Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?

droftarts · 9 Mar 2021, 07:01

@3mm here’s a guide to setting a static IP address in Ubuntu. https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-configure-static-ip-address-on-ubuntu-20-04/
The first part is how to do it in terminal, later in the article it shows how to do it in the GUI, much easier!

See my earlier link for how to set up the Duet.

Ian

3mm · 9 Mar 2021, 10:28

@droftarts

Excellent. Thank you so much!

Best Regards

3mm

3mm · 11 Mar 2021, 07:13

@droftarts

Hi, after screwing around quite a bit and reading the URLs you cited and a few others derived from those you cited, I was able to connect the NoteBook running Ububut 14.04 Linux, directly (using a straight through CAT5e cable) to the DUET-EtherNet (v2) controller, via static IPv4 configuration. However, it wont stay connected. It acts like a timing problem? I'm wondering what the minimum version of (FireFox) web-browser is required? And maybe, is there a time-out retry setting somewhere in the controller firmware? It occurs to me that the NoteBook, a Dell "Inspiron Mini 1012" just might be too old...too slow. I have a marketing brochure dated 1999 for that model.

Any ideas to what might be a solution? I've changed cables; fiddled around with settings in the Linux. I may try changing to a more recent PC with a more recent version of Linux.

Thanks in advance for your time in this matter.

3mm

gaweyo · 11 Mar 2021, 09:00

@3mm said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

However, it wont stay connected.

sounds like you might have dhcp client still running, does the IP for the PC change when it stops working or does it say static? i

droftarts · 11 Mar 2021, 09:18

@3mm Is the netbook connected by WiFi to your network as well? If so, what IP addresses are the wired and wireless connections configured to? Most likely you have set the wired Ethernet in the same range as the WiFi. To check each one, see https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/net-findip.html.en

You can also use the terminal command ip a to list IP addresses.

Ian

3mm · 3 Nov 2021, 10:24

@gaweyo

sounds like you might have dhcp client still
running, does the IP for the PC change
when it stops working or does it say static?

No. But thanks for the reply.

@droftarts

Is the netbook connected by WiFi to your network as well?
No. WiFi is disabled.

I have further information. When the NoteBook connects to the DUET-E controller & the Web-Console, EtherNet/Controller stays connected so long as there is not a lot of I/O hand-shaking. For instance, I can issue motion commands via the web-interface without any disconnects, but when I click the 'G-Code Files' tab, sometimes it'll load the page and then disconnect, other times it'll instantly disconnect. The only way I can reconnect and have a stable connection is power-cycling the DUET-E (EtherNet) v1.02 controller.

When the connection crashes, the WebConsole emits an error message:

! Request Timeout
The last HTTP request has timed out. Please make sure the connection between your
device and the board is not interrupted.

DUET-E Controller Info:

(old)
Duet 2 WiFi/EtherNet Board (v1.02)
Firmware: 2.03 (2019-06-13b2)
Web Interface: 1.21

The settings in the DUET-E controller are:

M552 S0 ; Disable network
; ----------------- static IP direct connect via CAT5e cable DUET-E controller config ------------
M552 P192.168.2.2     ; Static IP Addr - DUET's IP Addr
M553 P255.255.255.0 ; NetMask 
M552 S1                      ; Enable network

The settings in Ubuntu 14.04 Linux - /etc/network/interfaces file are:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0 
iface eth0 inet static
     address 192.168.2.1
     netmask 255.255.255.0

While in the Ubuntu DeskTop 'NetworkManager' taskbar dialog
the IPv4 Settings are:

  Address: 192.168.2.1
  Netmask: 255.255.255.0
  Gateway:   0.0.0.0

I think this should be working.

Maybe its a really old DUET-E firmware version problem thats been fixed? The NoteBook Linux seems to be doing something that may be
scrambling the controller logic?? It isn't a perfect world. Although these DUET products are very good IMO. I was lucky finding you guys. Thanks.

3mm

dc42 · 11 Mar 2021, 10:25

@3mm said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

Maybe its a really old DUET-E firmware version problem thats been fixed?

Please run M122 and post the resulting report here.
It may help us diagnose this if you install WireShark on the notebook, capture the data to/from the Duet and stop the capture immediately after a disconnection. Then attach the capture file to a post.

droftarts · 3 Nov 2021, 12:13

@3mm It's possible it's a firmware bug, as you're on RRF 2.03. Updating to 2.05.1 would be sensible, and shouldn't require you to make any changes (caveat: from memory!).

What version of DWC are you using? I think you said you're using Firefox as your browser, but I'm not sure we have tested what version would be compatible. I'd generally say to use the latest available.

It's also possible that it's an SD card issue; sharing the M122 response as @dc42 suggests might show if that's a problem (you can connect via USB to get this, if it's not working in the browser). Try a new one, or reformat the old one after copying the files off it. See https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/SD_Card for specification, formatting etc.

Ian

3mm · 11 Mar 2021, 11:54

@dc42 said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

@3mm said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

Maybe its a really old DUET-E firmware version problem thats been fixed?

Please run M122 and post the resulting report here.

It may help us diagnose this if you install WireShark on the notebook, capture the data to/from the Duet and stop the capture immediately after a disconnection. Then attach the capture file to a post.

Hi DC42,

I down-loaded & installed WireShark on the Linux box, now I gotta fiddle around a bit to use it, and tomorrow I'll upload the M122 output, gotta hit the sack, its 4:00am here in LA, and I have a meeting with pirate atty (aren't they all?) tomorrow. Thanks for your attention to this matter.

3mm

3mm · 19 Mar 2021, 07:41

@3mm said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

@dc42 said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

@3mm said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

Maybe its a really old DUET-E firmware version problem thats been fixed?

Please run M122 and post the resulting report here.

It may help us diagnose this if you install WireShark on the notebook, capture the data to/from the Duet and stop the capture immediately after a disconnection. Then attach the capture file to a post.

Hi DC42,

I down-loaded & installed WireShark on the Linux box, now I gotta fiddle around a bit to use it, and tomorrow I'll upload the M122 output, gotta hit the sack, its 4:00am here in LA, and I have a meeting with pirate atty (aren't they all?) tomorrow. Thanks for your attention to this matter.

3mm

Hi DC42,

<sigh> Well, the version of Ubuntu and the age of the Dell NoteBook running ubuntu 14.04 LTS that I was trying to use with the DUET-E controller, and then later install WireShark into...not a good fit, it just did not work correctly. So, now that I've changed to a HP 8640P LapTop, and have installed the latest xubuntu (ubuntu 20.04.10 LTS) Linux operating system and installed the latest WireShark, --those peices are working properly together. The for WebControl, FireFox version: 86.0 (64bit) Ubuntu canonical - 1.0, which is a fairly recent version.

I now am able to finally cause the new laptop+ubuntu OS to connect to the DUET-E controller, (using NetPlan) I finally have been able to acquire the WireShark diagnostic traffic file that you requested.

So now, just as before, everytime I connect (via static IP & a direct EtherNet CAT5 cable) from the LapTop to the DUET-E controller, the connection remains functioning (40 + minutes, while moving the hot-end, setting the temps, heating things up, etc) as long as I do not access the G-Code Files directory which loads and displays all the files. The EtherNet remains connected for around 5 seconds and then drops the connection and emits an 'HTTP timeout error'. The only way I can reconnect is to power-cycle the DUET-E controller.

The LapTop IP Address: 192.168.2.1/24 (the /24 is required by ubuntu)
DUET-E Controller Addr: 192.168.2.2/24 (ditto)
NetMask: 255.255.255.0

network configuration file: /etc/netplan/99_config.yaml

  network:
    version: 2
    renderer: networkd
      ethernets:
        enp0s25:
          addresses: 
                 - 192.168.2.1/24
                 - 192.168.2.2/24

sudo netplan apply<cr>

M122 Status List:
M122 Status List.txt

WireShark Diagnostic (dropout occurs around 1331) file - Rename file from .txt to .pcapng:
EtherNet_DropOuts_Around_1331_pcapng.txt

Thanks in advance for your help.

3mm

droftarts · 19 Mar 2021, 12:17

@3mm Thanks for the information. You didn't update to 2.05.1? The M122 command reports "Used output buffers: 6 of 24 (8 max)", which is high. There were quite a lot of fixes in later RRF 2.x versions for this issue.

To update, you should be able to upload this file to DWC: https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/releases/download/2.05.1/Duet2Firmware-2.05.1.zip
Download it as a zip (don't unzip it), and upload it to the Duet via DWC > Settings > General > Upload Files button.

Note that this WILL update DWC to version 2.x, which is a bit different from 1.x. You can go back to 1.x if you prefer it.

Ian

SupraGuy · 19 Mar 2021, 17:36

Crossover cable issue has been addressed.

If I were dealing with a Linux PC, I'd probably use a separate network card and configure DHCP on that interface.

Google gave me a basic link to configure it here

This also allows you to use it with a switch for other network functions for things that you might not want connected to the Internet. You can also edit the configuration file to always assign the same IP address by MAC address, allowing you to always be able to find any given host by IP address, when desired.

My ISP router doesn't support assigning addresses to devices, so I shut off it's DHCP server entirely, and have set up DHCP services on a Linux machine so that I can always find things like my MotionEye cameras, the Duet, and a few other things on the network.

Edit: The advantage to doing it this way is that you can still take the Duet based printer somewhere else and still easily connect it to most networks.

3mm · 21 Mar 2021, 16:02

@droftarts said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

@3mm Thanks for the information. You didn't update to 2.05.1? The M122 command reports "Used output buffers: 6 of 24 (8 max)", which is high. There were quite a lot of fixes in later RRF 2.x versions for this issue.

To update, you should be able to upload this file to DWC: https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/releases/download/2.05.1/Duet2Firmware-2.05.1.zip
Download it as a zip (don't unzip it), and upload it to the Duet via DWC > Settings > General > Upload Files button.

Note that this WILL update DWC to version 2.x, which is a bit different from 1.x. You can go back to 1.x if you prefer it.

Ian

Thank you for your time in this matter and for the update link. I'll give it a whirl... In the mean time, I have successfully broken the Linux software connection point. I can not cause the EtherNet port to talk to the InterNet or to the printer. There is a bug in the mapping (NetPlan) software and it broke something for which I can not find any documentation. I chose xubuntu as it sports a smaller memory usage footprint than the standard ubuntu version. Only there is a problem, that port of Linux is poorly documented, does not have a large user community AND they changed a lot of the ways Linux operates AND it is really buggy! In my opinion. So, I'm going to overwrite it with a ubuntu 20.04.10 LTS OS, to try to get back to a standard Linux normalicy, so if there is a problem, I'll be able to find literature for it.

Thanks a lot...3mm

3mm · 21 Mar 2021, 16:10

@SupraGuy said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

Crossover cable issue has been addressed.

If I were dealing with a Linux PC, I'd probably use a separate network card and configure DHCP on that interface.

Google gave me a basic link to configure it here

This also allows you to use it with a switch for other network functions for things that you might not want connected to the Internet. You can also edit the configuration file to always assign the same IP address by MAC address, allowing you to always be able to find any given host by IP address, when desired.

My ISP router doesn't support assigning addresses to devices, so I shut off it's DHCP server entirely, and have set up DHCP services on a Linux machine so that I can always find things like my MotionEye cameras, the Duet, and a few other things on the network.

Edit: The advantage to doing it this way is that you can still take the Duet based printer somewhere else and still easily connect it to most networks.

@SupraGuy

Unfortunately, my PC is a laptop, and actually I did try (using ubuntu 14.04 LTS) the DHCP method, but I was suffering the EtherNet dropout problem and DC42 asked that I capture the failure modality using WireShark, which I was unable to cause to work properly with that version of Linux. So I dug out an HP-8640p LapTop onto which I loaded a different version Linux OS & WireShark. However I could not cause that configuration to easily swap between static IP and DHCP, as I would like to be able to connect the LapTop to the InterNet occasionally, and other times only to the printer. Then I broke that OS somehow and I've given up trying to resolve that problem, I'm just going to rebuild the OS with a standard Ubuntu 20.04.10 LTS Linux. The Net Mapping (NetPlan) software is very powerful, but seems a bit sketchy, in my opinion.

Thanks for your suggestions - 3mm

SupraGuy · 22 Mar 2021, 05:10

Seems to me that you should be able to run dhcpd on the wired interface to your laptop, and then use wireless for Internet. Even easier with laptops, usually, since wired connections are less common for places other than your home, I'd think.

Of course if you don't do wireless, it's still pretty easy to assign a static IP address that your Internet router doesn't hand out.

Say for example your router is on 192.168.0.1/24 You can assign 192.168.0.2/24 to the eth0 device, and configure the default gateway to 192.168.0.1. If it's not present (you're connected to the printer) then you don't get Internet, which is fine.

Set up your router to hand out addresses from 192.168.0.10 - 192.168.0.99

Set up your laptop to hand out addresses from 192.168.0.100-192.168.0.199. Reserve the MAC address for the Duet to 192.168.0.100. Set up the default route to 192.168.0.1, probably DNS servers too. (I'd set up DNS on my Linux machine for the LAN and use the router as a forwarder, or my ISP DNS, but that's more work.)

If you are plugged into the Duet, it gets it's address (192.168.0.100) and you're good to go. If you're plugged into the router, you have Internet. If something else connects to the network while you're plugged in, it MIGHT get an address from you, or it might get one from the router (Most things will query the router first, particularly if they were plugged into it before) but either way, it will work for Internet access.

Or... Just use wireless for Internet. I can understand wanting wired though. My internet is faster than my wireless, so everything that needs speed gets a wired connection.

3mm · 24 Mar 2021, 03:58

@droftarts said in Connect Ubuntu PC Directly to DUET EtherNet Without a Router?:

@3mm Thanks for the information. You didn't update to 2.05.1? The M122 command reports "Used output buffers: 6 of 24 (8 max)", which is high. There were quite a lot of fixes in later RRF 2.x versions for this issue.

To update, you should be able to upload this file to DWC: https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/releases/download/2.05.1/Duet2Firmware-2.05.1.zip
Download it as a zip (don't unzip it), and upload it to the Duet via DWC > Settings > General > Upload Files button.

Note that this WILL update DWC to version 2.x, which is a bit different from 1.x. You can go back to 1.x if you prefer it.

Ian

@droftarts (& DC42),

Ok, I uploaded v2.05 to the printer, and while, the new user interface is taking a bit of time with which myself to become accustomed, the http time-out (EtherNet dropout) problem has vanished, or so it seems. I have not tested every function but the newer version seems to have remedied the problem.

Thanks for the link and the instruction for installation.

3mm

3mm · 24 Mar 2021, 04:28

@SupraGuy

Well I finally have it working. I discarded the xubuntu 20.04, just too buggy and virtually no information that matched the mods from the ubuntu fork. Now, I need to do is make hack together an EtherNet 'switch', a couple of toggle switches that routes the laptop either to my InterNet router or to the printer, OR the printer to the InterNet router! I've got all the configurations working. Essentially very similar to your strategy.

Thanks for the indepth answer.

3mm

3mm · 24 Mar 2021, 06:56

@droftarts,

Note that this WILL update DWC to version 2.x, which is
a bit different from 1.x. You can go back to 1.x if you prefer it.

I clicked the 'Revert' to older user interface button, but where is the revert back button? I'd be interested to try to use that new interface for a time, to see how it works. Need I reinstall the whole FW packaged to regain that user interface?

Thanks in advance...3mm

droftarts · 24 Mar 2021, 09:12

@3mm the 2.05.1 release has an early version of DWC 2, and includes a button to revert to DWC 1 for the current session. Note that DWC 1 is no longer being developed. Later versions of DWC (and you can use up to DWC 3.2.2) do not have the revert button. If you want to use DWC 1, which is still on the SD card, you can:

(Temporary) Appending '/reprap.htm' after the printer IP address/name in your browser address bar (updating to 2.x won't have deleted the old DWC v1.x files, but it's worth updating them too if you haven't already).
(Permanent) Deleting the ‘index.html’ and/or 'index.html.gz' file in the www folder on the SD card.

Make sure you are using the latest DWC 1.22.6 version; it’s in the 2.05.1 repository.
Manual for DWC 2 and 3 is here https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/Duet_Web_Control_v2_and_v3_(DWC)_Manual

Ian

3mm · 25 Mar 2021, 08:11

@droftarts

Ok, will do. The screen re-reverted user interface returned after a power-cycle. I getting used to it, at first things seem scattered randomly about, but there is actually a logic strategy in it's implementation. On a 38,1cm/15" LapTop screen the fonts are a bit small, but with the 'dark' its useable. I'll get used to it. I printed a few things tonight using the Linux box and the new version. The user interface is obviously designed for production!! Heh heh. Gotta love it!

Thanks for everything...3mm