Avnet RFSoC Explorer Failed to Connect to Target

Have you tried to ping from the board to the host PC? Are you on a corporate LAN that may be blocking inbound traffic from unauthorized remotes?
I would also try to reboot the zcu208, then after boot open a serial terminal and confirm that a service called 'rftool' is running.

top | grep rftool

You are right about the rftool not running. Recently, our corporate IT department limited USB based devies and potentially could cause it to fail.

The host computer runs on a spearte USB-LAN adaptor based network connected by a local network switch. The network is not part of the corporate LAN. I have to type "rftool &" to start the rftool. The complete setup was working before our computer updates. Do you think it was caused by our IT's limitations on the USB-LAN adaptor? Why does it not run automatically? Thanks!

Okay, that's progress!

The SD card image for Avnet RFSoC Explorer contains an autostart.sh shell script where rftool is started just after Linux boots.

(The SD image will be different if you are using our ZCU208 Support Package for HDL Coder)

If linux is able to initialize eth0 on the board, rftool should automatically start. I wouldn't expect anything on the host computer to interfere with that process.

Have a look at the linux boot log using dmesg. Do you see any type of faults recorded for rftool after boot?

The boot has errors and did not complete with rftool. Please see the log below.  The direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error. Then, additional problmes followed. Do I run "fsck" to repair the problem?

In addition, I am using the SD image from the ZCU208 HDL Coder. With your prior link, it takes me to v1.0.2. Currently, I am using v1.0.3 from your previous help. Should I stay with v1.0.3? Should I also update Avnet RFSoC Explorer to v2.3.0? Thanks.

The 'unmounted' warning can often happen after copying files to the SD card using a PC. The error later on @ 6.494 is concerning as well. Have you tried to re-image your SD card from scratch?

RE: v2.30

Yes you should upgrade.

I reformated the SD card long way, not quick format, on computer using File Explorer.  Copied all files from ZCU208 HDL Coder release v_1_0_3 sdcard folder. Reprogrammed the FPGA with my latest design. After rebooting the ZCU208 board, I still don't have rftool running with "top | grep rftool" command. Please see the log with dmesg command. The file corruption message is gone. What should I do next? Thanks.

The bootlog still has an SD card error: "/dev/mmcblk0p1: can't open blockdev". That might be the problem. Did you format your SD as FAT32 as described in the ZCU208 HDL Coder instructions? Quick Format is sufficient. Is it the same SD card you used previously when this worked?

I found your earlier question  External 10 MHz Reference Clock for ZCU208 via Simulink HDL IP Core Generation  and remembered that you're attempting a combination that is not officially supported, so results may vary. As a reminder to others reading this thread, Avnet RFSoC Explorer has its own SD card image, different from the SD boot image used for HDL Coder. The experiment in this thread is an attempt to communicate with a MATLAB HDL Coder-generated design using Avnet RFSoC Explorer. Please read the other thread I linked above to understand the caveats.

dchien Ultimately there may be something in the steps of your custom workflow that either prevents the rftool utility from running, or it runs and exits. You could add your own shell script to simply restart it:

rftool &

Even then, Avnet RFSoC Explorer will be of limited use b/c many of its features rely on a specific FPGA design that will not be present in your custom ZCU208 HDL Coder bitstream.

I reformatted the SD card according to the instructions using Window File Explorer. The same SD card was used in the past when it worked. I will try again using a new and formatted SD card.

You are correct that I try to use the external 10MHz reference clock with the HDL IP generation flow. I am using ZCU208 HDL Coder release v_1_0_3 SD card image from the results in the prior 10 MHz discussion to fix the rftool connection/reconnect issues. This image is not listed in the link you provided for the HDL Coder IP generation.

After some experiments with the current problem, the rftool does not run after rebooting the FPGA before any commands from the Avnet RFSoC Explorer. I will replace the SD card and try again. Please advise if you see other potential issues.

In addition, what is the best release combination to have for the HDL Coder design running with Avnet RFSoC Explorer with the 10MHz reference clock API command? I have the following combination:

• ZCU208 HDL Coder release v_1_0_3 SD card image (not listed in the link you provided and obtained from prior 10MHz discussion)
• MathWorks release 2022a update 5
• Avnet RFSoC Explorer release 2.2
• Xilinx Vivado 2020.2

Thanks.

I replaced the SD card with a new one and followed the formatting procedure. The rftool still does not show after reboot. After issuing commands from MATLAB command window, I often get the board locked up and terminal via ethernet non-responsive. Is my design environment correct? Please help me with my last question in my prior post regarding the tool combination for ZCU208. Thanks.

Hi dchien ,

Your tool combination (listed above) looks good and seems to match what you had working back in Oct2022External 10 MHz Reference Clock for ZCU208 via Simulink HDL IP Core Generation

However, I noticed that you listed update 5 on R2022a. Are you certain this is the update that was working in Oct2022?

Also, I've been in contact with your MathWorks AE about this. He should be contacting you soon to see if we can solve this together.

Thanks,

/Matt