Messages

151

Applications and Porting / Re: Video Encoding

« on: November 09, 2020, 03:54:40 am »

gstreamer is a framework that can be used to create multimedia applications

It can also be used from scripts to do various things involving real-time streams or modification of media files

For example, you can use one plugin to read an MP4 file and another plugin to display it in a window.

I think that Radeon should work with VA-API
https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/vaapi/vaapidecodebin.html

and this is for NVIDIA
https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/nvcodec/index.html

The Arch Linux wiki has some comments on the way to access hardware encoding/decoding for different GPUs:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hardware_video_acceleration

152

Applications and Porting / Re: Video Encoding

« on: November 08, 2020, 03:50:08 pm »

Have you tried the ffmpeg patches?

The work is being sponsored through BountySource but I'm not sure if it is merged into ffmpeg, you can search the ffmpeg trac or try to apply the patches manually.

The new Radeon cards have AV1 on the card and many existing Radeon cards can do some existing codecs too.  Have you tried using any software that uses the GPU-based decoders?  I think gstreamer has some plugin support for various cards.

153

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

« on: November 07, 2020, 01:33:48 pm »

That looks like the system-provided version of sqlite

That is what is supposed to work

Debian's packages don't use that by default, that is why they fail to work

154

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

« on: November 07, 2020, 12:46:16 pm »

It depends on the version and it also depends on the flags that were set in the spec file or any patches applied during the build

You can check your thunderbird while it is running like this:

Code: [Select]

$ ps -C thunderbird
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
55840 pts/6    09:35:21 thunderbird

$ lsof -p 55840 | grep libsqli
thunderbi 55840 daniel  mem       REG               0,23               54138 /usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 (path dev=0,24)


The above output shows me that the running thunderbird process has used /usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 from the standard Debian package.  The path will be slightly different on a Fedora system.

155

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.

156

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

« on: November 07, 2020, 03:33:42 am »

Here are some details about my investigation into this issue, I finally got it working by manually patching and rebuilding the package version 68.12 on Debian buster.

It may impact Fedora and other distributions too.

I started with an empty profile and press CTRL-SHIFT-J to bring up the error console.

There were a range of errors, here are some of them:

Code: [Select]

Component returned failure code: 0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH)

There are many search results for that.

Code: [Select]

thunderbird Uncaught (in promise) TypeError "this.asyncConnection" is nullcreateNounTable

Searching for that one immediately found a ppc64el-specific bug report in Ubuntu (bug 1845929)

The bug report includes a patch against Thunderbird 68.1.1, they configure Thunderbird to use the system sqlite3 library instead of the bundled version in the Mozilla source tree.

Looking at the debian/changelog (buster) for the Debian buster build, I found that the patch had been reverted at some point after that:

Code: [Select]

thunderbird (1:68.2.2-1~deb10u1) stable-security; urgency=medium

  * Rebuild for buster-security
  * [2c1bd00] d/mozconfig.default: use internal version of
    nspr, nss, sqlite and icu
  * [94d6ae4] d/control: remove lib{nspr4,nss3,sqlite3}-dev from B-D

Further on, around Thunderbird v76 packaging, I found they removed more of the system-sqlite stuff, there is a changelog comment suggesting that the Thunderbird internal sqlite codebase is now a fork.  The patch can no longer be used because the configure option --enable-system-sqlite no longer exists.  Base on my experience with Thunderbird v78, that fork is not working at all on ppc64el.  From the debian/changelog (sid / unstable):

Code: [Select]

thunderbird (1:76.0~b2-1) experimental; urgency=medium

  * [8386db0] d/control: Remove B-D on libjson-dev and libsqlite3-dev
    The built uses internal copies for libjson and libsqlite as there are
    made modifications to them. For now we can decrease the list of build
    dependencies by removing this two packages.

Going forward, I believe somebody will need to create unit tests for exercising the Mozilla fork of sqlite during builds on ppc64el hosts.  Debian and other distributions automatically run the unit tests on every architecture when creating the packages.

I took the Debian buster packaging branch, forked it at v68.12 and re-enabled the system-sqlite option.  This immediately fixed the problem I was experiencing.  For now I have a usable Thunderbird package on buster.

Some additional references I looked at suggested deleting some or all of the following may help people having problems with things not appearing in the folder pane after upgrading or migrating the profile to a different host/CPU architecture.  I personally deleted the cache but didn't need to delete the others:

Code: [Select]

~/.cache/thunderbird
~/.thunderbird/..../folderTree.json
~/.thunderbird/..../session.json


157

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.

158

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?

159

General OpenPOWER Discussion / Re: European logistics / delivery, warranty returns, etc

« on: November 05, 2020, 06:45:14 am »

This is definitely interesting news.  Will you provide servers or only workstations?

Can people order the coolers now?

Will you provide any installation media to help people get around the 64k page size problem?  I built my own Debian installer image with a 4k kernel but not everybody will be able to do that.  I can share my ISO image if that is helpful.  I didn't build one for Fedora 33 yet.

There are some other outstanding issues that will be irritating for workstation users, I've recently seen glitches in Gimp, Blender, Thunderbird and gstreamer.  The complete absence of Qt WebEngine is a hassle because many things need it but on a positive front, I suspect most or all of those things will immediately start working after Qt WebEngine is fixed.

My overall impression is that none of these issues require months of work, most of them only require a few hours or days of developer time but apart from a few IBM bounties on BountySource (e.g. ffmpeg), nobody has stepped forward and offered funding for this work.

I don't write all this to complain, I write this because I know you put a lot of effort into the European distribution and it is really important that the people who buy in have a good first impression.  Even if there is a roadmap with tentative dates for fixing the issues in this list it will be very reassuring to people.

I'm personally quite busy until the end of the year but I may have a couple of weeks in January or February that I could dedicate to full time development on this platform if there is any funding available.

160

Blackbird / Re: [amdgpu] [Fiji] Fedora 32 Linux kernel 5.7.x crashes

« on: October 24, 2020, 03:13:22 pm »

Does anybody have any idea what this means for Big Navi?

As they already merged patches into the kernel, should it just work out of the box?

The Big Navi launch is supposed to be on Wednesday, 28 October and we can potentially buy the cards in November.

161

Talos II / Re: Using IPMI Tool

« on: October 23, 2020, 10:19:37 am »

I regularly use it, for example, to check fan speeds

Code: [Select]

sudo ipmitool sensor | grep RPM


ipmitool version 1.8.18-6 on Debian buster


There is an existing Perl script for Ganglia integration too:

https://www.gnu.org/software/freeipmi/ganglia_ipmi_sensors.pl


I was thinking about extending ganglia-modules-linux to report data from IPMI, it could be written more efficiently as a C plugin.

162

General Discussion / Re: Fractal Design cases

« on: October 08, 2020, 04:47:31 pm »

As discussed elsewhere, the PWM fan described here is now running at 1800 RPM.  The system is actually idle so this feels a bit odd.

It was 300 RPM when the system booted and it increased gradually over time.

From the perspective of the Fractal case, the default Fractal fans are rated for 1000 RPM.  Given a PWM fan, the system seems to prefer a lot more than 1000 RPM and that implies the default Fractal fans are not sufficient for a multi-CPU build like this.  They may still be suitable for somebody with single CPU, e.g. Talos II Lite with 4 or 8 core.

163

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?

164

General CPU Discussion / Re: POWER9 water cooling kit

« on: October 08, 2020, 03:44:06 pm »

At risk of going off-topic, I'd like to emphasize that water-cooling is only 50% of the problem when house-training the POWER9

The thread about powering-down unused cores is equally important

The CPU cores, especially in a dual-CPU configuration, using over 100W when idle, will waste electricity and generate unwanted heat.

Electric heating is particularly inefficient, 60-70% of electricity is lost in the energy network.  The only exception to this is the use of a local generator (renewable, cogeneration, etc), as it is generated locally, very little is lost in transmission lines.

In my own case, I'm using solar PV and the excess heat is therefore useful and efficient for 7-8 months of the year, it simply offsets the underfloor heating.

But for most people this could be expensive, wasteful and uncomfortable.

Solving both of these issues together (the water cooling and making some cores sleep when idle) will eliminate most concerns from buyers.

165

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.