Messages

181

Operating Systems and Porting / Re: kernel config: page size 4k vs 64k

« on: September 15, 2020, 06:29:43 am »

Yes, that is correct, the sectorsize parameter for a btrfs filesystem must be the same as PAGESIZE for the kernel

Therefore, btrfs filesystems created on systems with a 4k page size can only be used on systems with a 4k page size

btrfs filesystems created on systems with a 64k page size can only be used on systems with a 64k page size

182

User Zone / Re: Working xorg.conf for nouveau driver for a NVIDIA graphics card?

« on: September 14, 2020, 02:56:20 pm »

Yes, I only discovered that by chance while investigating the btrfs issues.

I compiled a kernel package with 4k page size and I have another SSD with Debian in an ext4 filesystem that should boot with 4k page size.  I'll probably try it in the next couple of days to see if it works with Nouveau and the Quadro K2200

183

Operating Systems and Porting / kernel config: page size 4k vs 64k

« on: September 14, 2020, 05:19:55 am »

Most distributions have chosen the 4k page size for their kernels on Intel architectures.

On powerpc64le, Debian (since 2014) and Fedora are using 64k

This may be good for HPC environments but troublesome for workstation users

Here are some specific observations:

Nouveau driver apparaently won't work at all on anything other than 4k

btrfs filesystems have a sectorsize that corresponds to the page size on the host where the filesystem was created.  The filesystems can't be mounted on any host with a different page size.

Example problems:

• you have a 6TB drive with btrfs from an x86 workstation, you want to move it to a Blackbird running the default Debian or Fedora kernel but it won't mount.
• you install Fedora 33 with the default kernel (64k page size) and default filesystem (btrfs from Fedora 33) and later you want to recompile your kernel for 4k.  Now you can't mount your root filesystem because mkfs was run for 64k

As Fedora is going to use btrfs by default now, btrfs volumes will be more common and users are more likely to encounter frustration from time to time.

The btrfs developers recently started a patch that allows the systems with 64k page size to read a btrfs volume with 4k sectorsize.  It only works in one direction and it is read-only.

Does anybody feel that distributions should offer different permutations of their kernel and installer based on the 4k page size?

From the perspective of workstation users, are there any other strong reasons, other than Nouveau and btrfs, for distributions to consider this?

184

General Discussion / Re: noise levels, sound dampening, tempered glass cases

« on: September 12, 2020, 03:58:08 pm »

My supplier still doesn't have the regular case (both sides dampened panels) so I took the case with dark tinted glass

As the case is so large and the case fans are big, 140mm, they can run at low speed and the overall build is very quiet when CPUs are idle

After hearing the noise levels at full load, I don't believe the dampened panel would make much difference so it is more a matter of personal preference choosing between glass or the regular panel on this case.

As there are some flashing leds on the motherboard, the glass panel might be annoying if the machine is installed in a location where somebody sleeps.

185

Operating Systems and Porting / Re: petitboot doesn't show the OpenBSD partition

« on: September 12, 2020, 03:52:53 pm »

Thanks to feedback from the OpenBSD developers, I found that it is necessary to select the "whole disk" option while partitioning

If that is selected, petitboot will show OpenBSD in the boot menu and it is possible to boot the installed OpenBSD system

This was tested with OpenBSD installed on an SSD in a USB 3 dock

186

Applications and Porting / Re: Building software, a bit of a newb question

« on: September 12, 2020, 02:18:28 pm »

OK, it looks like they only distribute the package for amd64

Something like this will help you build a local package on your architecture:

Code: [Select]

sudo apt build-dep obs-studio
git clone https://salsa.debian.org/multimedia-team/obs-studio.git
cd obs-studio
sed -i -e 's/any-amd64/any/g' debian/control
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -i.git -b

Something like that will create *.deb package files for you in ../

You can try asking in #debian-devel on IRC for any issues

I will eventually get around to running OBS myself, sometime this month and then I will share more details if the above is not sufficient.

187

Applications and Porting / Re: RStudio desktop working on Raptor's power computer (ppc64le)?

« on: September 12, 2020, 01:50:03 pm »

Did you have any luck with RStudio?

I also use both R and RStudio and I'm likely to try it in on this platform very shortly

188

Talos II / power consumption observations

« on: September 12, 2020, 01:48:31 pm »

I made the following observations using the meter in my UPS, it measures units of approximately 0.1A

Measurements were made with Debian buster in the idle state, at the GNOME login screen.  It actually uses less power there than at the petitboot menu.

Voltage = 240V



Unplugged: 0

BMC powered: ~ 0.1A

Single 8 core CPU installed with 4 memory chips: add 0.3A - 0.4A above the BMC power draw (total, 0.4A = 96W)

Second 8 core CPU installed with 4 more memory chips: add 0.2A - 0.3A above the single 8 core (total, 0.6A = 144W)

These are bare minimum figures in an idle system with RX 580, LSI 9207-4i4e and one SATA SSD

The system doesn't have the SAS option on the board, that would use more watts if present.

HP suggests a comparable single CPU Z8 G4 workstations can use 74W at idle:
https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c05527763.pdf (page 31)

Their Z4 workstations can go down to about 40W at idle although the spec is more like a Blackbird with 4 core:
https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/getpdf.aspx/c05527757.pdf

I feel that for people who are mostly idle and just need an occasional boost of power to compile something from time to time, it may be better to stay on a single CPU and Talos II Lite but for people who need the power regularly for different types of work, the HP and Talos II would end up using similar amounts of power.

For people who leave their workstation on all the time or use it as a file server, the second CPU is wasting a lot of power when idle.  As discussed in another thread, it would be useful to have options to power down some cores

189

Applications and Porting / Re: Building software, a bit of a newb question

« on: September 12, 2020, 12:09:29 pm »

make doesn't really care so much about the architecture, it depends more on the project and autotools, if the project uses autotools

By default, make will use the default compiler, which is usually a compiler for the host you are using.

The Makefile for a project might be fussy though, it might have things hardcoded for some other platform

Looking in Debian, there does appear to be an OBS package available:

https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=obs-studio&suite=buster

Can you please clarify the problem you had installing the OBS package from there?

190

User Zone / Re: Working xorg.conf for nouveau driver for a NVIDIA graphics card?

« on: September 11, 2020, 04:14:46 pm »

I tried putting a Quadro K2200 into my Talos II.

It is running Debian buster

The card appears in the lspci output.

I added the package:

Code: [Select]

apt install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
systemctl restart gdm3

Xorg.0.log shows that the nouveau driver loads but it fails to initialize

Code: [Select]

[   161.140] (II) NOUVEAU driver Date:   Mon Jan 28 23:25:58 2019 -0500
[   161.140] (II) NOUVEAU driver for NVIDIA chipset families :

[   161.271] (EE) [drm] Failed to open DRM device for pci:0033:01:00.0: -19
[   161.271] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
[   161.271] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[   161.271] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory

This failure is mentioned here in the Nouveau Troubleshooting guide

I didn't have more time to test it so I took out the K2200 card and put the Radeon back into the machine.

For any NVIDIA card, I feel it is a good idea to test the exact same OS and Nouveau version on an x86 host for comparison, to see if the issue is only a fault on powerpc64 or if the issue is in Nouveau for all architectures.

191

Operating Systems and Porting / petitboot doesn't show the OpenBSD partition

« on: September 11, 2020, 01:52:36 pm »

To workaround the issue with my HBA, I removed the HBA and did an install to an SSD in a USB 3 dock (Sharkoon)

The OpenBSD installer completed successfully

petitboot doesn't show the OpenBSD partition in the boot menu

If I exit to the OpenBSD shell, I can use fdisk to inspect the SSD and I can see the partition is there.  It is /dev/sda4 and type = a6 (OpenBSD)

Is there any way I can get petitboot to boot this partition or does it need some newer version of petitboot or some change in the OpenBSD partitioning scheme?

192

GPU Compute / Accelerators / Re: Which GPU would *you* choose?

« on: September 10, 2020, 11:41:55 am »

They already made some contributions at the kernel level.

Does anybody know if AMD provides any prototype boards to the X developers or if there is any way to explore that with them?

193

GPU Compute / Accelerators / Re: Which GPU would *you* choose?

« on: September 10, 2020, 04:01:41 am »

News sites are reporting that AMD will announce details of the Big Navi cards (Navi 2, RX 6000, Sienna Cichlid) on 28 October and it looks like they might reach the shops in November.  The news doesn't really include any specs.

Personally, I can get by using an old GPU for a couple of months longer to see if Big Navi is a worthwhile buy.

194

GPU Compute / Accelerators / Re: Current support distributions for Navi AMD

« on: September 08, 2020, 12:34:21 pm »

That is the way Debian traditionally works, yes.

The Debian backports facility gives you a way to work around that for specific packages that you want now.

The Debian testing distribution also gives you a way to get newer packages but if you run the testing distribution, every package on your computer can potentially change at any time when a developer updates it.  Debian testing could be considered a rolling release, every package has been through a short period of testing, 5-10 days before you get it.

195

GPU Compute / Accelerators / Re: Current support distributions for Navi AMD

« on: September 07, 2020, 04:58:55 pm »

On any Linux, you need a combination of the following:

- the kernel
- the firmware blob packages
- other libraries like mesa
- xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu

While it is a long time since the first Navi cards released, please remember that Debian only makes a release every 2 years.  Debian freezes 6 months before the release.  The current Debian stable release, buster, entered freeze back in January 2019:
https://release.debian.org/buster/freeze_policy.html

and the next stable freeze will be in 2021.  That is why backport packages are necessary for Debian users.

Every user has different requirements.  I personally don't need a Big Navi right now, I never do any gaming or 3D, but I think it may be worth paying a little bit more money to have a PCIe 4.0 card that can handle multiple monitors, maybe even a multi-seat configuration in future.  If it has better video encoding and decoding that will be useful for anybody running OBS but they haven't given any confirmation whether codecs like AV1 will be included in the spec.