Messages

1

Blackbird / Blackbird for sale (8-core bundle)

« on: November 16, 2023, 12:31:58 pm »

https://shop.vikings.net/product/blackbird-bundle-8-core-cpu/
Current price is EUR 1,995 without VAT (for buyers outside the EU)
The location of the system is in the EU/Germany.

2

Talos II / Talos II workstation for sale [sold]

« on: September 20, 2023, 06:35:08 am »

We're selling a T2 workstation on behalf of a customer:
https://store.vikings.net/en/talos-ii-secure-workstation

3

Mod Zone / Re: Custom cooler mount

« on: June 24, 2023, 01:12:03 pm »

Woof has done an amazing job!

The 3U IBM HSF weighs 637g versus 1220g of the NH-U12A.
I can totally see this with a sturdier custom mount that replaces the Noctua's which in turn will allow for a more even and higher pressure.

4

Blackbird / Re: where to list my blackbird?

« on: May 24, 2023, 03:29:47 am »

We're interested.

5

Talos II / Re: Unsatisfactory performance of SSD drives

« on: March 07, 2023, 04:35:42 am »

Disk I/O performance is affected by cache, so oflag should be used if you don't want that. That's --direct for hdparm and oflag=direct for dd.

6

Blackbird / Re: Onboard nic not working

« on: February 22, 2023, 04:04:59 am »

Is your BMC not working as well?
I've had the same issue with one of my Blackbirds and contacted RaptorCS;

I know there was a manufacturing process change to fix data corruption seen on the first handful of boards, it's very possible this one shipped out prior to the change.

They fixed it by providing an update bundle which I then flashed. When you contact them, provide your ports MAC addresses so can embed that in the image.
They provided the following commands to flash the new image:

Code: [Select]

set +e
echo 0004:01:00.1 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/tg3/unbind
set -e
bcmflash -t raw -i 1 -r bcm5719.rom[After powering down and removing the system from your wall socket, boot it up again and it should work as expected.

7

Blackbird / Re: SATA ports on the fritz?

« on: February 21, 2023, 05:52:21 am »

Only two weeks? Wow!
And everything working now?

Yes, I'm honestly a little shocked. They were great about communicating with me, and I've been pleased as punch that a replacement came in, I moved everything to a newer case with better cable management, and it all just... came right back up.

Not related but CWCID; I also had an issue last week and the responses from Timothy came flying like raptors.

8

Operating Systems and Porting / Re: [NEWS] Linux 6.2 brings new qspinlock to bolster large system scalability

« on: December 21, 2022, 03:10:47 am »

[..]testing on upwards of 16 sockets with 1,920 CPU threads[..]

Probably not, we only have two sockets. I also don't believe that 16-socket machines are over-the-counter computers.
I thought these days most companies run their stuff on virtualized commodity hardware #strengthinnumbers.

9

Blackbird / Re: [changed my mind! keeping] Blackbird, 8 core CPU, 32GB RAM, & Radeon Pro W5500

« on: December 14, 2022, 03:17:01 am »

Stickin' around like a proper German climate activist glues themself to the road, I hope. POWER is probably going to be one of the very few options we have in the foreseeable future.

I guess this topic can be closed?

10

Operating Systems and Porting / Re: [NEWS] Debian 11 is out

« on: December 02, 2022, 06:05:46 am »

Sorry guys, if I want to update mesa drivers and firmware on Debian 11, which procedure should I use?  Thanks always!

One solution might be to dist-upgrade to testing (currently Bookworm) where things are more up to date. On my test system it's stable (though the number of updates you get each day feels a bit like a rolling-release distro).

Testing doesn't usually get security fixes as quick (or at all), though, unless you get those from unstable. So that's something to keep in mind. Then again it's more difficult to keep the system up to date with an increasing number of packages installed from source. With just the graphics stack built from source that's probably not going to be a problem, so that would be another option I guess.

11

Talos II / Re: Temperatures and rotational speed of fans

« on: October 11, 2022, 06:22:30 am »

You could check the allowed operating temperatures for your device with the manufacturer. For all PCIe adapters I can think of setting a warning temperature of 45 degrees doesn't seem to be useful.
Many NVMes have an operating temp of up to 70 degrees. While I wouldn't want to operate at the maximum I wouldn't worry about having 50 degrees. If I would, I would add a heat sink and/or improve the air flow situation.

12

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

« on: September 20, 2022, 04:13:33 am »

Yes, I'm aware that there are other email clients available. And yes, they all suck. That doesn't solve the problem we have with Thunderbird if a customer is hell-bent on using it, though :-) I don't think there's a technical reason. Most people just want to use what they're used to and avoid change, I've read that's what the brain prefers.

So I'm still looking for useful suggestions from the hackers we have on board here.

Not having to try Ubuntu will save some time, for some reason I thought the grass is greener over there. Thanks MauryG5.

13

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

« on: September 19, 2022, 03:08:00 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

2 years later and I tried Thunderbird 102.2.2-1 (from Debian bookworm/testing). Still the same problem(s) as you describe them.
With the (probable) exception, that I get new email notifications. They do not appear anywhere else, though.

Did someone find a fix?
If not, what can we do about it?

That should bite Firefox too, no?

No problems with Firefox (102.2.0esr-1).

14

General OpenPOWER Discussion / Re: Request for proposals: Who to donate my Blackbird and Power 9 CPU?

« on: September 15, 2022, 08:07:13 am »

Perhaps you could send this over to us (Aachen, Germany) for ~three weeks?

I'm waiting for Tim to fix some listing/pricing issues (e.g. bundle more expensive than individual pieces) before ordering Blackbird boards. In the meantime, I want to see if our newly ordered TFX PSUs can adequately cool the CPU with a 2U passive heatsink, if we need to print an air shroud, and also find other desktop, under-desk, and media center cases to improve our listings (store.vikings.net).

I could then forward it to whomever you want after.

15

General Discussion / Re: HighPoint SSD7505 RAID tools for ppc?

« on: August 12, 2022, 09:00:06 am »

Slightly off topic:
What is your reasoning behind "mdraid is not optimal for SSD/NVMe devices"?

In my experience the exact opposite is the case: hardware RAIDs are inflexible, often require proprietary tools (as is the case with the HighPoint adapters) and can't be fixed without the device/propr. driver/tools . If there's an issue with an mdraid I can fix it with any other computer and with tools I have ready on any other computer.

In our data center HBAs with mdraid are the gold standard if a RAID is required.