Upgrading a PandA over SSH

SSH access lets you upgrade a PandA without physical access, and is particularly useful for upgrading multiple PandAs in one scripted pass.

Prerequisites¶

SSH must be authorised on the PandA. You can either:

• Place an authorized_keys file on the SD card before first boot, or

• Load SSH keys from authorized_keys file on a USB stick via the Web Admin interface (SSH Keys → Append SSH keys from USB).

5.0 or later to 5.x (opkg / .ipk)¶

1. Download the boot-{MACHINE}.tar.gz release archive from GitHub Releases and extract it locally.

2. Then copy the files to the PandA and reboot:

ssh root@<panda-hostname> rm -f /boot/rootfs.squashfs
scp boot-{MACHINE}/* root@<panda-hostname>:/boot
ssh root@<panda-hostname> 'sync; reboot'

The /boot directory on the PandA should contain:

• boot.bin

• boot.scr

• image.ub

• rootfs.squashfs

• target-defs

3. Under Admin Commands → System → Reboot/Restart, click Reboot Now to restart the PandA; it will apply the new rootfs on next boot.

Pre-5.0 to 5.x (zpkg → opkg)¶

1. Delete old conflicting files:

   ssh root@<panda-hostname> 
   rm -f  /boot/uImage /boot/uinitramfs /boot/devicetree.db

2. Follow the instructions under 5.0 or later to 5.x

Update the 24V FMC EEPROM (DLS-specific, one-time)¶

From PandA 3.0 onwards the 24V FMC EEPROM must be populated once with hardware metadata. This is a permanent, one-time write:

1. Find the ipmi_definition.ini for your 24V FMC card (in the modules/fmc_24vio/ directory of the FPGA repo).

2. Copy it to the PandA:

   scp ipmi_definition.ini root@<panda-hostname>:/tmp/

3. Write the EEPROM:

   ssh root@<panda-hostname> pandai2c-cli write /tmp/ipmi_definition.ini

   The script reads back the EEPROM after writing to confirm the content matches.