1.3. Networking

barebox has IPv4 networking support. Several protocols such as dhcp - DHCP client to obtain IP or boot params, NFS Support, tftp (load (or save) a file using TFTP) are supported.

1.3.1. Network configuration

The first step for networking is configuring the network device. The network device is usually eth0. The current configuration can be viewed with the devinfo - show information about devices command:

barebox:/ devinfo eth0
Parameters:
  ipaddr: 192.168.23.197
  serverip: 192.168.23.1
  gateway: 192.168.23.1
  netmask: 255.255.0.0
  ethaddr: 00:1c:49:01:03:4b

The configuration can be changed on the command line with:

eth0.ipaddr=172.0.0.10

The dhcp - DHCP client to obtain IP or boot params command will change the settings based on the answer from the DHCP server.

This low-level configuration of the network interface is often not necessary. Normally the network settings should be edited in /env/network/eth0, then the network interface can be brought up using the ifup - bring a network interface up command.

1.3.2. Network filesystems

barebox supports NFS and TFTP as filesystem implementations. See NFS Support and TFTP support for more information. After the network device has been brought up a network filesystem can be mounted with:

mount -t tftp 192.168.2.1 /mnt

or

mount -t nfs 192.168.2.1:/export none /mnt

NOTE: this can often be hidden behind the automount - execute (mount) COMMAND when PATH is first accessed command to make mounting transparent to the user.

1.3.3. Network console

barebox has a UDP-based network console. If enabled in the config, you will see something like this during startup:

registered netconsole as netconsole

By default the network console is disabled during runtime to prevent security risks. It can be enabled using:

netconsole.ip=192.168.23.2
netconsole.active=ioe

This will send UDP packets to 192.168.23.2 on port 6666. On 192.168.23.2 the scripts/netconsole script can be used to control barebox:

scripts/netconsole <board IP> 6666

The netconsole can be used just like any other console.