Change with Mesa ethernet setup

I installed the new 2.8 Buster version, and on my install I used the wireless because it was handy.

My system did not have network-manager, but wicd.

To get to follow the instructions in the other post, I ran

apt-get install network-manager network-manager-gnome
apt-get remove wicd wicd-gtk

Then rebooted.

I also have an issue where it won't let me set the gateway until I modify the connection with nmcli.

nmcli con mod "Wired connection 1" ipv4.never-default "no"

Then run
systemctl restart NetworkManager

Still having issues, but this may help someone.

Well, my main issue was trying to use the wrong ip for the card.

In the 7i96 instructions, it says: "Default IP address is always 192.168.1.121"

That is a "private network" I think and since it is just my Linux host directly communicating with it, I just used the following in the connection setup:
Address 192.168..1.100
Netmask 24
Gateway 192.168.1.0

I also added a route direct to the card.
route add -host 192.168.1.121 dev enp4s0

After doing that, ping works, as well as the mesaflash command.
# ping 192.168.1.121
PING 192.168.1.121 (192.168.1.121) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.121: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.142 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.121: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.161 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.121: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.152 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.121 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 53ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.142/0.151/0.161/0.016 ms

# mesaflash --device 7i96 --addr 192.168.1.121 --readhmid
Configuration Name: HOSTMOT2

General configuration information:

BoardName : MESA7I96
FPGA Size: 9 KGates
FPGA Pins: 144
Number of IO Ports: 3
Width of one I/O port: 17
Clock Low frequency: 100.0000 MHz
Clock High frequency: 200.0000 MHz
IDROM Type: 3
Instance Stride 0: 4
Instance Stride 1: 64
Register Stride 0: 256
Register Stride 1: 256
...
IO Connections for P1
Pin# I/O Pri. func Sec. func Chan Pin func Pin Dir

1 34 IOPort None
14 35 IOPort None
2 36 IOPort None
15 37 IOPort None
3 38 IOPort None
16 39 IOPort None
4 40 IOPort None
17 41 IOPort None
5 42 IOPort None
6 43 IOPort None
7 44 IOPort None
8 45 IOPort None
9 46 IOPort None
10 47 IOPort None
11 48 IOPort None
12 49 IOPort None
13 50 IOPort None

I am taking this one step at a time, now I have my board powered up and talking to the computer at least.

I believe there is a jumper on the board to change its ip address to 10.10.10.10. And I believe this is preferred over 192.x.x.x as it should prevent issues/conflicts with your LAN.

AgentWD40 wrote:

I believe there is a jumper on the board to change its ip address to 10.10.10.10. And I believe this is preferred over 192.x.x.x as it should prevent issues/conflicts with your LAN.

Yes, from what you have said, you are already using the 192.168.1 address range for your network so you need to use a totally different network so there is no traffic other than from Linuxcnc onto the mesa network segment.

so change the switch on the board and set emp4s0 to 10.10.10.1

The board will respond as you have it but you can't guarantee a real time connection.

I think for me, I already have a 10.... network that my wifi connects into and trying to add to that may confuse it. So the 192.168 should work.

I am confused though.

The manual states:
HARDWARE CONFIGURATION
IP ADDRESS SELECTION
The 7I96 has three options for selecting its IP address. These options are selected
by Jumpers W5 and W6.
W5 W6 IP ADDRESS
DOWN DOWN FIXED 192.168.1.121 (DEFAULT)
DOWN UP FIXED FROM EEPROM
UP DOWN BOOTP
UP UP INVALID
Note: The as shipped default EEPROM IP address is 10.10.10.10. This can be changed
via the mesaflash utility

So, my main question now is do I need to connect to both 192.168.1.121 and 10.10.10.10? or just the 192.168.1.121 is enough?

The jumpers select the IP address. The board only has one address active and this is dependant on how you set the jumpers.

So it will EITHER be 10.10.10.10 OR 192.168.1.121 never both.

The 3 private networks that are never routed to the world are

10.x.x.x
192.168.x.x
172.16.x.x

Different router manufacturer use different defaults. 192.168.1.x is common.
so if your 7i76e is on the 192.168.1.x network, your wifi needs to be on a different network.
If your wifi in on a 10.x.x.x network, it is fine as is.
If your router was on the 192.168.2.x or 192.168.0.x for example, that would be OK too with the right netmask (255.255.255.0)
You may need to ensure your gateway is set to the internet side, not the mesa side. but DHCP should sort that out.You may find with your current settings, it will try and go out the 192.168 side. I don't think the mesa side needs a gateway.

rodw wrote:

The 3 private networks that are never routed to the world are

10.x.x.x
192.168.x.x
172.16.x.x

Different router manufacturer use different defaults. 192.168.1.x is common.
so if your 7i76e is on the 192.168.1.x network, your wifi needs to be on a different network.
If your wifi in on a 10.x.x.x network, it is fine as is.
If your router was on the 192.168.2.x or 192.168.0.x for example, that would be OK too with the right netmask (255.255.255.0)
You may need to ensure your gateway is set to the internet side, not the mesa side. but DHCP should sort that out.You may find with your current settings, it will try and go out the 192.168 side. I don't think the mesa side needs a gateway.

Why would you have your wifi on the 10.x.x.x network? You should never connect to your mesa board via wifi. If your local lan is on 10.x.x.x and your using masq for your local lan. but why would you do that with 10.x.x.x

I think I'll be ok then. I put a host route into the route table, so all the traffic to the Mesa card should go through that interface. The default route on 10 should pick up all the other traffic.