Difference between revisions of "Foxconn nT330i"

Latest revision as of 14:13, 15 October 2011

General Info

While the Foxconn nT330i does work well, it's not ideal for HD content as it only has 256MB video card memory, so it does struggle with VDPAU processing of HD content and xv processing of it as well.

Foxconn nT330i - 1004 Setup

Via trac ticket http://svn.linuxmce.org/trac.cgi/ticket/1265 - the Foxconn NT330i should now be plug and play for 1004 and should not require any additional steps for configuration.

If any issues are noticed please log a trac ticket!

Foxconn nT330i - 810 Setup

Note: <MD#> has to be replaced by the mediadirector number.

Note: below is based on having only one connection to TV being HDMI

Prepare the core;

The LAN controller Attansic requires module atl1c. Without it I have kernel panic during an attempt to PXE boot. Way to get the nT330i to work is also described in wiki page http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Unrecognized_NIC, section Modify the media director initial ramdisk.

cd /
mkdir AR81Family
cd AR81Family
wget http://lnx.sensibile.it/files/foxconn/AR81Family-linux-v1.0.1.4.tar.gz
tar -xvf AR81Family-linux-v1.0.1.4.tar.gz

Build the atl1c kernel module

Modify .src/makefile changing "DRIVER_NAME = atl1e" to "DRIVER_NAME = atl1c";

cd src
vim Makefile

Save the file and start building;

cd ..
make
make install

You'll get some error messages but I noticed still atl1c.ko is build. atl1kc is located in ./src

cp /AR81Family/src/atl1c.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/

In the bottom of /etc/initramfs-tools-interactor/modules add "atl1c" without quotations and save

vim /etc/initramfs-tools-interactor/modules

Now rebuild the initial diskless image

modprobe atl1c

If the above gives you fatal errors an alternative is: "insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/atl1c.ko"

/usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_BuildDefaultImage.sh

MD Time

After this you can connect your MD and take it for its first boot.....

When the initial MD has been created the first boot "real" boot will fail (blue ubuntu bar stops moving) due to the fact the MD image has no atl1c module so we have to add that;

cp /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/atl1c.ko /usr/pluto/diskless/<MD#>/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/atl1c.ko 

Chroot into the new MD:

cd /usr/pluto/diskless/
chroot <MD#>

In the bottom of /usr/pluto/diskless/<MD#>/etc/modules add "atl1c" without quotations and save

vim /etc/modules

In the bottom of /usr/pluto/diskless/<MD#>/etc/initramfs-tools/modules add "atl1c" without quotations and save

vim /etc/initramfs-tools/modules

Now rebuild the image;

depmod
cd /boot
mkinitramfs -o initrd.img-`uname -r` `uname -r`
exit

Note: do not forget that if you recreate this MD you have to do the above ("MD Time") again before it will fully start.

Finishing off

The system will do a couple of reboots and will at the end put you into AVWizard which does not appear (and do not forget; give it some time). You can check if AVWizard is up by logging in to the MD and run "top". AVWizard should be in the list.

Tip 1) if you press "3" in AVWizard (HDMI2) and WAIT!!! -> voila!!

Tip 2) HDMI sound? In alsamixer unmute input IEC958 by pressing "m" if selected.

Extra/Quirks

To have wake on lan working change the setting in the bios for "deep sleep" into disabled and change wake up by PCIE to enabled.

Within Mythtv the Netbox freezes when jumping forward or backward in a recording. The way to get around this is to add pci=nomsi to the kernel parameters Saga of the tiny mythtv frontend and nvidia forum

In a terminal window type:

 ls /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/

You should see a file named after the MAC address of your MD. Edit that file

 sudo vim /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/<mac_address>

Inside the file you'll see a line that looks like this:

APPEND initrd=50/initrd.img ramdisk=10240 rw root=/dev/nfs boot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.80.1:/usr/pluto/diskless/50 quiet splash

Modify that line by adding "pci=nomsi" to the end. This will make the line look like this:

 APPEND initrd=<MD#>/initrd.img ramdisk=10240 rw root=/dev/nfs boot=nfs nfsroot=192.168.80.1:/usr/pluto/diskless/<MD#> quiet splash pci=nomsi