April 20, 2024

EBAZ4205 Bitcoin miner board - executive guide to setup

There is information elsewhere about how to connect to the serial port and modify one of these boards so you can power it up.
Once those hardware details are done, it will be asking you for a password.
Here is how to procede:

Clear the password and disable cgminer

Power up (or reset) the board. Be ready to type 'd' at the console. You should see this: 
Model: Zynq Zed Development Board
Net:   Gem.e000b000
Hit 'd' to stop autoboot(eric): 0
zynq-uboot>
Then type these commands to U-boot. I find it very handy to just copy and paste them from here. Give them one at a time, you can't just paste all four. 
nand read ${kernel_load_address} 0x300000 ${kernel_size}
nand read ${devicetree_load_address} 0x800000 ${devicetree_size}
setenv bootargs 'console=ttyPS0,115200 root=/dev/mtdblock6 rootfstype=jffs2 noinitrd rw rootwait reboot=cold,hard emergency init=/bin/sh'
bootm ${kernel_load_address} - ${devicetree_load_address}
This will boot linux and land you in a single user shell: 
sh: no job control in this shell
sh-4.3#
Now type passwd and reset the root password. I just clear it (make it blank), but you can certainly set one that you invent.

Before you reboot, it is important to disable the cgminer service, because it resets the root password on every boot. This is one way to do it. Note that this is "rcS" with a capital "S", not the number "5". 

cd /etc/rcS.d
mv S95cgminer.sh K95cgminer.sh
sync
I just hit the reset button to reboot.

Set up the network

Add a static IP by editing /etc/network/interfaces and adding these lines: 
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.80
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1
#dns-nameservers 8.8.4.4
That nameserver is a public nameserver offered by google. I show that line commented out, because it didn't work for me.

After this type: 

ifup eth0
ifconfig -a
I use ifconfig to inspect the network setup, and verify that packets are being sent and received. I also add an entry into my /etc/hosts file on my desktop, then I can ping and connect via ssh.
Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Computer Info / tom@mmto.org