Messages

1

Firmware / Re: Maybe bricked the firmware on my Blackbird

« on: April 01, 2025, 10:18:12 am »

As it sounds like the BMC is still working fine, if you think the PNOR is corrupted (this is what contains the hostboot and skiroot/petitboot code that runs when you switch on the POWER9) you can easily re-flash it from the BMC console, which you can access over the serial port or SSH.

It is also supposedly possible to do via the BMC web interface but personally I've only used the console methods.

https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/Updating_Firmware

2

Applications and Porting / Re: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault War Chest (OpenMoHAA)

« on: January 09, 2025, 01:44:25 pm »

I installed version v0.81.0 and it does not start due to this error:

$ ./openmohaa.ppc64el
./openmohaa.ppc64el: /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.33' not found (required by ./openmohaa.ppc64el)
./openmohaa.ppc64el: /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by ./openmohaa.ppc64el)

These binaries must have been compiled using either version 2.34 or a newer version of the GNU C library, so running them on systems using older versions of the GNU C library is unsupported.

I tried to build from sources and I get this error at the link:

[100%] Linking CXX executable openmohaa.ppc64el
/usr/bin/ld: CMakeFiles/openmohaa.dir/code/client/libmumblelink.c.o: référence au symbole non défini « shm_open@@GLIBC_2.17 »
/usr/bin/ld : /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 : erreur lors de l'ajout de symboles : DSO manquant dans la ligne de commande
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/openmohaa.dir/build.make:2201 : openmohaa.ppc64el] Erreur 1
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:406 : CMakeFiles/openmohaa.dir/all] Erreur 2
make: *** [Makefile:149 : all] Erreur 2

I use Debian 11.11.

Adding -lrt option to the end of the linker command line should fix this error (might need to edit the Makefile to add it).  As this option is no longer required to use shm_open beginning with glibc 2.34, presumably the developers have simply never tested their build system with older versions of the GNU C library.

3

User Zone / Re: Gentoo installation issue

« on: October 22, 2024, 08:20:58 pm »

Since it's been some time maybe you've figured all this out already, but...

So I compiled a kernel with the options that I thought best, but it won't boot with that kernel. The console output shows:

Code: [Select]

Run /init as init process
init[1]: illegal instruction (4) at 3fff894c8fe0 nip 3fff894c8fe0 lr 3fff894bcbdc code 1 in ld64.so.2[3fff89488000+4e000]
init[1]: code: 7ca32a14 7ca92850 78bfd183 41820084 73ea0001 7c070166 7d2a4b78 38c00010
init[1]: code: 39600020 39800030 381fffff 7fe8fb78 <f0000050> 41820020 2c200000 7c004f98
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00000004
<snip>


The kernel booted just fine and successfully loaded the first userspace application (/init).
This program then crashed when it executed an illegal instruction in ld64.so.2.

The output above shows that the faulting instruction was <f0000050>.  This is a VSX instruction (xxpermdi) which should normally be supported on POWER9, so my guess is that you have booted a kernel with VSX support disabled (CONFIG_VSX=n) but your userspace is compiled to use VSX unconditionally (e.g., built with gcc -mvsx).

4

User Zone / Re: Blackbird User Guide: Wrong TPM connector and 'missing' USB 2.0 port

« on: February 23, 2024, 05:22:55 pm »

Slightly off topic, but one idea I thought of was to make a little USB 2.0 hub expansion board connected to a PCIE bracket for the back of the computer, connected to the lone USB 2.0 port with a USB cable. It wouldn't do anything for USB bandwidth, but would give more USB ports for peripherals and such on the back. There are only 2 ports there now, so having more would bring it more in line with x86 boards.

You can very cheaply buy ready-made one-to-four-port USB2 hubs with normal motherboard headers, then you can just use any off the shelf USB bracket or case with USB ports.  I used this one and cut apart a cable with an angled USB-A connector to connect it to the Blackbird motherboard (I wanted to share photos but apparently uploads are busted on this forum).

5

Talos II / Re: OpenBMC password

« on: February 23, 2024, 04:15:13 pm »

I tried the instructions at graphcore.ai with no luck. But the instructions on the wiki for Resetting the BMC's Persistant Storage worked for me on two systems. After wiping the persistent storage, I was able to log into the BMC with the default password and get all the firmwares updated.

Wiping the entire persistent storage seems like total overkill if the only problem is that you forgot the BMC root password.

All you need to do is edit the shadow file on the overlay filesystem with a new password.

Follow that wiki page instructions to add overlay-filesystem-in-ram to the boot command line via u-boot.  This enables a root console login with the default root password of 0penBmc.  Once logged in, mount the writable overlay partition somewhere, for example:

Code: [Select]

# mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock5 /mnt
Then the simplest way is probably to just copy /mnt/cow/etc/shadow over /etc/shadow, run passwd, then copy the newly-updated /etc/shadow back to the writable partition, for example:

Code: [Select]

# cp /mnt/cow/etc/shadow /etc/shadow
# passwd
New password:
Retype new password:
Retype new password:
passwd: Password updated successfully
# cp /etc/shadow /mnt/cow/etc/shadow
Or just run an editor on /mnt/cow/etc/shadow and manually change the root password hash to whatever you want.  Then reboot, and voila, shiny new BMC root password.