Pc Engines APU architecture / ToH

Hello,

On the Wiki, ToH shows that Pc Engines APU and APU1c have i386_pentium4 architecture:
https://lede-project.org/toh/views/toh_packagedownload?dataflt[Brand*~]=PC+Engines

In fact, I am running Debian AMD64 on them, so I assume that they are x86_64.

PC Engines confirms that:
https://www.pcengines.ch/apu.htm
"64 bit suppor"

Is there any reason for indicating i386_pentium4 or shall I modify the wiki for x86_64?

Kind regards,
FF

The OpenWrt dataentries show x86_64 for both devices:

https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/pcengines/pcengines_apu1c
https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/pcengines/pcengines_apu1c4

Maybe i386_pentium4 was erroneously introduced during conversion of the dataentries from OpenWrt -> LEDE.

...after digging some more in the wiki(s):

-> That's where i386_pentium4 might have come from.

Thanks for the modification Thomas.

I am playing around with the APU1 under Debian, creating a custom installer using serial console and network drivers.

There are differences around networking:
The APU1 requires kmod-r8168.
The APU2 requires kmod-r8169.

Therefore, under LEDE, there probably is a need to compile kmod-r8168 to support the APU1.
So I will propose a custom profile for the APU1 shortly.

Kind regards,

Sorry, r8169 does the job for the APU1 also.

The PC Engines line up is more complex actually.

The letter "c" is the board rev, and the current version of the "apu1" family is rev "d" with the following parts
apu1d, 2GB
apu1d4, 4gb
don't ask me why the first is not an apu1d2 which makes more sense

@tmomas, if you can clone the above from their respective c versions, I think the only change is the discontinued to available and rev to d.

The apu2 has 5 variations currently
apu2c0 (2 GB DRAM, 2 i211AT NICs)
apu2c2 (2 GB DRAM, 3 i211AT NICs)
apu2c4 (4 GB DRAM, 3 i210AT NICs)
apu3a2 (2 GB DRAM, 3 i211AT NICs, optimized for 3G/LTE modems)
apu3a4 (4 GB DRAM, 3 i211AT NICs, optimized for 3G/LTE modems)

I have created an entry for the apu2c2, but someone should validate the package architecture and download (and anything else). I believe that JOW and Borromini both have some variation of these and may be able to improve some of the info. I do not own one.

@tmomas,Can you clone this to the others and I will then update the deltas. Note that I have chosen to use the exact capitalization that PC engines uses, which is none. If you wish to change that to caps, I am indifferent. I think it's easier to read.

I took a quick cleanup pass over https://lede-project.org/toh/hwdata/pc_engines/pc_engines_apu2c2_c and changed the naming to capitals, adapting it to the already existing APU1. Only after this I read your posting...

Normally I prefer the OEM spelling, but in this case, the git commits use capital letters: https://git.lede-project.org/?p=source.git&a=search&h=HEAD&st=commit&s=apu

I prefer capitals for better readability.

Regarding letter "c" in pc_engines_apu2c2_c: Did I understand this right, the "_ c" is the same as in "2c2", i.e. both meaning the board rev? If true, I'd omit the "_c".

Regarding LEDE Supported Since Rel: Has APU2 support been added only with 17.01.2? I can't find a clear "add support for apup2" in the git commits (see above link)...

Regarding cloning: You can do it yourself, just copy & paste, and take care to get the path correct.
If the only difference is RAM, I'd prefer to only have one dataentry (e.g. apu3a2, apu3a4)

Yes, the "c" is the same name, they use it in the part number (not a good process in my mind)

The APU2 has been around long enough that that older board rev's were probably supported earlier by older firmware revs. I really do not know the answer for this or which files to use.

[quote="tmomas, post:6, topic:5636"]
Regarding cloning: You can do it yourself, just copy & paste, and take care to get the path correct.If the only difference is RAM, I'd prefer to only have one dataentry (e.g. apu3a2, apu3a4)
[/quote]I'll defer to your preference on this, not aware of any differences. If it becomes an issue (doubtful) it can be added later. I'll see if I can figure out the C&P thing.

@tmomas, yeah, not seeing how to create a new page by C&P. I can go into edit mode and see the message "If you can read this your doing it wrong". I can edit the first line and copy the "new" page, and "cancel" the change, but no clue how to make the new page, yet alone in the correct place.

It's easy.

Copy: Go to the page that should be copied, edit that page, copy, then cancel the edit.

Paste: Go to the page that should be created, e.g. https://lede-project.org/toh/hwdata/pc_engines/pc_engines_apu9z5, create the new page, paste, adapt to new model that should be shown on that page.

Not the standard way new dataentries should be created, but a big timesaver in case of very similar devices.

I did one to test the process
https://lede-project.org/toh/hwdata/pc_engines/pc_engines_apu2c4
Is the rev the way you want it?

Looking good!

nothing to do with LEDE, but if you are interested in a Debian installer over serial console, here it is:
https://github.com/ffries/Debian-installer-with-serial-console

@RangerZ

To my knowledge, none of the APU has a switch.
Pc Engines always provides full-fledged ethernet cards.

if you connect under Debian or LEDE, you can verify that:
https://lede-project.org/docs/user-guide/switch_configuration#understanding_your_hardware

I added an entry for the APU1C:
https://lede-project.org/toh/hwdata/pc_engines/pc_engines_apu1d

How to mention the sd card?

Please be careful when copying dataentries. It is absolutely not the prefered way, since it is error prone, as shown by your copy.

  • Wrong pagetitle PC Engines APU2C4 i/o PC Engines APU1D
  • Serial field input malformed, since the edit has not been done via the dataentry editor

I corrected both just now.

As for the comment: Way too long. The comments are shown in certain ToH views, and too much content unnecessarily blows up the tables.

Regarding SD card: -> Flash MB -> scroll don the list and you will find SD

Added and updated the others best I can
https://lede-project.org/toh/start?dataflt[Model*~]=apu
Comments were by myself. Not sure I see the issue, they wrap nicely in Full Details
Regarding FLASH, I now see the SD. These can also be run from USB or SATA, but entries do not exist. Not sure they are worth updating, but if you do I will.

Thanks, now I understand how to edit the ToH.

Besides, it could be worth creating a custom target for the APU to benefit from gcc optimizations (?)
According to: https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/pcengines/apu#custom_openwrt_image

So I need to compile and benchmark, right?
Not sure the APU can provide such an acceleration, seems unrealistic.
Will test and report.

PLEASE, do not edit dataentries the way you did for APU1D + Alix 1C. There is a reason why there are two warnings about correct editing of dataentries.

-> Edit dataentries ONLY via the Edit button on the lower left corner of the dataentry.

I used the Edit button, but the link to Owrt wiki did not show. So I switched to manual.