ubootBananaPiR4: add persistent MAC

[newAM]

Untested. Will mark as ready for review after testing.

[newAM]

Does not work yet, this chunk of code is detecting an invalid MAC: https://github.com/frank-w/BPI-Router-Linux/blob/a5f209f3f88daf5bacaab883ca30d16d88ff0506/drivers/net/ethernet/mediatek/mtk_eth_soc.c#L4915-L4933

I didn't get the "Generated ethaddrX was invalid" print from u-boot though.

[nakato]

Does not work yet, this chunk of code is detecting an invalid MAC: https://github.com/frank-w/BPI-Router-Linux/blob/a5f209f3f88daf5bacaab883ca30d16d88ff0506/drivers/net/ethernet/mediatek/mtk_eth_soc.c#L4915-L4933

I didn't get the "Generated ethaddrX was invalid" print from u-boot though.

I had another look at what that code in mtk_eth_soc.c does. The validation it does makes sure it's not all-zero, and not multicast. So with the bit manipulation that shouldn't be happening. It also falls through to random if it can't find an address in the DT.

U-boot doesn't get upgraded on nixos-switch, so you have to manually dd them into place, was that done?

You can do so without needing to remember the part id mapping by using the partlabel's.

dd if=result/fip.bin of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/fip
dd if=result/bl2.img of=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/bl2

71ec0b2d487812ea4430f56703fb92606deefc7f, added today, adds the hash contained in $out to the u-boot version to make it easier to reason about what boot-code is in use and could be used for some scripting eventually.

[newAM]

Lets figure out why the address is invalid before we make changes that would change the generated MAC addr.

I think the handoff between u-boot and the kernel isn't working. I'm looking into this more since I want to know how this mechanism works anyway.

There's no Ethernet under /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/aliases.

This ethernet device does exist /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/soc/ethernet@15100000/mac@1, but there is no local-mac-address file.

In u-boot I only see one Ethernet device, which doesn't seem correct, but the MAC matches the environment variable.

MT7988> net list
eth0 : ethernet@15100000 b2:23:f5:38:e8:96 active

MT7988> env print
eth1addr=b2:23:f5:38:e8:97
ethaddr=b2:23:f5:38:e8:96

U-boot doesn't get upgraded on nixos-switch, so you have to manually dd them into place, was that done?

Yeah, I've been updating u-boot each time. I break networking lots while I'm tinkering so I'm using an SD card mux and flashing a new image each time.

[nakato]

Lets figure out why the address is invalid before we make changes that would change the generated MAC addr.

I think the handoff between u-boot and the kernel isn't working. I'm looking into this more since I want to know how this mechanism works anyway.

Take a look at fdt_fixup_ethernet()

There's no Ethernet under /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/aliases.

This ethernet device does exist /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/soc/ethernet@15100000/mac@1, but there is no local-mac-address file.

Without the Ethernet aliases, u-boot doesn't know where to put it.

Try this:

add-ethernet-alias.patch

diff --git a/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4-v0.dts b/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4-v0.dts
index d75ccf722532..608bb8319338 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4-v0.dts
+++ b/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4-v0.dts
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ aliases {
                led-failsafe = &led_green;
                led-running = &led_green;
                led-upgrade = &led_green;
+               ethernet0 = &gmac0;
+               ethernet1 = &gmac1;
+               ethernet2 = &gmac2;
        };

        chosen {
diff --git a/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4.dts b/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4.dts
index 06eade0561e4..f8982feeedf8 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4.dts
+++ b/arch/arm64/boot/dts/mediatek/mt7988a-bananapi-bpi-r4.dts
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ aliases {
                led-failsafe = &led_green;
                led-running = &led_green;
                led-upgrade = &led_green;
+               ethernet0 = &gmac0;
+               ethernet1 = &gmac1;
+               ethernet2 = &gmac2;
        };

        chosen {

And if you want to avoid a kernel recompilation.

hardware.deviceTree.kernelPackage = linuxPackages_frankw_6_10_bananaPiR4.kernel.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: { 
  pname = "linux-bpir4-dtbs";
  buildFlags = ["dtbs"];
  installTargets = ["dtbs_install"];
  installFlags = ["INSTALL_DTBS_PATH=$(out)/dtbs"];
  patches = oldAttrs.patches ++ [ ./add-ethernet-alias.patch ];
});

In u-boot I only see one Ethernet device, which doesn't seem correct, but the MAC matches the environment variable.

MT7988> net list
eth0 : ethernet@15100000 b2:23:f5:38:e8:96 active

I'm more surprised that one shows up than some being missing as I don't see ethernet described for the R4 in the device-tree used by u-boot. I suspect it probably doesn't work in u-boot as that's probably the switch CPU port rather than the physical "front" ports, which means it doesn't know it needs to DSA tagging to work.

U-boot doesn't get upgraded on nixos-switch, so you have to manually dd them into place, was that done?

Yeah, I've been updating u-boot each time. I break networking lots while I'm tinkering so I'm using an SD card mux and flashing a new image each time.

That's awesome!

[nakato]

I sent the ethernet alias changes to frank-w for inclusion, and they're now in 6.10-main.

I've bumped the kernel version in use in this repo and tested this patchset, with the third interface and 16 bytes against a R4 and confirmed it works. I'm going to pull this into the main branch.

[nakato]

Thanks! Merged as 9291af61273b7c10ee8aadf4431df22a6a459807

[newAM]

Thanks! Merged as 9291af6

Thank you, the aliases did the trick, everything works now!

Sorry for the slow replies on my part, work has been keeping me busy lately.