Messages

376

General Discussion / Re: AMD Radeon R9 Nano

« on: June 03, 2020, 12:26:07 am »

I also tested to see if Fiji firmware could be loaded correctly under Petitboot. The good news is it works when the Petitboot kicks in. However I did not get any video output in the earlier stage. Wondering if anyone could point me to where I could find more details on that issue?

377

General Discussion / AMD Radeon R9 Nano

« on: June 02, 2020, 11:17:06 pm »

I've just replaced my AMD Radeon Vega 64 with the old AMD Radeon R9 Nano. I was considering the Pro WX 7100 card but decided not to go with that because of $.

The R9 Nano is much smaller in form factor and thus produces less heat. R9 Nano does not support H265 decoding. For now I could live with that as long as I could watch YouTube and play 3D open sourced games.

The card is fully compatible with amdgpu driver if the kernel is compiled with 4k pages (CONFIG_PPC_4K_PAGES=y in KConfig). However it is known to have issue with kernel which has 64K pages (CONFIG_PPC_64K_PAGES=y in KConfig), from my finding the 5.6.x, 5.10.x (from 5.10.7), 5.11.x (from 5.11.12) are the only two that have no issue with 64K page size.

Because Fedora Linux ships with 64K page size kernels. It has become common issue that the community is proposing to Fedora team to prepare 4K page size kernel for Fedora 35

I have to disable the onboard VGA and remove the AST GPU Xorg config snippet and let the Linux driver auto-detect my screen settings.

As you could see in the photo, the 8X PCI-E NVMe adapter card is so close to the GPU fan, I don't think it is ideal for heat dissipation. 

EDIT: 5.19.4 with 64k or 4k pagesize works fine

UPDATE: 6.0.6 with 64k or 4k pagesize works perfectly

378

Applications and Porting / Re: [DEV] Porting homebrew to Linux ppc64le

« on: May 28, 2020, 07:32:19 am »

I have made progress with this port with more formula binaries, for example gcc. It is now much easier for everyone to give it a try

379

General Discussion / Re: [Guide] How to install TP-LINK TL-WN725N V2 Wifi dongle on Fedora 32

« on: May 27, 2020, 08:33:55 pm »

I had some trouble with a wired Ethernet dongle earlier. It wouldn't come up in Petitboot, so it didn't come up (automatically) in Fedora until I hotplugged it. Does this have that issue?

Which product are you using? I do not have the similar issue with this dongle.

380

General Discussion / Re: noise levels, sound dampening, tempered glass cases

« on: May 27, 2020, 08:33:01 pm »

I have been running the BB on top of a test bench. On full load, the fan could produce 38 to 43dB which is quite okay IMHO. On idle it is very silent (< 10dB)

381

Applications and Porting / [OS] Fedora Silverblue download link

« on: May 26, 2020, 10:02:45 am »

Fedora Silverblue OS supports ppc64le however they did not update their website with download link.

After my PR https://github.com/fedora-silverblue/silverblue-site/pull/83 is merged, you would be able to find the ISO from download page.

382

Blackbird / Re: How many fans per FAN header?

« on: May 23, 2020, 10:22:08 am »

Thanks for everyone's response.

I would not risk hooking up cheap fans into one same fan header nor having a total of more than 1A (from what I read 1A is a safe threshold...).

Alternatively like surf has suggested, I could use the PSU to power my fans instead, I guess it would be much safer.

383

Blackbird / [FEEDBACK] Failed to boot if J10116 pin header touches the card on 8X slot

« on: May 22, 2020, 06:52:48 am »

Today I learn that my motherboard would refuse to boot up if the J10116 pin touch any metal part of any card on the PCI-E 8X slot. I think J10116 header should be moved to different position to avoid such contact.

384

Blackbird / How many fans per FAN header?

« on: May 20, 2020, 10:41:48 am »

I am planning to revamp my chassis cooling so I am wondering how many fans could I split from one fan header? There is no mentioning how many amps per fan header in the service manual btw.

Much thanks in advance

385

Operating Systems and Porting / Re: [NEWS] Fedora 32 is released

« on: May 19, 2020, 11:03:58 am »

I downloaded the Fedora 32 ppc64el Workstation image (from here) but got "kernel error" when I tried to load it via Petitboot—anyone else notice the same?

An Ubuntu Server 20.04 image worked fine.

To workaround this issue, at Petitboot prompt, please edit the Fedora 32 boot option (press e key after moving the cursor to the entry):

Kernel: ppc/ppc64/vmlinuz
Initrd: ppc/ppc64/initrd.img

386

Operating Systems and Porting / Re: [NEWS] Fedora 32 is released

« on: May 19, 2020, 09:44:31 am »

I've tried out the Fedora 32 Workstation Live USB, sadly it does _not_ work. I've sent Fedora team an email to their mailing list https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/ppc@lists.fedoraproject.org/thread/FYTZDTC4BCZDIC7Y7UCUZQ4EDDGBVAGY/

And the response is:

no, there are multiple issues, but the image works fine in a VM. The
problem is that petitboot doesn't fully understand the grub config
(/boot/grub/grub.cfg) used in the Live image, same config does work when
processed by grub in a VM. The solution is to keep only 64-bit
versions/paths as we don't produce 32-bit content for a long time, for
details see https://github.com/weldr/lorax/pull/1017. It means it will
be fixed in F-33.

The workaround is to edit the kernel/initrd paths before booting to
be /ppc/ppc64/{vmlinuz,initrd.img} instead of /ppc/ppc. Or maybe there
is a newer/fixed version of petitboot, so also building a new firmware
image could help.

387

Mod Zone / Sun Ultra 45 chassis mod project

« on: May 17, 2020, 10:25:06 pm »

Sun Ultra 45 chassis is one sexy design. The quality that Sun Microsystems put into this chassis is second to none. I was fortunate to buy a used Ultra 45 chassis from an UK eBay seller and get it shipped to Australia for $100 AUD (then the seller updated the shipping cost to $200+). The empty chassis does not come with the proprietary motherboard tray so I have to workaround by drilling 3 small holes for three 1.8cm L-shaped plastic standoffs (sourced from the CPS2 arcade machine - I guess the brass standoffs that are abundant online can be used too). Here is the video of the mother bound mounting

Mount motherboard: https://youtu.be/j3xppDQ_MBk

Next is to ask my friend to laser cut me an I/O shield plate from a thin metal sheet.

I will update this space as I progress.

388

Mod Zone / Re: Convert GPU PCI-E X16 to X8

« on: May 17, 2020, 10:19:07 pm »

Yes I am fully aware. My GPU is last gen and could not take full bandwidth of PCI-E 3.0 X8

389

Mod Zone / Re: Convert GPU PCI-E X16 to X8

« on: May 17, 2020, 08:44:19 am »

I finally decide to convert the X8 slot to open-ended.

Here is my YouTube https://youtu.be/93yEag-aryk

390

Operating Systems and Porting / Wine developer starts merging Timothy's sets of patches for ppc64le

« on: May 11, 2020, 09:55:46 pm »

Good to now that Wine developer André Hentschel has started merging patches by Raptor Engineering's Timothy Pearson (aka @madscientist159). See André's mail for more details https://www.winehq.org/pipermail/wine-devel/2020-April/165261.html.

Fingercross that version 5.9 or 6.0 would fully support ppc64le