DLNA server for BlackArmor NAS

Today I was reading a couple of forums and bumped into a write up on the "BubbleUPnP - UPnP/DLNA Control Point and Renderer" application for Android that has both DLNA client and server support. The BubbleUPnP setup also has a Java based server mentioned in their section on NAS devices, such as the QNAP which is very similar to the BlackArmor NAS.

Earlier in my writing, I was reviewing a version of Java for the ARM that was called "Sun Java SE for Embedded".  It would allow for executing a Java application on the BlackArmor.  Up until now, I did not have a Java application to really motivate me to install and test this but the BubbleUPnP DLNA server might allow for my BlueRay Play, Roku and Android cell phone to play my movies directly off the BlackArmor NAS.

There is one problem which is getting the ffmpeg library compiled and running. This is described in the docs above for the QNAP NAS but I've not been successful at getting a working toolchain yet.  I may have to backtrack and see if I can just use the toolchain provided by Seagate to compile this newer version of ffmpeg.

Another issue is that the Java SE for Embedded is licensed strangely by Oracle. It cannot be redistributed and requires licensing costs if it is redistributed by a professional package.

So step one would be to compile the ffmpeg library and test it out.  I hope to try that out with the existing Seagate toolchain.  The next step would be to get the Java SE Embedded to run a basic HelloWorld application on the console.  After that, try to get the BubbleUPnP server running.

I'll see if I can get a couple hours together to work on this this coming week. It would be nicer to have an open source DLNA server but I'll take what I can get.  Since I'm talking about taking some time to compile C/C++ code anyway to get this working, I checked on open source DLNA servers and popped up something from eLinux that was interesting to read over.  It looks like MediaTomb, uShare, and Serviio are candidates that could replace the BubbleUPnP server if I get the compiler toolchain working.

We will just have to see how much time I can get together to play around with this.

Junking Hardware / Cleaning Office

I'm clearing out about 90% of my old hardware from my home office.

Things like my ancient Sun Sparc Station 4 and 5 for my old Oracle work, and the older Sparc Classic (lunchbox), Sparc IPX systems used in my distributed web development days, and the Cobalt RaQ and iMac G3 systems I did development on about a decade ago.  I'm also dumping a Compaq 286 laptop that served me well in doing assembly and C coding and it's cousin the 486 that was my constant companion for several years. The dumping continues with numerous boxes of old cabling, strange and exotic old cards (ISA, PCI, MCA, EISA, VESA, Sbus, and some I don't even recognize now), a couple of engineering sample video cards, some really old KVMs, couple of 24 port serial port concentrators (that I hacked the firmware on) and even a pair of old Cisco 2500's used in my network testing days. It's about 20 years of hardware exiting the house before we do the renovations and addition to my home.

It is really sad to see some of these little guys leave the house but looking forward to a cleaned out home office that I can get back to being a pleasant work and coding environment.  So out the door they go.

In dumping all this equipment, I've been gathering the hardware junk box that I can re-use in other hardware projects.  So far I have two of these boxes with weird stuff like an old Palm 5 docking station, some ear phones, some older coaxial cable, and the other random assortment of hardware junk you find useful when hacking hardware. These two boxes are starting too look really strange like something from a Mad Max movie.

This is cathartic writing about all these old pieces of equipment that were used in my professional and personal learning processes. It's hard to part with some of these because of the happy memories associated with figuring out the next *big* problem in technology for that time.

Good bye little friends and now to start gathering the next set. :)

UPS and Print Server

I  bought a APC Back-UPS ES 550 awhile back from CostCo without knowing for sure if it would work with the Seagate BlackArmor NAS. It works great so far. I was afraid I would have to hack on the configuration file for the software but it worked out of the box without any extra effort other than enabling the UPS Manager.

I had a second dilemma which was that I use the NAS as my print server for an older Brother MFC 7420 printer and did not want to loose that configuration.  There is only one USB port off the back of the unit that is supposed to work with printers and UPS.  So for my next surprise, I found that it works for both the UPS and printer with an old un-powered notebook USB hub that I got as a door prize at some Cisco event.

I may test plugging up my old 500GB Seagate USB hard disk to that hub as well and see if it recognizes the space and makes it available.

So for anyone else, I cannot vouch for all UPS and printers but my configuration above is working great.

Serial Port on BlackArmor NAS

I found my old Samsung x426 USB cell phone programmer cable as I was cleaning out my home office. I might have mentioned this cable earlier when I wrote about adding a serial console to the BlackArmor NAS.  The cable is a really old style one that has a weird connector for the cell phone way before the mini-USB became standard. The interesting thing about this cable is that it has a serial to USB converter chip (2303HXC 0546) that does the magic of converting serial to USB. That is why that thing was ridiculously expensive ($35) when I bought it back in the day.

Why this is even on my radar as possible is that the website CrapNAS had an entry for how to connect a serial or USB cable so you can watch the Linux boot up as a serial console session. They specify two different ways to do this. For the serial connection, they specify a MAX3232 as necessary.  The USB connection has a schematic that includes a 2303HX. I'm not sure what the difference is between that and my 2303HXC so I will be doing some reading before I cut into the cable and get out the soldering iron.

Why am I even messing around with a serial console?  Because as I am planning to mess around with the lower level system, I should have a back out plan if I do something wrong. A serial console on the device gives me more options during the boot up even if I cannot connect via a network connection.

As far as getting time to work on the compiler toolchain, I've been relaxing over the holiday break with family, cleaning my messy home office and have not even booted up the virtual machine since my last post. I intend to get back to it someday.

Toolchains compiled

Two full toolchains built and a third that I still think might be made to work.  The first is using older versions of everything and was mostly done as a test to get the build environment working against known sources that are known to build. Even this known build process required some effort to get working in a current OS environment. Those docs, notes and scripts will be coming in the near future.

So to outline what works and not, I give you the following.

Toolchain that comes from older versions of software and the docs from Tom Walsh:

• binutils-2.19.1a.tar.bz2
• gcc-4.3.2.tar.bz2 (with a patch from Tom)
• newlib-1.16.0.tar.gz (with a patch from Tom)
• insight-weekly-CVS-7.0.50-20091130.tar.bz2

Newest versions that compiled based on Tom's scripts:

• binutils-2.22.tar.bz2
• gcc-4.4.6.tar.bz2
• newlib-1.19.0.tar.gz
• insight-CVS-20111130.tar.bz2 (pulled from CVS head and required patching by me)

Newest versions that fails to compile in GCC in zlib:

• binutils-2.22.tar.bz2
• gcc-4.6.2.tar.bz2
• newlib-1.19.0.tar.gz
• insight-CVS-20111130.tar.bz2 (pulled from CVS head and required patching by me)

The issue in GCC is well documented (if you know what you are looking for) as a bug in the "--enabled-multilib" during the build. The zlib library that is packaged with the GCC source fails to build in a cross-compiled configuration. Who knew that GCC packages their own copy of zlib in the GCC sources? There appear to be a couple of solutions which might fix the problem. The first is to just use the native zlib from the host system and pass in "--with-system-zlib" but that feels like a hack instead of a fix. The other is to revert a change in GCC that is documented in a couple of places (Bug45174 and Bug43328). This is a bug in the "configure" phase of the standard "configure;make;make install" but shows up in the "make" stage. So, I'll revisit this as time permits and see about getting the latest GCC 4.6 series working.

The more exciting thing is that it looks like both GCC versions that compiled will compile code to an intermediate state.  That is not proof that it generates a working executable but it is a step in the right direction.

For the GCC 4.3.2 version here is a test showing it compiling a quick test.

$ cat > test.c

int main (){return 0;}

Ctrl-D

$ ./arm-elf-gcc -Os -S test.c

$ cat test.s

        .file   "test.c"

        .text

        .align  2

        .global main

        .type   main, %function

main:

        @ args = 0, pretend = 0, frame = 0

        @ frame_needed = 0, uses_anonymous_args = 0

        @ link register save eliminated.

        mov     r0, #0

        bx      lr

        .size   main, .-main

        .ident  "GCC: (GNU) 4.3.2"

For the GCC 4.4.6 version here is a test showing it compiling a quick test.

$ cat > test.c

int main (){return 0;}

Ctrl-D

$ ./arm-elf-gcc -Os -S test.c

$ cat test.s

        .file   "test.c"

        .text

        .align  2

        .global main

        .type   main, %function

main:

        @ args = 0, pretend = 0, frame = 0

        @ frame_needed = 0, uses_anonymous_args = 0

        @ link register save eliminated.

        mov     r0, #0

        bx      lr

        .size   main, .-main

        .ident  "GCC: (GNU) 4.4.6"

While this is good news, it is not an ARM executable. My followup post will not be so upbeat.

Sun Java SE for Embedded Systems (Jazelle DBX)

Earlier I mentioned a technology called "Jazelle DBX" for the ARM processor that allows for Java Bytecode eXecution (JBX) directly in the ARM hardware which should make it run faster. That DBX technology is being phased out with newer Thumb-2 instruction set being the new preference by ARM for acceleration.  However, the processor in the BlackArmor NAS was the first processor to have this Jazelle DBX feature and I want to see if it has any merit. I did some digging around, like I mentioned I would, and found that Sun had produced a version of Java that may have this technology.

Sun has two small version of Java.  Once is called Java ME (micro-edition) and the other is Java SE for Embedded. The micro-edition was only for really tightly constrained environments like older cell phones that only had 8MB to 16MB of RAM. It was a feature reduced subset of Java with lots of limitations to make it work in that environment. Remember my old Motorola Razor cellphone from earlier posts and that is where this version of Java lived. That version of Java was crippled and never really seemed to take off.  On the other hand that version of Java is in some of our BlueRay players so it wasn't all bad. We just don't want this version of Java on the BlackArmor as it doesn't give us any interesting things other than cell phone Tetris.

The other version of Java is called "Sun Java SE for Embedded" and lifts many of the limitations of the ME version of Java.  It is a mostly full implementation of Java and allows for most libraries to be used from the reading. The downside is that it requires licensing when being used by a business. Fortunately, development work is free. I pulled a copy of the software as a tarball from Sun and will be taking a look at it when I get an environments setup and some times to play.  It has some requirements that may make is hard to use as it takes a minimum of 32MB of RAM per virtual-machine. Remember that the BlackArmor, only has 128MB total of RAM so that is a quite a lot of memory for just one Java VM.

We'll have to see if this is even feasible but it may open up a huge number of possibilities when you look at the diversity of Java code running out there.

Well that was my fun reading for the evening.  I hope you enjoyed my brain dump or at least found it tolerable. Anyone with experience in the area, please drop comment.

Reading on ARM Architecture

So earlier I was digging around trying to find out more about the Black Armor NAS hardware and pulled some interesting information.  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of ARM background so a good bit of it was confusing as I reviewed it.

Snippet from earlier hardware information gathering:
$ uname -a
Linux NAS3 2.6.22.18 #1 Thu Aug 26 12:26:10 CST 2010 v0.0.8 armv5tejl unknown
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor       : ARM926EJ-S rev 1 (v5l)

To rectify my lack of knowledge I started reading on Wikipedia and found the ARM architecture which made me realize that I've been missing out on an entirely different ecology of technologic innovation.  The features that are available for each processor was an interesting ride down memory lane with my memory of Intel CPU features, that I'm familiar with, running parallel to the ARM decisions in the same areas. They have two completely different paths but seem to have interchange between the two. ARM has an interesting history as a company as well.

So, I found information on the processor on the Wikipedia page for List of ARM Cores and the earlier reading on architecture helped me understand the differences between the Family, Arch and Core. Again, interesting ecology of processor technology.

ARM Family:       ARM9E
ARM Architecture: ARMv5TEJ
ARM Core:         ARM926EJ-S
Features:         Thumb, Jazelle DBX, Enhanced DSP instructions
Cache (I/D), MMU: variable, TCMs, MMU
Typical MIPS@MHz: 220 MIPS @ 200 MHz

This helps me understand what I will need in a toolchain and setup for that environment.  Earlier earlier I was not even aware that I was missing most of this background information. The ARMv# versus the ARM##XXX were confusing me but now I see the difference.

From the ARMv5TEJ, the "T" is the Thumb instruction set which is a subset of the overall ARM instructions optimized for performance by reducing some features.
T: Thumb Instructure Set support

So, the "J" in the ARMv5TEJ means we have "Jazelle" support. This feature initially stood out for me as it is direct execution of Java Bytecode against the underlying hardware. This could have be useful if a small Java VM could take advantage of the hardware but it looks like a dead-end since it is a closed implementation. It has also been made less relevant with the Thumb-2 implementation and it depends on the specific implementation if it is real hardware support or not now.  It is interesting to see the "Jazelle" feature was first implemented on this particular CPU.  I'll have to do more reading on it to see if anyone actually got a JVM running with hardware support.
J: Jazelle support

The "E" means Enhanced DSP support and that may be used for the streaming media or not. TDMI is implied by the E as well which gives us support for:
E: Enhanced DSP (digitial signal processing) support
T: Thumb Instructure Set support
D: JTAG debug support
M: Enhanced multiplier support
I: EmbeddedICE support
That is interesting in that each of those features can be enabled during compilation of software and might be used to improve performance.

Black Armor status

So my list of things to figure out keeps growing but I don't seem to get any time to work on them.

1. UPS software setup
2. DLNA server functionality
3. USB Hub issue to figure out so I can run the UPS and Printer together.

4. Serial Port hack (new)

I also want to get the serial port hack working which requires some physical work disassembling the NAS and maybe some soldering work to build a serial converter. The major work is already done by another guy on http://crapnas.blogspot.com but I'd have to follow along. There also appears to be a shortcut with an old Nokia USB cell phone cable that might be worth checking out.

Maybe next weekend I'll get some time. Project is just not getting cycles but I'm still thinking about it.

USB Ports on NAS

So I'm working on the UPS addition and forgot I use that USB port for my printer sharing. So time to do some reading on USB hubs and the Black Armor NAS 110. The printer is important and the UPS is important.  I wonder if I can mix my peanut butter and chocolate.

Even stranger, there is a USB port on the front of the box but that is special purposed for just USB Memory backups only.

So I have several paths here to check.

Black Armor NAS Information

Here is the beginning of a dump of information on the Black Armor device from the Linux kernel and environment.  From this I learned the processor type and features. I also got some pointers to cross-compiler options used. These will all be important later.

$ uname -a
Linux NAS3 2.6.22.18 #1 Thu Aug 26 12:26:10 CST 2010 v0.0.8 armv5tejl unknown
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor       : ARM926EJ-S rev 1 (v5l)
BogoMIPS        : 794.62
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult edsp
CPU implementer : 0x56
CPU architecture: 5TE
CPU variant     : 0x2
CPU part        : 0x131
CPU revision    : 1
Cache type      : write-back
Cache clean     : cp15 c7 ops
Cache lockdown  : format C
Cache format    : Harvard
I size          : 16384
I assoc         : 4
I line length   : 32
I sets          : 128
D size          : 16384
D assoc         : 4
D line length   : 32
D sets          : 128


Hardware        : Feroceon-KW
Revision        : 0000
Serial          : 0000000000000000

$ cat kmsg

<5>Linux version 2.6.22.18 (root@jasonDev.localdomain) (gcc version 4.2.1) #1 Thu Aug 26 12:26:10 CST 2010 v0.0.8

<4>CPU: ARM926EJ-S [56251311] revision 1 (ARMv5TE), cr=00053977

<4>Machine: Feroceon-KW

<4>  Marvell Development Board (LSP Version KW_LSP_4.2.7_patch21_with_rx_desc_tuned)-- MONO  Soc: 88F6192 A1 LE

$ dmesg

... way too much stuff ...