User manual

6.6 Gigabit Ethernet

The LAN connectivity is handled by Realtek's RTL8211CL. It is capable of transmission rate up to

1Gbps over industry standard CAT.5 UTP cable with BER less than 10-10 in 1000Base-T. The

controller is compatible with some of the major industry standards. It complies with 1000Base-T

IEEE 802.3ab; 100Base-TX IEEE 802.3u; 10Base-T IEEE 802.3; and IEEE 802.3 RGMII; among

others.

The Ethernet connector is grounded according to the standard (check GND1 and GND2 lines on the

schematics).

If you use Linux then the Ethernet connector might be used for SSH connection to the board. If you

lack any other option for debugging it might be hard to guess the correct IP of the board since it has

DHCP enabled by default (especially if you are in a large network). It is good idea to check the

default settings by exploring the Linux image settings. Those are usually stored in:

/etc/network/interfaces

For DHCP you need to enable auto detection and dhcp as shown below:

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet dhcp

For setting a static address please follow the pattern below:

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet static

address 192.168.1.5

netmask 255.255.255.0

gateway 192.168.1.254

The EEPROM memory may be used to store the MAC address.

Important: In some Debian images it is possible that the Ethernet doesn't get auto-detected during

boot-up. This is done on purpose because if there is auto-detection enabled and you don't want to

use the Ethernet connector or you have forgotten to plug a cable the start-up would be greatly

delayed. This might be problem in the first start-up to users counting only on SSH connection. You

can enable the Ethernet after a successful boot-up with:

ifconfing -a

dhclient eth#(as seen after after the ifconfing command)

Important: You can configure static/DHCP-given IP addresses in /etc/network/interfaces

LED

LED Color Usage

Bi-color LED1 Orange/Green Speed status/Link status

Single color LED2 Yellow Activity status

*The speed status of LED1 (typically indicated by the orange color of the bi-color LED1) is not available. Only the link status

indicated by the green LED is available currently.

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