[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[David Aldrich]

Hi

I am using an Advantech TMX320TCI6614 EVM to develop code for an ARM core on a TI C66x device.  The ARM core runs:

U-Boot 2011.06-00002-gc4611c1-dirty (May 30 2012 - 15:38:01)

I have booted this target card for several months from a tftp server running under Ubuntu 10.04, with no problems.  But, this week, I have tried to move to a tftp server that runs on a different machine running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

Since moving to Ubuntu 12.04 the tftp download is very slow, although it does succeed eventually.  I have tried getting the boot files using a tftp client running on another Ubuntu host and the download is fast.

Please can anyone suggest a reason for the slow download when using the EVM with the 12.04 server?

Best regards

David

[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[David Aldrich]

I would like to give some more information about my problem.  u-boot's tftp transfers do eventually complete and the evm boots.  I can then execute tftp get commands from Linux on the evm and these execute quickly. So the problem definitely has to do with the way u-boot uses tftp.

BR

David

> -----Original Message-----
> From: u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de [mailto:u-boot-
> bounces at lists.denx.de] On Behalf Of David Aldrich
> Sent: 17 January 2013 11:19
> To: u-boot at lists.denx.de
> Subject: [U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server
> 
> Hi
> 
> I am using an Advantech TMX320TCI6614 EVM to develop code for an ARM
> core on a TI C66x device.  The ARM core runs:
> 
> U-Boot 2011.06-00002-gc4611c1-dirty (May 30 2012 - 15:38:01)
> 
> I have booted this target card for several months from a tftp server running
> under Ubuntu 10.04, with no problems.  But, this week, I have tried to move
> to a tftp server that runs on a different machine running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
> 
> Since moving to Ubuntu 12.04 the tftp download is very slow, although it
> does succeed eventually.  I have tried getting the boot files using a tftp client
> running on another Ubuntu host and the download is fast.
> 
> Please can anyone suggest a reason for the slow download when using the
> EVM with the 12.04 server?
> 
> Best regards
> 
> David
> 
> 
> 
>  Click
> https://www.mailcontrol.com/sr/gy6n!KN6KZHGX2PQPOmvUi5k6UwC82173
> j1nKEDGDxQEKt0qtqc7COBYlPdIuP1TMPbtT3ZYZ55kxH4nYzTQYQ==  to
> report this email as spam.

[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[Jim Lin]

Could you remove CONFIG_USB_KEYBOARD setting from your configuration
file (.h under include/configs) and recompile to see whether problem
disappears?

If yes, this is the problem I'm working on.
Otherwise it's another issue.

On Thu, 2013-01-17 at 23:29 +0800, David Aldrich wrote:
> I would like to give some more information about my problem.  u-boot's tftp transfers do eventually complete and the evm boots.  I can then execute tftp get commands from Linux on the evm and these execute quickly. So the problem definitely has to do with the way u-boot uses tftp.
> 
> BR
> 
> David
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de [mailto:u-boot-
> > bounces at lists.denx.de] On Behalf Of David Aldrich
> > Sent: 17 January 2013 11:19
> > To: u-boot at lists.denx.de
> > Subject: [U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server
> > 
> > Hi
> > 
> > I am using an Advantech TMX320TCI6614 EVM to develop code for an ARM
> > core on a TI C66x device.  The ARM core runs:
> > 
> > U-Boot 2011.06-00002-gc4611c1-dirty (May 30 2012 - 15:38:01)
> > 
> > I have booted this target card for several months from a tftp server running
> > under Ubuntu 10.04, with no problems.  But, this week, I have tried to move
> > to a tftp server that runs on a different machine running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
> > 
> > Since moving to Ubuntu 12.04 the tftp download is very slow, although it
> > does succeed eventually.  I have tried getting the boot files using a tftp client
> > running on another Ubuntu host and the download is fast.
> > 
> > Please can anyone suggest a reason for the slow download when using the
> > EVM with the 12.04 server?
> > 
> > Best regards
> > 
> > David
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >  Click
> > https://www.mailcontrol.com/sr/gy6n!KN6KZHGX2PQPOmvUi5k6UwC82173
> > j1nKEDGDxQEKt0qtqc7COBYlPdIuP1TMPbtT3ZYZ55kxH4nYzTQYQ==  to
> > report this email as spam.
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> U-Boot at lists.denx.de
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[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[Andrew Dyer]

On Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 5:19 AM, David Aldrich
<David.Aldrich@emea.nec.com>wrote:

> Hi
>
> I am using an Advantech TMX320TCI6614 EVM to develop code for an ARM core
> on a TI C66x device.  The ARM core runs:
>
> U-Boot 2011.06-00002-gc4611c1-dirty (May 30 2012 - 15:38:01)
>
> I have booted this target card for several months from a tftp server
> running under Ubuntu 10.04, with no problems.  But, this week, I have tried
> to move to a tftp server that runs on a different machine running Ubuntu
> 12.04 LTS.
>
> Since moving to Ubuntu 12.04 the tftp download is very slow, although it
> does succeed eventually.  I have tried getting the boot files using a tftp
> client running on another Ubuntu host and the download is fast.
>
> Please can anyone suggest a reason for the slow download when using the
> EVM with the 12.04 server?
>

TFTP is a very simple protocol and proceeds in lock step - get a request,
send a block, wait for an ack of the last block, send the next block, etc.
 If either side times out, it will retry, but it can take quite a while.  I
would suggest to do some logging on the tftp server side or run wireshark
or tcpdump and look for retries.

[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[Alexander Holler]

Am 17.01.2013 12:19, schrieb David Aldrich:
> Hi
>
> I am using an Advantech TMX320TCI6614 EVM to develop code for an ARM core on a TI C66x device.  The ARM core runs:
>
> U-Boot 2011.06-00002-gc4611c1-dirty (May 30 2012 - 15:38:01)
>
> I have booted this target card for several months from a tftp server running under Ubuntu 10.04, with no problems.  But, this week, I have tried to move to a tftp server that runs on a different machine running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
>
> Since moving to Ubuntu 12.04 the tftp download is very slow, although it does succeed eventually.  I have tried getting the boot files using a tftp client running on another Ubuntu host and the download is fast.
>
> Please can anyone suggest a reason for the slow download when using the EVM with the 12.04 server?

Try setting the max. blocksize explicit, e.g. I'm using -B 1460 here. It 
depends on the used tftp-server.

Regards,

Alexander

[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[David Aldrich]

> Try setting the max. blocksize explicit, e.g. I'm using -B 1460 here. It depends
> on the used tftp-server.

Hi Alexander
 
Thanks for your reply.  Please will you confirm the exact syntax?  I tried:

# tftp -B 1460 0x80000200 tci6614-evm.dtb
tftpboot - boot image via network using TFTP protocol

Usage:
tftpboot [loadAddress] [[hostIPaddr:]bootfilename]

I also tried:

setenv tftpblocksize 1460

but that made no difference.

What is the correct way of specifying the block size please?

David

[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[David Aldrich]

> Try setting the max. blocksize explicit, e.g. I'm using -B 1460 here. It depends
> on the used tftp-server.

I have tried setting u-boot env variable tftpblocksize to 1460 and option "--blocksize 1460" on the server, but there's no improvement.  Also tried 512 but same result.

David

[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[Alexander Holler]

Am 18.01.2013 11:16, schrieb David Aldrich:
> 
>> Try setting the max. blocksize explicit, e.g. I'm using -B 1460 here. It depends
>> on the used tftp-server.
> 
> Hi Alexander
>  
> Thanks for your reply.  Please will you confirm the exact syntax?  I tried:
> 
> # tftp -B 1460 0x80000200 tci6614-evm.dtb
> tftpboot - boot image via network using TFTP protocol
> 
> Usage:
> tftpboot [loadAddress] [[hostIPaddr:]bootfilename]
> 
> I also tried:
> 
> setenv tftpblocksize 1460
> 
> but that made no difference.
> 
> What is the correct way of specifying the block size please?

That -B n is an option for the server, which is in my case (not Ubuntu)
called in.tftpd and comes from the package tftpd-hpa (a Linux port of
the OpenBSD TFTP server).

So you have to change that on your Ubuntu box.

Regards,

Alexander

[U-Boot] Slow tftp boot with Ubuntu 12.04 tftp server

[Steve Strobel]

On Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 8:29 AM, David Aldrich
<David.Aldrich@emea.nec.com>wrote:

> I would like to give some more information about my problem.  u-boot's
> tftp transfers do eventually complete and the evm boots.  I can then
> execute tftp get commands from Linux on the evm and these execute quickly.
> So the problem definitely has to do with the way u-boot uses tftp.
>

I have experienced similar issues.  It seems that once U-Boot's TFTP client
has trouble with one packet that it tends to have a lot more trouble
thereafter.  For example, if the file I try to TFTP doesn't exist when I
start the transfer, it retries until the file does exist at which time it
starts the transfer (so far, so good), but the file transfer is then very
slow.  If I press CTRL-C to stop it then start it again, it runs quickly.

I have also had problems using TFTP from U-Boot through Ethernet hubs that
seem to work well for everything else.  Replacing the hubs with switches
solved the problem in multiple cases.

I haven't tried to capture the packets and troubleshoot it, but it seems
like there is something non-optimal in the timing.

Steve


-- 
Steve Strobel
Link Communications, Inc.
1035 Cerise Rd
Billings, MT 59101-7378
(406) 245-5002 ext 102
(406) 245-4889 (fax)
WWW: http://www.link-comm.com
MailTo:steve.strobel at link-comm.com