Heavy duty Javelin hacking

[BadIntentions]

The internal RAID controller is properly connected, just waiting for a kernel module to take control. I will probably juse use the AHCI open source module, unless Promise wants to play nice and release a more recent open source module (GPL maybe?)

81:00.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC42819 [FastTrak TX2650/TX4650]
        Subsystem: Promise Technology, Inc. Device 3716
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
        I/O ports at 1400 [disabled] [size=128]
        I/O ports at 1000 [disabled] [size=256]
        Memory at e80022000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Memory at e80000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        Memory at e80020000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [70] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [94] SATA HBA v1.0
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-02-00-00-00-01
        Capabilities: [170] Power Budgeting <?>

Edited to add:
SATA ports alive!

root@OpenWrt:/lib/modules/3.0.3# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Tainted: G
libahci                15860  0
libata                116352  1 libahci
scsi_mod               68928  1 libata
usbcore                99052  1
nls_base                4932  1 usbcore
exportfs                2912  0
crc16                   1144  0
input_core             19976  0
root@OpenWrt:/lib/modules/3.0.3# insmod ahci
ahci 0000:81:00.0: version 3.0
ahci 0000:81:00.0: PDC42819 can only drive SATA devices with this driver
ahci 0000:81:00.0: enabling device (0006 -> 0007)
ahci 0000:81:00.0: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0xf impl RAID mode
ahci 0000:81:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf ilck pm led clo only pmp pio slum part ccc
scsi0 : ahci
scsi1 : ahci
scsi2 : ahci
scsi3 : ahci
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m8192@0xe80020000 port 0xe80020100 irq 18
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m8192@0xe80020000 port 0xe80020180 irq 18
ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m8192@0xe80020000 port 0xe80020200 irq 18
ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m8192@0xe80020000 port 0xe80020280 irq 18
ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)

[BadIntentions]

I have gotten to the point where i have a complete, stable Linux OS running on the Javelin, using nothing but open source software. 100% free, with no closed components, using nothing provided to me by Patriot or Promise.

While Patriot has been helpful, their upstream vendor pretty much cut and run when I needed assistance above and beyond what was found in some broken english documentation. The solution that came to me at this point was to drop using their SDK/BSP and roll my own.

The only issues remaining are:

-Decide on a flash map
-USB boot (should be totally possible)
-Default configuration (network, Drives)
-Fan and LEDS (Fan currently defaults to medium speed, HDD leds default to OFF)
-Web Interface? (using luci WebIf at the moment, i dont intend this firmware to average users anyway. If a black and white linux command line scares you, this isnt for you.)
-Reverse Engineer installation mechanism (currently needs Serial and a TFTP server)

The objectives of the firmware are pretty straight forward.

-No Closed Source Components
-No Restrictions. I'll post the SDK. If you know how to compile a linux application, you will have what you need to build packages for my firmware.


I am totally unlocking the Javelin, to let you do what you want with it. No User Interface by default. Nothing but a small firmware (less than 3mb) and a terminal session. The firmware is based on DENX, OpenWRT, and my own work. It is heavily OpenWRT derived, so much so i will build a set of patches that should allow OpenWRT to basically compile without anything else and run on the Javelin.

As an example, just to show how powerful this is, i have included a blurry video of my OpenJavelin firmware running a quick and dirty demo.



I started with a fresh install of OpenJavelin. It has nothing on it. I issued one command (opkg install kmod-usb-audio madplay). That was all it took. The javelin now has support for USB audio cards, and an application to play music. I copied an MP3 to the Javelin, and issued a command to madplay to start playing (cat Korn-NarcissisticCannibal.mp3 | madplay -v -) and it fired right up.

Total time was about 90 seconds. Granted, this will take notably longer if you dont sleep with the repository server in your house but this gives you a rough idea.

root@OpenJavelin:/# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
cpu             : 460EX
clock           : 800.000010MHz
revision        : 24.170 (pvr 1302 18aa)
bogomips        : 1597.44
timebase        : 800000010
platform        : PowerPC 44x Platform
model           : amcc,canyonlands
Memory          : 256 MB
root@OpenJavelin:/# cat Korn-NarcissisticCannibal.mp3 | madplay -v -
MPEG Audio Decoder 0.15.2 (beta) - Copyright (C) 2000-2004 Robert Leslie et al.
        Encoder: Lavf52.32.0
 00:03:14 Layer III, 128 kbps, 44100 Hz, joint stereo (MS), no CRC
7444 frames decoded (0:03:14.4), +1.9 dB peak amplitude, 3892 clipped samples

The javelin is actually quite powerful for an embedded device, using 5% of its CPU to decode an averagely encoded MP3, and 1% system time to feed the USB audio card.

Mem: 24896K used, 232556K free, 0K shrd, 8K buff, 17740K cached
CPU:   5% usr   0% sys   0% nic  94% idle   0% io   0% irq   0% sirq
Load average: 0.09 0.03 0.01 2/34 799
  PID  PPID USER     STAT   VSZ %MEM %CPU COMMAND
  797   666 root     S     1448   1%   6% madplay -v -

[ChrisTWL]

I was wondering whatever happened to your build of OpenWRT for the Javelin? Were you able to finish it and how can other people get it up and running on their Javelin? Thanks for all your work thus far.

[thecrazy]

Awesome work, would be nice to see this develop into a full working firmware alternative for the Javelin and maybe one day we can get new features like Raid Expansion (as supported in the netgear nas). Also there are larger drives coming out with a custom firmware im sure our box could do a lot more than a 12gb array.

Whatever happens good work, nice to see whats possible with that box.

[BadIntentions]

I do not know of any reason the Javelin would have a hard time with drives that large. It uses GPT, and the file system is extensible into the petabyte range in theory.

[ruben00]

I'm subscribed waiting for this to go Live. I just got the Javelin and would love to have more control over it and it seems this firmware is the way. Come on Patriot, help BadIntentions out with more support, he is basically doing your job for you.

[COBRASoft]

BadIntentions: are you still working on this?

[ezhik]

Well done! Amazing! I'd love to see Debian on this

[thecrazy]

Hi Bad,

I am also curious if you made any progress on this.

[bob_p]

Does this thread let anyone reply? I'm looking for info on the serial cable.