Created: Shantha Condamoor
Date: 15-Oct-2014
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While linuxRT is a relatively established RTOS at ICD, it has mostly been used only in conjunction with the uTCA platform.
Recently linuxRT has been 'ported' and running successfully on a few COTS linux servers such as the Dell PowerEdge servers and SuperMicro Industrial PCs.
Till Straumann built a newer version of linuxRT to support the new hardware.
These linux servers are all Intel-based targets that run linuxRT (embedded linux) with uClibc and PREMPT_RT patch.
The important change to the linuxRT RTOS was the addition of support for the Broadcom NICs which are ethernet network chipsets found in these servers.
The other important change was the setup of these servers to boot linuxRT targets as diskless clients.
The BIOS boot order was modified to over-ride 'boot out of hard-disk' or 'CD-ROM' which are the default in most cases, and instead perform network booting as the first choice.
Additionally, BIOS was modified to redirect console output to the first serial port instead of the monitor.
This enables us to observe the PC boot process remotely, like all our IOCs, via the 'screen' process using the 'iocConsole' script.
As we continue to test this new system and learn more, this document will also evolve.
This FAQ is mostly confined to describing the steps needed for building and running a linuxRT IOC on a COTS Linux Server using the latest EPICS base.
We will use 'MyTest' as an example EPICS application and 'vioc-b34-bd32' as an example IOC.
The 'new' version of EPICS is R3-14-12-3_1-0
From a bash shell in an LCLSDEV host (Ex. lcls-dev2), type the following:
source /afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/setup/go_epics_3-14-12-3_1-0.bash
The above script sets up several EPICS environment variables in your bash shell.
Some variables are paths to ''TOP-level' directories:
EPICS_TOP=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0
EPICS_BASE_TOP=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/base
EPICS_MODULES_TOP=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/modules
EPICS_EXTENSIONS=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/extensions/extensions-R3-14-12
EPICS_IOC_TOP=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/iocTop
EPICS_MBA_TEMPLATE_TOP=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/modules/icdTemplates/icdTemplates-R1-0-1
PACKAGE_TOP=/afs/slac/g/lcls/package
EPICS_IOC_TOP is the top level application directory for all EPICS iocs that use this EPICS version.
It is here where all new EPICS applications must be created. EPICS_IOC_TOP is the same as the APP variable.
Other environment variables setup in your bash shell are:
IOC=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/iocCommon
$IOC is the directory where the startup scripts for all the iocs are located.
IOC_DATA=/nfs/slac/g/lcls/epics/ioc/data
$IOC_DATA is the data directory. This is where the outputs (and in some case inputs) from iocs are stored.
/afs/slac/g/lcls/package/linuxKernel_Modules
/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/modules
A handful of EPICS modules have been built for R3-14-12-3_1-0.
Most of them have been cross-compiled for several targets including the following:
linuxRT-x86
linux-x86
linux-x86_64
The python script makeModules.py in /afs/slac/g/lcls/tools/script automatically discovers the module dependencies and builds an entire module tree in the correct order for all targets. As of date this script is 'reasonably' functional.
TO DO list: Make this script user-friendly but as of date
Contact Murali or Ernest to have the modules built and installed in the meanwhile.
(a) Create directories and files as shown below using ioc-b34-bd32 as an example:
$IOC/ioc-b34-bd32
$IOC_DATA/ioc-b34-bd32
$IOC_DATA/ioc-b34-bd32/screenlog.0
$IOC_DATA/vioc-b34-bd32
$IOC_DATA/vioc-b34-bd32/autosave
$IOC_DATA/vioc-b34-bd32/autosave-req
$IOC_DATA/vioc-b34-bd32/iocInfo
TO DO list: Generate a script to create above directories automatically via a single python or perl script.
$APP/Test (look at this as an example)
Now create your EPICS application called 'MyTest' as below using standard templates and scripts in a sandbox area called Development.
(b) cd $APP/Test
As MyTest development continues, this is where you will be creating/checking out from CVS, several versions of your MyTest application.
Now create a sandbox area for MyTest.
mkdir Development
(c) cd Development
You are currently in:
/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/iocTop/Test/Development
This is the top directory for MyTest and referred as $(TOP).
(d) Using a perl script that automates the process, create MyTest:
makeBaseApp.pl -t slac MyTest
The perl script had populated your application using icdTemplates module that provides standard templates.
These templates are used by ICD to support our style of IOC Application Building for all facilities we support.
The location for icdTemplates module was set as below when you sourced go_epics_3-14-12-3_1-0.bash.
EPICS_MBA_TEMPLATE_TOP=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/modules/icdTemplates/icdTemplates-R1-0-1
If you would like to know more about makeBaseApp.pl, type:
makeBaseApp.pl -help
(e) Now, open the configure/RELEASE file.
(i) Notice how the following line appears towards the beginning:
include $(TOP)/RELEASE_SITE
The above sets the paths for EPICS base, modules, packages, tools etc. to point to version R3-14-12-3_1-0.
(ii) The file has the following line towards the end of it:
# Location of Linux Kernel Modules:
LINUX_KERNEL_MODULES=$(PACKAGE_SITE_TOP)/linuxKernel_Modules
(iii) configure/RELEASE file may need some modifications from what was automatically generated:
Change the various module version numbers as needed for your application.
Ensure that the specific versions included in your RELEASE file DO EXIST under the modules directory and are consistent.
They must also have been built for the linuxRT-x86 target. If something is missing, contact Ernest.
For EVENT module, Kukhee recommends us to use event-R4-1-3 or greater with this base.
EVENT_MODULE_VERSION=event-R4-1-3
(f) Open MyTestApp/src/Makefile and notice that the IOC application is referred to as 'MyTest".
(g) Now it is time to add your linuxRT-x86 virtual ioc (vioc) startup scripts. vioc-b34-bd32 is used here as an example.
From $(TOP) type the following command to create a boot directory for 'vioc-b34-bd32':
makeBaseApp.pl -i -t slac vioc-b34-bd32
When prompted to choose target architecture, choose linuxRT-x86.
Two files are modified based on this selection.
(1) vioc-b34-my01/st.cmd
(2) vioc-b34-my01/Makefile.
When prompted with 'Application name?' type 'MyTest'.
This will use the application name MyTest that was created in MyTestApp/src/Makefile as described in step (f).
If you just hit 'Enter' without specifying your application name, then your ioc name vioc-b34-bd32 will be used as the default for the dbd file in the st.cmd
Now iocBoot directory has been created under $(TOP) and underneath it, 'vioc-b34-bd32' has been created.
Open iocBoot/vioc-b34-bd32/Makefile and notice that ARCH is set to linuxRT-x86.
Open iocBoot/vioc-b34-bd32/st.cmd and notice that this script is setup to pick the binary from linuxRT-x86 directory.
(h) icdTemplates created MyTestApp/src/Makefile. Open this file and notice how it is populated.
It has support for base, iocAdmin, autosave-restore which all IOCs must include.
It also includes support for Till Straumann's Cexp shell. For more information on Cexp, read What is Cexp?
Additionally, the Makefile includes 'system.dbd' - this is mainly for linux-based IOCs.
For linuxRT, 'system' command is useful for changing kernel thread priorities for kernel drivers at run-time. This is explained under rtPrioritySetup.cmd.
(i) If you have an EVR in your system, uncomment the following lines in MyTestApp/src/Makefile:
# MyTest_DBD += evrSupport.dbd
# MyTest_DBD += devMrfEr.dbd
Ensure the following lines are not commented as well:
MyTest_LIBS += evrSupport
MyTest_LIBS += devMrfEr
....
ifeq ($(T_A),linuxRT-x86)
MyTest_LIBS += drvMrf
endif
For a PMC EVR230 or PCI-e EVR300 that is installed in your system, the above is all you need.
Replace the macros in the EPICS database files, or add more databases and modify MyTestApp/Db/Makefile as needed.
(j) Now 'make' your application from the top level directory $(TOP) to ensure your changes to RELEASE files are good:
There should be no build errors.
Having tested this phase, you can now uninstall the binaries and cleanup the make-generated files using the following command:
make clean uninstall
Do the above before committing the files to CVS.
TO DO list: icdTemplates module that provides default templates is a work in progress.
We have to manually make several changes to the MyTestApp/Db/* files and iocBoot/vioc-b34-bd32/st.cmd.
Follow the example MyTest and create similar database files and st.cmd.
The EVR-related screens have been added for vioc-b34-bd32.
You can see them when the vioc-b34-bd32 is running as follows from lcls-dev2:
lclshome -> User Dev Displays.... -> Test IOCs/Dev Event IOCs....
The buttons for the various panels for VIOC:B34:BD32 are towards the bottom of this screen.
For easy access to your IOC's EVR panels in LCLSDEV, add the necessary buttons to this page.
The 'Pattern' button brings up the 'Pattern Diagnostics' screen.
'PMC EVR:B34:BD32' button brings up the Low Level 'Diagnostics' screen for EVR;B34:BD32
'Triggers' button brings up 'Trigger Configuration' setup screen.
(c) Add your application to CVS and commit the source files.
Ernest has created some slides that explains some guidelines for importing new applications into CVS:
LinuxRT is installed on our system using the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) method of network booting.
We enable the PXE/network-booting method in the BIOS.
In order to use PXE there is a boot-server that will allow our client system to :
(a) Request an IP address (via DHCP)
(b) Download a kernel (via TFTP)
With both of these services in place any system which supports PXE/network-booting
should be able to gain an IP address, fetch a kernel, and boot without an installed operating system.
PXE uses three distinct network protocols that map to three server processes to perform the installation.
In our case, some of the processes run on lcls-dev1 (LCLSDEV daemon)
Both DHCP and TFTP services run on the LCLSDEV host 'dhcp3' maintained by SCCS.
(a) Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
PXE uses DHCP to deliver initial network configuration options to client nodes.
The DHCP server supplies the PXE boot plug-in with
(i) IP address
(ii) TFTP server address
(iii) Stage 1 image boot-loader name from which to download and execute the image.
As the supplied PXE installation environments are non-interactive and will unconditionally reinstall a client machine,
we have the client associate its MAC address with a specific OS installation before starting the PXE boot.
The configuration information, in our case, in addition to IP/MAC address, includes a hostname and a pointer to the Master Starupt script in afs for our IOC.
It has an optional root-path variable pointing to the afs area which hosts the boot image that is served via TFTP.
This can be over-ridden as will be seen later.
When the Linux server is rebooted or power-cycled, PXE will attempt the network booting method first
and as a first step it will contact the DHCP server to retrieve the network configuration information.
Hence, every new linuxRT ioc (host) needs to be added to the DHCP server configuration file in afs.
This file is in /afs/slac/service/dhcp-pxe/dhcpd.conf
Note that the DHCP service running on dhcp3 is intended only for booting embedded devices like our linuxRT servers that are connected to the LCLSDEV and SSRL subnets.
The MAC addresses for such devices must be registered in CANDO and assigned fixed IP addresses.
The IP/MAC address of the primary ethernet that will fetch the linuxRT boot image is defined here.
To add a new host to the DHCP configuration, contact Thuy.
After a new ioc is added to dhcpd.conf, the DHCP service must be restarted.
To restart DHCP Server
From a Unix command line:
remctl dhcp3 dhcp check
remctl dhcp3 dhcp restart
For help:
remctl dhcp3 dhcp help
Currently only Thuy, Ernest and a couple of others have permissions to perform this restart on dhcp3.
Here's is an example - ioc-b34-bd32:
host ioc-b34-bd32 {
# SuperMicro (INTELx86)
#
hardware ethernet 00:25:90:D1:95:1E;
fixed-address 134.79.218.190;
option host-name "ioc-b34-bd32";
if ( substring( option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 5 ) = "udhcp" ) {
filename "/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/ioc-b34-bd32/startup.cmd";
option root-path "afsnfs1:/afs/slac:/afs/slac";
}
}
To find out more about how our linux server boots up linuxRT, click on the following link:
How does the Linux Server boot up linuxRT?
(b) Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
PXE uses TFTP that defines a simple UDP protocol for delivering files over a network.
PXE delivers kernels and initial bootstrap software to client nodes using TFTP.
tftpboot is mounted in afs area in LCLSDEV on the server dhcp3, which runs both the TFTP an DHCP services:
/tftpboot -> /afs/slac.stanford.edu/service/dhcp-pxe/tftpboot/
The iocs retrieve the linuxRT boot image from the TFTP server from the following location:
/afs/slac/g/lcls/tftpboot/linuxRT/boot
In this location, there are several linuxRT-x86 bootimages.
These were custom-built by T.Straumann for the various Linux Servers/IPCs that we currently have setup to boot with linuxRT OS.
Of these images, '3.14.12-rt9' is the latest and it has in-built support for the
Broadcom networking ethernet chipset that are used in our dev Poweredge Dell Servers.
(c) Network File System (NFS)
The NFS service is used by the installation kernel to read all of the packages necessary to the installation process.
NFS services run on the LCLSDEV hosts afsnfs1 and afsnfs2 maintained by SCCS.
This service makes available the boot directory to all linuxRT targets that boot as diskless clients.
All clients have read-only permissions to this directory.
The linuxRT iocs need some additional NFS Mount Points to write their data some where.
surrey04b is an NFS Appliance and is used by iocs for data and have both read and write permissions to the data directory ($IOC_DATA).
In LCLSDEV, we must obtain permissions for the iocs to write to the $IOC_DATA directory.
Fill out an online form provided by SCCS to obtain permissions for your ioc to write to this directory:
https://www-rt.slac.stanford.edu/rt3/SelfService/Forms/IocNfs.html
There are a few scripts that automate this process.
To begin with, there is the 'ipxe.ini' script in the tftp boot area /afs/slac/g/lcls/tftpboot/linuxRT/boot that PXE will run.
This is where the version of (linuxRT) kernel to run is specified as follows:
set vers 3.2.13-121108
This version number can be over-ridden by a chained, host-specific pxe init script to load an image different from the above:
chain ${hostname}.ipxe ||
For example, we have defined a script specifically for our ioc ioc-b34-bd32.ipxe which chooses to load the latest linuxRT image:
set vers 3.14.12-rt9
This is also the place to over-ride the 'root-path' option specified in the DHCP configuration file dhcpd.conf.
For example, I may decide to over-ride the afsnfs1 server and instead choose to get my boot image from afsnfs2 server:
set extra-args ROOTPATH=afsnfs2:/afs/slac:/afs/slac BOOTFILE=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/ioc-b34-bd32/startup.cmd
A few more extra arguments are specified in ioc-b34-bd32. Leave them as they are.
The 'ipxe.ini' script loads the linuxRT kernel via the TFTP protocol:
kernel --name linux tftp://${next-server}/linuxRT/boot/${vers}/bzImage && initrd tftp://${next-server}/linuxRT/boot/${vers}/rootfs.ext2 || shell
imgargs linux debug idle=halt root=/dev/ram0 console=ttyS0,115200 BOOTIF_MAC=${net0/mac:hex} ${extra-args} || boot || shell
After linuxRT boot image is downloaded to the target and linuxRT starts to run, additional nfs mounts will be done.
The afs to nfs translator service makes available the directory structure, to all clients that have mounted this nfs space.
NFS File Servers for LCLSDEV are afsnfs1 and afsnfs2
One of the arguments to the kernel process is the location of the BOOTFILE that does the mounting.
The 'filename' argument (which can be over-ridden by the BOOTFILE argument for linuxRT) is as follows:
"/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/ioc-b34-bd32/startup.cmd"
This script is similar to and modelled after RTEMS startup.cmd.
When linuxRT loads and start, the kernel process is run as "root" user.
Hence it has permissions to setup the nfs mounts which is done by the following line in startup.cmd:
/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/All/Dev/linuxRT_nfs.cmd
Additional NFS Mount Points for linuxRT pertaining to the ioc data directory $IOC_DATA are mounted as well.
The next line in the startup.cmd file loads the linuxRT kernel modules.
More on kernel modules under question (10).
This can also be done only by the "root" user:
/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/ioc-b34-bd32/kernel-modules.cmd
Next we must start the caRepeater process:
(http://www.aps.anl.gov/epics/base/R3-14/12-docs/CAref.html#Repeater)
"When several client processes (virtual iocs) run on the same host it is not possible for all of them to directly receive a copy of the server beacon messages when the beacon messages are sent to unicast addresses, or when legacy IP kernels are still in use. To avoid confusion over these restrictions a special UDP server, the CA Repeater, is automatically spawned by the CA client library when it is not found to be running. This program listens for server beacons sent to the UDP port specified in the EPICS_CA_REPEATER_PORT parameter and fans any beacons received out to any CA client program running on the same host that have registered themselves with the CA Repeater. If the CA Repeater is not already running on a workstation, then the "caRepeater" program must be in your path before using the CA client library for the first time."
So we add the following lines to startup.cmd to start a caRepeater for all EPICS VIOCs that may be hosted by this CPU:
export EPICS_CA_REPEATER_PORT=5067
su laci -c /afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/base/base-R3-14-12-3_1-0/bin/linuxRT-x86/caRepeater
Finally, it is possible to automatically startup one or more EPICS IOCs right here and detach them using the linux screen program.
We can start another shell such that a user called "laci" can start the IOC process instead of the "root" user:
su laci -c /afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/ioc-b34-bd32/startup-laci-rt.cmd
More on startup-laci-rt.cmd under Question (13).
Under linuxRT, a few real time processes that need real time scheduler and kernel memory locking features, can be specifically run as such.
The screen process does not need or have RT priority.
The _MAIN_ thread in epics application process, which is started doesn't have the RT priority either.
But, other threads which are created by the _MAIN_ thread may need RT priority.
Kukhee provides some information about this to find out which processes are running with real-time priorities:
Thuy has setup the BIOS of all the linux servers used for linuxRT development, to re-direct the
console (monitor) output to one of the serial ports. This allows us to watch the boot process remotely via our standard 'iocConsole'
python script. iocConsole uses the 'screen' process to accomplish this re-direction.
Type the following command from any LCLSDEV host:
Example:
iocConsole ioc-b34-bd32
This will establish a serial connection with the linux box from lcls-dev1 via a DIGI Terminal Server port as follows:
: ssh -x -t -l laci lcls-dev1 bash -l -c " pyiocscreen.py -t HIOC ioc-b34-bd32 ts-lclsdev05 2001 "
You can monitor the linuxRT as it goes through the PXE network booting process.
Finally, you will get the login prompt:
Welcome to Buildroot
ioc-b34-bd32 login:
Login as 'root'. No password is required.
At the shell, type the following to ensure that you are running the correct version of liunxRT for your ioc. This has the real-time Preempt RT patch.
# uname -a
Linux ioc-b34-bd32 3.14.12-rt9 #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Sat Oct 11 17:27:39 PDT 2014 i686 GNU/Linux
To see the PCI devices in your system type the following command:
# lspci
In the linux world, kernel modules are pieces of code that can be loaded and unloaded into the kernel upon demand.
They extend the functionality of the kernel without the need to reboot the system.
For example, one type of module is the device driver, which allows the kernel to access hardware connected to the system.
Without modules, we would have to build monolithic kernels and add new functionality directly into the kernel image.
Besides having larger kernels, this has the disadvantage of requiring us to rebuild and reboot the kernel every time we want new functionality.
linuxRT too, lets you load and unload kernel modules dynamically.
Now we are ready to load some kernel modules essential to our ioc - like EVR.
In our 'startup.cmd' script, we have the following line which lets us customize and load our kernel modules:
/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/ioc-b34-bd32/kernel-modules.cmd
The location for kernel modules is specified as an environment variable in linuxRT:
KERNEL_DRIVER_HOME=/afs/slac/g/lcls/package/linuxKernel_Modules
There are several linuxRT drivers in this directory.
The PCI EVR230 driver is here. The following driver version has been built for the latest linuxRT 3.14.12-rt9:
EVR230_PCI_EVR_DRIVER=$KERNEL_DRIVER_HOME/pci_mrfevr_linuxRT/buildroot-2014.08
The PCI Express EVR300 driver built for linuxRT 3.14.12-rt9, is here:
EVR300_PCI_EVR_DRIVER=$KERNEL_DRIVER_HOME/pci_mrfev300_linuxRT/buildroot-2014.08
The kernel drivers are installed (loaded) dynamically as follows:
# Load the MRF EVR230 Kernel Module for timing
insmod $EVR230_PCI_EVR_DRIVER/pci_mrfevr.ko
$EVR230_PCI_EVR_DRIVER/module_load
# Load the MRF EVR300 Kernel Module for timing
insmod $EVR300_PCI_EVR_DRIVER/pci_mrfevr300.ko
$EVR300_PCI_EVR_DRIVER/module_load
There are a couple of things to note:
1. Currently the EVR kernel modules SW has the restriction that if there are both a PMC EVR230 and a PCI-e EVR300 in a linux box,
then the PMC EVR230 MUST BE initialized as card 0 and loaded first. EVR300 must be initialized as card 1.
Additionally, due to hard-coded device names in the module, it is essential to setup the following links:
ln -s /dev/er3a0 /dev/erb0
ln -s /dev/er3a1 /dev/erb1
ln -s /dev/er3a2 /dev/erb2
ln -s /dev/er3a3 /dev/erb3
2. If only one EVR (either PMC EVR230 or PCI EVR300) is installed in your system, then the above restriction does not apply and soft links are not needed.
Take a look at the following script:
/afs/slac/g/lcls/package/linuxKernel_Modules/pci_mrfev300_linuxRT/buildroot-2014.08/module_load
Notice how kernel modules are loaded as device drivers under the /dev/ in linuxRT much like linux.
3. The Broadcom Ethernet NIC driver used to be a separate kernel module and its dirver was loaded dynamically via ;modprobe tg3' in this script.
With the latest linuxRT version 3.14.12-rt9, this step has become unnecessary as the driver has become part of this linuxRT boot image.
4. The SIS digitizers for uTCA, loads their device drivers in 'kernel-modules.cmd':
SIS8300_DRIVER=$KERNEL_DRIVER_HOME/sis8300drv/MAIN_TRUNK
modprobe uio
insmod $SIS8300_DRIVER/sis8300drv.ko
Please note that as of date, SIS8300 has NOT been rebuilt for the latest linuxRT 3.14.12-rt9.
It is currently unsupported on COTS Linux servers.
For convinience, you can setup a soft link to your ioc's home directory in kernel-modules.cmd as below:
ln -s /afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/ioc-b34-bd32 /home/laci/ioc-b34-bd32
The third and final script is specifically to setup and start your EPICS ioc.
The 'startupConsole-laci-rt.cmd' lets you start your EPICS ioc as a foreground process in your host.
This lets you observe the ioc boot process to catch errors and interact with the ioc shell via iocConsole.
This is useful during development for debugging. Once the ioc has been tested fully, you can automatically start and run the process in background.
Under linuxRT, your EPICS ioc must run as a real-time process. It must lock the kernel in memory.
The following command in your 'startupConsole-laci-rt.cmd' does that:
ulimit -l unlimited
The following line is also needed to run the ioc with real-time priorities:
ulimit -r unlimited
Finally, you will be running your ioc as a specific user called as 'laci' who has permissions to run this ioc:
Setup the permissions for this user 'laci':
umask 002
Now you are ready to start your IOC and have it run as a foreground process.
Create a directory called as 'vioc-b34-bd32' for your ioc as below:
mkdir $IOC/ioc-b34-bd32/vioc-b34-bd32
cd $IOC/ioc-b34-bd32/vioc-b34-bd32
Set up a soft link to the 'bin' directory of your IOC app that you created in step (6). This is where your executable is:
ln -s /afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/iocTop/Test/Development/bin/linuxRT-x86 bin
Create an ASCII text file called 'screenrc' with the following lines in it:
deflog on
logtstamp on
defscrollback 10000
'screenrc' is passed as an argument to the 'screen' process and allows us to customize a few parameters such as number of lines stored in history buffer that we can scroll back for viewing.
In the same directory $IOC/ioc-b34-my01/vioc-b34-my01, add a startup script 'iocStartup.cmd' for vioc-b34-my01:
It setups some shell environment variables used by all iocs, and starts the st.cmd file in your ioc boot directory.
The EPICS environment variables that are set in this script can be used by your application's st.cmd script.
The default st.cmd script generated by the module icdTemplates, expects the following environment values to be defined somewhere.
iocStartup.cmd may be a good place to define it:
epicsEnvSet("IOC_NAME","VIOC:B34:BD32")
epicsEnvSet("IOC_APP","/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/iocTop/Test/Development")
epicsEnvSet("IOC_BOOT","${IOC_APP}/iocBoot/vioc-b34-bd32")
epicsEnvSet("IOC_COMMON","/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon")
epicsEnvSet("SYS_FACILITY","SYS0")
In addition to setting these environment variables, this script also executes some scripts common to all EPICS IOCs, such as below:
${IOC_COMMON}/All/Dev/linuxRT_pre_st.cmd
${IOC_COMMON}/All/Dev/linuxRT_post_st.cmd
The IOC application startup occurs between the pre and post scirpts:
cd ${IOC_BOOT}
< st.cmd
Work is still in progress regarding standardizing App-specific st.cmd.
The IOC engineer has freedom to be creative with this script during development.
But the following are expected as a minimum when the ioc is installed in production.
That is the reason they are included in the default template provided by the icdTemplates module, as a guideline:
While the above is common guideline for all iocs, the following is specific to linuxRT.
You can set up real-time priorities after iocInit() for your driver threads and this can be done with a script such as rtPrioritySetup.cmd.
cd ${IOC_BOOT}
system("/bin/su root -c `pwd`/rtPrioritySetup.cmd")
Look at /afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/R3-14-12-3_1-0/iocTop/Test/Development/iocBoot/vioc-b34-bd32/rtPrioritySetup.cmd as an example.
(a) You can directly ssh to your ioc as 'laci' from any LCLSDEV host:
ssh laci@ioc-b34-bd32
$ cd /afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/ioc-b34-bd32
Alternately, you can get a console to the target ioc-b34-bd32 using iocConsole and ssh as user "laci" from there:
iocConsole ioc-b34-bd32
When prompted to enter the "login" username as below, enter "laci".
Welcome to Buildroot
ioc-b34-bd32 login:
No password is needed. Just hit Enter an you will get the shell prompt "$".
Ensure the caRepeater process is running on this CPU.
(b) Ensure your IOC is not already running as below:
$ screen -ls
No Sockets found in /tmp/uscreens/S-laci.
You can also look for your application under all running processes and make sure one is not already running:
If it was running already, then you may get something as below:
$ ps -ef | grep MyTest
2085 laci 0:07 bin/MyTest iocStartup.cmd
(c) Change to $IOC/ioc-b34-bd32 and from there start your ioc as a foreground process as below:
$ pwd
/home/laci
$ ls -lt
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root lcls 45 Nov 5 15:11 bld -> /afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon/ioc-b34-bd32
$ cd bld
Ensure that 'startupConsole-laci-rt.cmd' is in your current directory.
$ ls -lt | grep startupConsole-laci-rt.cmd
-rwxrwxr-x 1 8396 1020 1225 Nov 5 15:22 startupConsole-laci-rt.cmd
Start the ioc as a foreground process:
./startupConsole-laci-rt.cmd
You can observe the viocb34bd32 go through the boot process.
If you had an EVR230 and it was initialized correctly, you may see something as below before iocInit():
ErConfigure(0, 0, 0, 0, 1)
Try EvrOpen, device = /dev/era3
EVR Found with Firmware Revision 0x11000007
Found a PMC_EVR /dev/era3
Verify if all your drivers, modules and databases loaded correctly.
If you used iocConsole, you can scroll back and forth in the screen using <CTRL> A-[ and <CTRL>-A-]
If everything went well, you must get your interactive ioc shell prompt as below:
vioc-b34-bd32>
(d) Once the ioc is started, you can interact with vioc-b34-bd32 from any LCLSDEV host via ssh laci@ioc-b34-bd32:
To attach a screen session:
screen -r vioc-b34-bd32
To detach from a screen session:
<CTRL> A D
(e) To exit an EPICS IOC Process type exit at the IOC Shell and you will be back at the "$" prompt:
vioc-b34-bd32>exit
If the IOC hangs too long while trying to exit, use <CTRL> C
You can start your ioc as a background process that will start up everytime your Linux server reboots, as follows:
In $IOC/ioc-b34-bd32, you can add another script 'startup-laci-rt.cmd' that lets you start your EPICS-based ioc as a background process in your host.
Invoke this script from $IOC/ioc-b34-bd32/startup.cmd:
su laci -c /usr/local/lcls/epics/iocCommon/eioc-b34-bd32/startup-laci-rt.cmd
The above line starts another shell so that the user called "laci" can start the IOC Process as opposed to the "root" account
Remember, the kernel modules can only be loaded onto the kernel with "root" permissions but iocs can be run by users.
'startup-laci-rt.cmd' executes the EPICS-based IOC startup script and detaches it using the linux screen program
It contains the following lines which are similar to what we have in startupConsole-laci-rt.cmd:
export EPICS_IOCS=/afs/slac/g/lcls/epics/iocCommon
# Lock Kernel in memory
ulimit -l unlimited
# Run with real-time priorities
ulimit -r unlimited
# Set umask for the laci user
umask 002
# EPICS IOC Application Real-time Process
cd $EPICS_IOCS/ioc-b34-bd32/vioc-b34-bd32
screen -h 8192 -c screenrc -dm -S vioc-b34-bd32 bin/MyTest iocStartup.cmd
The above line will automatically start your ioc and have it running in the background, every time your server reboots
To view the console output from the running ioc, you can attach the screen process to it, as described below:
(1) ssh into the ioc-b34-b32 as user "laci":
ssh laci@ioc-b34-bd32
(2) To see the list of all EPICS iocs running on this CPU, at the console type:
screen -ls
(3) To attach to vioc-b34-b32 that is running MyTest application:
screen -r vioc-b34-b32
Here's a flowchart that shows which script calls what and some of the important parameters that can be passed from one to another:
.
