Linux microPlatform Network Debugging HOWTO¶
This page provides information on debugging network related issues on the Linux microPlatform.
Using tcpdump¶
The Linux microPlatform base image includes a tcpdump binary at
/usr/sbin/tcpdump for use capturing traffic and diagnosing issues.
Note that /usr/sbin is not part of the PATH environment
variable for the base image user, and you must run tcpdump as root.
Capturing Bluetooth 6lo Network Traffic¶
If your Linux microPlatform device is acting as a gateway to IoT devices connected via a Bluetooth link, you may want to restrict your capture to just the traffic exchanged with those IoT devices.
To do this, use -i bt0 when invoking tcpdump:
$ sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -i bt0
Note that if you only have once such device, the network interface will be torn down by the kernel if the Bluetooth link is lost. When that happens, you’ll see a message like this from tcpdump:
tcpdump: pcap_loop: The interface went down
The best workaround for this if you want to continue to capture
traffic on bt0 for a Bluetooth device that resets and reconnects
is to have another device remain connected to your Linux microPlatform
gateway for the duration of the capture.
Capturing LAN Network Traffic¶
If you’re using Ethernet, use -i eth0 to view traffic exchanged
with the rest of the LAN:
$ sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -i eth0
You can use -i wlan0 for wireless traffic.
Other Network Interfaces¶
To view a complete list of network interfaces you can use with the
-i option, run:
$ ip link show
One of these may be useful, for example, if you need to capture traffic on a network device created for use with containers.
Capturing to a File¶
It is often convenient to capture traffic in a file for later
analysis, for example with tools such as Wireshark. Use -w
file.pcap when invoking tcpdump to save to a file named
file.pcap. For example, to capture traffic exchanged over the
bt0 interface to a file bt0.pcap:
$ sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -i bt0 -w bt0.pcap
At time of writing, the version of tcpdump present in the Linux
microPlatform does not support the --print option. To capture to
file and view the text representation simultaneously, you can use a
pipeline like this:
$ sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -i bt0 -U -w - | tee bt0.pcap | sudo /usr/sbin/tcpdump -r -