Software

Operating system and driver information

3 minute read

The Interceptor Carrier Board requires specific drivers for the SATA controller and Ethernet switch. exaviz provides pre-configured OS images with all necessary drivers.

exaviz OS

exaviz provides custom OS images based on Debian/Raspberry Pi OS that include:

Pre-installed drivers for RTL8367RB Ethernet switch
Pre-installed drivers for JMB585 SATA controller
PoE control software (ip808ar driver)
Optimized kernel configuration

Available Images

Image	Compute Module	Features
Desktop	RPi CM4/CM5	Full desktop environment
Server	RPi CM4/CM5	Headless, optimized for servers
Desktop	Banana Pi CM4	Full desktop environment
Server	Banana Pi CM4	Headless, optimized for servers

Download OS Images →

Version Requirements

Important

To use the unified PoE control features (/proc/pse), you must use an OS image dated 2025-05-01 or newer.

Included Drivers

Ethernet Switch (RTL8367RB)

The 4-port Gigabit switch is managed by the RTL8367RB chip. The driver is included in the kernel and activated automatically.

Features:

VLAN configuration
Port mirroring
QoS settings
Per-port statistics

SATA Controller (JMB585)

The 5-port SATA controller uses the JMicron JMB585 chip.

Features:

AHCI mode support
Hot-plug capability
RAID support via mdadm (software)

PoE Controller (IP808AR)

When PoE boards are connected, the ip808ar driver provides port control.

Control Interface: /proc/pse

Example commands:

# Check port status
cat /proc/pse

# Disable port 3 on board 0
echo "disable-port 0 3" > /proc/pse

# Enable port 3 on board 0
echo "enable-port 0 3" > /proc/pse

See PoE Control for complete documentation.

Network Configuration

Default Configuration

On first boot, the Ethernet ports are configured as:

Interface	IP Configuration
eth0	DHCP client
eth1-3	Unconfigured

Static IP Example

Edit /etc/network/interfaces or use NetworkManager:

# /etc/network/interfaces example
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.1.100
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 192.168.1.1

Storage Configuration

Viewing SATA Drives

# List all block devices
lsblk

# Check SATA controller status
sudo dmesg | grep -i sata

Setting Up RAID

The JMB585 controller supports software RAID via mdadm:

# Install mdadm if not present
sudo apt install mdadm

# Create RAID 5 array (example with 3 drives)
sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=5 --raid-devices=3 /dev/sda /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

# Format and mount
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0
sudo mount /dev/md0 /mnt/storage

Boot Configuration

Raspberry Pi CM4

Standard boot from eMMC or SD card. Configure via config.txt.

Raspberry Pi CM5

Note

USB boot is not supported on the Interceptor Carrier Board with CM5. The board uses USB 2.0, but CM5 requires USB 3.0 for boot capability.

Boot options for CM5:

SD Card - If CM5 has blank eMMC, it defaults to SD card boot
eMMC - Flash OS using rpiboot on a separate IO board

SATA Boot Workaround

The Raspberry Pi firmware cannot boot directly from SATA. However, you can:

Keep /boot partition on eMMC or SD card
Mount root filesystem from SATA drive
Edit cmdline.txt to point root to SATA partition

Example cmdline.txt:

root=/dev/sda1 rootfstype=ext4 ...

Updating Software

System Updates

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Kernel Updates

Check for exaviz kernel updates:

# Check current kernel
uname -r

# Updates come through standard apt repositories
sudo apt full-upgrade

Troubleshooting

Drivers not loading

# Check loaded modules
lsmod | grep -E "(rtl|jmb|ip808)"

# Check kernel messages for errors
sudo dmesg | tail -50

Network interface missing

# List all interfaces
ip link show

# Check switch driver status
sudo dmesg | grep rtl

Next Steps

Downloads - Get the latest OS images
Installation - Flashing instructions
FAQ - Common questions

Last modified December 30, 2025