ti375 devkit litex debian demo

[Dolu1990]

Hardware :

• Board : https://www.efinixinc.com/products-devkits-titaniumti375c529.html
• HDMI : https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/efinix-inc/EFX-HDMI/17084519?s=N4IgTCBcDaIKYDMCWA7JAPABACwCYFskQBdAXyA
• USB host pmod extention board (4 ports to connect mouse/keyboard/...) : https://github.com/Dolu1990/pmod_usb_host_x4/blob/main/pmods.pdf
• 32 GB sdcard (could be 16 GB for smaller debian images)

Litex :

• soc/cores/vexiiriscv: update clocks + add video framebuffer support enjoy-digital/litex#2059
• build/efinix: add a few IO primitives, IO constraints, sdc rework enjoy-digital/litex#2060
• Add efinix Ti375 c529 dev kit support litex-hub/litex-boards#610
• python3 -m litex_boards.targets.efinix_ti375_c529_dev_kit --cpu-type=vexiiriscv --cpu-variant=debian --with-jtag-tap --with-sdcard --with-coherent-dma --with-ohci --vexii-video "name=video" --vexii-args="--fetch-l1-hardware-prefetch=nl --fetch-l1-refill-count=3 --fetch-l1-mem-data-width-min=128 --lsu-l1-mem-data-width-min=128 --lsu-software-prefetch --lsu-hardware-prefetch rpt --performance-counters 9 --lsu-l1-store-buffer-ops=32 --lsu-l1-refill-count 4 --lsu-l1-writeback-count 4 --lsu-l1-store-buffer-slots=4 --relaxed-div" --l2-bytes=524288 --l2-ways=8 --sys-clk-freq 100000000 --cpu-clk-freq 200000000 --with-cpu-clk --bus-standard axi-lite --vexii-macsg name=eth,address=0xF1000000,txIrq=40,rxIrq=41 --cpu-count=4 --build --load
• Board support PR : efinix_ti375_c529_dev_kit now support vexii ethernet litex-hub/litex-boards#619

Debian / Linux / Opensbi images generation :

• https://github.com/SpinalHDL/VexiiRiscv/tree/dev/doc/litex/debian
• Note that it use this linux (it has the ethernet drivers) : https://github.com/Dolu1990/litex-linux/tree/spinal-sgmac

Debian and FPGA images are uploaded here :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12WYe_igo2edwZABvF9Zta_bw4kuEbhms?usp=sharing

Here is how you can flash a sdcard using those (after you uncompressed p1 p2) :

export SDCARD=/dev/???
export SDCARD_P1=${SDCARD}p1
export SDCARD_P2=${SDCARD}p2

(
echo o
echo n
echo p
echo 1
echo
echo +600M
echo y
echo n
echo p
echo 2
echo
echo +19000M
echo y
echo t
echo 1
echo b
echo p
echo w
) | sudo fdisk $SDCARD

sudo mkfs.vfat $SDCARD_P1
sudo mkfs.ext4 $SDCARD_P2
sudo e2label $SDCARD_P2 rootfs

dd if=p1.img of=$SDCARD_P1
dd if=p2.img of=$SDCARD_P2

[silverliningeda]

excuse my ignorance as i have worked entirely on cloud FPGAs. i am trying to collect all the hardware needed to replicate this demo.

can you add a little detail about what you mean by the USB pmod and what it is needed for ?

[Dolu1990]

Hi,
The USB pmod is this extention board :
https://github.com/Dolu1990/pmod_usb_host_x4/tree/main

It provide USB host support to the system, allowing to connect mouse, keyboard, sound card, and other USB peripherals

[silverliningeda]

where can i get it? or do i need to do some soldering (which i dont know how to do) ?
thanks

[Dolu1990]

To get it :

• Either you order the PCB (i did it on pcbway), then you order the componants and mount them.
• Either you ask a compagny to do the whole process (can be done on pcbway aswell, but quite a bit more expensive)

The only thing to be careful about is "The PMOD connector is on the bottom side of the PCB in kicad, but should be solder on the top."

[Dolu1990]

I would say, if you have access to a USB cable, cut the cable, solder pins on the wires and pull down resistor on it, you should be good to go. No need of a PCB (but it keeps things cleaner XD).

[silverliningeda]

ok i will try to figure it out.

but even without using PMOD0 and PMOD1, it should be sufficient to use PMOD2 (Efinix HDMI extentions board) to see debian booting on a monitor right ?

[Dolu1990]

The efinix HDMI extentions board doesn't use a pmod, but another connector.

You don't event need that HDMI if you use the serial port ^^

[sitestudio]

Getting errors as it tries to boot up...downloaded the prebuilt images, and can see files in both '629MB Volume' and rootfs on the SD card (32GB):

[ 5.878333] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): ext4_check_descriptors: Checksum for group 123 failed (41871!=36088)␍␊
[ 5.937946] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): ext4_check_descriptors: Checksum for group 124 failed (25165!=19764)␍␊
[ 5.997546] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): ext4_check_descriptors: Checksum for group 125 failed (23813!=29303)␍␊
[ 6.057181] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): ext4_check_descriptors: Checksum for group 126 failed (34490!=43466)␍␊
[ 6.116821] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): ext4_check_descriptors: Checksum for group 127 failed (36187!=41514)␍␊
[ 6.198565] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): failed to initialize system zone (-117)␍␊
[ 6.229913] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mount failed␍␊
[ 6.259761] VFS: Cannot open root device "/dev/mmcblk0p2" or unknown-block(179,2): error -117␍␊
[ 6.292696] Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:␍␊
[ 6.325296] b300 30542848 mmcblk0 ␍␊
[ 6.325351] driver: mmcblk␍␊
[ 6.378958] b301 614400 mmcblk0p1 39b2d565-01␍␊
[ 6.379014] ␍␊
[ 6.431063] b302 19456000 mmcblk0p2 39b2d565-02␍␊
[ 6.431118] ␍␊
[ 6.481473] List of all bdev filesystems:␍␊
[ 6.506663] ext3␍␊
[ 6.506699] ext2␍␊
[ 6.529258] ext4␍␊
[ 6.551102] vfat␍␊
[ 6.572311] ntfs␍␊
[ 6.592918] ntfs3␍␊
[ 6.612939] fuseblk␍␊
[ 6.632412] btrfs␍␊
[ 6.651515] ␍␊
[ 6.686959] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2)␍␊
[ 6.711469] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.10.0-rc2+ #19␍␊
[ 6.733724] Call Trace:␍␊
[ 6.751353] [] dump_backtrace+0x1c/0x24␍␊
[ 6.771925] [] show_stack+0x2c/0x38␍␊
[ 6.791716] [] dump_stack_lvl+0x50/0x72␍␊
[ 6.811392] [] dump_stack+0x14/0x1c␍␊
[ 6.830170] [] panic+0xf8/0x2b0␍␊
[ 6.848127] [] mount_root_generic+0x1ec/0x2a2␍␊
[ 6.866987] [] mount_root+0x164/0x180␍␊
[ 6.884610] [] prepare_namespace+0x1fc/0x258␍␊
[ 6.902483] [] kernel_init_freeable+0x1f8/0x214␍␊
[ 6.920289] [] kernel_init+0x1e/0x11a␍␊
[ 6.936668] [] ret_from_fork+0xe/0x1c␍␊
[ 6.952642] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs␍␊
[ 6.966952] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2) ]---␍␊

[Dolu1990]

Hi,

hmm i never had a error like this.
Do you have another sdcard in hand ? (another brand / generation)
To double check if the error is persisstant.

Also, can you try to check the integrity of root volume using a sdcard reader ?

[sitestudio]

Wow - it was the SD card - it was a 32GB Aigo.

Got it booting with a 64GB Ultra Sandisk.

[Dolu1990]

Nice :D

[sitestudio]

Hi,

When trying to run the abovementioned "python3 -m litex_boards.targets.efinix_ti375_c529_dev_kit ...." command, getting the following error:

/bin/sh: 1: cd: can't cd to /home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/pythondata-cpu-vexiiriscv/pythondata_cpu_vexiiriscv/verilog/ext/VexiiRiscv

The folders ext and VexiiRiscv are not there.

Is there some installation procedure missing to get them to appear?

[Dolu1990]

Hi @sitestudio
My bad, i forgot to remove the --update-repo=no from the argument list ^^

I updated the command above. (just removed --update-repo=no)
Should be all good then.

[sitestudio]

Hi @Dolu1990

Running the same now getting:

File "/home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/litex-boards/litex_boards/targets/efinix_ti375_c529_dev_kit.py", line 67, in init
self.reset_timer = reset_timer = ClockDomainsRenamer("rst")(WaitTimer(25e-6*platform.default_clk_freq))
AttributeError: 'Platform' object has no attribute 'default_clk_freq'. Did you mean: 'default_clk_name'?

Only other change was to manually set
os.environ["LITEX_ENV_EFINITY"] = "/home/andymc/apps/efinity/2024.1"

in both programmer.py and platform.py (am guessing they can go in a .env file somewhere)

[sitestudio]

Added:

default_clk_freq = 100e6

to efinix_ti375_c529_dev_kit.py, getting further now.

[sitestudio]

Hi @Dolu1990

Now getting an error regarding USB:

USB OHCI netlist : UsbOhciWishbone_Dw32_Pc4_Pf60000000
Generating USB OHCI netlist
!!! cd /home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/pythondata-misc-usb_ohci/pythondata_misc_usb_ohci/verilog/ext/SpinalHDL && sbt "lib/runMain spinal.lib.com.usb.ohci.UsbOhciWishbone --port-count=4 --phy-frequency=60000000 --dma-width=32 --netlist-name=UsbOhciWishbone_Dw32_Pc4_Pf60000000 --netlist-directory=/home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/pythondata-misc-usb_ohci/pythondata_misc_usb_ohci/verilog"
[warn] No sbt.version set in project/build.properties, base directory: /home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/pythondata-misc-usb_ohci/pythondata_misc_usb_ohci/verilog/ext/SpinalHDL
[info] welcome to sbt 1.10.6 (Private Build Java 19.0.2)
[info] set current project to spinalhdl (in build file:/home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/pythondata-misc-usb_ohci/pythondata_misc_usb_ohci/verilog/ext/SpinalHDL/)
[error] Expected ID character
[error] Not a valid command: lib (similar: alias, plugin, client)
[error] Expected project ID
[error] Expected configuration
[error] Expected ':'
[error] Expected key
[error] Not a valid key: lib (similar: ivySbt)
[error] lib/runMain spinal.lib.com.usb.ohci.UsbOhciWishbone --port-count=4 --phy-frequency=60000000 --dma-width=32 --netlist-name=UsbOhciWishbone_Dw32_Pc4_Pf60000000 --netlist-directory=/home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/pythondata-misc-usb_ohci/pythondata_misc_usb_ohci/verilog
[error] ^

[Dolu1990]

Can you check in /home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/pythondata-misc-usb_ohci/pythondata_misc_usb_ohci/verilog/ext/SpinalHDL/project/build.properties

?
It the file existing ?
You can update it to sbt.version=1.10.0
To see if it fixes it ?

[sitestudio]

No verilog/ext/SpinalHDL/ folder tree below the pythondata_misc_usb_ohci folder so it looks like it is not setting up.

Will investigate, I should learn the Litex ecosystem :)

[sitestudio]

Took out the --with-ohci and gets a bit futher to here.

CC bios.elf
/usr/lib/gcc-cross/riscv64-linux-gnu/11/../../../../riscv64-linux-gnu/bin/ld: ../libc/libc.a(libc_ssp_chk_fail.c.o): in function __chk_fail': /home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/work/build/efinix_ti375_c529_dev_kit/software/libc/../../../../../tools/litex/pythondata-software-picolibc/pythondata_software_picolibc/data/newlib/libc/ssp/chk_fail.c:13: undefined reference to write'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [/home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/litex/litex/soc/software/bios/Makefile:72: bios.elf] Error 1
rm crt0.o
make: Leaving directory '/home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/work/build/efinix_ti375_c529_dev_kit/software/bios'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 196, in _run_module_as_main
return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code
exec(code, run_globals)
File "/home/andymc/projects/TI375_Debian/build/tools/litex/litex-boards/litex_boards/targets/efinix_ti375_c529_dev_kit.py", line 735, in

Will keep playing around with it.

[Dolu1990]

The OHCI thing should be fixed via this PR :
enjoy-digital/litex#2135

Basicaly, the repo wasn't cloned recursively XD

[Dolu1990]

/usr/lib/gcc-cross/riscv64-linux-gnu/11/../../../../riscv64-linux-gnu/bin/ld: ../libc/libc.a(libc_ssp_chk_fail.c.o): in function __chk_fail':

Ahhh i would say this is related to the RISC-V GCC you have installed.

Looking at litex, i can see a few ways to get the RISC-V gcc :
enjoy-digital/litex@e148650#diff-0b495d6b6e69eaf0a0657f8daa6a92c8f838a6329ad7d378db7183d96e0f759dR357

So for instance on debian : apt install gcc-riscv64-unknown-elf

[sitestudio]

All building now, a bit of a tricky path to get it working. Will write up the steps needed in my case and post here.

Thanks for your help @Dolu1990

[Dolu1990]

Nice ^^
Yes please, let me know anything which isn't fixed that you had to workaround

Cheers

[esyvjlomh]

Hello @Dolu1990
I am just try to run the commands which could generate an SoC (both in this issue and in the online documentation -- SoC -- LiteX), but seems like the commit ("ca10ab58") that the python commands use has some problems like this screenshot below:

Then I try to change the commit to the newest ("7f7c754") in core.py, and the response is like:

Maybe something in the python script should be changed?

Appreciate it if some guidance can be given!

[Dolu1990]

ca10ab5

It seems like you have a old version of litex. It should be b4269dd :
https://github.com/enjoy-digital/litex/blob/e3dcfbde60ee5965f4365cfdfe22cf9c7552a53a/litex/soc/cores/cpu/vexiiriscv/core.py#L159

Note there is this vexii litex argument you can use to force the repo :
--update-repo {latest,wipe+latest,recommended,wipe+recommended,no}
Specify how the VexiiRiscv & SpinalHDL repo should be updated (latest: update to HEAD, recommended: Update to
known compatible version, no: Don't update, wipe+*: Do clean&reset before checkout) (default: recommended)

[esyvjlomh]

ca10ab5

It seems like you have a old version of litex. It should be b4269dd : https://github.com/enjoy-digital/litex/blob/e3dcfbde60ee5965f4365cfdfe22cf9c7552a53a/litex/soc/cores/cpu/vexiiriscv/core.py#L159

Note there is this vexii litex argument you can use to force the repo : --update-repo {latest,wipe+latest,recommended,wipe+recommended,no} Specify how the VexiiRiscv & SpinalHDL repo should be updated (latest: update to HEAD, recommended: Update to known compatible version, no: Don't update, wipe+*: Do clean&reset before checkout) (default: recommended)

That works well. Thank you so much!