to avoid conflicts.
 
-Gary