Messages

1

General CPU Discussion / Re: Has anyone done the Phoronix suite recently?

« on: November 04, 2025, 08:26:24 am »

I see this old message only right now ...

In fact, one year ago, I wrote this article to state on the different Phoronix articles, aggregating information, that concerned performance of Talos 2 / POWER9:
http://www.powerpc-lab.org/linux/2024/09/28/talos2-performance-evaluated-in-2018-2019.html

Based on that, I also wanted to know what has changed since, if some benchmarks and projects got benefit of the feedback provided initially.

This is why I am preparing another article, but this time more oriented toward my configuration (2x 4-Core). I found a reduced set of x86 machines in the same theoretical range of performance. But they mainly have run old versions of benchmarks. So, I also tried to find the most recent versions that have results for the processors I identified.

At the end, I would like to address some issues, contribute to some projects ... and to various phoronix-test-suite repositories (not sure they receive many changes though).

2

Applications and Porting / Re: [GAMES] Raptor Call of the Shadows

« on: April 20, 2025, 05:51:02 am »

This issue is fixed!
I am glad I was able to contribute 

3

Applications and Porting / Re: [GAMES] Raptor Call of the Shadows

« on: April 17, 2025, 05:08:48 pm »

 @tle Thank you for mentioning this game. I tried and have just answered that in the opened issue (https://github.com/skynettx/raptor/issues/15):

I've just checked the `dev` branch on my PowerMac G5 that run the latest Debian image (https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/snapshots/2025-03-31/), the first one that works for a long time.
The result is that it builds well and I played the first mission until the boss. The music seems to be good too but sound effects (shoots, explosions ...) are not played.

4

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

« on: January 20, 2025, 03:20:01 pm »

This forum is still a great source of information but I don't thing there are many people that tried to install Debian since one year. I wanted to run Debian because I use it in general and I thought it was a possibility to contribute ... but I should finally try other distributions. Right now, I have tried Adelie but I have also only the right part of the screen that is displayed. I don't know if it is my graphics card, or drivers, or the screen ....

5

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

« on: January 20, 2025, 06:46:50 am »

I tried to test on Linux PPC but unfortunately, as usual, it goes fast into a nightmare ...
First, I booted the PowerMac G5 and had a weird display. I didn't remember I had it in this state last time I booted it. I tried to install several Debian images and at the best, I go to the same point.
So, I booted the MacMini G4 that was in Debian 11 but I needed to install some packages, so as usual, I had errors about certificates and repositories and then unsatisfied dependencies and a new kernel trying to be installed but failing due to the boot partition turned in read-only mode (and I couldn't install the required hfsprogs package to fix that). So I installed the latest Debian 12 image and it worked and I finally compiled the game but I can't get a context for the 3D, even software rendering.
Honestly, I don't know if I will trash the old Ubuntu 16.10 that works on the iMac G5 ...

So, as a prerequisite to test the game on Linux PPC, I need a reliable distribution. I wonder if there is a full setup with a desktop that will work in qemu on the Talos 2, emulating a PowerMac machine ...

6

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

« on: January 11, 2025, 03:28:51 pm »

I created this ticket: https://github.com/openmoh/openmohaa/issues/618

I will play the game more to test on the Talos 2.

And I will possibly check on other PPC machines (based on G4 and G5 CPUs).

7

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

« on: January 09, 2025, 04:04:31 pm »

@draconx Thank you, I had to add -lrt in "./CMakeFiles/openmohaa.dir/link.txt" and that linked successfully. I was able to start the game!

8

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

« on: January 09, 2025, 11:18:20 am »

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)

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.

9

Firmware / Re: Idenitfy versions of firmwares

« on: October 22, 2024, 03:27:13 pm »

I am so glad to announce you that the update has been applied successfully! Fans run now at 1800 and 1700 RPM ... so the machine seems so quite!

I was a bit scary and wanted to be sure not making a mistake, so it tool much time but now I can use it without complaints from my wife 

@carlosgonz To be honest, with all these components and various versions (here different versions of BMC but with the same Linux git sha1 ...), I think that's not clear at all. But I applaud Raptor CS for their machines and their work. My Talos 2 is great and I love PowerPC.

@ClassicHasClass Thank you for the feedback

Ah, I was about to forget: the scp transfer worked after I added the option -O, I found that on a forum: "it an issue with OpenSSH client. Since OpenSSH 9.0, the client uses SFTP protocol by default. To use the legacy protocol, the -O option must be specified."

I am impatient to come back to some more productive work with my Talos 2!

10

Firmware / Re: Idenitfy versions of firmwares

« on: October 21, 2024, 03:43:59 am »

Thank you, guys .. even if that does not work.

@borley With the full path, also providing a filename in the /tmp destination directory, that changes nothing

@ClassicHasClass Ok, at least that removes one subject of worry.

I see 2 possible next steps: try to upgrade BMC first (to V2.10) or contact someone at Raptor CS.

The BMC Linux version from dmesg made me think it was in version V2.00 as it gives:

Linux version 5.0.7-a8a208fa7346ad643e8f6100c49cb7b8468b6d38 (oe-user@oe-host) (gcc version 8.3.0 (GCC)) #1 Fri Jul 19 13:24:42 UTC 2019

But if I enter "cat /etc/os-version", I get:

ID="openbmc-phosphor"
NAME="Phosphor OpenBMC (Phosphor OpenBMC Project Reference Distro)"
VERSION="2.7.0-dev"
VERSION_ID="2.7.0-dev-523-gc5aa0ec48"
PRETTY_NAME="Phosphor OpenBMC (Phosphor OpenBMC Project Reference Distro) 2.7.0-dev"
BUILD_ID="2.7.0-dev"
OPENBMC_TARGET_MACHINE="talos"

If you are in version V2.XX, can you tell me what you have?

11

Firmware / Re: Idenitfy versions of firmwares

« on: October 20, 2024, 04:57:50 pm »

When I tried to update PNOR firmware to V2.00, copying the binary file, I got this error:

$ scp ./talos-ii-v2.00.pnor root@$TALOS_BMC_ADDR:/tmp/
root@192.168.1.xx's password:
sh: /usr/libexec/sftp-server: No such file or directory
scp: Connection closed

Have you already met that?

I don't know what happens ... There is something weird with my config. I don't know what to do.

I looked at the system and its storage organization and capacity:

root@talos:~# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
dev                     175.9M         0    175.9M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   209.2M     22.8M    186.4M  11% /run
/dev/mtdblock4           19.5M     19.5M         0 100% /run/initramfs/ro
/dev/mtdblock5            4.0M      3.1M    900.0K  78% /run/initramfs/rw

Is it normal to have /dev/mtdblock4 full at 100%?

12

Firmware / Re: Idenitfy versions of firmwares

« on: October 07, 2024, 04:46:12 am »

Analyzing several archives, it appears that these versions reported by lsmcode match with the PNOR firmware V1.05 (from System Package 1.06).

In the OpenBMC shell, dmesg starts with:

Linux version 5.0.7-a8a208fa7346ad643e8f6100c49cb7b8468b6d38 (oe-user@oe-host) (gcc version 8.3.0 (GCC)) #1 Fri Jul 19 13:24:42 UTC 2019

It seems that refers to BMC V2.00, as in its package, I can see:

U-Boot fitImage for Phosphor OpenBMC (Phosphor OpenBMC Project Reference Distro)/5.0.7+gitAUTOINC+a8a208fa73/talos

That seems to be strange because reading again and again several release notes, I understand that BMC V2.xx don't work with PNOR V1.xx ...

13

Firmware / Idenitfy versions of firmwares

« on: September 30, 2024, 02:35:22 am »

I want to update the firmware of my Talos 2 because the machine is really noisy, with fans are permanently running high (ipmitools shows 2 fans at 8800-8900 RPM) ... and I saw that there was changes (a fix) in firmwares 1.0x.

I would like to know the current version of the low-level elements (BMC, firmware ...). I only found the tool lsmcode (from the package lsvpd) that displays a list of elements with their git hash:

Version of System Firmware : 
Product Name          : OpenPOWER Firmware
Product Version       : talos-v1.20-161-g76f78f4
Product Extra         :        skiboot-bc106a0
Product Extra         :        occ-a8d0767
Product Extra         :        hostboot-884b60b
Product Extra         :        buildroot-2017.11.2-8-g4b6188e0f2
Product Extra         :        machine-xml-221192a
Product Extra         :        sbe-a389a5d
Product Extra         :        petitboot-v1.7.1-p836d356
Product Extra         :        linux-v4.15.9-openpower1-p9e03417

In the page that lists the different update files https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/Talos_II/Firmware, archiives for BMC, PNOR and FPGA have an associated hash but I can't make them match with anything that I know.

So, are there other solutions to get the version of these elements?

I access BMC with ssh (using the web interface, it refuses to get even a login page): it is possible to get its version and possibly the firmware version from there?

Before upgrading, I just would like to know from where I start.

Please give me some advices: Maybe you will think that I can only update the firmware directly to the latest version (v2.10) whatever are the current element versions ...

14

Third Party CPU Discussion / Why haven't we seen boards with Power9 / MicroWatt?

« on: August 17, 2024, 02:50:33 am »

I have this question that stays in my mind for a long time ...

Power ISA is open, MicroWatt was announced and published in 2019, with the main actor Anton Blanchard saying that "the goal for Blanchard was to see if he could make it, and as a software developer, taking on a very low level hardware project was a challenge" (from Wikipedia but I attended the OpenPower Summit Europe the same year and understood quite the same). That did not reassured me but I had the hope that after the proof of concept, this enabled will be used as a base for real products and for example a small board to allow developers to play with it at low cost, and promote the architecture. And even more after the project evolved enough to make run Linux and Zephyr operating systems.

I think that's very sad that no board was created, that IBM has not officialy adopted this project or allowed resources to help structuring a side organism (OpenPower Foundation, Raptor CS ...) to do that.

What was missing? Why don't we get a board? Who could be interested in doing that? (if it's not too late)

@ClassicHasClass In 2020, you wrote "The possibility of a single-board Microwatt-based system (and fully reprogrammable, too) gets closer every day" so I suppose that you hoped the same.

It seems that the only implementation that went to the end is Kestrel. All other known initiatives seemed to be attempts that led nowhere unfortunately. There is an empty page about PowerPI at OpenPower Foundation (https://openpowerfoundation.org/groups/powerpi/). At Euro BSDCon 2023 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj4Q-m_WEh0&t=220s&ab_channel=EuroBSDcon), there is also a PowerSBC mentioned, for which we find zero information elsewhere ...

15

Legacy POWER Hardware / Running GTA: Vice City on a PowerPC based wireless router

« on: August 15, 2024, 12:37:25 pm »

Hello PowerPC lovers

For people who missed that, earlier this year, I got informed of an article titled "Running GTA: Vice City on a TP-Link TL-WDR4900 wireless router" where the author describes how he hacked a wireless router ... The article is well written and very instructive, describing what was done, and how, step by step. This is another proof that shows that even small PowerPC based machines can achieve really great and surprising things! Let's applause the author who has huge hardware and software skills.

Enjoy at https://kittenlabs.de/real-gaming-router/