Blog by Daniel Bovensiepen

Linux on Ubiquiti Bullet M2

2011-10-07T12:08:00Z

Due to some experiments at home with new wireless equipment I found the Ubiquiti Bullet M2. This device is a small little PoE access point with an N-Antenna connector.

Ubiquiti is running an own Linux on it, called AirOS which is by the way quite advanced. I love the spectrum analyser! But to customize the box a little bit more I decided to bring OpenWRT on it. At this point you need to know that the Bullet uses in the revision I use the SoC AR7240, which is supported by OpenWRT out of the box. Actually a pre-built for the AR71xx is already available and works like a charm on the Bullet. I just flashed it via TFTP and got the following during dmesg:

Linux version 2.6.32.27 (jow@nd-build-02.linux-appliance.net) (gcc version 4.3.3 (GCC) ) #7 Fri Jul 15 02:43:34 CEST 2011
prom: fw_arg0=00000006, fw_arg1=a1f7bfb0, fw_arg2=a1f7c460, fw_arg3=00000000
MyLoader: sysp=00000000, boardp=00000000, parts=ffffffff
bootconsole [early0] enabled
CPU revision is: 00019374 (MIPS 24Kc)
Atheros AR7240 rev 2, CPU:390.000 MHz, AHB:195.000 MHz, DDR:390.000 MHz
Determined physical RAM map:
 memory: 02000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
Zone PFN ranges:
  Normal   0x00000000 -> 0x00002000
Movable zone start PFN for each node
early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges
    0: 0x00000000 -> 0x00002000
On node 0 totalpages: 8192
free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 802daaa0, node_mem_map 81000000
  Normal zone: 64 pages used for memmap
  Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
  Normal zone: 8128 pages, LIFO batch:0
Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 8128
Kernel command line: rootfstype=squashfs,yaffs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200 board=UBNT-BM mtdparts=spi0.0:256k(u-boot)ro,64k(u-boot-env)ro,1024k(kernel),6528k(rootfs),256k(cfg)ro,64k(EEPROM)ro,7552k@0x50000(firmware)
PID hash table entries: 128 (order: -3, 512 bytes)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
Memory: 29288k/32768k available (2124k kernel code, 3480k reserved, 416k data, 152k init, 0k highmem)
SLUB: Genslabs=7, HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
Hierarchical RCU implementation.
NR_IRQS:56
Calibrating delay loop... 259.68 BogoMIPS (lpj=1298432)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
NET: Registered protocol family 16
MIPS: machine is Ubiquiti Bullet M
registering PCI controller with io_map_base unset
bio: create slab <bio-0> at 0
PCI: fixup device 0000:00:00.0
pci 0000:00:00.0: reg 10 64bit mmio: [0x000000-0x00ffff]
pci 0000:00:00.0: supports D1
pci 0000:00:00.0: PME# supported from D0 D1 D3hot
pci 0000:00:00.0: PME# disabled
PCI: mapping irq 48 to pin1@0000:00:00.0
Switching to clocksource MIPS
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
TCP reno registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
Registering mini_fo version $Id$
JFFS2 version 2.2. (NAND) (SUMMARY)  © 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
yaffs Jul 14 2011 18:44:50 Installing. 
msgmni has been set to 57
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler deadline registered (default)
Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 1 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11) is a 16550A
console [ttyS0] enabled, bootconsole disabled
Atheros AR71xx SPI Controller driver version 0.2.4
m25p80 spi0.0: mx25l6405d (8192 Kbytes)
7 cmdlinepart partitions found on MTD device spi0.0
Creating 7 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
0x000000000000-0x000000040000 : "u-boot" 
0x000000040000-0x000000050000 : "u-boot-env" 
0x000000050000-0x000000150000 : "kernel" 
0x000000150000-0x0000007b0000 : "rootfs" 
mtd: partition "rootfs" set to be root filesystem
mtd: partition "rootfs_data" created automatically, ofs=370000, len=440000 
0x000000370000-0x0000007b0000 : "rootfs_data" 
0x0000007b0000-0x0000007f0000 : "cfg" 
0x0000007f0000-0x000000800000 : "EEPROM" 
0x000000050000-0x0000007b0000 : "firmware" 
ag71xx_mdio: probed
eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4
eth0: using fixed link parameters
Atheros AR71xx hardware watchdog driver version 0.1.0
ar71xx-wdt: timeout=15 secs (max=22)
TCP westwood registered
NET: Registered protocol family 17
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
All bugs added by David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:3.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 152k freed
Please be patient, while OpenWrt loads ...
input: gpio-buttons as /devices/platform/gpio-buttons/input/input0
Button Hotplug driver version 0.3.1
eth0: link up (100Mbps/Full duplex)
Registered led device: ubnt:red:link1
Registered led device: ubnt:orange:link2
Registered led device: ubnt:green:link3
Registered led device: ubnt:green:link4
mini_fo: using base directory: /
mini_fo: using storage directory: /overlay
eth0: link down
eth0: link up (100Mbps/Full duplex)
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
br-lan: port 1(eth0) entering forwarding state
Compat-wireless backport release: compat-wireless-2011-06-23
Backport based on wireless-testing.git master-2011-06-22
cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
usbcore: registered new device driver usb
cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
cfg80211:     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
cfg80211:     (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:00.0 to 64
ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
Registered led device: ath9k-phy0
ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9280 Rev:2 mem=0xb0000000, irq=48
cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: US
cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US
cfg80211:     (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
cfg80211:     (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2700 mBm)
cfg80211:     (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 1700 mBm)
cfg80211:     (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (5490000 KHz - 5600000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (5650000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
cfg80211:     (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 3000 mBm)
PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
NET: Registered protocol family 24
ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (460 buckets, 1840 max)
CONFIG_NF_CT_ACCT is deprecated and will be removed soon. Please use
nf_conntrack.acct=1 kernel parameter, acct=1 nf_conntrack module option or
sysctl net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_acct=1 to enable it.
ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
ath_hal: 2009-05-08 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413, RF2133, RF2425, REGOPS_FUNC, XR)
ath_pci: trunk
wlan: trunk
wlan: mac acl policy registered
ath_rate_minstrel: Minstrel automatic rate control algorithm 1.2 (trunk)
ath_rate_minstrel: look around rate set to 10%
ath_rate_minstrel: EWMA rolloff level set to 75%
ath_rate_minstrel: max segment size in the mrr set to 6000 us
ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver

Reclaim Filevault Space on Mac OS X

2011-03-25T21:33:00Z

I just had a problem about reclaiming space of my home folder. The point is, that I’m using Filevault. This is the home folder encryption function of Mac OS X. Apple has implemented this function by using a Sparsebundle (an image-like file). As long as you are logged in, this file is mounted as your home directory. Usually if you are deleting now stuff, no space will be reclaimed till you are logging out. And this was just my problem. I had deleted lots of files (approx. 20GB) and even after turning off my Mac the space was still occupied. In the past it was working fine.

My first try was to log-in as a different user, “su” to my standard user and do an “hdiutil compact” on my sparsebundle. Interestingly it was turning out, that this compact function isn’t available as long as you are on battery power. So this was giving me the missing hint. You have to be connected to a power supply. Then Mac OS X will reclaim the space again.

GNU Radio 3.3.1-git on Gentoo Linux

2010-07-10T21:51:00Z

The dependencies for GNU Radio 3.3.1 out of the git repo are looking currently like this on Gentoo:

emerge swig fftw cppunit boost alsa-lib sdcc guile wxpython xmlto numpy gsl

The official wiki sadly missed the gsl package. Without this one you won’t fulfill the requirements for nearly all packages of GNU Radio (not even gnuradio-core). After emerge of these packages you can grab the source and compile it:

# git clone git://gnuradio.org/gnuradio
# cd gnuradio
# ./bootstrap
# ./configure --prefix=/usr/
# make
# make check
# sudo make install

Another important point which will be interesting in the future, is the incompatibility of GNU Radio to Python 3. With eselect you should check which version of Python is at the moment your preferred interpreter. At the time of writing on my machine Python 2.6.5 was the current interpreter. This one handles GNU Radio without to much trouble.

Linux on Fujitsu S710

2010-07-10T15:00:00Z

I just got today a spare solid state hard disc for my notebook from work. It is a Fujitsu S710 and I just gave Gentoo a try to see how long it would take me to put all the drivers together to use it in a sufficient way. Well, it was quite easy, here is my Linux Kernel configuration file for the Fujitsu S710. If you are interested in the built in hardware, here are the system information from the running machine:

Hope this helps people who like to use a Linux system also on their Fujitsu S710. For now the Wlan (ath9k), Graphic (agpgart-intel), Ethernet (e1000e), PCMCIA (yenta_cardbus), Trackpad (Synaptics Touchpad), USB and Sound (HDA Intel) works like a charm for me. The rest I didn’t use yet.

Automatic configuration of Hirschmann switches

2010-04-10T21:38:00Z

Hirschmann is a german company which is producing quite sophisticated network components. For the networks in our current projects (area of 40km and more than 600 network components) we were using these switches mainly due to the ring protocol from Hirschmann which provides a decent fail over time (less than 50ms). All in all the components we are using (RS20, RS30, Mach 4004 and Power MICE) are industrial quality network components with great performance.

The issue we run into was the deployment of the configuration. Hirschmann provides special tools which are working on layer 2 to configure all of their network components (HiDiscovery Protocol). In fact this is a handy way to configure large networks but for our needs it wasn’t enough. So we decided to script our configuration. We were using telnet and expect to do this but we run into trouble while trying to change the password. The problem was, that our switch software didn’t support the script mode of changing a password (using a scambled password). Only an interactive mode was available and this one failed permanently when triggered by expect.

The solution was to use the “-s” flag to slow down the speed of expect. An argument I didn’t know before but a colleague told me, that this was used in the past also to slow down the communication over very slow connections like modems.

CardDAV on the iPhone

2010-04-08T21:33:00Z

Since several weeks I have finished my home network. Everything is built around a Mac Mini Server which provides a mail-, web-, vpn- and time machine server. On top of the web server I’m using CalDAV and CardDAV to sync my events and contacts to all Macs. To all Macs? NO. Till yesterday the iPhone was not able to sync to a CardDAV server. Even not the own one from Apple. But today with the iPhone 4.0 Beta update I was able to add a CardDAV account next to the mail and CalDAV one. And it seems to work without any issues so far. Great improvement!

But the bad part here is, that the missing feature (previous 4.0) was not clearly marked anywhere on the Apple site. Apple explained that you can sync events and contacts without any issues. But for contacts it was in the past always necessary to use the iTunes sync function.

a fresh start

2010-04-08T19:07:00Z

Once again I just dropped everthing I had in my digital life and started over again with a new homepage and blog. The last time I was able to handle the blog for around 3 month. I’m going to break this record… maybe.