Will it run FreeBSD ? [Embedded Version]

Sharing this information to this thread as well. I have a 610 and 640 up and working with pfSense. Both required a BIOS update first. BIOS update took care of watchdog timer. 610 gets a tad more complicated with it's ethernet ports due to them being tied to the C3K SOC eth ports via a Marvell 88E6190 embedded switch.

Dell VEP/VMWare Edge/Velo Cloud SD-WAN/VeraCloud VEP1400/VEP1400-X firewall units

Following this interesting thread i noticed there are also rack mounts that holds 2 of these: VeloCloud 610 Rackhalterung | eBay $27.99 OBO, US based seller. https://www.ebay.com/itm/285099346876
forums.servethehome.com forums.servethehome.com
 
Hi FluffyB0nes, can you tell me how to update the BIOS on the Dell Edge610 ?
I have already installed different Linux versions (ubuntu, VyOS, Danos, FreeBSD), but I don´t get the interfaces up although the drivers are loaded.
 
Hi, I am also looking for the dell sd-wan edge 610 bios. Does anyone have a working bios they can share? thank you
 
Just saw this thread pop up, so I thought I'd ask....

Is there any chance of getting FreeBSD running on an old IBM ThinkPad 820 (PowerPC)? It switches on but the hard disk is probably dead. It uses a SCSI disk. Not sure if you can still get them.
 
tingo said:
any IBM ThinkPad is hardly embedded (in the context of FreeBSD), but the information is available
www.freebsd.org

FreeBSD/ppc Project

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.
www.freebsd.org www.freebsd.org
based on the information here, the 820 is a 7247-82x machine. So I'll say the chance to get FreeBSD running on it is slim, very slim.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for the links. I'll refer back to this at some point if/when I find a suitable SCSI disk for the system, as I'm not sure whether the disk has any life in it.
 
As some might I have noticed I have taken an interest in Lora and LoraWAN.
I have made a purchase finally. I got two Helium Miners with Arm64 base.
www.nebra.com

Nebra ROCK Pi Miner - 10,000 units being produced this week

Hey folks, We wanted to share a quick update with you regarding the Nebra Indoor ROCK Pi miners. Yesterday we started assembling the ROCK Pi miners at our factory in China. Based on our current schedule, we're aiming to produce ~10,000 units before Chinese New Year begins (25th of January)...
www.nebra.com www.nebra.com

Rock Pi but what version. When I originally discovered these I assume the worst. Rock Pi original with rk3308.
But I saw that they are RK3399 so they must be a Rock Pi 4. But what flavor??? With wireless probably Rock4B.
We shall see. They went for $60 on ebay and base RockPi4 is >$80 so worth a gamble. As a bonus a hat with a Lora Radio.
old.reddit.com

Worst Miner ever? Nebra Rock Pi indoor

Posted in r/NebraMiner by u/Over-Tadpole-1995 • 10 points and 33 comments
old.reddit.com old.reddit.com
Semtech sx1301 radio in SPI factor via MiniPCIe slot. (USB version available too). SPI because its a 40Pin Hat without USB access.

I found this interesting too.
RK3566 driving a Lora Box. Browan MerryIOT
heliummart.com

Merry IoT Helium Hotspot Miner + Multimining Available!!!

Browan MerryIoT Hotspot Helium HNT Miner EU868 In stock
heliummart.com heliummart.com
Bluetooth onboard and Lora under a shield. Looks like a similar MiniPCIe adapter for Lora radio. This one uses sx1302 radio.
 
I understand the interest in LoRa and LoRaWAN. It will be interesting to follow your journey. The thing I don't understand is why a cryptominer box would have (or need) LoRa?
 
tingo said:
The thing I don't understand is why
Click to expand...
Believe me I don't understand the concept any more than you do.
Apparently they wirelessly network miners to ???

I am just a hardware scraper. These Nebra had bad firmware so everybody dumped them.
I am not sure they ever worked.
Sounds like what I would expect for crypto. Another ponzi scheme.

I am just glad they used hardware I am familiar with.
 
Despite my interest in Lora and LoraWAN I am realistic in that FreeBSD probably won't ever support it.
There are LoraWAN servers on github and alot of software available but I am sure to make it work on FreeBSD would be a herculean effort.
If there were a prefab Linux with Lora setup installed I might check it out.

There is a certain allure to me in a wireless network with a 5 mile range that uses AES keying. Even if low bitrate.
 
Well, LoRa is "just" another radio protocol so it could be made to work (on FreeBSD) in several iterations:
1) user programs that drive the hardware directly. Those probably exist for Linux, Arduino and whatnot and will probably port with some effort
2) figure out where LoRa fits into the FreeBSD driver infrastructure - is it dedicated (kind of like a serial port)? Or is it a generic network that needs a hardware driver? (probably not, you probably wouldn't want to run tcp/ip directly over it, because of the low bandwidth) - I have no idea how hard / time-consuming this task is
3) write FreeBSD driver(s) for the hardware - this is probably the hardest iteration
4) write some user programs and enjoy
 
Interesting, you can use LoRa to create a mesh network, like this Meshtastic. It should be possible to make something similar on FreeBSD. Could be useful for out of band monitoring for example.
 
How about a GPIO sensor net via LoraWAN....

Got my package today. Nebra is using Rock Pi 4 PLUS V1.73.
The PLUS model means MMC soldered on. NVMe slot on bottom.
Unsure what size MMC.
So I need to wipe MMC and probably clear SPI too. May need to short out SPI at boot to get past that so I can clear .

We have u-boot for rock-pi-4 but I wonder about the PLUS version.

Anybody running RockPi 4 PLUS ? How about Rock Pi 4 SE ??

Are there different dts for all these Rock Pi 4 variants?
 
OK I got FreeBSD installed on the 32GB eMMC soldered on Nebra Miner Rock Pi 4-Plus.
There was no SPI flash soldered on these starting at version RockPi-4 V1.72 so that worked out good.
I did have to use an Armbian microSD image for RockPi4B to delete Miner OS on eMMC.
So I dd zero'ed from Linux the mmcblk1 then used a stock FreeBSD u-boot image created from sysutils/u-boot-rock-pi-4 flashed to a microSD card. I then flashed the aarch64 memstick installer image to usb and use that for FreeBSD installation. After installation I had to adjust disk path in /etc/fstab and flash u-boot to eMMC.

I was so happy I bought the last new one that was <$60. Threes company....
I like the chassis. I hope to mount the NVMe adapter where Lora radio was.
 
Phishfry said:
RK3566 driving a Lora Box. Browan MerryIOT
Click to expand...
If you notice in the high rez picture there are 3 pin not populated.
Marked RX and TX. A utoob video pointed them out without explanation.
Probably the UART. With some careful soldering I could make that happen.
This box would be harder to find dtb's and uboot.
I do see a RK3568 defconfig for evb-rk3568
This is an evaluation board from Rockchip.
Guessing that is a good starting point for new unsupported RK board defconfig files. Perhaps a reference design?
Copy file and fixup for MerryIOT....
linuxgizmos.com

Dev boards showcase Rockchip's new RK3568 and RK3566

Geniatech's “RK3568 Development Board” runs Android or Linux on Rockchip’s new quad -A55 RK3568, featuring SATA III and M.2 with PCIe 3.0. There is also a similar board based on the slightly lower-spec RK3566.
linuxgizmos.com
 
I have a new line of exploration. Facial Recognition cameras. I found RK3399 Lurking in Firefly Face-X2.
A Kiosk style device for scanning temps. Stereo Cameras and spot lighting.

Face X2 Face Recognition All-In-One PC

With high-performance hardware configurations and efficient face recognition algorithms, it supports fast recognition of ID card, IC card, QR code and bar code. Coupled with the inbuilt dual-track speaker, it can achieve voice broadcast and voice reminder. It supports quick non-contact...
en.t-firefly.com en.t-firefly.com

I tore it apart and it has Firefly Face-RK3399 V2 development board with a expansion board.

Face-RK3399 Face Recognition Main Board

Face-RK3399 is small-scale and with strong face recognition performance,supports multiple face recognition algorithms and various recognition modes. Its rich peripheral interfaces can carry all kinds of peripheral equipment of gate, and meets the application needs of access control, attendance...
en.t-firefly.com en.t-firefly.com

Good Wiki where I see UART port pins and tried that with nothing.
So I rigged up a 2mm connector TTL cable to the serial debug connector and I saw u-boot.

I have bought two similar units to see what they use. I feel like they might all use the Firefly board.
safespacescan.com

Safe Space Scanner 3S-07TW - WIFI

- WIFI Capabilities - Infrared Temperature Thermal Face Recognition Scanner - Temperature measurement range 86-113 (F) Accuracy ± 0.3 (F) - Automatically identify unmasked personnel and provide real-time warning Safe Space Scan Technologies is a US Corporation based in Pompano Beach, FL. The...
safespacescan.com safespacescan.com

Will they run FreeBSD? I will find out. DSI-MIPI2 display and dual CSI ports.
A microSD card slot hiding on the underneath has me confident I can wipe Android.
 
Interior photos of Firefly Face-X2
 

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I just spread the 3 Debug pins wide so I could use my 2.54mm pitch FDT 232R-TTL.
(Bad boy and they were too short for connector so I had to hold them in place. Regardless I saw u-boot.)

I actually have a couple of 2mm FDT 232R-TTL inbound.

FTDI chip TTL-232R-3V3-2MM

I will need to rejigger the connector. Cut down to 3 pin.
 
Phishfry said:
I just spread the 3 Debug pins wide so I could use my 2.54mm pitch FDT 232R-TTL.
(Bad boy and they were too short for connector so I had to hold them in place. Regardless I saw u-boot.)

I actually have a couple of 2mm FDT 232R-TTL inbound.

FTDI chip TTL-232R-3V3-2MM

I will need to rejigger the connector. Cut down to 3 pin.
Click to expand...
Me last one burnt out cuz electricity is hard.
 
I have a Turing TVTS-OP-BTTS7 that hit the door.
www.ebay.com

TURING BODY TEMPERATURE THERMAL SCANNER TVTS-OP-BTTS7 - SH I2C | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for TURING BODY TEMPERATURE THERMAL SCANNER TVTS-OP-BTTS7 - SH I2C at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com

Body Temperature Screening Kiosk | Detects from 95.9 F to 107.6 F

This non-touch body temperature screening kiosk is a simple way to maintain a healthy environment in your place of business and lower the risk of virus spread. This simple floor standing fever-detector has a hands free design that will give a reading in a fraction of a second. Head to...
www.displays2go.com www.displays2go.com

First pop back off and see CPU covered no UART pins but I see three unpopulated holes.(2.54mm pitch)
RX/TX/GND
Solder weekend coming up.

Did not have the Firefly Face-RK3399 dev board. Will have to research.
 
covacat said:
rk3399-firefly.dtb
Click to expand...
I studied the dts for this and this will probably work. The Firefly RK3399 is a board by the same people.
It is probably close enough to boot to serial debug port.
I see HDMI but that is no big deal. No video output only DSI on dev board.
Ideally I try the official Ubuntu Image if that works scrape the dtb, decompile and reuse for FreeBSD.
 
Hello Covacat, Phishfry, and other arm64 running FreeBSD 14.0. Here is my first attempt at creating an image to 'dd' into a USB flash drive and boot on the Raspberry Pi 4B with 8 gigs dram memory. This Raspberry Pi is running FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT snapshot from Was 14.0-CURRENT snapshot, now is using FreeBSD-15.0-CURRENT. 14.0-STABLE is testing now , not available at freebsd.org/where webpage aarch64 snapshot images for FreeBSD 15.0 current
Klara Systems, building customized freebsd images webpage document I used this document to create a bootable USB flash drive image.

The ESP EFI FAT32 files I copied from the present booting RPI3 Freebsd 14.0-CURRENT snapshot. The klara systems help me to use make buildkernel, make installkernel, makefs , create image

FreeBSD this is my building platform
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:~ $ uname -mnopr
FreeBSD Fred_RasPi4B 14.0-CURRENT arm64 aarch64
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:~ $ uname -aK
FreeBSD Fred_RasPi4B 14.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT #7 main-n261078-57fcf46dee45-dirty: Sat Feb 25 06:04:13 PST 2023 root@Fred_RasPi4B:/usr/obj/usr/src/arm64.aarch64/sys/GENERIC-VCHIQ arm64 1400081
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:~ $ date
Sun Sep 24 17:02:16 PDT 2023
Click to expand...
Covacat, I am looking for hints and directions on how to debug a boot kernel. I can enable boot debug messages
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:~ $ mount
/dev/da0p10 on / (ufs, local, soft-updates)
devfs on /dev (devfs)
/dev/da0p1 on /mnt/msdos (msdosfs, local)
/dev/gpt/rootfs on /mnt/rootfs (ufs, local, soft-updates)
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:~ $ pwd
/home/fred
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:~ $ cd /mnt/rootfs
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:/mnt/rootfs $ ls
COPYRIGHT boot entropy lib media net rescue sbin usr
bin dev etc libexec mnt proc root tmp var
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:/mnt/rootfs $ ls boot
beastie.4th color.4th efi.4th gptboot.efi loader.efi loader_4th.efi logo-fbsdbw.4th menu.4th shortcuts.4th
boot1.efi defaults entropy images loader.help.efi loader_lua.efi logo-orb.4th menu.rc support.4th
brand-fbsd.4th delay.4th firmware kernel loader.help.kboot loader_simp.efi logo-orbbw.4th menusets.4th uboot
brand.4th dtb fonts loader.4th loader.kboot logo-beastie.4th lua modules version.4th
check-password.4th efi frames.4th loader.conf.d loader.rc logo-beastiebw.4th menu-commands.4th screen.4th zfs
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:/mnt/rootfs $ cat loader.conf config.txt
cat: loader.conf: No such file or directory
cat: config.txt: No such file or directory
fred@Fred_RasPi4B:/mnt/rootfs $ cat /boot/loader.conf /etc/rc.conf
beastie_disable="NO"
loader_color="YES"

# Disable the beastie menu and color
# beastie_disable="YES"
# loader_color="NO"

vm.pageout_oom_seq="4096"
vm.pfault_oom_attempts="1"

kern.cam.boot_delay="5000"


hostname="Fred_RasPi4B"
keymap="us.kbd"
ifconfig_genet0="DHCP"
defaultrouter="192.168.1.1"
kld_list="linux64"
dbus_enable="YES"
# moused_enable="YES"




FreeBSD kernel Debug tools
Click to expand...
So, I am looking for tips, hints, tricks to debug a new aarch64 kernel made from /usr/ghostbsd-src , which is almost the same as FreeBSD /usr/src

I believe you could boot a working aarch64 FreeBSD snapshot image and then compare configuration files /boot/loader.conf /etc/rc.conf to see what is different. Maybe one could swap the /boot/kernel/kernel image files. First move the broken kernel image file to different name like /boot/kernel/kernel_ghost_broken, before copying in a working kernel image file. Yes, I can set those kernel_boot_debug messages in /boot/loader.conf. I have them set on a x86_64 GhostBSD system, that is where I can locate the name I don't have at hand.

Glad to hear of your successes with other arm64 Single Board Computers. Do you suggest a JTAG board to connect to debug these kinds of problems? Tigar Board here in Portland Oregon is one such board. Orange Colored Tigard JTAG aarch64 board
 

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