Thomas Lin

Last updated: 2021-02-18

Installing or Upgrading PicOS OVS

This guide shows how to install or upgrade PicOS from scratch.

Connecting to Serial Console

Default baud rate: 115200 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit

Getting Into Flash Linux Environment

Bypass the default U-Boot menu and get into the flash Linux environment.

Attach to the serial console
Reboot the server
Press any key when you see the Hit any key to stop autoboot message
Type: run flash_bootcmd
When you see the Diagnostic Test Main Menu, hit Ctrl+D twice

From here you now have a basic Linux environment. You can check dmesg logs for any errors and etc. The PicOS firmware should be stored in a directory named /cf_card

First-Time Installation or Re-Building the System

First get into the flash Linux environment (see above). If /cf_card already exists with a previous firmware installed, you can skip to the next section about upgrading.

Otherwise, you’ll need to configure the compact flash and set this directory up yourself as follows:

See if the compact flash is mounted via either df or mount
- Check if /dev/hda is mounted
Unmount the compact flash card if needed (e.g. umount /cf_card)
Partition the card, the first partition is where we will place the PicOS system:
1. fdisk /dev/hda
2. Delete the first partition if it exists, and re-create it if needed, otherwise just create
3. Remember to write your partition changes to the disk before exiting
Create the filesystem: mke2fs -j /dev/hda1
Mount the new filesystem: mount /dev/hda1 /cf_card

From here, you can continue on to the section about upgrading (the steps should be identical).

Upgrading the PicOS System

This step involves fetching a new image from another (preferably local) computer via TFTP. The other server should have a TFTP server running and the new PicOS image (in a .tar.gz format) already sitting in its upload directory.

Can use tftpd-hpa package for the server
The default upload directory should be at /var/lib/tftpboot
Default port should be 69
These settings can be changed via the configuration file at: /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

To upgrade PicOS, first get into the flash Linux environment (see above). The PicOS installation should be in the /cf_card directory.

cd to the /cf_card directory and ensure it’s empty (it’s fine for lost+found directory to be there)
Assign the management interface of the switch (should be eth0 within the switch) an IP address
Make sure the management interface is connected to other server running the TFTP server
Retrieve the image from the server: tftp -g -l rootfs.tar.gz -r <remote_filename> <remote_server_ip>
- This may take several minutes
Untar the image: tar zxvf rootfs.tar.gz
- Don’t delete the file afterwards, it’s used for checking the firmware checksum during booting
Write the changes back to the flash: sync
Reboot the switch: reboot
- This time, don’t interrupt the autoboot when asked

NOTE: The first time rebooting with a new firmware will take several minutes

Switching PicOS from XorPlus to OVS Mode (One-Time Change)

By default, PicOS will boot into it’s “XorPlus” mode. This can be modified to boot into a pure OVS mode.

Log into the OS. The default username/password should be: admin / pica8
Run picos_boot and change to PicOS OVS/OpenFlow mode, entering whatever configuration questions asked
Reboot the switch one more time: reboot now

NOTE: The first time rebooting into PicOS OVS mode may take several minutes

Setting Up and Configuring OVS

From within the new PicOS OVS environment you can do the following:

Change root password if desired
Interact with the switch using ovs-vsctl and ovs-ofctl commands

To create an OVS bridge and add the switch’s interfaces, you need to nake sure the bridge is created as type pica8 and add the interfaces as type pica8 as well. For example:

ovs-vsctl add-br br0 -- set bridge br0 datapath_type=pica8
ovs-vsctl add-port br0 te-1/1/1 -- set interface te-1/1/1 type=pica8

Examples to configure the DPID, the OpenFlow version, or set any interfaces to 1 gigabit mode:

ovs-vsctl set bridge br0 protocols=OpenFlow10
ovs-vsctl set bridge br0 other-config:datapath-id=0000010010030093 # Has to be 16 chars
ovs-vsctl set-controller br0 tcp:10.10.60.10:6633
ovs-vsctl set interface te-1/1/11 options:link_speed=1G

Helpful Links

http://www.pica8.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/v2.0/pdf/2.0.1-image-upgrade-guide.pdf http://www.pica8.com/documents/html/ovs_configuration_guide/1639927.html https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q0MAKKXfAVB8NY0YcrRmiRtq2foV08G5Ogaktccszbo/edit

Troubleshooting

Potential causes for various issues, and how to fix them.

Not auto-booting into switch OS

Follow steps 1-3 of the Getting Into Flash Linux Environment section above
Type printenv, and check what the bootcmd variable is, or what other variable it runs

The following is a sample environment from after upgrading a 10 GE switch from Indigo to PicOS. Note that bootcmd runs cfcard_bootcmd2, which is for PicOS. There’s also an older cfcard_bootcmd which was for Indigo. You can change the bootcmd variable to run any other variable, just remember to save the new configuration to the on-board flash.

=> printenv
flash_bootcmd=setenv bootargs root=/dev/ram console=ttyS0,$baudrate; bootm ffd00000 ff000000 ffee0000
cfcard_bootcmd=setenv bootargs root=/dev/ram console=ttyS0,$baudrate; ext2load ide 0:1 0x1000000 /uImage;ext2load ide 0:1 0x2000000 /uInitrd2m;ext2load ide 0:1 0x400000 /LB9A.dtb;bootm 1000000 2000000 400000
bootdelay=5
baudrate=115200
loads_echo=1
ipaddr=192.168.2.1
serverip=192.168.2.12
rootpath=/nfsroot
gatewayip=192.168.2.254
netmask=255.255.255.0
hostname=LB9A_X
bootfile=eldk-quanta
loadaddr=4000000
ethact=TSEC0
filesize=1CD2AB
cfcard_bootcmd2=setenv bootargs root=/dev/hda1 rw noinitrd console=ttyS0,$baudrate; ext2load ide 0:1 0x1000000 boot/uImage;ext2load ide 0:1 0x400000 boot/LB9A.dtb;bootm 1000000 - 400000
bootcmd=run cfcard_bootcmd2
ethaddr=e8:9a:8f:91:af:97
eth1addr=e8:9a:8f:91:af:98
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial