RealView Emulation Baseboard Real-Time System Model User Guide: 4.2.1. Host requirements

4.2.1. Host requirements

Before you can use the ethernet capability of the EB RTSM, you must first set up your host computer. Unless your applications have direct access to the host’s network devices, you need to install the nicserver proxy application. You might also need to install packet capture software.

nicserver

The nicserver application has two main functions:

to provide a connection to the host packet capture facilities
to provide a remote connection target.

Not all hosts allow non-administrator or non-root processes to access network devices. To work around this, you are given the nicserver application, which acts as a proxy. This workaround is most applicable on Linux, because typically only root has access to network devices. On Windows, you must have at least standard user permissions to use the nicserver application, as a restricted user is unable to access the necessary devices.

The nicserver application has uses other than as a proxy, however. For example, you can use nicserver, running on a different computer, as a target for your RTSM ethernet accesses.

Note

The nicserver application is included with the library supplied with Fast Models. If you have this product installed, the executable for supported environments in subdirectories of the %PVLIB_HOME%\lib directory.

The syntax for nicserver is:

nicserver [-a adapter] [-dedicated] [--help] [-l] [-n IP_address] [-p port] [-shared] [-version]

The command line arguments are:

-a adapter

The host ethernet adapter on which to send and receive ethernet packets. Use a device name provided by the nicserver -l command. This name can be either part of the device text description, such as “wireless” or the manufacturer’s name, or a complete device ID, such as “eth0” or “\Device\NPF_{1FBF9456-7A62-43AB-B683-83F4142FB7E6}”. If the name is not unique, the first match as shown in the nicserver -l list is used.

-dedicated

Run in non-promiscuous mode. Use this option if you are using the pipe transport to bind the nicserver instance to the specific RTSM that uses it.

--help

Print out a summary of nicserver commands then quit.

-l

List the available network adapters on the host then quit. Sample output from nicserver -l on Windows might look like this:

C:\> nicserver -lAvailable network adapters:\Device\NPF_{1FBF9456-7A62-43AB-B683-83F4142FB7E6}  (NetworkCardInc Wireless Pro Network Connection)\Device\NPF_{924EB4D2-6588-438C-7115-DACFD1754EA2}  (NetworkCardInc 100Gbit Ethernet Network Connection)

-n IP_address

Specify the IP address for nicserver to bind to. Together with the port, the IP address forms the TCP/IP socket for nicserver.

-p port

Specify the port for nicserver to bind to. Together with the IP address, the port forms the TCP/IP socket for nicserver.

-shared

Run in promiscuous mode, which is the default.

-version

Print the nicserver version then quit.

You can start the nicserver application at a command prompt with, for example:

nicserver –p 7010 -n 192.168.0.42 -a NetworkCardInc

This command starts nicserver in promiscuous mode with a TCP/IP socket of 192.168.0.42:7010 and uses the first available NetworkCardInc network controller on the host. If the command has succeeded, a message is output to confirm that nicserver is listening on a given IP address and port. To terminate nicserver, issue the normal SIGINT for your terminal, such as Ctrl + C. If the nicserver command fails, you are shown an error message, or you are returned straight to the command prompt. In either case, check your settings and try again.

On Linux, you might need to have root privileges to use nicserver. If this is the case, you must get an administrator to allow nicserver to be run with root permissions, using setuid.

On Windows, you must have the WinPcap driver installed to use nicserver. See Packet capture.

Packet capture

On Microsoft Windows the ethernet component depends on the WinPcap driver being installed. This allows the unique identification of ethernet devices if more than one is present. You can find the WinPcap distribution at http://www.winpcap.org/. Installing the binary distribution for Microsoft Windows installs the correct driver. A user with administrator privileges must install the software, and the end user must have at least Power User access privileges. Use WinPcap version 3.1 beta 4 or later.

On supported Linux systems, the Pcap packet capture library is present by default. No additional software is required on Linux for nicserver to work.

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