[FAQ] TDA4VM: How to forward Broadcast frames to HLOS (QNX) running on A72 by default ?

Issue:

By default, all broadcast frames will be forwarded to Ethernet Firmware (server/master running on MCU2_0 core), and Ethernet Firmware will share with other client cores via Inter-core Virtual Ethernet communication as shown in below diagram, for more details refer to User Guide.


But, on the QNX side there is no support for Inter-core Virtual Ethernet communication. So, the broadcast frames can't receive on the QNX side.


Resolution:

Considering that all network operations are managed on the QNX side, we can forward all broadcast frames to QNX. In this case, other client cores and Ethernet Firmware can't receive broadcast frames.


Steps to follow:

1. Ignore broadcast ALE entry from Ethernet Firmware by Ignoring the invocation of  "EthFw_setAleBcastEntry()" from "EthFw_init" in <SDKR>/ethfw/ethfw/src/ethfw.c as shown in below image.
   
   After making the above change, rebuild Ethernet Firmware as a clean build followed by the build.
   Please refer to User Guide for build options.
   
   After completion of the build, copy the switch server binary from <SDKR>/ethfw/out/J721E/R5Ft/FREERTOS/release/ to rootfs/lib/firmware/ethfw/ directory in SD Card flashed with Linux SDK if boot mode is SD Boot Mode.
   
   
2. Add broadcast address from QNX using "ifconfig" or "brconfig" tools.
   Ex: In Linux we used to add as follows.
   # ip maddr add FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF dev eth1
                                              (or)
   Add static entry from Ethernet Firmware by referring to "adding a multicast entry for A72" (use Broadcast address instead of multicast in reference example) from ALE configuration FAQ.
   
   

Best Regards
Sudheer