Ian Gough
Ian Gough
 · Co-Founder@Timebeat

Getting Started - First steps, accessing the Open Timecard via the host device

When your Open Timecard arrives, you will first want to get the Open Timecard plugged into an applicable PCIe slot in your host device.

At this stage, it is essential to know that the Open Timecard will present itself to the host as an Intel i226 network controller. This means you can quickly check for it by using the lspci command

If the device is inserted correctly, you will be able to see it with the following commands:

# lspci | grep -i i226
b0:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller I226-LM (rev 04)

We will use SSH from the host device to access the Open Timecard. To do this, we need to make sure we have the right network set up on the presented interface (typically ensX)

To help make sure you have the right interface, you can double-check the MAC address, as the Open Timecard comes with a Timebeat MAC interface that starts with: 8c:1f:64:10:XX:XX

To check the interface, we use the ip command:

# ip a
root@localhost:~# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group 
2: eno1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP 
3: ens1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 8c:1f:64:10:41:56 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp1s0

Now that we can see the interface we need to set up an IP address that matches the network of the Open Timecard.
By default the Open timecard ships with IP address: 10.101.101.123

To set up and IP address on the interface we will use the following commands:

# nmcli con mod eth0 ipv4.addresses 10.101.101.122/24” 
# nmcli con mod eth0 ipv4.method manual 
# nmcli con up ens1

Once completed, let's check it has been set correctly. For this, we will use ip a again:

# ip a
root@localhost:~# ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000

2: eno1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
3: ens1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 8c:1f:64:10:41:56 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp1s0
    inet 10.101.101.122/24 brd 10.101.101.255 scope global noprefixroute ens1
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::d35:5799:14a3:33ea/64 scope link noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Now you will be able to SSH to the Open Timecard.

As you can see above we put the IP address 10.101.101.122 on the ens1 interface.

To SSH to the Open Timecard now, all we need to do is the below:

# ssh [email protected]
# [email protected]'s password: 1234

Step 1: SSH to the device 


# ssh [email protected]
# [email protected]'s password: 1234
Open Timecard