Topics

31

Operating Systems and Porting / Fedora 35 (was F-34): going to 4k page size? Help needed

« on: January 08, 2021, 04:47:38 pm »

We had some discussions in fedora-devel about changing the default page size from 64k back to 4k

This could be done for Fedora 34 - I opened a change request under Fedora policy

How do people feel about this?

Does anybody want to take ownership of the Fedora change request?

Technically, only one line of code needs to change but there is some coordination to make sure everything in userland is rebuilt and to do some tests of the installer as a bare minimum.

Code: [Select]

CONFIG_PPC_64K_PAGES=n

I might be willing to take ownership of the change personally but if somebody else wants to take ownership, that will free up some of my time for other things.

It is also important to verify that other users are comfortable with this strategy: please feel free to comment through the Fedora mailing list.

32

Operating Systems and Porting / Linux kernel packages 5.9.6 for Debian buster with 4k page size available

« on: January 02, 2021, 02:18:27 am »

As promised, the packaged version of the kernel is now available for people who want to test the 4k page size.  There is another thread tracking problems related to the 64k page size, in other words, reasons you might want to try the kernel here with 4k

Debian kernel packaging tools allow me to build multiple flavours of the kernel as separate packages and you can install all of them concurrently.  Therefore, you can install the default kernel with 64k page size and also the kernel with 4k page size at the same time.  When you boot, the grub menu will let you choose between these different kernels.

If you didn't already use any of the packages from the Debify repository then you need to enable the repository with this command:

Code: [Select]

$ wget -O - http://apt.debify.org/add-apt-debify | bash

After enabling the repository, you can get the new kernel with these two apt commands:

Code: [Select]

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -t debify-buster-backports linux-image-powerpc64le-4k
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  linux-image-5.9.0-0.bpo.2-powerpc64le-4k
Suggested packages:
  linux-doc-5.9 debian-kernel-handbook mkvmlinuz
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  linux-image-5.9.0-0.bpo.2-powerpc64le-4k linux-image-powerpc64le-4k
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 10 not upgraded.
Need to get 40.3 MB of archives.
After this operation, 240 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]



Please share any feedback about using the package

33

General OpenPOWER Discussion / risks associated with Xorg / Wayland

« on: December 29, 2020, 11:08:08 am »

There is regular noise about Linux distributions being on the cusp of abandoning Xorg, e.g. the recent Phoronix article about Xorg being abandonware, which generated many blogs and comments on various platforms.

Talos II and Blackbird users have commented that Wayland isn't working for us.  I personally use Xorg right now, I have this in my /etc/gdm3/daemon.conf

Code: [Select]

[daemon]
# Uncomment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg
WaylandEnable=false


Has anybody investigated the Wayland issues on this architecture in any depth?

I don't see any distribution dropping Xorg in the next 12 months but as these machines have a long lifespan, if Xorg is dropped in 2 or 3 years from now then it will be an inconvenience for this platform.

34

Applications and Porting / OBS 26.1.0 packages available

« on: December 29, 2020, 08:21:22 am »

This is now available for anybody else to try, I backported the latest version, 26.1.0

As described in the thread about Domoticz, backports like this are published in the Debify repository.  Before you can install them with apt, you need to run this command once to enable the repository and authentication key:

Code: [Select]

$ wget -O - http://apt.debify.org/add-apt-debify | bash

After you have added the Debify repository and key, you can install OBS with this command (if you are using Debian 10 / buster):

Code: [Select]

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -t debify-buster-backports obs-studio

This OBS has been built using the updated ffmpeg packages that are also distributed through the same repository so you may get some performance benefits and extra features not available in the standard ffmpeg on Debian 10.

35

Applications and Porting / trying the ffmpeg POWER9 optimization patch

« on: December 29, 2020, 08:17:39 am »

I've prepared a Debian package of ffmpeg compiled with this patch for performance.  This is ffmpeg 4.3.1, it is newer than the standard version in Debian 10 / buster.

As described in the thread about Domoticz, backports like this are published in the Debify repository.  Before you can install them with apt, you need to run this command once to enable the repository and authentication key:

Code: [Select]

$ wget -O - http://apt.debify.org/add-apt-debify | bash

After you have added the Debify repository and key, you can install / upgrade your ffmpeg with this command (if you are using Debian 10 / buster):

Code: [Select]

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -t debify-buster-backports ffmpeg

Please give feedback through the ffmpeg bug tracker issue if you have any problems with this patch.

36

Applications and Porting / packages available for Domoticz, Zigate USB stick, home automation, smart bulbs

« on: December 28, 2020, 05:43:47 am »

The Debify repository has been updated to include builds for ppc64el and arm64

After adding ppc64el, the first packages I built in there are the Domoticz packages, these are the installation instructions

You can order the Zigate USB stick directly from this web site.  I plugged one into the USB 3 port of the Talos II and it worked fine.

I've tested the Domoticz and Zigate together with a range of products, including:

• bulbs: Philips Hue, Osram, Mueller Licht (Aldi), Livarno Lux (Lidl)
• temperature sensors: Aqara
• smart sockets (both plug pack versions and inline)
• dimmer buttons / remotes: Aqara, Philips Hue
• motion sensors: Osram

I'm planning to buy some of the Ikea products this week and test them too, there is already feedback in the Domoticz forum thread on Ikea.  The Ikea products are interesting because they are incredibly cheap and you can buy them locally, the Aqara products from China sometimes take 2-3 weeks to arrive.

For any concerns with the packages, please ask in this Domoticz forum thread on Debian packages unless it is an issue that is very specific to the Talos II.

Here is a short video where I demonstrate how to flash the Zigate stick and link each of the devices to it.  Although there are not many similarities, try to imagine the Talos II in place of the Raspberry Pi in the video.

37

Applications and Porting / pulseaudio assertion, crashes other applications (mpv, OBS, ...)

« on: November 27, 2020, 06:36:35 am »

I've noticed that some applications, including mpv and OBS Studio, are intermittently crashing with an assertion from PulseAudio

If you run applications from a terminal window then you will probably see the assertion text in the window when the application crashes.  If you are running any applications from the menu or launcher and they are crashing unexpectedly then it is a good idea to try running them from the console to observe stdout and stderr.  You can also use journalctl to search for assertions like this.

Here is the error:

Code: [Select]

Assertion 're->data || re->memblock' failed at pulsecore/pstream.c:862, function do_read(). Aborting.
Aborted

I opened bug report #1060 in the PulseAudio bug tracker.

Searching for this assertion in the search engines I found people have similar problems on ARM64.  I haven't seen it on x86.

38

Applications and Porting / Firefox 78 / WebRTC regression

« on: November 14, 2020, 01:15:56 pm »

As noted elsewhere in the forum, WebRTC was working for me using Firefox 68 on Debian with the custom kernel compiled for a 4k page size.

I recently updated to Firefox 78 (provided as a security update on Debian) and this included a regression, the WebRTC incoming picture is not displayed any more.  Incoming audio is fine and outgoing picture is fine.

Do people see similar problems on other operating systems and/or Firefox versions?

It is in the Mozilla bug tracker, please add any comments there as that is what the Mozilla developers will look at.

39

General OpenPOWER Discussion / critical mass of developers

« on: November 07, 2020, 03:58:56 am »

Looking at my recent experiences with some packages such as Thunderbird sqlite, Gimp (linker), OBS Studio (can't remember what I tweaked but it builds a package now) and even making my own kernel and installer ISO with 4K page size, none of these things were too hard to resolve or work around but on the other hand, it becomes tedious if a developer encounters stuff like that every day.

With Thunderbird specifically, unless it is fixed upstream, I have to spend some time adapting my patch to each new version of the package.  It is not hard work, it may only take 30 minutes but it is tedious and takes energy away from new development.

Hopefully when Vikings make their products available in Europe, some more developers will decide to try the platform for their next workstation and this will distribute the burden more widely.

It is important to have some reach into other ecosystems, for example, if there were two or three developers in each big upstream community like Mozilla, GNOME and KDE/Qt using this platform, they would notice any issues much more quickly and issues would be fixed centrally, before anybody tries to release or package new versions of those products.  Does anybody already know about interest in any of those communities?

For OS level development it can be really useful for developers to have multiple workstations, for example, one as a stable workstation and a second machine that we can reboot multiple times per day to test kernels and hardware.  Only having one machine right now, I tend to avoid testing anything that might require a reboot because I don't want to close and re-open all the different applications that I'm using.

If anybody has any old hardware that they wanted to donate to developers or if anybody knows of any funding to subsidize hardware for developers in different projects that could help the platform gain critical mass.  As with Metcalfe's law in telecoms, each extra developer adds more value than their personal contribution.  Any other ideas would be welcome too.

40

Applications and Porting / gimp fails load error: libgomp.so.1: cannot allocate memory in static TLS block

« on: November 06, 2020, 02:04:35 pm »

On Debian buster, when I try to run gimp, it fails like this:

Code: [Select]

GEGL-Message: 20:50:18.383: Module '/usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/gegl-0.4/ff-save.so' load error: /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libgomp.so.1: cannot allocate memory in static TLS block
GEGL-Message: 20:50:18.388: Module '/usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/gegl-0.4/matting-levin.so' load error: /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libgomp.so.1: cannot allocate memory in static TLS block
GEGL-Message: 20:50:18.390: Module '/usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/gegl-0.4/raw-load.so' load error: /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libgomp.so.1: cannot allocate memory in static TLS block
GEGL-Warning: Module '/usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/gegl-0.4/ff-load.so' load error: /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libgomp.so.1: cannot allocate memory in static TLS block


(gimp:39890): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 20:50:18.483: Fatal error - Could not reload previously loaded plugin '(unknown)'

As a workaround, it works if I run it with this command line:

Code: [Select]

$ LD_PRELOAD=libgomp.so.1 gimp

There is some discussion about this particular issue here in the context of Anaconda, it may need to be adapted into a bug report against Gimp.

41

Applications and Porting / Thunderbird not working Debian buster (1:68.12.0-1~deb10u1 & 1:78.4.0-1~deb10u1)

« on: November 06, 2020, 01:43:15 pm »

When I started using my Talos II system, I moved my $HOME into Debian buster with Thunderbird 1:68.12.0-1~deb10u1

Launching Thunderbird, I found that all the panes (folder list, message list, message preview) were empty and toolbar appears mildly corrupt

I thought I would just wait for Debian to package a newer version.

Thunderbird 1:78.4.0-1~deb10u1 is now available through the Debian buster security updates so I tried that today.

The same problem occurred, all panes empty

I looked for information online and found a few suggestions but these things didn't make any difference:

- running Thunderbird in safe mode

- running Thunderbird in safe mode with all add-ons disabled and selecting the option to reset the toolbar

- running Thunderbird in safe mode to create a new profile

When I try to start in a new profile, I notice that the wizard to create a new mail account never appears.  Trying to access the accounts window from the menu, the window doesn't appear either.

Has anybody else had problems like this on Debian or any other distribution?

Are there any tweaks in the Fedora build of Thunderbird that may be necessary for the Debian build?

42

Mod Zone / is Talos II overclocking the fan?

« on: October 08, 2020, 04:42:59 pm »

ipmitool tells me that the PWM fan I put in the rear of my case is running at 1800 RPM

Noctua rates it for 1500 RPM +/- 10%, that suggests that 1650 RPM is the maximum

PWM, by definition, can't overclock or overvoltage anything, it simply increases the pulse width up to the point where pulses are 100%.  You can't PWM over 100%

Is the fan simply running outside the spec or could this be a reporting error?

43

GPU Compute / Accelerators / Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 550 4GB

« on: October 08, 2020, 03:20:49 pm »

The RX 580 was running fine but I don't use a lot of GPU so I decided to swap it for the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 550 4GB, it is half the price.

This card appears to be running fine too.

Monitoring it with the radeontop utility, I'm using 2.5GB of VRAM while driving two screens, one is 4K and the other is 1920x1200

As it is really cheap, I think this card is useful as a spare or for people who don't use GPU-intensive workloads.

The card is less than 2 PCIe slots width so it is an interesting choice for people who are using both slots on a Blackbird.

The sensors command tells me the fan is running at 1231 RPM idle, it is a bit faster than the fans on the RX 580.  I feel it may make just a little bit more noise compared to an idle RX 580 which has two fans that appear to be bigger and quieter.

I may decide to return this one as well and swap it for the Big Navi in November or maybe I will get a Big Navi and keep this as a spare.

My only real concern then is the fan noise, some people may want to pay that little bit more to get a more silent alternative.

44

Applications and Porting / QtWebEngine status (depends on Chrome / Chromium patches)

« on: October 07, 2020, 06:56:35 am »

A lot of interesting things depend on QtWebEngine

QtWebEngine depends on Chromium, they periodically take a snapshot of the Chromium code from Google

Chromium patching is already in progress, is it complete?

I opened a bug for it within QtWebEngine

When somebody confirms the Chrome patches are ready, the QtWebEngine developers could enable it in their list of supported platforms.  They will probably need to know the minimum supported version of the Chromium code, they probably won't have time to look through the Chromium history, if anybody could add comments to the Qt bug report that would be really helpful.

If they can cherry-pick patches that haven't been accepted by Google, please also comment on that Qt bug report

45

Talos II / quiet rack mount cases e.g. water cooled or 5U, 140mm fans

« on: October 05, 2020, 11:41:38 am »

I've had a few discussions with people about Talos II and Talos II Lite, mainly based on the recommendations in my recent blog post

One topic that comes up is that some people are space conscious and while the Fractal case is really nice and easy to use for this platform, you need to be able to access it from both sides because the HDDs / SSDs are under the motherboard and any case for the Talos II is going to be big anyway.

One of the ideas emerging from these discussions is building a small rack that can be positioned in the home or office like a chest of drawers or coffee table.  For example, such a rack could be shared between some engineers on a support desk.  A decent UPS can go in the bottom and the Talos II mounted in a large 5U case.  PDUs, network switches, etc can all be mounted on a shelf or rack mounted.  As it is not for data center, 4U to 6U for the workstation chassis is quite acceptable.

As it would combine well with other components, like a rack UPS, it suddenly starts to help save space rather than using more space.

Has anybody had experience with any server chassis between 4U - 6U that has large 140mm quiet fans and accepts regular fanless PSU?

Even if it is not so big, has anybody had any experience making a rack case operate quietly with water cooling?