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Helios4 Support


gprovost

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On 10. 2. 2018 at 6:41 AM, igor.bernstein said:

Also, I'm trying to understand code organization. It seems like armbian/build pulls & builds https://github.com/helios-4/u-boot-marvell. However I don't quite understand how https://github.com/helios-4/linux-marvell fits into the picture.


Since mainline u-boot support is somehow behind for A388 boards, we use board maker's source. They are different for Clearfog and Helios4 but they share the same kernel(s).

Suspend & resume is rarely implemented nor needed on those boards. From my head, I don't know how is the situation.

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21 minutes ago, Igor said:


Official OMV for ARM hw is Armbian based. What you look for is enabled by default on both kernels:

 

 

Thanks for responding so fast. I understand that XFS is available as a module in these kernels (but not in the OMV prebuilt image). Will OMV load them or should I modify a configuration file ?

 

I see there is two Debian Jessie images available :

https://cdn.kobol.io/files/Helios4_Debian_Jessie_4.4.112.img.xz with a 4.4.112 kernel

https://dl.armbian.com/helios4/Debian_jessie_default.7z with a 4.4.115 kernel and this image Armbian_5.40_Helios4_Debian_jessie_default_4.4.115.img

 

So logically I should start with the the second one ?

 

Fred

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13 minutes ago, fpabernard said:

I understand that XFS is available as a module in these kernels


IMO you don't need to touch anything. OMV uses our kernel from repository without changes.
 

13 minutes ago, fpabernard said:

So logically I should start with the the second one ?


Yes, there are more fixes - from our and their side - in our latest. Both are created with our build tools, except Kobol's was made from an unofficial/user-build/development fork, without our direct support.

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1 hour ago, Igor said:

IMO you don't need to touch anything. OMV uses our kernel from repository without changes.

 

The installation worked. XFS is now supported (I made a try with successfully creating an XFS filesystem on a USB key)

 

But when I mount the large filesystem : mount <..> on <..> failed : File too large

 

I'm afraid that I did not anticipate that armv7 is 32bits and on 32 bits kernel FS are limited to 16 TB.

 

Am I right ?

 

Fred

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20 hours ago, Igor said:


Suspend & resume is rarely implemented nor needed on those boards. From my head, I don't know how is the situation.

 

gprovost, can you comment on plans of enabling WOL? It's one of the features that I was looking forward to and it's a feature that was advertised for the device.

 

 

20 hours ago, Igor said:

Since mainline u-boot support is somehow behind for A388 boards, we use board maker's source. They are different for Clearfog and Helios4 but they share the same kernel(s).

 

I understand the origin of the uboot sources. But I'm having a hard time understanding the canonical location of the kernel sources.

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5 hours ago, Last_phil said:

Hi guys, 

 I m new to this and not too geeky hehehe. What OS should I install to work best with a plex server? I have an old pc right now as my plex server, eventually i will replace it. Can helios to both NAS and run plex? 

Thanks 


I would say it is pretty irrelevant what OS you run - we provide Debian Jessie and Stretch because some applications (OMV for example) are dependent on what you use. It is also possible to build Ubuntu version if this is what you need. I have no idea how is this with Plex. There is also an option to run Plex containerized and again, both kernels (!) are Docker ready. Hardware wise it is powerful and matured well enough.  You need to try all combinations or pick randomly and see.

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On 2/12/2018 at 10:33 PM, igor.bernstein said:

gprovost, can you comment on plans of enabling WOL? It's one of the features that I was looking forward to and it's a feature that was advertised for the device.

 @igor.bernstein We will add WoL support a bit later because it requires more investigation from our side since there are currently a patch in the kernel preventing suspend to ram. Here an old discussion that refer to it : https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/5793931/

 

Related to what repo / source we (Kobol Team) work on and use to build our images, even though it was clarify by Igor and Zador, we will add one of those days some clarification and guide in our wiki on how to build an image with Armbian framework. In any case, beside the OMV images, ou wiki will soon just link to the Armbian download page for the baseline images.

 

I know our Wiki is still lacking a lot of details and info but bear in mind that we are a bit short handed and under water with the fulfillment follow-up.

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Fan Control - again...

I'm now running 4.4.112 + OMV 3.0.97

At power I get maximum fan speen until, I presume, normal fan controls take over. This is fine.

However during and after shutdown is complete the fan speed is at also at its maximum and remains at maximum until my power timer cuts the power to the box.

Any way you guys can prevent the return to max fan speed during shutdown?

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21 hours ago, Igor said:


I would say it is pretty irrelevant what OS you run - we provide Debian Jessie and Stretch because some applications (OMV for example) are dependent on what you use. It is also possible to build Ubuntu version if this is what you need. I have no idea how is this with Plex. There is also an option to run Plex containerized and again, both kernels (!) are Docker ready. Hardware wise it is powerful and matured well enough.  You need to try all combinations or pick randomly and see.

 

Thanks, 

I ve finally managed to install everything with OMV. Unfortunately the board is not powerfull enough. It can't transcode. But everything else is perfect so far. 

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How about enabling ISCSI on the next/4.14 kernel? I am currently building my own via the armbian build scripts and it works, but it would be very nice if it was there by default.

Seems to be there on the 4.4 kernel, but I want/need a newer kernel for other reasons.

This is on Debian stretch / OMV4 btw.

 

Very nice work on both the hardware and armbian side BTW. I am loving this setup.

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@NickS I just created this patch for fancontrol that fixes 2 issues :

- fix 'too many arguments' error messages

- set pwm to minimum speed when fancontrol exit

https://github.com/helios-4/build/blob/helios4/packages/bsp/helios4/fancontrol.patch

 

@Last_phil Good that you managed to setup Plex server. You pinpoint one the reason I never liked Plex, the need to still transcode stuff while the player device can natively support the codec. Many people asked the question about Plex on Helios4, I said clearly it will run but don't expect it to have the guts to transcode everything.

 

@tbendiksen Good suggestion, you can rise a Pull Request directly on Armbian official repo as Igor suggested you. 

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6 hours ago, gprovost said:

@NickS I just created this patch for fancontrol that fixes 2 issues :

- fix 'too many arguments' error messages

- set pwm to minimum speed when fancontrol exit

https://github.com/helios-4/build/blob/helios4/packages/bsp/helios4/fancontrol.patch

 

@Last_phil Good that you managed to setup Plex server. You pinpoint one the reason I never liked Plex, the need to still transcode stuff while the player device can natively support the codec. Many people asked the question about Plex on Helios4, I said clearly it will run but don't expect it to have the guts to transcode everything.

 

@tbendiksen Good suggestion, you can rise a Pull Request directly on Armbian official repo as Igor suggested you. 

Yeah anyway plex was just a test. My main goal was to build a nas and it's working great so far. I m moving my files right now. Thanks 

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Thanks gprovost for your quick turn-around.

I applied the fancontrol patch and I can confirm that both fans now spin slow after shutdown.

 

Last_phil: if you want a media server that ONLY transcodes when your target device can't support the media file then look at serviio. I've just installed it on my Helios4 and

its working well. Typically no dicernible delay when transcode is not required. Only a few seconds delay when transcode is required. If you want serviio install info. for Helios4

platform, let me know and i'll post them here.

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On 17/02/2018 at 12:10 PM, NickS said:

Thanks gprovost for your quick turn-around.

I applied the fancontrol patch and I can confirm that both fans now spin slow after shutdown.

 

Last_phil: if you want a media server that ONLY transcodes when your target device can't support the media file then look at serviio. I've just installed it on my Helios4 and

its working well. Typically no dicernible delay when transcode is not required. Only a few seconds delay when transcode is required. If you want serviio install info. for Helios4

platform, let me know and i'll post them here.

@NickS does it support chromecast? It's a must for my setup. I didn't found the information on their website.

Thanks 

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On 16/02/2018 at 7:21 PM, Igor said:

Was offline for the weekend, and came back to see that @zador.blood.stained already commited this. Great work, and thank you very much.

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How to use Cryptographic and XOR DMA engine with mdadm (debian)?

 

Is there already any documentation for using the encryption and/or the XOR DMA eingine for RAID usage or are therse used automatically?

The marvel-cesa kernel module is loaded but what I've read about marvells xor engine there should exists a mv_xor module which I'm unable to find.

 

So the whole question is how can I use the marvel xor engine with mdadm to build up an accelerated RAID?

 

Thanks in advance

 

[Edit]

 

Seems that the xor engine is already built into the kernel.

[    0.004264] xor: measuring software checksum speed
[    0.083146]    arm4regs  :  2089.200 MB/sec
[    0.166397]    8regs     :  1607.200 MB/sec
[    0.249644]    32regs    :  1544.800 MB/sec
[    0.332895]    neon      :  1518.800 MB/sec
[    0.332898] xor: using function: arm4regs (2089.200 MB/sec)

[    0.004264] xor: measuring software checksum speed
[    0.083146]    arm4regs  :  2089.200 MB/sec
[    0.166397]    8regs     :  1607.200 MB/sec
[    0.249644]    32regs    :  1544.800 MB/sec
[    0.332895]    neon      :  1518.800 MB/sec
[    0.332898] xor: using function: arm4regs (2089.200 MB/sec)

 

Edited by jnko
edit
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How to make wake.on-lan work?

 

I enabled wake on lan (wol) with

ethtool -s eth0 wol g
ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
        Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
        Supported pause frame use: No
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
        Advertised pause frame use: No
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Link partner advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                             100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                             1000baseT/Full
        Link partner advertised pause frame use: No
        Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        Speed: 1000Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: MII
        PHYAD: 0
        Transceiver: internal
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Supports Wake-on: g
        Wake-on: g
        Link detected: yes

 

but I'm unable to wake helios4 from another machine with

wol 00:50:43:25:fb:84

 

Helios will not wake up, the NIC is powered (i.e. blinking). Serial console keeps disconnected and the only way to "resume" is a reset. Any suggestions on this?

 

Another issue is that the fans are always powered on with lowest rpm, even while suspended state. Is there any way to stop fans completely?

fancontrol has been stopped manually and controlling fans with

echo 0 | tee -a /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon2/pwm1 /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon3/pwm1

with 0..255 works so far but fans are unstoppable.

 

 

Thanks in advance

Edited by jnko
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@jnko

In regards to XOR engine :

Check your kernel message you should see the kernel has detected 2 XOR engines.

[    0.737452] mv_xor f1060800.xor: Marvell shared XOR driver
[    0.776401] mv_xor f1060800.xor: Marvell XOR (Descriptor Mode): ( xor cpy intr pq )
[    0.776570] mv_xor f1060900.xor: Marvell shared XOR driver
[    0.816397] mv_xor f1060900.xor: Marvell XOR (Descriptor Mode): ( xor cpy intr pq )

In the current mvebu kernel configs, mv_xor driver is part of the kernel, not a module.

But I agree there is no obvious way to say if the system offload on the hardware XOR engine.

 

In regards to Wake-on-LAN :

This was already asked and answered before

Quote

We will add WoL support a bit later because it requires more investigation from our side since there are currently a patch in the kernel preventing suspend to ram. Here an old discussion that refer to it : https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/5793931/

You will be able to suspend the system but no interrupt will be able to wake up the system. We will announce once WoL is supported (soon).

 

In regards to FAN always spinning :

This is expected, at PWM 0 this fan type (PWM Type A) will still run at minimum rpm... power consumption is negligible

 

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8 hours ago, gprovost said:

@jnko

In regards to XOR engine :

Check your kernel message you should see the kernel has detected 2 XOR engines.

 

 

Uups, you are right. My fault. I didn't searched far enough in the kernel messages.

 

8 hours ago, gprovost said:

@jnko

 

In regards to Wake-on-LAN :

This was already asked and answered before

You will be able to suspend the system but no interrupt will be able to wake up the system. We will announce once WoL is supported (soon).

 

Thanks for the info. I will wait...

 

 

8 hours ago, gprovost said:

@jnko

In regards to FAN always spinning :

This is expected, at PWM 0 this fan type (PWM Type A) will still run at minimum rpm... power consumption is negligible

 

 

It's not the power consumption (which is around 0.1W per fan) it's just the "It is turned off but fans are still spinning" thing ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 22.2.2018 at 11:40 PM, Nova said:

They are needed? What temperature from the board?. In normal use or after a week of operation? 

 

Well that depends on how the NAS is being used. When idle (low cpu activity) and disks spun down there is no need for fans. But when all my three 8TB disks are running with certain activity the temperature inside the case can grow quite high without the fans.

But due to the fact that my NAS is sleeping most of the time with disks spun down I would be glad if I could turn off the fans completely

When stressing everything without fans the board can get up to 90°C and the HDDs up to 60°C

 

I did run fio for HDD I/O

fio --name=randrw --ioengine=libaio --iodepth=1 --rw=randwrite --bs=4k --direct=1 --size=2048M --numjobs=8 --runtime=2400 --group_reporting

and stress for CPU load

 

stress --cpu 2

 

While monitoring with

watch -n 30 "cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp; hddtemp /dev/sdb; hddtemp /dev/sdc"

 

 

With fans running the CPU(board) temp does even reach 65°C and HDD are at about 40°C. Fans are needed ;-)

 

 

 

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@jnko Nice test to prove that active cooling is still needed to ensure HDD lifespan. Technically the SoC (CPU) on its own is designed to run at even higher temperature than 90°C, so you can rely on passive cooling if you run the board alone.

 

Quote

But due to the fact that my NAS is sleeping most of the time with disks spun down I would be glad if I could turn off the fans completely

As explained, unfortunately the fan type provided (PWM Type A) doesn't stop spinning completely when PWM is set to 0. We will consider another fan type for the next batch.

 

@Nova Soon we will announce our next batch ;-) Stay tune.

 

 

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33 minutes ago, Victor_Williamson said:

Hi,

 

My fans run at 100% since I did an apt-get upgrade on my Helios 4, Is there a way to restore the low-speed mode as the NAS sounds like a jet engine running at the moment.

 

Many thanks


There are more images out there and some early builds might have troubles with upgrading. First type:

 

armbianmonitor -u

that we know little more about what you are talking about.

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