Two-Parallella Cluster using eLink and Procupine

[nncarlson]

Very valuable write up. Thanks!
You've been thinking toward a 64-core cluster. What would the e-link cabling look like to connect the 16-core epiphany's in a 2x2 grid? The north/south e-link sockets on the porcupine (and no east/west) has me confused.

[claudio4parallella]

Hi,

yes, back to my CLUSTER of 4 PARALLELLA project at my new Academic year of Courses.
Now my CLUSTER has 64 cores.
The test picture is the following: the points of each sin(alpha) line has been drawn by a single core for a total of 64 flows.

Now I absolutely need to exit my unsolved troubleshooting:

The current conditions:
- The cluster does work only with the OLD IIMG: ubuntu-14.04-headless-z7010-20150130.1.img which includes esdk.2015.1. No way to work with the last updated IMG.
- The ubuntu-14.04-headless-z7010-20150130.1.img is without HDMI, so no video output is allowed. Even if without HDMI, no FRAMEBUFFER is installed even if I installed LXDE and X11.

Needs:
- I need the FRAMEWORK in order to output the result of the drawing coming by the 64 cores CLUSTER. Using framebuffer-vncserver I can remotely show the PNG coming from the CLUSTER, even if without an HDMI interface.

QUESTION AND REQUEST FOR HELP
- I need to install / activate the FRAMEBUFFER /dev/fb0 in order to map my graph on a screen over the old IMG ubuntu-14.04-headless-z7010-20150130.1.img which is headless.

ATTEMPTS:
- I tried to install LXDE and it's ok in order to have a GUI desktop from the MASTER PARALLELLA, but it doesn't use any FRAMEBUFFER;
- I tried to run lxdsession using Quartz ssh -X but there is no output, so impossible to run;
- I tried to install XORG but no framebuffer at all, it doesn't work.
- I abandoned the attempt to adapt the last UBUNTU Image which has the HDMI and the Frambuffer to the CLUSTER configuration, but no way to apply the Cluster settings .

QUESTION:
Please has anybody the way to add video FRAMEBUFFER to the Headless UBUNT old img?
May be something should be changed within the kernel?

Thanks a lot.

[claudio4parallella]

[rosslav]

Hi claudio4parallela,

Hope you are healthy and safe these COVID days...

I've had my boards (desktop hdmi w/z7010) for several years, but I'm just getting around to setting up a 4-board cluster and would prefer to use the e-links via Porcupine adapters. I've read the earlier comments concerning all the issues with compatibility between the OS and ESDK, so because it's been a while since the last posting I'm wondering:

1. is there now a more recent OS (at least 18.04) and ESDK combination that provides functional e-links? And if so, is there any rebuilding required? I'm assuming that the OS would be headless...
2. if a recent OS + ESDK combination is still unknown at the moment, what would be the next oldest releases to use? I'm assuming that the OS would be headless here too...
2. it's not a huge deal, but is it possible for an hdmi OS and appropriate ESDK to have functional e-links? And if so, what rebuilding if any is required?

I've been looking through the forum categories and all the Git repos including Supercores to get myself up to speed, but any suggestions as to how to proceed would be greatly appreciated!

Thx,
Ross