WARPLab 7: Debugging Errors

This page shows various common error messages when using WARPLab 7 and offers suggestions on resolving the problem.

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ERROR: Boot problems

During the boot of a WARP node, the hex display and the LEDs provide information about the state of the boot process. Here is a list of the various hex display / LED states to help debug boot issues:

Hex Display	LED State	Boot State
OFF	OFF	If power is on, then board is waiting for bitstream to be downloaded or bitstream is currently being downloaded to the board
8.8.	OFF	If CM-MMCX or CM-PLL modules are present, then board is waiting for a valid reference clock. You can confirm this by attaching the UART and looking for the following message: *********************************************** ***** WARP v3 Clock Config Core ***** Program Assembly Date: 24 Jan 2015 No config data in EEPROM - Using Defaults Detected CM-PLL Module Loading configuration B Waiting for valid PLL ref clk...... To resolve this, either provide a valid clock or change the clock module settings.
00	OFF	Boot of the node is proceeding. Wait for a different condition.
E0	Red LEDs Flashing	Right shift operator not working correctly. This is an issue with the 14.7 Xilinx tools when using the -Os optimization. Use the 14.4 Xilinx tools or use a different optimization level.
E1	Red LEDs Flashing	Node initialization error. This could be due to a mismatch between the hardware and software used in the bitstream or a failure of one of the hardware components. Please see the UART output for more debug information.
E2	Red LEDs Flashing	Sub-system initialization error. This is generally due to an issue in the RF interfaces (for example an RF interface failed to lock or there is a mismatch between the number of RF interfaces on the board and the number specified by the bitstream) but could be caused by any of the Trigger Manager, Baseband, Interface, or User sub-systems. Please see the UART output for more debug information.
E3	Red LEDs Flashing	Transport initialization error. Please see the UART output for more debug information.
E4	Red LEDs Flashing	Linker command file issue. The linker command file does not place the global transport data structures into BRAM that is accessible by the DMA. Please use the linker command file provided by the reference design and only make hand modifications to the linker command file to meet your project needs.
E5	Red LEDs Flashing	Interrupt initialization error. Please see the UART output for more debug information.
E6	Red LEDs Flashing	Interrupt enable error. Please see the UART output for more debug information.
01 to 99	Green LED Flashing	Waiting for a valid Ethernet connection. UART output should be similar to: WARPLab vX.Y.Z (compiled Sep 1 2015 15:29:29) Configured for 2 RF Interfaces - Using WARP v3 on-board RF interfaces No clock module detected - selecting on-board clocks NODE: W3-a-AAAAA using Node ID: 1 DRAM SODIMM detected ... Contents not cleared Configuring baseband ... Using DDR for buffers Rx samples: 32768 ( 134217728 max) Tx samples: 32768 ( 117440512 max) Configuring transport ... ETH A MAC Address: 40:D8:55:NN:NN:NN ETH A IP Address: 10.0.0.2 Configuring ETH A with 9024 byte buffers (2 receive, 2 send) ETH A speed 1000 Mbps (default) Listening on UDP ports 9000 (unicast) and 10000 (broadcast) Waiting for Ethernet link ... where X.Y.Z shows your WARPLab version; AAAAA is your hardware serial number; and NN:NN:NN are the last six digits of your MAC address.

A successful boot will have the Hex display indicate the last octet of the IP address of the node and the green LEDs will be used to indicate that valid WARPLab commands / packets are being received by the node. The UART output will be:

WARPLab vX.Y.Z (compiled Sep  1 2015 15:29:29)
Configured for 2 RF Interfaces - Using WARP v3 on-board RF interfaces
No clock module detected - selecting on-board clocks

NODE: W3-a-AAAAA using Node ID: 1
DRAM SODIMM detected ...
  Contents not cleared
Configuring baseband ...
  Using DDR for buffers
  Rx samples:       32768 ( 134217728 max)
  Tx samples:       32768 ( 117440512 max)
Configuring transport ...
  ETH A MAC Address: 40:D8:55:NN:NN:NN
  ETH A IP  Address: 10.0.0.2
  Configuring ETH A with 9024 byte buffers (2 receive, 2 send)
  ETH A speed 1000 Mbps (default)
  Listening on UDP ports 9000 (unicast) and 10000 (broadcast)

Waiting for Ethernet link ...

Initialization Successful - Waiting for Commands from MATLAB

where X.Y.Z shows your WARPLab version; AAAAA is your hardware serial number; and NN:NN:NN are the last six digits of your MAC address.

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ERROR: Maximum number of transmissions

Error using wl_transport_eth_udp_pnet/send (line 228)
maximum number of retransmissions met without reply from node

Error in wl_node/sendCmd (line 677)
            resp = obj.transport.send(cmd.serialize());

Error in wl_node/procCmd (line 644)
                    node.sendCmd(myCmd);

Error in wl_node/wl_nodeCmd (line 310)
                out(n) = currNode.procCmd(n, currNode, varargin{:});

Error in wl_node/applyConfiguration (line 160)
            obj.wl_nodeCmd('initialize');

Error in wl_initNodes (line 106)
        currNode.applyConfiguration(nodeIDs(n));

This error indicates that a WARP node didn't respond to repeated communication attempts from the wl_initNodes script.

Things to check:

• Did all WARP nodes boot successfully? On each node a green LED will blink while waiting for the Ethernet link, then all LEDs will turn off and the hex display will show the node's IP address suffix.
• Did you specify an invalid number of nodes or invalid node IDs in the arguments to wl_initNodes?
• Does each WARP node have a unique ID? In the reference design IDs are assigned by setting the user DIP switch on the WARP node.
• Are all WARP nodes connected to a 1Gb Ethernet switch?

Debugging steps: To isolate which node is failing to communicate, you can use the optional wl_initNodes syntax to set node IDs explicitly:

wl_initNodes(1, 0); %initialize one node with ID 0
wl_initNodes(1, 1); %initialize one node with ID 1
wl_initNodes(1, 2); %initialize one node with ID 2
%continue until a node fails to initialize

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ERROR: Broadcast Triggers

Error using wl_initNodes (line 154)
Broadcast triggers are not working. Please verify your ARP table has an entry for the broadcast
address on your WARPLab subnet

This error is printed by wl_initNodes when it is able to communicate with individual nodes, but nodes failed to receive a trigger packet.

Things to check:

• Are all WARP nodes and the host PC on a common Ethernet switch?
• Is the host PC NIC IP address in the same subnet as the WARP nodes (10.0.0.x by default)?

Debug steps: some PCs require a manual ARP table entry to allow broadcast IP packets. On Windows, open a command prompt as an admin user and run arp -s 10.0.0.255 ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff. Run arp -a to confirm the new entry was accepted. The output should look like:

Interface: 10.0.0.250 --- 0xd
  Internet Address    Physical Address     Type
  10.0.0.255          ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff    Static

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ERROR: DMA transfers

If you make changes to the WARPLab software project, you may see this error printed via the UART:

*** ERROR in RX DMA transfer: 0x400
*** Resetting DMA

This error is caused by the Ethernet DMA being unable to access the network packet buffers in the C code. This is due to the linker script assigning code data sections to the DLMB (data local memory bus). The LMB memories are not accessible to the AXI interconnect where the DMA is attached.

To resolve this error update your linker script to assign data sections to a memory area accessible by the AXI interconnect. The axi_bram (listed as axi_bram_0_S_AXI_BASEADDR in the current design) is a good choice.

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