MATLAB: Does ‘xpctargetping’ (‘slrtpingtarget’) fail

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Why does my 'xpctargetping' command fail after I boot and connect to my target PC?

Best Answer

The command 'xpctargetping' (or 'slrtpingtarget') can fail for various reasons as it involves the full connection chain of the host PC, Ethernet cable, and the target PC. Malfunctioning of anything along this pipeline, at either software and hardware levels, can lead to the failure of 'xpctargetping'.

Below are some common issues and countermeasures:

--- Hardware Connection ---

0. Hardware setup. Make sure to use a working Ethernet cable. Make sure the Ethernet cards connected are recognized Ethernet cards on the host PC and the target PC, respectively. There are cases when a target PC has more than one Ethernet card and the Ethernet controller is choosing the wrong one. Timeout can happen if things are not correctly setup and fail the 'xpctargetping' test. This documentation page talks about multiple Ethernet cards.

--- Target PC Settings ---

1. Bad target boot kernel. With a bad target boot kernel, the connection fails in general.

2. Target settings, such as IP, subnet mask, index, etc. In this case, one can retrieve the target hardware information following this documentation and make sure the settings match between the target object and the actual target hardware.

--- Host PC Settings ---

3. Firewall. Make sure to add Simulink Real-Time related processes to the exception list of the host PC's firewall, such as 'xpcbootpserver' and 'xpctftpserver'.

4. The 'xpctargetping' command is using a different port other than the one set in the target setting. For example, if the target setting uses port 22222 for host-target communication, 'xpctargetping' may use 22223 for pinging. If the port being used for 'xpctargetping' on the target is not functioning correctly, 'xpctargetping' will fail, and hence leading to auto build and download failure since 'xpctargetping' needs to pass before the model is downloaded to the target PC. In this case, the following workaround may help:

Download the attached modified targetping.p file which is attempting to connect to target in a slightly different way
Start MATLAB in administration mode
Type cd([xpcroot,'\xpc\+xpctarget\@xpc'])
Rename the existing targetping.p to targetpingOLD.p as a backup
Copy the downloaded targetping.p file to that directory
Execute 'rehash toolbox'
Try 'xpctargetping' several times and there is a good chance it will succeed.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to choose a specific Ethernet adapter for host-target communication using xPC Target 4.3 (R2010a) when the target PC has multiple adapters of the same type

If your target PC has multiple Ethernet adapters of the same type, the kernel, upon booting, selects one of these adapters for host-target communication. Without manually testing, it is not possible to determine which physical Ethernet connector (port) is associated with the selected adapter.

Connect the host-target network cable to one of the Ethernet ports and issue the following command in the MATLAB Command Window:

xpctargetping

If the return status is "failed", move the network cable to a different Ethernet port on the target PC and retry. The above command will return "success" when you are connected to the port associated with the adapter in use for host-target communication.

You can manually select a different Ethernet adapter for host-target communication. The xPC Target kernel uses an indexing mechanism called "EthernetIndex" to identify adapters. Indexing starts at 0; hence, if you have two Ethernet adapters of the same type, one will be identified as EthernetIndex 0 and one as EthernetIndex 1. By default, the adapter identified as EthernetIndex 0 will be used for host-target communication. To switch adapters, issue the following command:

setxpcenv('EthernetIndex', '1');

You will need to recreate the kernel image and reboot for this to take effect.

If you want to change this selection for a target PC other than the default target PC (say, 'TargetPC2') , issue the following commands:

allTargets = xpctarget.targets;
myTargetEnv = allTargets.Item('TargetPC2');
set(myTargetEnv, 'EthernetIndex', '1');

If you have more than two Ethernet adapters of the same type, each will have a unique EthernetIndex (0, 1, 2, 3, …).

Note: If you are using the Network Boot method, it is possible that Ethernet adapter (A) used by the BIOS of the target PC to load and boot the xPC Target kernel is different from Ethernet adapter (B) chosen by the xPC Target kernel for host-target communication. For instance, consider this situation:

The xPC Target kernel loads and boots when the host-target network cable is attached to Ethernet adapter 'A'.
While booting, the xPC Target kernel selects Ethernet adapter 'B' for host-target communication.

After booting, you move the network cable from the port for adapter 'A' to the port for adapter 'B', you should now be able to communicate over the host target-link. However, communication will initially fail because the Windows OS on the host PC will have logged an entry in the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) table associating the physical (MAC) address of adapter 'A' with the TCP/IP address selected for the target PC. To remove this association, confirm the host-target network cable is connected to the port for adapter 'B' and execute the following command in the MATLAB Command Window:

!arp –d

You should now be able to communicate with the target PC. To confirm, verify that "success" is returned when issuing the xpctargetping command. To circumvent this problem, use the method described above to force the xPC Target kernel to use adapter 'A' for host-target communication.

MATLAB: Am I unable to establish a connection between the host and target machines while using an external Ethernet card in xPC Target 3.3 (R2007b)

One possible reason for this issue is that the onboard Ethernet has an xPC Target supported chipset. xPC Target queries the motherboard in order to find a supported Ethernet chipset. If xPC Target finds a supported Ethernet chipset, it does not query to see if there are other Ethernet boards present.

A workaround for this issue is to connect the xPC target machine's onboard Ethernet port to the host machine via the crossover Ethernet cable and run XPCTEST to confirm that the host and target machines are able to communicate properly.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to choose a specific Ethernet adapter for host-target communication using xPC Target 4.3 (R2010a) when the target PC has multiple adapters of the same type

MATLAB: Am I unable to establish a connection between the host and target machines while using an external Ethernet card in xPC Target 3.3 (R2007b)

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