Overview

First, read this short article to get an overview over the Acontis EtherCAT stack. The software consists of the precompiled library  and demo programs (source code) and has to be downloaded from the Acontis website. The necessary kernel module, can be found in a public Github repository.

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)

Build Module

ec-master_classb.pdf 2.3.5.1

Clone Repository

git clone https://github.com/acontis/atemsys.git

The readme in the GitHub repository describes how to build the kernel module. If neccessary, install kernel header files

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Compile native

cd atemsys
make modules
sudo make modules_install

Cross-Compile


cd 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 example 00:19.0

  • List all PCI devices in verbose mode:

lspci -v
  •  Find your controller again with the Instance-ID

  • If one line says something like Kernel driver in use: e1000e a 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).

  • libemll8254x.so (in <classB_path>\Bin\Linux\x64)