int6k(1)

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to talk about int6k — the Qualcomm Atheros INT6x00 Powerline Device Manager — and she is lowkey iconic 💖✨

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✨ NAME ✨

int6k — Qualcomm Atheros INT6x00 Powerline Device Manager 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int6k [options] [device] [device] [...]

yeah that's it. options, then a whole little lineup of devices if you want. we love a flexible queen. 💅

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So this version of the Qualcomm Atheros Device Manager for Linux does basic operations on Atheros INT6x00 devices using the raw Ethernet protocol described in the Qualcomm Atheros HomePlug AV Firmware Technical Reference Manual. fr fr, that manual is the lore. You can use it to interrogate and control devices, or upgrade firmware if on-board NVRAM is present. 👑

This program is part of the Qualcomm Atheros Powerline Toolkit. She supports the legacy chipsets INT6000, INT6300 and INT6400 ✨

• Looking for AR7400 and AR7450 chipsets? bestie that's a different girl — see program amptool 🎀
• Looking for QCA6410, QCA7000 and QCA7420 chipsets? again, not her — see program plctool 🎀
• Want the overview and installation instructions? See the plc man page. 🫶

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

okay here comes the whole menu, and no I will not be skipping any of them, we're doing all of them, main character energy only. 💖

• -a — Read device attributes using VS_OP_ATTRIBUTES. Attributes are short strings and integers that describe device hardware and firmware, and they get concatenated to form the output. It's similar to option -r but derived differently, iykyk.
• -B action — Press the simple connect pushbutton using VS_PB_ENC. The action can be specified by number 1, 2, 3 or 4, or by symbol "join", "leave", "status" or "reset", respectively. Use 1 on both devices that are expected to join. Use 2 only on the device that is expected to leave the network. 🦋
• -C module — Commit (flash) downloaded modules to NVRAM using VS_MOD_NVM. The module can be specified by number 1, 2 or 3, or by symbol "nvm", "pib" or "both", respectively. Module 3 is equivalent to option -F which writes the NVM and PIB together. > You cannot force flash NVRAM using this option. Use option -FF to force flash. 💀
• -d filename — Read Watchdog Report from the device and write it to the named file in binary format using VS_WD_RPT. The report file can be sent to Qualcomm Atheros for technical analysis. No assumptions are made based on filename and no filename conventions are enforced; however, you should use a .log file extension to indicate binary format. 🍓
• -D xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx — Define the 16 octet Device Access Key (DAK) in hex format. The DAK is used by option -J. It may also be set to "key1" or "key2" as explained in the KEYS section. 🔑
• -e — Redirects stderr messages to stdout. By convention, status and error messages are printed on stderr while primary program output is printed on stdout. This option prints all output on stdout in cases where this is desired. 🌈
• -f — Read device NVRAM parameters using VS_GET_NVM. An error will be reported when no NVRAM is present. This option can be used to determine if NVRAM is large enough to store the runtime firmware and parameter block. 👑
• -F[F] — Write previously downloaded MAC and PIB to NVRAM using VS_MOD_NVM. Adding a second F here, or another -F anywhere on the command line, will force-flash a blank or corrupted NVRAM. Firmware loaded from NVRAM will treat force-flash as an error. This option can be used to create factory settings but cannot be used to change them once created. Subsequent use creates and updates operational settings that can be erased using a factory reset. This option is executed after all others on the command line, except for the -R option. 💅
• -i interface — Select the host Ethernet interface. All requests are sent via this host interface and only responses received via this host interface are recognized. The default interface is eth1 because most people use eth0 as their principle network connection; however, if environment string "PLC" is defined then it takes precedence over the default interface. This option then takes precedence over either default. ✨
• -I — Read the device PIB header using VS_RD_MOD and print the firmware major revision number, PIB minor revision number, Device Access Key (DAK), Network Membership Key (NMK), MAC address and other information on stdout. 🎀
• -J xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx — Set the Network Membership Key (NMK) on the remote device, specified by MAC, using VS_SET_KEY. This option is similar to option -K but requires the remote device MAC and DAK in addition to the NMK and local device MAC address. The NMK value is defined using option -K unless you want to use the default value. The remote DAK is defined using option -D unless you want to use the default value. Programming remote device keys is complicated. It is often easier to connect the device directly to the host and use the -K option. 🫶
• -K xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx — Define the Network Membership Key (NMK) value used by options -M or -J. The symbolic names "key1" and "key2" are recognized as described in the KEY section. 🔑
• -l count — Define the number of times that the command will be repeated for each device specified. Normally, you will repeat operations on one device only. 🔁
• -m — Read network membership information using VS_NW_INFO. This can be used to determine network configuration. 🌐
• -M — Set the Network Membership Key (NMK) on the local device using VS_SET_KEY. The NMK value is specified using the -K option unless you want to use the default value. 💖
• -n filename — Read firmware from the device SDRAM and write it to the named .nvm file using multiple VS_RD_MOD messages. No assumptions are made based on filename and no filename conventions are enforced. This option is performed before option -N when both are specified. 🦋
• -N filename — Read the named .nvm file and write it to the device using multiple VS_WR_MOD messages. No assumptions are made based on filename and no filename conventions are enforced; however, files having invalid .nvm format will be rejected. This option is executed after -n when both are specified. 🦋
• -p filename — Read parameters from the device SDRAM and write them to the named .pib file using multiple VS_RD_MOD messages. No assumptions are made based on filename and no filename conventions are enforced. This option is executed before option BP when both are specified. 🍓
• -P filename — Read the named .pib file and write it to the device using multiple VS_WR_MOD messages. No assumptions are made based on filename and no filename conventions are enforced; however, files having invalid .pib format will be rejected. This option is executed after -p when both are specified. 🍓
• -q — Suppresses status messages on stderr. 🤫
• -Q — Quick flash. The program will not wait for a device to reset or the firmware to restart after writing flash memory. This option is desirable with newer firmware that writes flash memory in the background. It has no effect unless used with option -F or -C. ⚡
• -r — Read device firmware and hardware revision using VS_SW_VER. Output is similar to option -a but is derived differently. ✨
• -R — Reset the device using VS_RS_DEV. This option is executed after all others on the same command line. 🔄
• -s — Read device SDRAM configuration using VS_RD_CBLOCK. 🧠
• -S filename — Read the named .cfg file and write it to the device using VS_SET_SDRAM. No assumptions are made based on filename and no filename conventions are enforced; however, files having an invalid .cfg file format will be rejected. > Do not confuse .cfg files with .config files. See chkcfg and config2cfg for more information on SDRAM configuration file formats. 💜
• -t milliseconds — Read timeout in milliseconds. Values range from 0 through UINT_MAX. This is the maximum time allowed for a response. The default is shown in brackets on the program menu. ⏱️
• -T — Restore factory defaults. This permanently erases all PIB changes made since the device was last programmed with factory default settings. The device will automatically reset and reboot. 💀✨
• -v — Print additional information on stdout. In particular, this option dumps incoming and outgoing packets which can be saved as text files for reference. 👀
• -w seconds — Defines the number of seconds to wait before repeating command line options. This option has no effect unless option -l is also specified with a non-zero value. ⏳
• -x — Cause the program to exit on the first error instead of continuing with remaining iterations, operations or devices. Normally, the program reports errors and moves on to the next operation, iteration or device depending on the command line. 🛑
• -?,--help — Print program help summary on stdout. This option takes precedence over other options on the command line. 🆘
• -?,--version — Print program version information on stdout. This option takes precedence over other options on the command line. Use this option when sending screen dumps to Atheros Technical Support so that they know exactly which version of the Linux Toolkit you are using. 👑

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🌈 ARGUMENTS 🌈

• device — The Ethernet hardware address of some powerline device. More than one address may be specified on the command line. If more than one address is specified then operations are performed on each device in turn. The default address is local, as explained in the DEVICES section. 🫶

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and that's the first half bestie, hold on, there's more coming, don't you dare close the terminal 💖

✨ KEYS ✨

okay so passwords are variable length character strings that end-users can actually remember. Keys are fixed length binary values created by encrypting passwords. HomePlugAV has two encryption algorithms — one for DAKs and the other for NMKs. So the same password will produce different keys depending on use. This program only deals with keys because that is what powerline devices recognize. The passwords that generated the keys? Irrelevant here, bestie. 💅

Typing encryption keys is tedious and lowkey prone to error. For convenience, symbolic names have been assigned to common encryption keys and are recognized by options -D and -K. It's giving shortcuts, periodt.

• key1 — key for encrypted password "HomePlugAV". This is "689F074B8B0275A2710B0B5779AD1630" for option -D and "50D3E4933F855B7040784DF815AA8DB7" for option -K.
• key2 — key for encrypted password "HomePlugAV0123". This is "F084B4E8F6069FF1300C9BDB812367FF" for option -D and "B59319D7E8157BA001B018669CCEE30D" for option -K.
• none — always "00000000000000000000000000000000".

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🦋 DEVICES 🦋

Powerline devices use Ethernet hardware addresses, aka Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. A device address is 12 hexadecimal digits (0123456789ABCDEFabcdef) in upper, lower or mixed case. Individual octets may be separated by colons, for clarity, but not all octets need to be separated. For example, "00b052000001", "00:b0:52:00:00:01" and "00b052:000001" are valid and equivalent. No cap.

These symbolic addresses are recognized by this program and may be used instead of the actual address value.

• all — equivalent to "broadcast", described next.
• broadcast — the Ethernet broadcast address, FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. All devices, whether local, remote or foreign, will respond to this address.
• local — the Atheros Local Management Address (LMA), 00:B0:52:00:00:01. Local Atheros powerline devices recognize this address, but remote and foreign powerline devices do not. A remote device is any poserline device at the far end of the powerline. A foreign device is a powerline device not manufactured by Atheros.

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📚 REFERENCES 📚

See the Qualcomm Atheros HomePlug AV Firmware Technical Reference Manual for more information. Go read it, bestie. 📖

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💀 DISCLAIMER 💀

Atheros HomePlug AV Vendor Specific Management Message structure and content is proprietary to Qualcomm Atheros, Ocala FL USA. Consequently, public information may not be available. Qualcomm Atheros reserves the right to modify message structure or content in future firmware releases without any obligation to notify or compensate users of this program. That's the tea. Not the fun kind, but the legal kind. ☕

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

First example:

# int6k -n old.nvm -p old.pib -N new.nvm -P new.pib -F
01:23:45:67:89:AB

Performs 5 operations on one device. Uploads the firmware and PIB from the device and writes them to files old.nvm and old.pib, respectively. Reads files new.nvm and new.pib and downloads them as new firmware and PIB, respectively. Commits the downloaded firmware and PIB to NVRAM. Operations are executed in the order just described regardless of the order specified on the command line. If you want reading and writing to occur in a different order then you must use two or more commands to accomplish tasks in the order you want. So don't try to be cute with reordering, okay? 😭

Second example:

# int6k -N new.nvm 01:23:45:67:89:28
# int6k -P new.pib 01:23:45:67:89:28
# int6k -C 3 01:23:45:67:89:28

It is not neccessary to specify all operations on one command line. The three command lines above do essentially the same thing as the command line shown in the previou example. Notice that this example uses -C 3, instead of -F, as an alternate way to write MAC and PIB to NVRAM. Specifying -C 1, instead, would write the .nvm file only. Specifying -C 2, instead, would write the .pib file only. The value 3 is the logical OR of 1 and 2. Math ate, honestly. 🧮

Third example:

# int6k -N new.nvm -P new.pib -FF local

Downloads file new.nvm and file new.pib and force flashes the local device. Force flashing only works on running firmware that has been downloaded and stated by the Qualcomm Atheros Boot Loader. See int6kf to download, start firmware and perform a force flash in one operation.

Fourth example:

# int6k -MK key1
# int6k -M

These two commands are equivalent. They set the NMK on the local device to key1 as descripted in the KEYS section. The first command resets the NMK on the local device with -M then specifies the NMK as key1. The second command omits the key specification since key1 is the program default NMK. One could, of course, type the encryption key. But why would you when shortcuts exist? 💅

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• plc(1)
• amptool(1)
• int6kf(1)
• int6khost(1)
• int6kid(1)
• int6krate(1)
• int6krule(1)
• int6kstat(1)
• int6kwait(1)
• plctool(1)

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👑 CREDITS 👑

• Charles Maier
• Nathaniel Houghton

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This page is from open-plc-utils-0.0.3, dated November 2013, and it's int6k(1). Stay iconic, bestie. 💖✨