ROD's new TCP/IP stack.

7.03 beta 1 went out to beta testers today. This one appears to be the first one that keeps working for me. So it’s good news.

I want this posting to gather informed and useful input. I don’t want it to put anyone off.

There is an issue with the new stack on my RasPi 3B+. From a cold boot, the stack usually comes up non-functional. The simple manual solution is to reboot. The warm boot seems to always come up functional.

As far as we can tell at the moment, the cause is that the Ethernet interface, which is USB-connected, comes up not working, although *ejinfo says that it’s UP.

I’m looking for possible solutions. John Ballance has suggested a script in the network config, to detect the non-operating state and re-initialise the EtherUSB module and re-run the Reload obey file. I’m sure this can be made to work with little difficulty, but it seems to me that there ought to be a more proper solution.

Useful suggestions welcome!

Amusingly my new Pi 4 (and not with the ROD stack) didn’t want to network in a similar way, so I stuck Harinezumi in to try to diagnose booting … and of course that now makes it work 100%

Just be aware that the new stack install messes with the BootRun file (IIRC), which will cause startup errors if you’re using Harinezumi.

If you start seeing weird unexpected errors about not enough memory, then look in the BootRun file and comment or the lines that set WimpSlot and FreePool. This should already have been done in the beginning in the Harikick Obey file.

Though, you might want to fiddle the slot there to be 4096k, it’s not as if we’re short of memory these days…

I should have thought to say earlier: EtherUSB 0.42, which is in the “ROM” (RO 5.29 of 13 Dec 2022) never goes wrong; it’s 7.xx, which is part of the new TCP/IP stack, that fails to start.

EtherUSB 0.42, which is in the “ROM” (RO 5.29 of 13 Dec 2022) never goes wrong

Is there any preferred ethernet dongles for one or all rpi’s or others? I have been meaning to get an ethernet dongle for my chromebook.
It is a useful for banking. Fastest turn on and startup into a secure browser by far, also the system itself has google password entry.
Maybe a really expensive phone could beat it, but it does pretty well with it’s early arm processor and has good battery life.

Is there any preferred ethernet dongles for one or all rpi’s or others?

Bearing in mind how supply chains operate, I don’t think it’s possible to give you an answer if what you want is a link to a specific item that you can buy. These things have so many variants, are available under so many names, and are so frequently redesigned (probably to use parts that are more readily available or cheaper).

The fortunate reality appears to be that most of them work with RISC OS. I don’t recall reading reports here of devices that were bought but turned out to be unsupported. Please, pipe up if you know different!

If you can find the chip that’s in a particular dongle, or if you can find the USB vendor ID (VID) and product ID (PID), post here and someone will know if it’s supported.

Beyond the question of supported or not, I don’t think there’s likely to be any watertight evidence of better or worse performance.

Most of the cheap, “no details given” adapters use a Realtek chipset which isn’t supported (yet) on RISC OS. Generally, expect to pay 12-20ukp range. If in doubt, most RISC OS companies will have stock in that price range.

Is there a way of connecting a phone to the Pinebook Pro – cable to get around there being no Wifi – does the RISC OS Linux version use the inbuilt Wifi?

Take a look at this https://www.iconbar.co.uk/articles/RISC_OS_Users_Xmas_screenshots_2022_-_Raik_Fischer_PineBook_Pro/index1852.html he uses a surf stick I am sure he will tell us what software he uses.

;-)
Yes and no. Mark wrote me an email and I send a screenshot about any things arrives me for testing.
Thomas has made any improvements in EtherUSB (ROOL has this information) now it support any CDC things. CDC EDM for any Surfsticks is working (I have a working Huawei stick and a ZTE LTEtoWLAN Box) and any CDC EtherUSB Adapter (for me the original PineHub and a Donn06G).
The other things are rNTFS = Tonis NTFS reader and the PineBook Pro port itself I buy from ROD/RCOMP.
Additional look here.

We have reason to believe that EtherUSB may not be the cause of the problem that I and a small number of others are seeing. John Ballance says that the old and new modules run the same code until after a packet is received.

Question: how many people here have tried ROD’s new TCP/IP stack?

How many found it a success, how many didn’t?

Not using the latest one because haven’t been fiddling with the Pi so the archive is still on my phone.

Haven’t yet gotten around to testing IPv6 either.

However, how would you define successful? For me, it installs, it messes with BootRun which is annoying but fixable. And then it… just behave like the original stack. All my programs run, everything behaves, my system currently has an uptime of 13 days (and that was an evening power glitch).

For me, I guess that’s a success. I haven’t bashed it hard to find it’s weaknesses, but I do use it and it just gets on with the job.

Seems “reasonably fast” in use, but this is hard to quantify with ~3.6Mbit ADSL and WiFi through thick stone walls. It seems to me that Netsurf downloads more rapidly in general, but there are numerous factors at play. Some days my phone works better with Netflix connected to the router (very weak signal), some days it works better bouncing off the Vonets as a relay, and some days (rarely) neither works so I leave it in the living room to download content to watch offline.

Suffice to say, apart from a few glitches in the early testing, it’s just gotten on and done the job quietly and without fuss.

It generally works. Some testing with my software that sends a LOT of messages shows no difference in speed. As I’m sending from BASIC it’s likely that the limiting factor is elsewhere.

There is an issue stopping me using it (developers are aware), which is that, for my code, a broadcast can be received by other computers using the new stack, but the sending machine doesn’t receive the broadcast. It might be the way I’ve coded it, but it is different to the old stack.

The other thing is that it needs some tweaking to take place before Harimezumi will allow the machine to boot with the new stack. Rick can supply details.

It works; it does everything I need, and I’m enjoying the increase in speed.

I’m glad to hear of the successful cases. I reiterate that it works for me, once it has started up. NetSurf, AntiSpam, Messenger Pro, Newshound, Avalanche etc. are all perfectly happy with it.

Stuart, you and I seem to be the only people having startup trouble. What LAN chip are you using? *usbdevices tells me I’m using an SMSC LAN7800. Also, do you have any impression that the startup is temperature sensitive?

@Dave: I am not running the ROD stack on my Pi 4. I believe the Ethernet is a built-in GENET on the Broadcom SoC rather than over USB.

a Realtek chipset which isn’t supported (yet) on RISC OS

For my curiosity, which chipset is this, please?

I like the look of this USB3 one. Ebay ID 394315744203
It appears to be the same shape case as the American ‘Plugable’ range, so good chance of being a Taiwan asix chipset.
One device mentioned realtek and it was a combo usb hub/ethernet device,
Generally chipsets or id’s aren’t mentioned in advertising.

…Realtek…

Yes, no, maybe… is offtopic. Has nothing to do with the stack. Only with Thomas EtherUSB changes.
I us this hub/ether-adapter.
Has a realtek chipset… dmesg in Linux means driver r8152…
*usbdevices gives Realtek USB 10/100/1000 LAN
But is not the chipset. The old PinBook Hub has a Chromtel chipset. Both supports CDC EDM.
For both the ether device is not the “first” device. So you have to set something like
*USBSetConfig 12 2 (Hub is device No.12 and Ether is the second)
*rmreinit EtherUSB
There is no autodetection because we have try more devices … on any ether was the third… If it is the first, you have to do nothing.
But as I wrote, also for the LTE surf sticks, CDC EDM support is necessary.

Edit: Uups, sorry… is CDC ECM not EDM!!!

Question: how many people here have tried ROD’s new TCP/IP stack?

I have try V7.01 with MX6 and Pinebook Pro. No info from Andrew about 7.03 :-(

How many found it a success, how many didn’t?

MX6: For me it (7.01) is working without problems at this time but I use a manually IP set.
Pinebook Pro: Is working with a “well known” USB2Ether adapter like my Lindy and a manually IP set but is not working “on the fly” with PineTools and with the LTE stick and the DONN06 Hub.

Question: how many people here have tried ROD’s new TCP/IP stack?

I have been using the ROD stack here since early this year, during the beta phase. The only problems I have had were with the Install/Remove process, which have been long resolved (for me, at least).

Last Wednesday I installed 7.03 over 7.02b2, and that has also worked.
However, I have noticed that after boot the first Resolves sometimes take a long time, and sometimes so long that they fail. Trying again (usually an AntiSpam fetch) normally works, and thereafter all seems normal.

I am using a PiHole, which could be a cause, but I only started noticing the problem after the 7.03 install.
When I get chance I will revert to 7.02 and see if the problem goes away.
Note that this is on a Titanium, so using EtherCPSW not EtherUSB.

Edit: I have changed back to 7.02b2, and still see some initial Resolver delay.
So I cannot blame 7.03 … but investigations will continue!

Question: how many people here have tried ROD?s new TCP/IP stack?

I have used it from early beta through v7 and now v7.01. The only issue had was finding a couple bugs in the early test betas, but with v7 and updating to v7.01 no issues on installing. But did ensure I read the instructions before doing the install and getting the latest Omni update they advised, I have it running without issue on th ARMX6 and a 4te2

Now I am using V7.03 on Pinebook Pro with EtherUSB 0.43 and my Huawei E3372 LTE USB Stick. Is running without issue.