ampwait - Qualcomm Atheros Powerline Procrastinator
ampwait [options] [device] [device]
[...]
Poll a Qualcomm Atheros powerline device, waiting for one or more
events to occur before continuing or returning. The events include reset or
power off, restart or power on and network association. It is used to pause
shell scripts at critical points where a device must be in a known state
before continuing.
This program is part of the Qualcomm Atheros Powerline Toolkit.
See the plc man page for an overview and installation
instructions.
- -a
- Poll the device every few seconds using VS_NW_INFO messages until the
device indicates that a networks exists and has at least one station. This
option can give false readings if other devices have dropped off-line and
the device bridging table still holds information about them. The program
always checks for this event last if other event options are specified.
- -e
- Redirects stderr messages to stdout. By convention status and error
messages are printed on stderr while primary program output is printed on
stdout. This option prints all output on stdout in cases where this is
desired.
- -f firmware
- The identification string for firmware that should be running after the
device starts. This option can be used to detect a failed firmware load.
If the actual identification string does not match this one once the
device starts then an error is reported. If option -x is present
then the program terminates with a non-zero exit code. This option has no
effect unless option -s is present. An identification string looks
like "INT6000-MAC-3-1-3143-1690-20071107-FINAL-B" and can be
obtained using int6k -r.
- -i
- Select the host Ethernet interface. All requests are sent via this host
interface and only reponses received via this host interface are
recognized. The default interface is eth1 because most people use
eth0 as their principle network connection; however, if environment
string "PLC" is defined then it takes precedence over the
default interface. This option then takes precedence over either default.
- -p seconds
- Fixed pause time in seconds. This adds an fixed delay after the other
events have occured. A pause does not occur if any of the specified events
timeout. When no other events are specified this option is effectively
equivalent to sleep. This option can be used to allow the device or
the network to settle. For example, a nominal 5 second wait is recommended
after a device successfully associates before attempting to transfer data.
- -q
- Enter quiet mode. Progress messages are suppressed.
- -R
- Reset the device then check return status. Exit program on error if option
-x is present; otherwise, repeat the reset request until the device
either accepts the request or the wait time is exceeded.
- -s
- Poll the device every few seconds using VS_SW_VER messages until the
bootloader or runtime firmware responds or the poll count exhausts. The
presence of a response indicates that the device has either connected to
the host, received power or finished reboot.
- -t
milliseconds
- Channel read/write timeout in milliseconds. This is the maximum time
allowed for a confirmation or a response from a powerline device before
abandoning a read/write operation. Permitted values range from 0
through UINT_MAX as defined in limits.h. The default is
50 milliseconds.
- -v
- Enter verbose mode. All Etherenet frames sent or received by the program
are displayed on stdout.
- -w seconds
- Wait timeout in seconds. This is the maximum time that this application
will wait for an event to occur where an event is reset,
start or assoc. If an event does no occur within this time,
the program proceeds to wait for the next specified event. This timeout
applies to each event in turn when more than one event is specified.
Permitted values are 0 through 86400 seconds which is 24
hours.
- -x
- Exit program on first error with a non-zero exit code. This option allows
shell scripts to detect failed or incomplete operations and take the
appropriate action.
- -y
- Display actual wait times on stdout.
- -?, --help
- Print program help summary on stdout. This option takes precedence over
other options on the command line.
- -!, --version
- Print program version information on stdout. This option takes precedence
over other options on the command line. Use this option when sending
screen dumps to Atheros Technical Support so that they know exactly which
version of the Linux Toolkit you are using.
- device
- The Media Access Control (MAC) address of some device. Addresses are 6
hexadecimal octets optionally separated by colon. For example, the
addresses "00b052000001", "00:b0:52:00:00:01" and
"00b052:000001" are all valid and equivalent. For convenience,
the symbolic address "local" resolves to
"00:b0:52:00:00:01" and the symbolic addresses
"all" and "broadcast" both resolve to
"ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff".
See the Qualcomm Atheros HomePlug AV Firmware Technical Reference
Manual for more information.
Atheros HomePlug AV Vendor Specific Management Message Entry
structure and content is proprietary to Qualcomm Atheros, Ocala FL USA.
Consequently, public information may not be available. Qualcomm Atheros
reserves the right to modify message structure and content in future
firmware releases without any obligation to notify or compensate users of
this program.
The following command polls the local device until firmware stops
running then polls the device until firmware starts running again. This
command can be inserted into a shell script at a point where the device must
reset and reboot before proceeding. Observe that the program waits up to
60 seconds for each event, in turn, because 60 seconds is the
default wait period. If an event occurs before the specified timeout the
program will move on to the next event.
# ampwait -rs
eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Reset
eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Start
The following example waits up to 30 seconds for the local
device to reset (-r) then up to 50 seconds for the local device to
start (-s). This is the same as above but we have specified 30
seconds using option -w.
# ampwait -r -s -w 30
eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 30 seconds for Reset
eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 30 seconds for Start
The next example reports the actual amount of time taken for each
event to occur. Observe that the last event, device association, did not
occur within the allotted time.
# ampwait -rsay
eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Reset
etho 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Waited 22 seconds to Reset
eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Start
etho 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Waited 4 seconds to Start
eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Allow 60 seconds for Assoc
etho 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Waited 60 seconds for Assoc
etho 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Device did not Assoc
The following example illustrates use of the revision string to
detect mismatched firmware. In this example, we reset the device first,
using program amptool, then wait for it to reset then start up again.
There are also operation that can cause the device to reset.
# amptool -R
# ampwait -xrsf INT6000-MAC-3-1-3143-1690-20071107-FINAL-B
eth0 00:B0:52:BA:BA:01 Device started wrong firmware
Immediately after a reset we wait for the firmware to stop
responding, with option -r, and then start responding, with option
-s, and then perform a string comparison against the actual firmware
revision string, with option -f. If the strings do not match then an
error is reported. In this case, the program will exit with a non-zero
return code since option -x is present.
Atheros HomePlug AV Vendor Specific Management Message Entry
structure and content is proprietary to Qualcomm Atheros, Ocala FL USA.
Consequently, public information may not be available. Qualcomm Atheros
reserves the right to modify message structure and content in future
firmware releases without any obligation to notify or compensate users of
this program.
amp(1), amptool(1),
amphost(1), amprate(1), ampid(1),
ampstat(1)