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Network Testing and Emulation Solutions

Installing Fedora with LANforge on mSATA

This guide is primarily intended to help restore mSATA images for the ct521 or the ct920 as they do not have video output. It goes through installing a LANforge disk image onto a mSATA drive via Linux or Windows, and then configuration of the LANforge system.

LANforge 5.3.7 on Fedora 27 was the most recent combination as of this writing.

Suggested Items

We want to begin with:

Installation Steps

  1. Download image

    Download the f24-msata-28g-img.bz2 image. The username and password is guest/guest.

  2. Write image to mSATA.

    After you've downloaded the disk image f24-msata-28g-img.bz2 to your Downloads folder, you will plug in your mSATA USB adapter (with 30GB+ mSATA drive) and burn the image to it:

    On Windows

    Follow the below guide for installing the image using Windows.

    Writing Disk Images on Windows

    On Linux

    • Connect the mSATA adapter with the mSATA drive to the Linux system.
    • Open a terminal window
    • To check the drive name of the mSATA, the last system messages should tell you: dmesg | tail You might see a message saying : 
       $ dmesg | tail
[   46.705126] scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ASMT     2115             0    PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[   46.720670] sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[   46.726785] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] 58626288 512-byte logical blocks: (30.0 GB/28.0 GiB)
[   46.728255] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[   46.728260] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
[   46.728975] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[   46.733389]  sdc: sdc1 sdc2
[   46.740492] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk

      Or you might use the command lsblk which will list all your drives. 
       $ lsblk
NAME                          MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdc                             8:32   0    28G  0 disk
├─sdc2                          8:34   0  27.5G  0 part
│ ├─fedora-root               252:4    0  24.7G  0 lvm
│ └─fedora-swap               252:3    0   2.8G  0 lvm
└─sdc1                          8:33   0   500M  0 part
sda                             8:0    0 111.8G  0 disk
├─sda2                          8:2    0 111.3G  0 part
│ ├─fedora_brent--521--2-swap 252:1    0   7.6G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
│ ├─fedora_brent--521--2-home 252:2    0  53.7G  0 lvm  /home
│ └─fedora_brent--521--2-root 252:0    0    50G  0 lvm  /
└─sda1                          8:1    0   500M  0 part /boot
      For this example, we'll assume your mSATA drive is /dev/sdc
    • You can use the dd utility on the command line. Make sure to replace /dev/sdc with your device! 
       $ cd ~/Downloads
 $ sudo bzcat f24-msata-28g-img.bz2 | dd of=/dev/sdc
      Note: This command can take a while to run (roughly 20-25 minutes on USB 3.0 or 1-2 hours on USB 2.0).

  3. Connect mSATA drive.

    Remove the mSATA drive from the USB adapter and place it into the desired system.
    Note:     The system will not function correctly if you try to boot off the mSATA while it is in the USB adapter.
    The above picture is from a ct521 system.

  4. Configure LANforge

    Connect to the LANforge system via serial connection and log in.

    • User/Password: root/lanforge

    Configure the LANforge system for internet access.

    • Make sure just one ethernet cable is plugged in. For the ct521 system, use the leftmost port.
    • Use the command ip l show. One port should show 'UP' as seen below.
      • 2: enp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DE0
      link/ether 00:0d:b9:44:6f:40 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    • Use the command dhclient portname where portname is the port found above.
      Example: dhclient enp2s0
    • Verify an IP was obtained with ifconfig portname.
      Example: ifconfig enp2s0

    Update the system and reboot.

    • dnf update -y
    • reboot
    • After rebooting you will need to run dhclient again to get an IP.
      dhclient enp2s0

    Run the lf_kinstall script to configure LANforge software.

    • In the serial terminal, copy and paste the below command.
      /root/lf_kinstall.pl --lfver 5.3.6 --kver 4.9.27+ --do_all_ct --do_sys_reconfig
    • Reboot the system after lf_kinstall completes: reboot
    • Run lf_kinstall again with do_grub option. This makes kernel options show up on boot.
      Note: The options should normally show up on the first lf_kinstall. We are currently looking into this.
      /root/lf_kinstall.pl --lfver 5.3.6 --kver 4.9.27+ --do_grub
    • Reboot the system once more: reboot

    Install the LANforge license.

    • The license can be installed via the management GUI under the Control->Install License file menu.

    Set firmware for ath10k radios (skip this step if there are no ath10k radios).

    • In the management GUI's Port Mgr tab, Modify the wiphy port of the ath10k radio(s).
    • In the firmware tab, click Customize Firmware and then Firmware Defaults for chipset: 988x.

    • Click Apply and close the window.

    Delete Phantom ports.

    • There are likely to be some phantom ports in the Port Mgr tab such as enp2s0 and enp3s0. These can be deleted as they are just remnants of ports that have been renamed.

    All set up! If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at support@candelatech.com.

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