Topics

1

General Discussion / POWER11, "Cirrus+" Can any of this be substantiated?

« on: March 15, 2025, 08:28:10 pm »

From a speculative write up on big data processor roadmaps:

Just for fun, and to show what a different world it is that Big Blue operates in, we added the Power and z processors to the middle of the Arm pack. We expect “Cirrus+” Power11 and “Telum II” z17 processors before the end of this year to boost the performance of the Power Systems and System z mainframe lines. The Power11 chip, which we will cover shortly, is all about increasing memory bandwidth and memory capacity compared to the Power10 chip the has been in the field for nearly four years now. The z17 processor has a bunch of tweaks, including an integrated DPU to speed up I/O operations for mainframes, which we covered back in August 2024. Both of these chips are etched by Samsung, IBM’s processor fab partner, and both have sixteen cores on a socket and are implemented in machines that have four sockets in a node, four nodes in a single system image, and tens of terabytes of main memory hanging off of them.

Big iron is truly different.

I'll admit to not having been paying attention to things after IBM mucked up with nonfree memory controllers, but was surprised to see sixteen cores being referenced. Despite other material suggesting 25% more cores as compared to POWER10 (which was also configured with 16 cores).

2

Applications and Porting / Nazi Zombies Portable

« on: March 11, 2025, 09:43:43 pm »

I decided to have another go at building Nazi Zombies Portable starting with QuakeC portion for the game logic.

They hardcode most of their tooling for specific target architectures. For example, the build script for Linux platforms at ~quakec/tools/qc-compiler-gnu.sh sets a variable explicitly to an x86 version of the FTEQCC executable included in the repository.

Code: [Select]

../bin/fteqcc-cli-lin: ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=48ccbb62862f094e0f04da54935de367c88b7c63, stripped
Not a big problem, on Debian we can supplement fteqcc out of the the Debian archive. And then change the qc-compiler-gnu.sh script to use that instead:

Code: [Select]

FTEQCC=/usr/bin/fteqcc
And remove the relative paths for fteqcc calls as it no longer uses the project-supplied x86 binaries:

Code: [Select]

$FTEQCC -srcfile ../progs/csqc.src | grep -E -i "warning |error |defined |not |unknown |branches"
echo "Compiling FTE SSQC.."
$FTEQCC -O3 -DFTE -srcfile ../progs/ssqc.src | grep -E -i "warning |error |defined |not |unknown |branches"
echo "Compiling FTE MenuQC.."
$FTEQCC -O3 -DFTE -srcfile ../progs/menu.src | grep -E -i "warning |error |defined |not |unknown |branches"
echo "Compiling Standard/Id SSQC.."
$FTEQCC -O3 -srcfile ../progs/ssqc.src | grep -E -i "warning |error |defined |not |unknown |branches"

The build script calls for three python libraries; python3-colorama, python3-panda and python3-fastcrc.

python3-fastcrc isn't packaged in Debian, so I try substituting python3-crc instead. Changing the relevant bits in ~/quakec/bin/qc_hash_generator.py:

from fastcrc import crc16
to
from crc import Crc16

ctField('crc_strlen', ITY
to
ctField('Crc_strlen', ITY

etc...

It doesn't like that.

Code: [Select]

Generating Hash Table..
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/Borley/NaziZombies/quakec/bin/qc_hash_generator.py", line 177, in <module>
    main()
  File "/home/Borley/NaziZombies/quakec/bin/qc_hash_generator.py", line 173, in main
    csv_data = read_csv_data()
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/Borley/NaziZombies/quakec/bin/qc_hash_generator.py", line 143, in read_csv_data
    value[0] = int(Crc16.IBM_3740(str.encode(value[0])))
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TypeError: 'Crc16' object is not callable
Compiling FTE CSQC..
../progs/csqc.src:1: warning: Unknown pragma 'noref'
../progs/csqc.src:2: warning: Unknown target 'fte_5768'. Ignored.
../progs/csqc.src:5: warning: Unknown pragma 'includedir'
../progs/csqc.src:6: warning: Unknown pragma 'includedir'
../progs/csqc.src:7: warning: Unknown pragma 'includedir'
************ ERROR ************
Error in ../progs/csqc.src on line 9
Compiling FTE SSQC..
../progs/ssqc.src:3: warning: Unknown target 'fte_5768'. Ignored.
../progs/ssqc.src:9: warning: warning id not recognised
../progs/ssqc.src:10: warning: Unknown pragma 'noref'
../progs/ssqc.src:12: warning: Unknown pragma 'includedir'
../progs/ssqc.src:13: warning: Unknown pragma 'includedir'
************ ERROR ************
Error in ../progs/ssqc.src on line 15
Compiling FTE MenuQC..
../progs/menu.src:1: warning: Unknown pragma 'noref'
../progs/menu.src:2: warning: Unknown target 'fte_5768'. Ignored.
../progs/menu.src:5: warning: Unknown pragma 'includedir'
************ ERROR ************
Error in ../progs/menu.src on line 7
Compiling Standard/Id SSQC..
../progs/ssqc.src:9: warning: warning id not recognised
../progs/ssqc.src:10: warning: Unknown pragma 'noref'
../progs/ssqc.src:12: warning: Unknown pragma 'includedir'
../progs/ssqc.src:13: warning: Unknown pragma 'includedir'
************ ERROR ************
Error in ../progs/ssqc.src on line 15
End of script.

  All of the errors fail at lines for #includelist

I suspect I'm going to need to begrudgingly install python3-fastcrc through python-pip. And probably also to compile an up to date ppc64 executable of FTEQCC directly from the project's repo. Usually stuff in C is a lot more straightforward than this.

3

Mod Zone / Squeezing out more USB I/O

« on: January 21, 2025, 04:46:49 pm »

Finally, after years of procrastination, I have gotten around to mocking up an additional rear panel USB port.

I used a short USB type A male to USB type A female header cord from Startech, combined with a low-profile PCI bracket.



Nobody sells low-profile USB PCI brackets, so I had to order a dual-port bracket and use a small washer to secure the second fastener.

The cable is just long enough to route over the PCIe add-in cards to the type A header on the Blackbird board. I'm not sure how well (or not) this would have worked with a full sized system.



I tested that it is working and now finally have communication between my workstation and its uninterruptible power supply. Maybe I can start leaving this system powered on 24/7 once more.



Kudos, Raptor Computing Systems, your boards can survive at least:

Code: [Select]

Power Cycles:                       1,126
Power On Hours:                     7,986

I hope the next ones are even better.

4

Blackbird / IPL cycle failure

« on: October 22, 2024, 01:03:08 pm »

I have recently been unable to boot one of my Blackbirds (Rev 1.02). This thread will serve as notes for my troubleshoot.

Problem: The board BMC starts when mains power is available and the bottom left LED (D7000) flashes rapidly for 2-3 seconds before entering into a slower pulse indicating BMC bringup. However, upon starting chassis power, the board immediately restarts back to BMC bringup. System fans just barely begin to turn before it resets like this.

I can log into the BMC without issue and it reports (possibly old) critical failures:

Code: [Select]

HIGH Error: xyz.openbmc.project.Common.Error.InternalFailure Aug 27, 2022 5:24:36 AM
HIGH Error: open_power.Host.Boot.Error.Checkstop Aug 27, 2022 4:41:00 AM
HIGH Error: open_power.Host.Error.MaintenanceProcecure Aug 27, 2022 4:40:47 AM
HIGH Error: open_power.Host.Error.Event Aug 27, 2022 4:40:46 AM

I say possibly because these errors are old and have been in the log since before this boot issue manifested itself.

Troubleshoot:

1) Re-seat all components, cables
Reseated RAM, CPU, fan connectors, power connectors and tested with PCI devices and all rear+front I/O disconnected - issue persists

2) Check power supply
Checked power supply health with a tester - PSU is functioning properly
Attempted bootup with a different PSU (also tested functional) - issue persists

3) Reflash PNOR, BMC
-Pending-

This Blackbird board typically only sees occasional use for testing, with the only recent change being that I'd started leaving mains power (behind a UPS) connected 24/7 when it is between usage. It is upsetting to have boards costing north of a thousand USD just randomly quit on me, though I will try my best to recover it. Any input is welcome.

5

Applications and Porting / Lynis audit

« on: October 09, 2024, 07:43:12 pm »

For a long time, I had simply thought there were just regressions in Lynis. But digging further down revealed some test modules have hard coded paths for specific CPU architectures (ARM and x86, the usual). In retrospect, those modules did start failing right around the time I switched to powerpc...

Adding:

Code: [Select]

${ROOTDIR}lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/security

to Lynis' include/tests_authentication restores working detection for the presence of password strength checkers. I've gone ahead and opened a request at their git.

6

GPU Compute / Accelerators / AMD flirting with open sourcing GPU firmware

« on: March 07, 2024, 10:30:07 am »

A vendor has been deliberating with AMD about opening up GPU firmware. But possibly only for the 6x7900XTX model? And possibly only the scheduler and memory management bits? But the optimist in me wants to believe this could lead to the end of the nonfree firmware dilemma in choosing to install an add-in graphics card.


Conversation
the tiny corp
@__tinygrad__

Call went pretty well.

We are gating the commitment to 6x7900XTX on a public release of a roadmap to get the firmware open source. (and obviously the MLPerf training bug being fixed)

We aren't open source purists, it doesn't matter to us if the HDCP stuff is open for example. But we need the scheduler and the memory hierarchy management to be open. This is what it takes to push the performance of neural networks.

The Groq 500 T/s mixtral demo should be possible on a tinybox, but it requires god tier software and deep integration with the scheduler.

We also advised that the build process for amdgpu-dkms should be more open. While the driver itself is open, we haven't found it easy to rebuild and install. Easy REPL cycle is a key driver for community open source. We want the firmware to be easy to rebuild and install also.

Should have a go or no go decision by the end of next week. Confidence: 70%

the tiny corp
@__tinygrad__
·
Mar 6
Have a call with AMD tomorrow. Will they open source the MES?

7

Blackbird / Back in stock - the journey, chronicled

« on: April 19, 2023, 06:04:55 pm »

https://archive.is/1oW1i More Blackbirds are being produced
IRC, July 19:
tpearson: bkeys: We're targeting shipments starting September.  Not a guarantee, but you may use that for planning

The #Blackbirds are coming, the #Blackbirds are coming!  What are we up to now... wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/Black…

Be sure to pre-order yours now at raptorcs.com/content/base/pr… to get one of these new units fresh off the line.  More updates to come in November!
https://twitter.censors.us/raptorcompsys/status/1454158996261253125

"Any word on when more Blackbird boards will be available?"
@RaptorCompSys Dec 9 Replying to @jwbowen
We had hoped to have them available last month but are working through some new issues in regard to supply chain.  We'll have an update later this month, hopefully with some good news!

April 26 https://twitter.censors.us/RaptorCompSys/status/1519090960256409600#m
In reference to the Blackbirds, we continue to work through the remaining COVID19 lockdown induced issues.  We are very close at this point to having them back in stock in significant quantities, so shipments should resume shortly.  Talos II remains in stock at this time.

Seems to be awaiting this FPGA https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/lattice-semiconductor-corporation/ICE40HX1K-VQ100/3083577

3/2 thum> that would've been weird, Tim just mentioned those in an email to me...

@RaptorCompSys Mar 7
Best way to prevent this type of weapon being turned on you is to buy a Talos II right now, or a Blackbird soon

Mar 30
https://twitter.censors.us/RaptorCompSys/status/1508960651359793158#m
We'll have these back in stock soon:raptorcs.com/content/BK1SD1/…

https://forums.raptorcs.com/index.php/topic,175.msg3017.html#msg3017
I placed mine in late September of last year. Cross your fingers.
edit: Got an email this evening confirming shipment, with a tracking number. What a weekend for me to go out of town... but next week I'm free to set it up!

By August 31st
https://www.talospace.com/2022/07/raptor-says-blackbird-crunch-ends-in.html
There are small improvements, but largely the same.  We don't want to have to increase prices to the extent that would be needed for a ground-up redesign.

In conjunction with the Arctic Tern release today, we also wanted to provide an update on Blackbird. We remain on track for shipment by August 31, 2022.

https://twitter.censors.us/RaptorCompSys/status/1569145916870868996#m
Those items would also be possible -- S2R is theoretically possible starting with the 1.02 hardware version of the Blackbird, due to power regulator control circuit changes...

https://twitter.censors.us/RaptorCompSys/status/1646221158151225344#m
April 12, 2023
The #Blackbird owner-controlled #POWER9 desktop mainboards and systems are now back in stock!

Okay, these are actually just my notes from tracking the situation. It took 34 months to reach full production again, which is laudable considering the circumstances they were up against. Individual orders were fulfilled and received even earlier than that.

8

Applications and Porting / OpenShot to be available in Bookworm

« on: April 17, 2023, 11:55:47 am »

As of Debian Bookworm, it seems that openshot-qt will now be installable due to previously non-ppc64el dependency python3-openshot gaining ppc64el status. I'd been resorting to pitivi, which is okay but not as robust or as reliable. I have updated my workarounds notes to include this improvement.

9

Operating Systems and Porting / Tim Pearson added as Debian maintainer

« on: March 25, 2023, 10:00:58 am »

Some news from Debian micronews: The following contributors were added as Debian Maintainers in the last two months: Timothy Pearson

10

General OpenPOWER Discussion / Raptor CS fediverse presence?

« on: June 14, 2022, 03:43:35 pm »

I occasionally check the RCS twitter activity through some Nitter front end. But, as somebody who will never use centralized Twitter, I find myself wishing there was a way to participate. Is there any room at the table for a Mastodon network account?

11

User Zone / Calling for gaming experiences

« on: April 09, 2022, 04:52:48 pm »

If you have gotten any games up and running on your Power9 systems, please share anything about the experience here. I have been slowly compiling compatibility for various works and so far we have already evaluated: see wiki

Still need to check:

Evolution RTS
XEMU
Flare
Speed Dreams
OpenTomb
OpenMW
Colobot
Berusky
Pioneer
The Dark Mod
MegaGlest
Terminal Overload
Yo Frankie!
Red Eclipse 2
Rigs of Rods
Yorg
Oolite
Ryzom (Build resources for anyone interested. I have tried and failed several times so I might be in over my head on this one. But it would be really good to have as it is an active commercial title.)
PPSSPP

Really, anything from Libre Game Wiki or Open Source Game Clones. Although I have been biasing my tests toward games that have a general sense of visual polish and professionalism. I feel this information would be good to have for fence sitters deciding whether or not to go for an open power system.

Testing is slow going, since I don't yet have my second board and my only one is currently my production environment that I rely on for work and necessities.

12

General OpenPOWER Discussion / Story Time

« on: April 09, 2022, 04:25:43 pm »

Back sometime in 2015-2016 I became interested in Coreboot'd boards shortly after learning of Intel ME/AMD PSP from some heavy lifters in the free & open source community. The stuff for sale at the time were largely ASUS serverboards that had Coreboot ported. But they had been E-ATX or other eccentricities that made them difficult to build around. And the smaller boards were mostly either much older, poorly/partially supported or made concessions in allowing nonfree blobs to run.

That year I identified a board that followed standard ATX, supported big multicore CPUs and was more widely available: the SuperMicro H8SGL-F. Not a hard sell at the time only being 4-5 years old. I emailed Raptor Engineering, identified from the ASUS firmware ports, and inquired about porting the H8SGL-F. They quoted about 10,000 USD to handle such a job, which, at least at the time, I most certainly did not have the money for.

Not too long after, crowdfunding was opened for the Talos Power8 Secure Workstation. I followed the project through its development, crowdfunding failure, and eventual revival with Power9. And here I am today with an Open Power workstation humming away at the desk. Funny how things work.

Those old ASUS boards are still sold through some vendors but I'm glad they are no longer the only options for a strong, free workstation. I did end up buying some H8SGL boards anyway while awaiting Raptor's work, and I've got to say they weren't terrible. They, along with their Bulldozer/Piledriver chips, could be had for dirt cheap, supported ECC memory, IOMMU, did not contain embedded rootkit circuitry and the BMC could be disabled both in BIOS and via physical jumper. In doing so, reaching much of the way to decent design only without having free firmware.

13

Operating Systems and Porting / Improvements for AST2600

« on: March 03, 2022, 09:43:47 am »

The Aspeed display driver is supposedly getting some work. I wonder if this could translate into a more usable desktop experience on Blackbird?

14

Operating Systems and Porting / Investigating switch to Void or Fedora

« on: December 28, 2021, 07:07:14 pm »

Due to unfortunate circumstances, I may need to swallow my pride and retool my system for Void (or something else) instead of Debian.
I have built up 5+ years of specialized configuration around my Debian install so I'd really hate to have to deploy something else, but if it comes to that:

I am apprehensive about running Void, as their PPC port is unofficial. Is it vetted? Will it become unmaintained if some guy in Nebraska gets hit by a bus?

The sooner I can get this system back up, the sooner I can get back to building software and contributing to guides here and on the wiki.

15

Blackbird / Question for fellow Blackbird owners

« on: December 28, 2021, 06:40:23 pm »

Do you have any trouble booting Debian?

My C1P9S01 Rev 1.01 has the 2.0 firmware installed. It can boot Fedora and Void successfully.

But it cannot boot any Debian (either install media or an internal drive with Bullseye pre-installed). It just hangs forever at "SIGTERM received, booting...". This was not a problem before installing 2.0 firmware.