First, readthisshort article to get an overview over the Acontis EtherCAT stack. The software consists of the precompiled library, necessary kernel module, and demo programs (source code) and has to be downloaded from the Acontis website.
The Acontis Stack (Class B) and the DCM Add On (Class A) can be placed anywhere. In this documentation the placeholders<classB_path>and<classA_path>are used.
<classB_path>Path to the Class B EtherCAT Stack (i.e./home/username/acontisStack/EC-Master-V2.9-Linux_x64-Eval)
<classA_path>Path to the Class A AddOn (i.e./home/username/acontisStack/EC-Master-ClassA-AddOn-V2.9)
LinkLayer Module
The EC LinkLayer module (kernel module) has to be compiled against the installed linux kernel. If the kernel changes, the module has to be rebuilt and reloaded.
The loaded standard Ethernet driver (the driver is a Linux kernel module) has to be unloaded after boot.
cd <classB_path>/Sources/LinkOsLayer/Linux/atemsys
make modules
sudo make modules_install
Cross-Compile
cd <classB_path>/Sources/LinkOsLayer/Linux/atemsys
export ARCH=<…>
export CROSS_COMPILE=<…>
cd Sources/atemsys
make modules KERNELDIR=<path to target kernel dir>
Possible problems
The module may refuse to build and displays an error message like this:
error: unknown type name 'wait_queue_t'
This is because the stack version is not compatible with the installed kernel.
The Acontis stack V2.9 is compatible with the linux kernel v4.4 but not mit kernel v4.14.
Unload standard Ethernet driver
Identify Network Card
List all PCI devices:
lspci
Search for your Ethernet controller. For example:00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I218-LM (rev04)
The number on the left is the Instance-ID. In this example00:19.0
List all PCI devices in verbose mode:
lspci -v
Find your controller again with the Instance-ID
If one line says something likeKernel driver in use: e1000ea driver is already bound to the controller. This driver needs to be unbound.
Unbind standard driver
echo "<Instance-ID>" | sudo tee -a /sys/bus/pci/drivers/<driver-name>/unbind
echo "0000:00:19.0" | sudo tee -a /sys/bus/pci/drivers/e1000e/unbind
Load LinkLayer module
sudo modprobe atemsys
Automate unbind driver and load module
To automate unbinding the standard driver and loading the EC LinkLayer module you can add the following lines to the .bashrc file:
echo "<Instance-ID>" | sudo tee -a /sys/bus/pci/drivers/<driver-name>/unbind
modprobe atemsys
Libraries
Copy the following library to your working folder (where you want to run your application).