Manual: NovuFPGA driver

Novu

• this is a introduction on how to config NovuFPGA driver.
• The architecture of the Driver.
• Code Review.

folder structure:

cd ~/LDD3/pci
- pci
    - ./
        makedev.sh      -- just bash this to install FPGA driver and set it up
        pci_skel.[ch]   -- the FPGA kernel driver
    - Test/ 
        vgg2_test.c     -- the vgg2 user level test program
        pci.[ch]        -- the FPGA uesr level driver
        Makefile        -- the makefile for FPGA user driver and test program
    - Log/
        *.log  -- Contains curated log files of dmesg for records.

Commands

• lspci: this is a package used to list all the pci devices, check man to see how to get more info. for example: sudo lspci -xv.
• dmesg: the log (printk's log), the main tool to debug linux kernel development(Panic, Oops), see all other drivers work history, also used to calculate the DMA send/recv time.
• insmod, rmmod: These are the command to install/uninstall driver.
• sudo bash: Use root privilige to run my shell script.

HOW-TO

Step 0: some clean up

• a clean boot up. (Everytime, a new bitstream or mcs files flash into the FPGA)
• use sudo lspci to check if Host PC found 01:0.0 is the FPGA. (Handled by linux).
• dmesg: Take a look at all the drivers execution log since bootup, just to have a sense how they should behave.
• clean the dmesg log: sudo dmesg -C. Since NovuFPGA driver enclose many lines of printk(mostly read/write info, memory alloc, success Ko ko Lo lo), it's better to clean dmesg, the kernrel log.

Step 1: install kernel driver, compile user test program

• cd ~/LDD3/pci and make clean && make: goto the pci driver folder and do a clean make. It will have a page of warning(TODO, need to fix these casting), however, it should shows compile successed.
• sudo bash makedev.sh: install the driver with some setup. This should show up the pci file info and install the driver.
• dmesg: To double check the init check(I do some sanity check by reading FPGA's config reg. I always have a new terminal for it. So left terminal shows normal output, right one shows long kernel log.
• cd ~/LDD3/pci/Test, and make clean && make: goto the test user driver folder and make the vgg2_test, RW_test, DMA_test executable. Simply change a little to make accordingly executable file. vgg2_test is the main one. Do a ls to check if an executable is made. (green item means executable).

Step 2: run kernel driver, and user test program.

• sudo dmesg -C, and then ./vgg2_test: as always, clean the kernel log. And run the vgg2_test executable.
• dmesg: now look at/find Ko ko ko ko... ko in the log, it should show up for 10 times since latest version of vgg2_test has 10 loops of wtr_ptr_set_val, toggling between 0x480, 0x500.