NXP ASK (Application Solutions Kit) for LS1046A

Hardware-accelerated packet processing for NXP Layerscape LS1046A (and LS1043A) processors. This repository contains the kernel modules, userspace daemons, build patches, and configuration files needed to enable DPAA fast-path offloading.

Building

Builds on Debian trixie (or newer) targeting aarch64. Everything is cross-compiled — no target hardware needed.

One-time setup

make setup    # installs crossbuild-essential-arm64 and arm64 library packages (needs sudo)

Build

make          # fetches all dependencies into sources/, patches them, builds everything

This produces:

Artifact	Type
cdx/cdx.ko	Kernel module — core fast-path offload engine
fci/fci.ko	Kernel module — CMM-to-CDX communication
auto_bridge/auto_bridge.ko	Kernel module — L2 bridge flow detection
sources/fmc/source/fmc	Userspace — FMAN configuration tool
cmm/src/cmm	Userspace — connection manager daemon
dpa_app/dpa_app	Userspace — FMAN classification rule loader

Other targets

make modules    # kernel modules only
make userspace  # userspace binaries only
make sources    # fetch + patch + build all dependencies (fmlib, fmc, libfci, libnfnetlink, libnetfilter_conntrack)
make kernel     # build kernel Image + in-tree modules (requires kernel source at KDIR)
make dist       # stage all artifacts into dist/
make serve      # HTTP server on dist/ for target deployment
make clean      # clean build artifacts (keeps fetched sources)
make clean-all  # clean everything including fetched sources

Requirements

• Debian trixie or newer (amd64 host)
• make setup installs everything else
• Kernel source tree at ~/Mono/linux (override with make KDIR=/path/to/kernel)
• The kernel must be configured (.config present) — use make kernel or copy config/kernel/defconfig

How it works

make automatically:

1. Clones NXP fmlib and fmc from GitHub at tag lf-6.12.49-2.2.0, applies ASK extension patches, cross-compiles them
2. Downloads libnfnetlink and libnetfilter_conntrack tarballs, applies NXP ASK patches, cross-compiles into a local sysroot
3. Builds libfci (in-tree, single source file)
4. Builds kernel modules against the configured kernel tree
5. Builds CMM, FMC, and dpa_app against the patched libraries

All fetched sources go into sources/ (gitignored). make clean-all removes them for a fully fresh rebuild.

Note for other build systems

CMM requires patched versions of libnfnetlink and libnetfilter_conntrack. The stock upstream libraries do not have the NXP ASK extensions (fast-path conntrack attributes, QoS connmark, IPS_PERMANENT) and CMM will not compile against them. The patches are in patches/libnfnetlink/ and patches/libnetfilter-conntrack/. If you are building outside this Makefile (e.g., Yocto, OpenWrt, or manually), you must apply these patches to your copies of these libraries.

Deploying to target

make dist       # copies all artifacts to dist/
make serve      # starts HTTP server on port 8000

# On the target (Armbian):
wget http://<host>:8000/cdx.ko -P /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/
# ... etc

Overview

Together with the ASK-enabled FMAN microcode (a proprietary NXP binary, not included), this repository provides everything needed to turn any Linux-based distribution or routing system into a hardware-offloading-capable router on LS1046A/LS1043A platforms.

The ASK-enabled FMAN microcode (v210.10.1) must be loaded by U-Boot before Linux boots. Without it, the standard FMAN driver operates normally but CDX will not initialize.

Components

Kernel Modules

Module	Description
cdx	Control Data Exchange — core fast-path offload engine. Manages hardware flow tables, IPsec offload, and QoS via DPAA/FMAN.
fci	Fast-path Control Interface — communication channel between CDX and the CMM daemon. Depends on CDX.
auto_bridge	Automatic L2 bridge flow detection. Monitors bridge ports and notifies CDX of flows eligible for hardware offload.

Userspace

Component	Description
cmm	Connection Manager daemon. Monitors netfilter conntrack and offloads eligible flows to CDX.
dpa_app	Programs FMAN classification rules from XML policy files via FMC. Called by CDX at module load.
fci/lib (libfci)	Userspace library for communicating with the FCI kernel module. Used by CMM.

Patches

Target	Patch	Purpose
kernel	003-mono-gateway-ask-kernel_linux_6_12.patch	DPAA/FMAN driver enhancements, IPsec offload, netfilter QoS marking, bridge fast-path, QBMan NAPI
fmlib	01-mono-ask-extensions.patch	Hash table, IP reassembly, shared scheme support for Frame Manager library
fmc	01-mono-ask-extensions.patch	Port ID, shared scheme replication, PPPoE field fix, libxml2 compatibility
libnetfilter-conntrack	01-nxp-ask-comcerto-fp-extensions.patch	Fast-path info attributes and QoS connmark for CMM
libnfnetlink	01-nxp-ask-nonblocking-heap-buffer.patch	Non-blocking socket mode and heap buffer management for CMM
iptables	001-qosmark-extensions.patch	QOSMARK/QOSCONNMARK target and match extensions
ppp	01-nxp-ask-ifindex.patch	Tunnel interface index support for PPP offload
rp-pppoe	01-nxp-ask-cmm-relay.patch	CMM-aware PPPoE relay

Configuration

File	Description
config/ask-modules.conf	Module load order for systemd
config/cmm.service	Systemd service for CMM (guarded by /dev/cdx_ctrl)
config/fastforward	CMM traffic exclusion rules (FTP, SIP, PPTP bypass fast path)
config/gateway-dk/cdx_cfg.xml	FMAN port mapping for Mono Gateway DK
config/kernel/defconfig	Kernel defconfig for LS1046A with ASK
dpa_app/files/etc/cdx_pcd.xml	Packet classification rules for FMAN hash tables

License

Kernel modules and ASK components are licensed under GPL-2.0+. See individual COPYING.GPL files in each component directory.