PetaLinux

PetaLinux can be built for these reference designs by using the Makefile in the PetaLinux directory of the repository.

Requirements

To build the PetaLinux projects, you will need a physical or virtual machine running one of the supported Linux distributions as well as the Vitis Core Development Kit installed.

Attention

You cannot build the PetaLinux projects in the Windows operating system. Windows users are advised to use a Linux virtual machine to build the PetaLinux projects.

How to build

  1. From a command terminal, clone the Git repository and cd into it.

    git clone --recursive https://github.com/fpgadeveloper/ethernet-fmc-max-ps-gem.git
cd ethernet-fmc-max-ps-gem

  2. Launch PetaLinux by sourcing the settings.sh bash script, eg:

    source <path-to-petalinux-install>/2025.2/settings.sh

  3. Launch Vivado by sourcing the settings64.sh bash script, eg:

    source <path-to-xilinx-tools>/2025.2/Vivado/settings64.sh

  4. Build the Vivado and PetaLinux project for your specific target platform by running the following commands and replacing <target> with one of the target labels listed in the target designs table in the build instructions.

    cd PetaLinux
make petalinux TARGET=<target>

The last command will launch the build process for the corresponding Vivado project if that project has not already been built and it’s hardware exported.

Boot from SD card

Prepare the SD card

Once the build process is complete, you must prepare the SD card for booting PetaLinux. All targets in this repository (Zynq UltraScale+ and Versal) are configured to boot from the SD card and use it for the root filesystem.

  1. The SD card must first be prepared with two partitions: one for the boot files and another for the root file system.

    • Plug the SD card into your computer and find it’s device name using the dmesg command. The SD card should be found at the end of the log, and it’s device name should be something like /dev/sdX, where X is a letter such as a,b,c,d, etc. Note that you should replace the X in the following instructions.

Warning

Do not continue these steps until you are certain that you have found the correct device name for the SD card. If you use the wrong device name in the following steps, you risk losing data on one of your hard drives.

  • Run fdisk by typing the command sudo fdisk /dev/sdX

  • Make the boot partition: typing n to create a new partition, then type p to make it primary, then use the default partition number and first sector. For the last sector, type +1G to allocate 1GB to this partition.

  • Make the boot partition bootable by typing a

  • Make the root partition: typing n to create a new partition, then type p to make it primary, then use the default partition number, first sector and last sector.

  • Save the partition table by typing w

  • Format the boot partition (FAT32) by typing sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n boot /dev/sdX1

  • Format the root partition (ext4) by typing sudo mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/sdX2

  1. Copy the following files to the boot partition of the SD card: Assuming the boot partition was mounted to /media/user/boot, follow these instructions:

    $ cd /media/user/boot/
$ sudo cp /<petalinux-project>/images/linux/BOOT.BIN .
$ sudo cp /<petalinux-project>/images/linux/boot.scr .
$ sudo cp /<petalinux-project>/images/linux/image.ub .

  2. Create the root file system by extracting the rootfs.tar.gz file to the root partition. Assuming the root partition was mounted to /media/user/root, follow these instructions:

    $ cd /media/user/root/
$ sudo cp /<petalinux-project>/images/linux/rootfs.tar.gz .
$ sudo tar xvf rootfs.tar.gz -C .
$ sync

    Once the sync command returns, you will be able to eject the SD card from the machine.

Boot PetaLinux

  1. Plug the SD card into your target board.

  2. Ensure that the target board is configured to boot from SD card:

    • VCK190: DIP switch SW1 is set to 1000 (1=ON,2=OFF,3=OFF,4=OFF)

    • UltraZed-EV: DIP switch SW2 (on the SoM) is set to 1000 (1=ON,2=OFF,3=OFF,4=OFF)

    • ZCU102, ZCU106, ZCU111: DIP switch SW6 must be set to 1000 (1=ON,2=OFF,3=OFF,4=OFF)

  3. Connect the Ethernet FMC Max to the FMC connector of the target board.

  4. Connect the USB-UART to your PC and then open a UART terminal set to 115200 baud and the comport that corresponds to your target board.

  5. Connect and power your hardware.

Boot via JTAG

Tip

You need to install the cable drivers before being able to boot via JTAG. Note that the Vitis installer does not automatically install the cable drivers, it must be done separately. For instructions, read section installing the cable drivers from the Vivado release notes.

Warning

If you boot these designs via JTAG, you must still first prepare the SD card. The reason is because all of the designs in this repository are configured to use the SD card to store the root filesystem. If you boot via JTAG without preparing and connecting the SD card, the boot will hang at a message similar to this: Waiting for root device /dev/mmcblk0p2...

Setup hardware

  1. Prepare the SD card according to the instructions above and plug it into the target board.

  2. Ensure that the target board is configured to boot from JTAG:

    • VCK190: DIP switch SW1 is set to 1111 (1=ON,2=ON,3=ON,4=ON)

    • UltraZed-EV: DIP switch SW2 (on the SoM) is set to 1111 (1=ON,2=ON,3=ON,4=ON)

    • ZCU102, ZCU106, ZCU111: DIP switch SW6 must be set to 1111 (1=ON,2=ON,3=ON,4=ON)

  3. Connect the Ethernet FMC Max to the FMC connector of the target board.

  4. Connect the USB-UART to your PC and then open a UART terminal set to 115200 baud and the comport that corresponds to your target board.

  5. Connect and power your hardware.

Boot PetaLinux

To boot PetaLinux on hardware via JTAG, use the following commands in a Linux command terminal:

  1. Change current directory to the PetaLinux project directory for your target design:

    cd <project-dir>/PetaLinux/<target>

  2. Download bitstream to the FPGA:

    petalinux-boot --jtag --kernel --fpga

An explanation of the above command is provided by the petalinux-boot command:

For Zynq UltraScale+, it will download the bitstream, PMUFW and FSBL,
and then boot the kernel with help of linux-boot.elf to set kernel
start and dtb addresses.

UART terminal

You will need to setup a terminal emulator to use the PetaLinux command line over the USB-UART connection. Connect with a baud rate of 115200.

In Windows

You will need to find the comport for the USB-UART in Windows Device Manager. As a terminal emulator, you can use the open source and free Putty.

In Linux

In Linux, you can find the USB-UART device by running dmesg | grep tty. Typically, the device will be /dev/ttyUSB0 or it could be followed by a different number. To open a terminal emulator, you can use the following command:

sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

Port configurations

In these designs the network interfaces map directly onto the Ethernet FMC Max ports: each port is driven by the PS GEM of the same index, and the GEMs enumerate in order, so interface ethN is port N. All four PHYs are on the single shared MDIO bus mastered by GEM0; the device tree (PetaLinux/bsp/ports-0123/.../port-config.dtsi and ports-01xx/.../port-config.dtsi for the VCK190) declares the PHY nodes under gem0’s MDIO bus and cross-references them from the other GEMs via phy-handle. The phy-mode is gmii — the GEMs connect to the PHYs through EMIO GMII and the PL PCS/PMA cores, which handle the SGMII auto-negotiation in hardware.

The default interfaces table (/etc/network/interfaces) brings up eth0 at boot, so it is convenient to wire port 0 to a DHCP-enabled link before powering the board.

Zynq UltraScale+ designs (uzev, zcu102_hpc0, zcu106_hpc0, zcu111)

  • eth0: Ethernet FMC Max Port 0 (GEM0, PHY @ MDIO addr 1)

  • eth1: Ethernet FMC Max Port 1 (GEM1, PHY @ MDIO addr 3)

  • eth2: Ethernet FMC Max Port 2 (GEM2, PHY @ MDIO addr 12)

  • eth3: Ethernet FMC Max Port 3 (GEM3, PHY @ MDIO addr 15)

Versal design (vck190_fmcp1)

The Versal PS has two GEM controllers, so this design supports ports 0 and 1 of the Ethernet FMC Max (the PHYs of ports 2 and 3 are held in reset):

  • eth0: Ethernet FMC Max Port 0 (GEM0, PHY @ MDIO addr 1)

  • eth1: Ethernet FMC Max Port 1 (GEM1, PHY @ MDIO addr 3)

Note

The development board’s onboard Ethernet ports are normally driven by the same PS GEMs through MIO. In these designs the GEMs are routed to the FMC through EMIO instead, so the onboard Ethernet ports are not available.

Example Usage

The examples below are from a ZCU106 PetaLinux session and are representative of all targets in this repo.

Log in

Log in with the username petalinux. On first boot you will be asked to choose a password; the examples below assume that the sudo prefix is used where needed.

Enable port

This example will bring up port 1 of the Ethernet FMC Max.

zcu106-psgem-sgmii-2025-2:~$ sudo ifconfig eth1 up
[   48.243899] macb ff0c0000.ethernet eth1: PHY [ff0b0000.ethernet-ffffffff:03] driver [TI DP83867] (irq=POLL)
[   48.254056] macb ff0c0000.ethernet eth1: configuring for phy/gmii link mode
[   52.345672] macb ff0c0000.ethernet eth1: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control off
[   52.353437] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready

Note in the first kernel message that the PHY is found on GEM0’s MDIO bus (ff0b0000.ethernet, address 0x03) even though the interface is driven by GEM1 (ff0c0000.ethernet) — all four PHYs share the one MDIO bus mastered by GEM0.

Enable port with fixed IP address

This example sets a fixed IP address to a port.

zcu106-psgem-sgmii-2025-2:~$ sudo ifconfig eth1 192.168.2.30 up

Enable port using DHCP

This example enables a port and obtains an IP address for the port via DHCP. Note that the port must be connected to a DHCP enabled router.

zcu106-psgem-sgmii-2025-2:~$ sudo udhcpc -i eth1
udhcpc: started, v1.36.1
[   68.814013] macb ff0c0000.ethernet eth1: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control off
[   68.822670] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending select for 192.168.2.72
udhcpc: lease of 192.168.2.72 obtained, lease time 259200
/etc/udhcpc.d/50default: Adding DNS 192.168.2.1

Check port status

In this example, we use the ifconfig command with no arguments to check the port status. Trimmed excerpt — eth1 is Ethernet FMC Max port 1 brought up at 192.168.2.30:

zcu106-psgem-sgmii-2025-2:~$ ifconfig
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0A:35:00:01:23
          inet addr:192.168.2.30  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20a:35ff:fe00:123/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:38 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:26 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:6033 (5.8 KiB)  TX bytes:3302 (3.2 KiB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          ...

We can also use ethtool to check the port status as follows (trimmed excerpt).

zcu106-psgem-sgmii-2025-2:~$ ethtool eth1
Settings for eth1:
        Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
        Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
        Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
        Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
                                100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
                                1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full
        Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
        ...
        Speed: 1000Mb/s
        Duplex: Full
        Port: MII
        PHYAD: 3
        Transceiver: external
        Auto-negotiation: on
        Link detected: yes