Test of FreeBSD-13.0-ALPHA3-powerpc-powerpc64-20210129-40cb0344eb2-256214-disc1.iso.xz

[Dennis Clarke]

On 2/12/21 8:53 AM, Dennis Clarke via freebsd-ppc wrote:
> 
> Just a tiny note from me to let you know that I did just test the
> installer image :
> 
> FreeBSD-13.0-ALPHA3-powerpc-powerpc64-20210129-40cb0344eb2-256214-disc1.iso.xz
> 
> Seen at https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/snapshots/ISO-IMAGES/13.0
> 
> Wherein the boot process halts nearly immediately with a "decrementer"
> error and some hex and then fans roaring.
> 
> So that is not helpful but at least I tried.
> 
> 

A bit more followup :

    The FreeBSD-13.0-BETA2 iso does install into a PowerMac G5 quad.
    One must/should interrupt the boot loader and enter these options :

        set kern.smp.disabled=1
        set debug.rman_debug=1
        set debug.verbose_sysinit=1
        set usefdt=1


    See :
https://beta.genunix.com/freebsd/ppc64/freebsd_13_beta2_ppc64_boot001.png

    Then proceed with "boot -v" and that seems to work in a consistent
    fashion.  I question my use of "usefdt=1" after the details seen in
    comment 10 of bugid 238730 :

        https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=238730#c10

    I can confirm that the network interfaces are re-ordered in that
    they are not in ether MAC address/hardware natural order :


fbsd13b2# uname -apKU
FreeBSD enceladus 13.0-BETA2 FreeBSD 13.0-BETA2 #0
releng/13.0-n244498-6461715f1ae: Fri Feb 12 05:02:09 UTC 2021
root at releng1.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/powerpc.powerpc64/sys/GENERIC64
 powerpc powerpc64 1300139 1300139
fbsd13b2#
fbsd13b2# ifconfig -a
fwe0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        options=8<VLAN_MTU>
        ether 02:11:24:e5:13:d0
        nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
        ch 1 dma -1
bge0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500

options=8009b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,LINKSTATE>
        ether 00:14:51:64:67:11
        inet 172.16.35.8 netmask 0xffffffc0 broadcast 172.16.35.63
        media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,master>)
        status: active
        nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
bge1: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500

options=8009b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,VLAN_HWCSUM,LINKSTATE>
        ether 00:14:51:64:67:10
        media: Ethernet autoselect
        nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
        options=680003<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,LINKSTATE,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
        inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
        inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
        groups: lo
        nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
fbsd13b2#

There appears to be no option for ZFS in the installer. Perhaps manual
gpart and then zpool handling *may* be possible but I did not look for
that at this time.

Performance is best described as terrible. I did fetch src.txz from
the releases directory :
https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/powerpc/powerpc64/13.0-BETA2/

Currently running a buildworld which appears that it will be some days
before that completes. This may actually be slower than a qemu instance
of FreeBSD-CURRENT on RISC-V.

The Decrementer exception seen in December CURRENT no longer exists.
Seen here
https://beta.genunix.com/freebsd/ppc64/power_mac_quad_freebsd_13_current_17_dec_2020_fail.png

I want to dig into the smp issue if I can but at the moment I will await
for a full buildworld/buildkernel and then see where we are.

-- 
Dennis Clarke
RISC-V/SPARC/PPC/ARM/CISC
UNIX and Linux spoken
GreyBeard and suspenders optional