Jetway NF9HQL-525 Dual Core Atom

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Note: Requires AstLinux 1.x

Board Specifications: NF9HQL-525

AstLinux Board Type:

“geni586-serial” (19200 baud serial console)

Complete System Recommended Options:

Memory: 204-pin DDR3 1333 SO-DIMM 2GB (or 2x 1GB sticks)
Flash Storage: Emphase Industrial Compact Flash (or mSATA SSD) Card 2 GB
Case:
- No PCIe Expansion Card Support
  - M350 Universal Mini-ITX Case
  - AC Adapter (brick): AC Power Adapter 60W, 12V, 5A
  - Fan: (included on NF9HQL-525 board heat sink)
- With PCIe Expansion Card Support
  - Jetway Case JC-11x-B Series (or similar)
  - AC Adapter (brick) is included, Internal ATX Power Supply not used
  - 2 System Fans are included
  - Riser card for PCIe slot is not included

Total System Power (no PCIe Expansion Card): 15 Watts when idle.

Configuration:

/mnt/kd/rc.conf.d/user.conf

SENSEMODS="f71882fg"

WDMODULE="iTCO_wdt"  # Optional Watchdog

ALERT_SOUNDS="startup shutdown"  # Optional Sounds

/mnt/kd/sensors.conf

# libsensors configuration file
# -----------------------------
# Jetway NF9HQL-525 Dual Core Atom

chip "f71882fg-*" "f71869a-*"

ignore in2
ignore in3

# Comment-out installed fan(s)
#ignore fan1
ignore fan2
ignore fan3

label in0 "3.3V"
label in1 "VCORE"
label in4 "VDIMM"
label in5 "5V"
label in6 "12V"
label in7 "3VSB"
label in8 "Vbat"

label fan1 "CPU Fan"
label fan2 "SYS Fan1"
label fan3 "SYS Fan2"

label temp1 "CPU Temp"
label temp2 "SYS Temp1"
label temp3 "SYS Temp2"

compute in0 @*2, @/2
compute in4 @*(1.5), @/(1.5)
compute in5 @*(3.7), @/(3.7)
compute in6 @*(11), @/(11)
compute in7 @*2, @/2
compute in8 @*2, @/2

Only if a Compact Flash card is used, and it supports DMA, much higher disk performance can be obtained by enabling LIBATA DMA for Compact Flash. Enable from the CLI by issuing the following command:

set-kcmd libata.dma=5

BIOS Setup via Serial Port:

While it is possibly to use a VGA cable to connect to the board's internal VGA header¹⁾ to view the BIOS²⁾, a better solution is to use “Remote Access” to the BIOS via the serial port. Since version A02 of the NF9H BIOS the console redirect feature is enabled³⁾.

First, configure your serial terminal program to support ANSI color and 115200 baud. If you are using minicom be sure to add the ' -c on ' option to the minicom command line, otherwise the ANSI colors will not be distinguishable in the BIOS Setup screen.

Second, on startup type F4 (<ESC>OS) to enter the BIOS Setup, go to the “Integrated Peripherals” → “Remote Access Configuration” . Make the following changes…

Serial Port Mode → 19200 8,n,1
Redirection After BIOS POST → Disabled

The results should like the following screen…

Remote Access BIOS

Your system has at least one included CPU fan, you may want to enable Fan Smart Mode in the BIOS. This will automatically vary the fan speed according to it's corresponding temperature sensor. In the BIOS Setup, go to the “PC Health Status” → “Smart FAN Configurations”

Fan BIOS

In this example, the fan runs at 35% of full speed at 45 C and below, then linearly ramps up to 100% full speed at 75 C and above. The above example slows the CPU fan for normal operation and reduces the noise.

Finally, save the above BIOS changes, reboot, and reconfigure you serial terminal program to 19200 baud, this will match what AstLinux expects.

Photos:

Side 1

Side 2

Back

With the Realtek RTL8168 driver 8.039 and Linux 3.2 strange kernel oops like this can can happen on some boxes:

Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel: ------------[ cut here ]------------
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel: WARNING: at kernel/softirq.c:159 local_bh_enable+0x32/0x77()
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel: Hardware name:  
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel: Modules linked in: tun xt_tcpudp ipt_MASQUERADE nf_nat_ftp iptable_nat nf_nat nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 xt_TCPMSS ipt_LOG ipt_REJECT iptable_mangle xt_multiport xt_state xt_limit xt_conntrack nf_conntrack_ftp nf_conntrac
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel: Pid: 0, comm: swapper/1 Tainted: G           O 3.2.62-astlinux #1
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel: Call Trace:
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c10272a8>] warn_slowpath_common+0x65/0x7a
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c102b738>] ? local_bh_enable+0x32/0x77
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c10272cc>] warn_slowpath_null+0xf/0x13
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c102b738>] local_bh_enable+0x32/0x77
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c121ad31>] skb_checksum+0xff/0x205
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c12235ad>] skb_checksum_help+0x56/0xe9
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<f82992b0>] rtl8168_hw_disable_mac_mcu_bps+0x33466/0x37916 [r8168]
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c12239b1>] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x371/0x44b
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c12333aa>] sch_direct_xmit+0x55/0x13c
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1223d57>] dev_queue_xmit+0x2cc/0x46a
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c123bc00>] ? nf_hook_slow+0x26/0xca
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c12455be>] ip_finish_output+0x22d/0x275
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1245699>] ip_output+0x93/0x9a
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1244acd>] ip_local_out+0x1b/0x1e
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1244fc2>] ip_queue_xmit+0x2b6/0x306
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1254e8a>] tcp_transmit_skb+0x6c0/0x6f7
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c125706d>] tcp_write_xmit+0x778/0x872
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c12571ab>] __tcp_push_pending_frames+0x18/0x6f
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1253a02>] tcp_rcv_established+0xfa/0x554
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1259d7d>] tcp_v4_do_rcv+0x175/0x333
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c122fd07>] ? sk_filter+0x58/0x61
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c125a37f>] tcp_v4_rcv+0x444/0x6ee
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c124128a>] ip_local_deliver_finish+0xf9/0x1d6
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c12413c8>] ip_local_deliver+0x61/0x66
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1240f0c>] ip_rcv_finish+0x27c/0x292
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c124115b>] ip_rcv+0x239/0x26f
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c12216bb>] __netif_receive_skb+0x36e/0x399
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c12229d4>] netif_receive_skb+0x72/0x78
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1222c61>] ? dev_gro_receive+0xd7/0x1ee
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1222abb>] napi_skb_finish+0x1e/0x33
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1222f6a>] napi_gro_receive+0xed/0xf5
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<f8298c3b>] rtl8168_hw_disable_mac_mcu_bps+0x32df1/0x37916 [r8168]
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<f82996a1>] rtl8168_hw_disable_mac_mcu_bps+0x33857/0x37916 [r8168]
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c129817c>] ? _raw_spin_trylock+0x49/0x50
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1223040>] net_rx_action+0x59/0x12a
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c102b830>] __do_softirq+0x6b/0xe5
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c102b7c5>] ? irq_enter+0x48/0x48
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  <IRQ>  [<c102b655>] ? irq_exit+0x32/0x5d
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c100317e>] ? do_IRQ+0x7c/0x90
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c129bfe9>] ? common_interrupt+0x29/0x30
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1007293>] ? mwait_idle+0x4a/0x50
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c1001a7d>] ? cpu_idle+0x48/0x73
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel:  [<c12936f0>] ? start_secondary+0x19a/0x19f
Oct 14 10:08:33 customer-asterisk user.warn kernel: ---[ end trace 6aadb3c85c790f75 ]---

This does not happen with version 8.038.

¹⁾

in some countries (e.g. Germany) you may need to order the VGA header cable separately

²⁾

press “DEL” at startup

³⁾

the VGA header cable is needed for the BIOS upgrade