WLink driver for Linux

[ArduinoShop]

I cannot get the Linux driver for the W-LinkE to work correctly on Ubuntu 23.04

If I set the ModeS to Serial (red LED) It seems to be OK - /dev/ttyACM0 appears..
BUT if I set it to Flash mode (blue LED) nothing happens - no /dev/ch3?? device appears

To check the hardware I tried it on Windows 10 and it seemed to work OK - both of the LEDs come on. If I reboot into Linux with both LEDs lit I get many usb enumeration errors and the system reboots.

more details on my hackaday https://hackaday.io/project/191172

any ideas?? - my boss will reject the WCH chips if I can't get them working on Linux.

[maxgerhardt]

Having 0 problems here. Not pushing any ModeS button, just plugging in my WCH-Link E and forwarding it to my Linux VM I get

[  119.829556] usb 1-2: new full-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[  120.103606] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=8010, bcdDevice= 2.08
[  120.103612] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  120.103615] usb 1-2: Product: WCH-Link
[  120.103616] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: wch.cn
[  120.103617] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 81188F0605F5
[  120.166057] cdc_acm 1-2:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[  120.166086] usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_acm
[  120.166088] cdc_acm: USB Abstract Control Model driver for USB modems and ISDN adapters

so that gives me a /dev/ttyACM0.

Double check what your sudo dmesg -w is saying when you plug in the device.

[karstengit]

Here it is the same problem like described by ArduinoShop.

Development is under Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye).

The udev rules have been added and the WCH-LinkE is recognized by the kernel.
The device ttyACM0 is existant, but a query for it fails in the MounRiver Studio.

[ 5536.279293] usb 3-2: new full-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[ 5536.502046] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=8010, bcdDevice= 2.08
[ 5536.502055] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 5536.502060] usb 3-2: Product: WCH-Link
[ 5536.502063] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: wch.cn
[ 5536.502066] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 87A08F060C7E
[ 5536.515558] cdc_acm 3-2:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

What maxgerhardt has written is maybe not relevant, because the WCH-LinkE is handled and initialized first by the Windows-driver and then the control is given to the virtual machine.

The WCH-LinkUtility works and find the WCH-LinkE when starting Windows7 in a VM in Debian.
So the hardware seems to be O.K.

[karstengit]

Compiling the minichlink from ch32v003fun it can find the WCH-LinkE
https://github.com/cnlohr/ch32v003fun/tree/master/minichlink

Found WCH Link
WCH Programmer is LinkE version 2.8
Chip Type: 003
Part Type (A): 0x0010 (This is the capacity code, in KB)
Part UUID    : 39-ca-ab-cd-a1-d8-bc-41
PFlags       : ff-ff-ff-ff
Part Type (B): 00-30-05-00
Interface Setup

But the MounRiver Studio only generates a hex and not a bin file to program.
So this is not a solution at this moment for Linux!

[karstengit]

Please consider the remarks on the main project page, that are showing up multiple problems with the WCH-LinkE programmer in Linux (It seems only to be made to work in Windows):
https://github.com/cnlohr/ch32v003fun/tree/master#wch-link-hardware-access-in-wsl

WCH-Link Hardware access in WSL

To use the WCH-Link in WSL, it is required to "attach" the USB hardware on the Windows side to WSL. This is achieved using a tool called usbipd.

1. On windows side, install the following MSI https://github.com/dorssel/usbipd-win/releases

2. Install the WSL side client:
   For Debian: sudo apt-get install usbip hwdata usbutils
   For Arch-based: sudo pacman -S usbip hwdata usbutils
   For Ubuntu (not tested):

    sudo apt install linux-tools-5.4.0-77-generic linux-tools-virtual hwdata usbutils
    sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/local/bin/usbip usbip `ls /usr/lib/linux-tools/*/usbip | tail -n1` 20
   

3. Plug in the WCH-Link to USB

4. Run Powershell as admin and use the usbipd list command to list all connected devices

5. Find the this device: 1a86:8010 WCH-Link (Interface 0) and note the busid it is attached to

6. In powershell, use the command usbipd wsl attach --busid= to attach the device at the busid from previous step

7. You will hear the windows sound for the USB device being removed (and silently attached to WSL instead)

8. In WSL, you will now be able to run lsusb and see that the SCH-Link is attached

9. For unknown reasons, you must run make under root access in order to connect to the programmer with minichlink. Recommend running sudo make when building and programming projects using WSL. This may work too (to be confirmed):
   ...

[karstengit]

The MounRiver Studio can be downloaded, installed and used in Linux without problems.
The examples can be imported and compiled, but it is not possible to program the CH32V003F4P6.

Here is a screenshot for the support from the MounRiver Studio, showing that in Flash -> Configuration the "Target Mode" is greyed out and "Query" has no effect (no error message).

The menu item Flash -> Download only shows:

------------ Begin flash process of "obj/GPIO_Toggle.hex" ------------ 
09:04:42:354 >> Current project vendor is WCH, debugger is WCH-Link

09:04:42:354 >> Attempt to open link device and upgrade firmware if necessary...

Afterwards nothing happens without any error message.

[UCSIG]

Compiling the minichlink from ch32v003fun it can find the WCH-LinkE https://github.com/cnlohr/ch32v003fun/tree/master/minichlink

Found WCH Link
WCH Programmer is LinkE version 2.8
Chip Type: 003
Part Type (A): 0x0010 (This is the capacity code, in KB)
Part UUID    : 39-ca-ab-cd-a1-d8-bc-41
PFlags       : ff-ff-ff-ff
Part Type (B): 00-30-05-00
Interface Setup

But the MounRiver Studio only generates a hex and not a bin file to program. So this is not a solution at this moment for Linux!

You can change the output format in the project properties in MounRiver Studio.
Right-click on the project in the Project Explorer and click on Properties. In the left column click on C/C++ Build -> Settings.
Under the Tool Settings tab click GNU RISC-V Cross Create Flash Image -> General.
There you can change the output file format (-O setting) from Intel HEX to Raw binary.

[karstengit]

You can change the output format in the project properties in MounRiver Studio.
Right-click on the project in the Project Explorer and click on Properties. In the left column click on C/C++ Build -> Settings.
Under the Tool Settings tab click GNU RISC-V Cross Create Flash Image -> General.
There you can change the output file format (-O setting) from Intel HEX to Raw binary.

Thank you - that solves the problem to generate a binary file.

10:30:45 **** Build of configuration obj for project GPIO_Toggle ****
make -j4 all 
Invoking: GNU RISC-V Cross Create Flash Image
Invoking: GNU RISC-V Cross Print Size
riscv-none-embed-objcopy -O binary "GPIO_Toggle.elf"  "GPIO_Toggle.bin"
riscv-none-embed-size --format=berkeley "GPIO_Toggle.elf"
   text	   data	    bss	    dec	    hex	filename
   7012	    152	    276	   7440	   1d10	GPIO_Toggle.elf
Finished building: GPIO_Toggle.bin
Finished building: GPIO_Toggle.siz

10:30:45 Build Finished. 0 errors, 0 warnings. (took 436ms)

Besides - the generated GPIO_Toggle.bin has 7164 Bytes, but the blink.bin from ch32v003fun has only 496 Bytes?

The flashing of the binary file works manually as root and the blink is working now:

# minichlink -w GPIO_Toggle.bin flash -b
Found WCH Link
WCH Programmer is LinkE version 2.8
Chip Type: 003
Part Type (A): 0x0010 (This is the capacity code, in KB)
Part UUID    : 39-ca-ab-cd-a1-d8-bc-41
PFlags       : ff-ff-ff-ff
Part Type (B): 00-30-05-00
Interface Setup
Image written.

Is there a possibility to include minichlink into eclipse?

What is the last firmware version of the WCH-LinkE?
Can the firmware only be updated in Windows?
Will the problems in Linux be fixed by WCH?

[maxgerhardt]

ch32v003fun is a lot smaller because it does not rely on the EVT / SDK made by WCH. It also avoids a integer divide and other things that would cause big code on its rv32ec core that has no integer multiply or divide.

[karstengit]

ch32v003fun is a lot smaller because it does not rely on the EVT / SDK made by WCH. It also avoids a integer divide and other things that would cause big code on its rv32ec core that has no integer multiple or divide.

Ah - O.K. Thank you.

Apropo - is there an explicit description of the mnemonics / machine code for this RISC-V CPU's?
Specially with values for the execution time, if a timed assembler code is needed.

[maxgerhardt]

As far as I know, the QingKe V2 RISC-V V2A documents do not explicitly state how many cycles each instruction takes. It's also influenced by the alignment of the instruction address and possible memory operands. There's some work going on https://github.com/CaiB/CH32V003-Architecture-Exploration/ and in the discord channel, e.g.

In any case, this issue is getting more and more derailed -- originally it was about the WCH-Link(E) not getting recognized in Linux.

[karstengit]

As far as I know, the QingKe V2 RISC-V V2A documents do not explicitly state how many cycles each instruction takes.

Is it not normal that an developer and seller of an CPU / MCU gives such basic documentation of the instruction set?
It should not have to be reengineered by the users that buy the product.

There's some work going on https://github.com/CaiB/CH32V003-Architecture-Exploration/ and in the discord channel,

Thanks for the info. This is interesting.

In any case, this issue is getting more and more derailed -- originally it was about the WCH-Link(E) not getting recognized in Linux.

Yes - that's true. Can you recommend a forum or a Wiki for this MCU?
This informations will be collected and spreaded.

[ArduinoShop]

Continuing on.. I ran into a blog on ee about my very same problem... Only dif was that his MRS was 1 rev older. - It appears that MRS (under Windows) check the rev of the firmware on the LinkE and INSISTs on upgrading it... After that the LinkE is bricked... He assumed that MRS was uploading the hex file of your project rather than the firmware for the LinkE. I can't disagree with him. The blog is at: eevblog.

I wasn't sure if this was my problem so I ordered another LinkE as well as an old LinkV (LinkR??). They arrived today and my brother-in-law loaned me a laptop with Win 10... So I tried plugging in the LINKs to see if they were recognized.. I found that both MRS and the Utility recognized them fine and predictably. I decided to allow MRS to upgrade my LinkRV, but mistakenly had the LinkE plugged in... MISTAKE - I now have 2 bricked LinkEs... They are not recognized by MRS and crashes the utility program.

[ should also note that when the firmware is upgraded the device ID etc. changes which affects Linux udev ]

Which gives rise to 2 questions:

1. The Win installation of MRS always shows the 'upload' icon whether the Link is plugged in or not, whereas the Linux version never shows the 'upload' icon. Is this normal (assuming the Linux driver doesn't work) or do I have a bum Linux version (Linux64_V140).

2. How can I restore the firmware on my LinkEs? I don't know what ".hex" file to use with the "Utility" program and I can't seem to trust MRS... Can it be done with the LINKV? What MCU is used on the LinkE - I can't read what is on the chip.

[karstengit]

ArduinoShop closed this as completed

Please tell me why you have set this bug report to completed?

It isn't completed because there are still a couple of problems regarding the programming of an CH32V003F4P6 with an WCH-LinkE in Linux.

Here are the unanswered questions:

• Is there a possibility to include minichlink into eclipse?
• What is the last firmware version of the WCH-LinkE?
• Can the firmware only be updated in Windows?
• Will the problems in Linux be fixed by WCH?

[ArduinoShop]

My sincere apologies to all the commenters... It was not my intent whatsoever to close this issue. Not really sure how I did it. Don't have a lot of experience with github. Does anyone know how or if I can re-open the issue? Or can we ask the dev to do it for us.

In fact I want to add another comment - I tried using the "Utility" program to upgrade the LinkR with the same result. BRICKED LinkR. It also crashes the Utility program if I try any operations with the either Link connected. Windows to close it.

Only possible solution I can see would be to use 2-Wire JTAG to upgrade/re-install the firmware. Although at this points I have my doubts that MRS or Utility have the correct firmware files... This also leaves me with a chicken and egg situation. I think I would need the Utility to do this and of course it cashes as soon as one connects a 'bricked' Link.

In the meantime I will open a separate issue re "upgrades".

Sorry guys.

P.S. - Looks like I answered my own question about re-opening the Issue - there was an option to re-open when submitting a further comment...... Still think I will open a separate Issue because it seems very important to me and this Issue had many and various subjects..