Dear Stefan,

Thank you very much for your help.

I have already contacted someone who has used ZYNQ in that order and It's working fine for now.
But, I'll let you know if something goes wrong.

Best regards,
Soichiro 

We also use a Zynq chip and boot in the following order:

1. SD Card
   a. First Stage Bootloader
   b. PL Firmware
   c. UBOOT
2. NFS over Ethernet
   a. Linux kernel
   b. RootFS
   c. Mounting home directories


If you need details I can bring you in contact with the person who actually implemented that.

Best,
Stefan

Dear Konstantin,

Thank you very much for your reply and detailed information.
I would appreciate if you could help us.

> I can also suggest that on your frontend SOC/FPGA machine, you boot linux
> using the "nfs-root" method. This way, the local flash memory only
> contains a boot loader (and maybe the linux kernel image, depending on
> bootloader limitations). The rest of the linux rootfs can be on your
> central development machine. This way management of flash cards,
> confusion with different contents of local flash and need to make backups
> of frontend machines is much reduced.

As you said, we can run complete Linux (Ubuntu 16) on ZYNQ and I'm using common NFS 
system now. However, I didn't know "nfs-root" method which you mentioned and this method 
seems to be reasonable way to just share linux rootfs.
First of all, I will try this method for simpler system.

> If you use a fast SSD and ZFS with deduplication, you will also have good
> performance gain (NFS over 1gige network to server with fast SSD works
> so much better compared to the very slow SD/MMC/NAND flash).
>
> I can point you to some of my documentation how we do this.

I'm concerned about such performance and I have checked the performance with common NFS 
over gige network and my DAQ PC roughly(data transfer rate ~ O(10) MByte/sec). However, I 
didn't know the ZFS and also how we can have performance gain with a fast SSD and ZFS.
Please let me know your documentation how to do it if possible.

> I would say you are on a good track. For early development on just one board,
> pretty much any way you do it will work, but once you start scaling up
> beyound 3-4-5 frontends, you will start seeing benefits from common NFS-mounted
> home directories, NFS-root booted linux, etc.

I'm developing with just one board and common NFS-mounted now. I'm looking forward to 
seeing such benefits when I will use multiple frontends.
 
> And of course you may want to study the existing ND280/FGD DAQ. I hope you
> have access to the running system at Jparc. If not, I have a copy of
> pretty much everything (except for running hardware, it is stored in the basement, 
> dead) and I can give you access.

I don't have access to the system at Jparc, but Nick has told us where FGD DAQ code is.
Is bellow URL everything of code of FGD DAQ?
https://git.t2k.org/hastings/fgddaq/-/tree/master

Best regards,
Soichiro

> My name is Soichiro Kuribayashi and I am a Ph.D. student at Kyoto University. 
> I'm a T2K collaborator and working for Super FGD which is new detector in ND280.

Hi! I did much of the DAQ software for the original FGD. I hope I can help.

> For the DAQ of Super FGD, we will run remotely front end part of MIDAS on ZYNQ 
> which is system on chip.

This would be the same as the existing FGD. Inside the FGD DCC is a Virtex4 FPGA
with a 300MHz PPC CPU running Linux from a CompactFlash card (Kentaro-san did this 
part). On this linux system runs the FGD DCC midas frontend. It connects
to the FGD midas instance using the mserver. This frontend executable is
copied to the DCC using "scp", there is no common nfs mounted home directory.

> For this remote control of front end part with mserver, we have to mount home 
> directory of DAQ PC(Cent OS8) on that of Linux on ZYNQ.
> So I wonder if we should use NFS(Network file system) + NIS(Network information 
> service) + autofs for the mounting. Is it correct?

Since you have a bigger SOC and you can run pretty much a complete linux,
I do recommend that you go this route. During development it is very convenient
to have common home directories on the main machine and on the frontend fpga
machines.

But this is not necessary. the midas mserver connection does not require
common (nfs-mounted) home directory, you can copy the files to the frontend
fpga using scp and rsync and you can use the gdb "remote debugger" function.

I can also suggest that on your frontend SOC/FPGA machine, you boot linux
using the "nfs-root" method. This way, the local flash memory only
contains a boot loader (and maybe the linux kernel image, depending on
bootloader limitations). The rest of the linux rootfs can be on your
central development machine. This way management of flash cards,
confusion with different contents of local flash and need to make backups
of frontend machines is much reduced.

If you use a fast SSD and ZFS with deduplication, you will also have good
performance gain (NFS over 1gige network to server with fast SSD works
so much better compared to the very slow SD/MMC/NAND flash).

I can point you to some of my documentation how we do this.

>
> If you have any information or any suggestion for the remote control on chip, 
> please let me know.
> 

I would say you are on a good track. For early development on just one board,
pretty much any way you do it will work, but once you start scaling up
beyound 3-4-5 frontends, you will start seeing benefits from common NFS-mounted
home directories, NFS-root booted linux, etc.

And of course you may want to study the existing ND280/FGD DAQ. I hope you
have access to the running system at Jparc. If not, I have a copy of
pretty much everything (except for running hardware, it is stored in the basement, 
dead) and I can give you access.

P.S. This reminds me that the cascade software from ND280 (they key part
for connecting the FGD, the TPC, the slow controls & etc into one experiment)
was never merged into the midas repository. I opened a ticket for this,
now we will not forget again:

https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas/issues/291/import-cascase-frontend-from-t2k-
nd280-fgd

K.O.

Hello!

My name is Soichiro Kuribayashi and I am a Ph.D. student at Kyoto University. 
I'm a T2K collaborator and working for Super FGD which is new detector in ND280.

I'm a beginner of MIDAS and I've just started to develop the DAQ software with 
MIDAS for Super FGD.
For the DAQ of Super FGD, we will run remotely front end part of MIDAS on ZYNQ 
which is system on chip.

For this remote control of front end part with mserver, we have to mount home 
directory of DAQ PC(Cent OS8) on that of Linux on ZYNQ.
So I wonder if we should use NFS(Network file system) + NIS(Network information 
service) + autofs for the mounting. Is it correct?

If you have any information or any suggestion for the remote control on chip, 
please let me know.

Best regards,
Soichiro 

> The ODB variable "/Runinfo/State" is a symptom of starting/stopping a run, rather than the cause.
> 
> In C++, one uses `cm_transition()` to start/stop runs.
> 
> In python code you can use the `start_run()` and `stop_run()` functions from `midas.client`: https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas/src/00ff089a836100186e9b26b9ca92623e672f0030/python/midas/client.py#lines-793:808

one can also run an external command: "mtransition START" and "mtransition STOP"

K.O.

The ODB variable "/Runinfo/State" is a symptom of starting/stopping a run, rather than the cause.

In C++, one uses `cm_transition()` to start/stop runs.

In python code you can use the `start_run()` and `stop_run()` functions from `midas.client`: https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas/src/00ff089a836100186e9b26b9ca92623e672f0030/python/midas/client.py#lines-793:808

I'm using a python client to start and stop runs, and the following code *appears* 
to set the MIDAS state to "Run"

client.odb_set("/Runinfo/State", 3)

However, it doesn't seem to do other things associated with a run, like start 
accumulating events.

Is there a different way I should start the run from the python client?

Thanks!

Hi,

I was wondering if there is a "mechanism" to run an executable
file after each subrun is closed...

I need to convert .mid.lz4 subrun files to ROOT (TTree) files;

Thanks,
Gennaro

> For my analyzer I generate the experim.h file from the odb.
> 
> Before midas commit 13c3b2b this generates structs with INT data types. compiles fine with my analysis code (using the old mana.cpp)
> 
> newer midas versions generate INT32, ... types. I get a 
> 
> ‘INT32’ does not name a type   
> 
> although I include midas.h 
> 
> how to fix this?

You could run experim.h through "sed" to replace the "wrong" data types with the correct data types.

You can also #define the "wrong" data types before doing #include experim.h.

I put your bug report into our bug tracker, but for myself I am very busy
with the alpha-g experiment and cannot promise to fix this quickly.

https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas/issues/289/int32-types-in-experimh

Here is an example to substitute things using "sed" (it can also do "in-place" editing, "man sed" and google sed examples)
sed "sZshm_unlink(.*)Zshm_unlink(SHM)Zg"

K.O.

For my analyzer I generate the experim.h file from the odb.

Before midas commit 13c3b2b this generates structs with INT data types. compiles fine with my analysis code (using the old mana.cpp)

newer midas versions generate INT32, ... types. I get a 

‘INT32’ does not name a type   

although I include midas.h 

how to fix this?

> > > The information you want is in the ODB:
> > > * "/System/Transition/status" is the overall integer status code.
> > > * "/System/Transition/error" is the overall error message string.
> > > 
> > > There is also per-client status information in the ODB:
> > > * "/System/Transition/Clients/<client_name>/status"
> > > * "/System/Transition/Clients/<client_name>/error"
> 
> You can also use web page .../resources/transition.html as an example of how
> to read transition (and other) data from ODB into your own web page. example.html
> may also be helpful.
> 
> K.O.

Thank you Konstantin!

Ruslan

> > The information you want is in the ODB:
> > * "/System/Transition/status" is the overall integer status code.
> > * "/System/Transition/error" is the overall error message string.
> > 
> > There is also per-client status information in the ODB:
> > * "/System/Transition/Clients/<client_name>/status"
> > * "/System/Transition/Clients/<client_name>/error"

You can also use web page .../resources/transition.html as an example of how
to read transition (and other) data from ODB into your own web page. example.html
may also be helpful.

K.O.

> I am getting the following error alert in a custom page whenever a run starts
> json parser exception: SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 985, batch request: method: "db_get_values", params: [object Object], id: 1598691925697 method: "get_alarms", params: null, id: 1598691925697 method: "cm_msg_retrieve", params: [object Object], id: 1598691925697 method: "cm_msg_retrieve", params: [object Object], id: 1598691925697
> Does anyone know why and what causes this? This does not affect anything and things seem to continue running fine.

this is bug #242, https://bitbucket.org/tmidas/midas/issues/242/mjsonrpc-calls-should-return-valid-utf8

we read stuff from midas.log and push it to the web browser. we have seen this stuff
contain arbitrary binary data (both intentionally written into midas.log by cm_msg() and
file content corruption/truncation from computer crashes), the json decoder in the web browser
does not like that stuff - it is invalid utf-8 unicode - and throws an exception.

since we cannot ensure content of midas.log (and other files on disk) are always valid utf-8,
we have to sanitize it before sending it to the browser.

right now I am not sure of the best way to do this sanitizing. we do have a function to check
for valid utf-8 unicode, perhaps it should be extended to replace invalid unicode with spaces
or Xes or "?" or whatever, I am open to suggestions and ideas.

BTW, this is a new recent change to how strings generally work. C NUL-terminated strings are
permitted to contain arbitrary binary data (except for NUL char, of course). C++ std::string
are permitted to contain arbitrary binary data. but javascript strings are only permitted
to contain valid unicode, and the json standard was recently amended to require that json
strings are valid utf-8 unicode. So there is a disconnect between C/C++ code written in the
last 50 years where strings can contain binary data and the javascript world requiring
valid utf-8 unicode pretty much everywhere.

K.O.

I am getting the following error alert in a custom page whenever a run starts

json parser exception: SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 985, batch request: method: "db_get_values", params: [object Object], id: 1598691925697 method: "get_alarms", params: null, id: 1598691925697 method: "cm_msg_retrieve", params: [object Object], id: 1598691925697 method: "cm_msg_retrieve", params: [object Object], id: 1598691925697

Does anyone know why and what causes this? This does not affect anything and things seem to continue running fine.

thanks.

> The information you want is in the ODB:
> * "/System/Transition/status" is the overall integer status code.
> * "/System/Transition/error" is the overall error message string.
> 
> There is also per-client status information in the ODB:
> * "/System/Transition/Clients/<client_name>/status"
> * "/System/Transition/Clients/<client_name>/error"


Thank you so much, Ben!

The information you want is in the ODB:
* "/System/Transition/status" is the overall integer status code.
* "/System/Transition/error" is the overall error message string.

There is also per-client status information in the ODB:
* "/System/Transition/Clients/<client_name>/status"
* "/System/Transition/Clients/<client_name>/error"

Hello,

I got an error after start of run and it would be good to show this error (or 
errors) in UI that I am developing. I see this error in the Transition 
directory (please see the attached file). Is it possible to read the status 
message and error messages from the Transition directory using jsonrpc? If yes, 
could you please explain me how to do this.

Thank you.
Ruslan  

 Thank you, Stefan

 >>>var d = new Date(start_time_binary);
 I need time zone because new Date() gives time related to time zone of my PC. 
 
 Ruslan 
> 
> 
> 
> > > 1. Is it possible to get "Running time" using, for example, jsonrpc? (please see 
> > > the attached file)
> > 
> > You have in the ODB "/Runinfo/Start time binary" which is measured in seconds since 
> > 1970. By subtracting this from the current time, you get the running time.
> > 
> > > 2. Is it possible to configure "Start time" and "Stop time" with time zone? For 
> > > example when I start a new run, value of "Start time" key is automatically changed 
> > > to "Fri Aug 21 12:38:36 2020" without time zone. 
> > 
> > "Start time binary" and "Stop time binary" are in seconds since the 1970 in UTC, so no 
> > time zone involved there. The ASCII versions of the start/stop time are derived from 
> > the binary time using the server's local time zone. If you want to display them in a 
> > different time zone, you have to create a custom page and convert it to another time 
> > zone using JavaScript like
> > 
> > var d = new Date(start_time_binary);
> > 
> > Stefan

Thank you, Stefan

Ruslan 



> > 1. Is it possible to get "Running time" using, for example, jsonrpc? (please see 
> > the attached file)
> 
> You have in the ODB "/Runinfo/Start time binary" which is measured in seconds since 
> 1970. By subtracting this from the current time, you get the running time.
> 
> > 2. Is it possible to configure "Start time" and "Stop time" with time zone? For 
> > example when I start a new run, value of "Start time" key is automatically changed 
> > to "Fri Aug 21 12:38:36 2020" without time zone. 
> 
> "Start time binary" and "Stop time binary" are in seconds since the 1970 in UTC, so no 
> time zone involved there. The ASCII versions of the start/stop time are derived from 
> the binary time using the server's local time zone. If you want to display them in a 
> different time zone, you have to create a custom page and convert it to another time 
> zone using JavaScript like
> 
> var d = new Date(start_time_binary);
> 
> Stefan