[Xenomai] Announcing beta x86 Xenomai kernel packages: squeeze, precise, lucid

[Xenomai] Announcing beta x86 Xenomai kernel packages: squeeze, precise, lucid

[John Morris]

Hello emc-dev and xenomai lists,

I'm very pleased to announce the availability of one-size-fits-all
Xenomai kernel packages for x86 arch.  These packages have been
successfully tested on umpteen motherboards at this point, and are ready
for wider testing.

* Beta status *
Distros: Ubuntu Precise and Lucid; Debian Squeeze
Architectures: i686 and amd64
Xenomai version: v2.6.2.1, released 2013/01/25
Kernel version: v3.5.7 vanilla
Kernel config:  Ubuntu 3.5 stock kernel with Xenomai additions

The instruction wiki page on linuxcnc.org is somewhat oriented toward
LinuxCNC users, but most will apply to the general audience:

  http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?XenomaiKernelPackages

*Note to existing users*:  The packages are now hosted on Michael's
infrastructure, which can rebuild and publish them far faster than mine.
 Please note the URL change and update /etc/apt/sources.list.

Michael Haberler (mhaberler) and I (zultron) invite testers to ask
questions on IRC in either the #linuxcnc-devel or the newly-created
#xenomai channels on freenode.  (Of course, any Xenomai-related
discussion on #xenomai is welcome, not restricted to packages.)

---------

Huge thanks to skunkworks/Sam Sokolik and Schooner/Mick from the
LinuxCNC community for persistence while identifying and solving several
tough problems on their myriad systems.

Great thanks to Gilles Chanteperdrix and Jan Kiszka, Xenomai developers,
for their responsiveness to our dozens of questions.

And of course thanks to Michael Haberler for his tenacity while solving
problems, testing and helping testers.

Happy testing!

	John

Re: [Xenomai] Announcing beta x86 Xenomai kernel packages: squeeze, precise, lucid

[Gilles Chanteperdrix]

On 02/14/2013 08:24 AM, John Morris wrote:

> Hello emc-dev and xenomai lists,
> 
> I'm very pleased to announce the availability of one-size-fits-all
> Xenomai kernel packages for x86 arch.  These packages have been
> successfully tested on umpteen motherboards at this point, and are ready
> for wider testing.
> 
> * Beta status *
> Distros: Ubuntu Precise and Lucid; Debian Squeeze
> Architectures: i686 and amd64
> Xenomai version: v2.6.2.1, released 2013/01/25
> Kernel version: v3.5.7 vanilla
> Kernel config:  Ubuntu 3.5 stock kernel with Xenomai additions
> 
> The instruction wiki page on linuxcnc.org is somewhat oriented toward
> LinuxCNC users, but most will apply to the general audience:
> 
>   http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?XenomaiKernelPackages


Hi John,

thanks to you and the LinuxCNC community at large for working on this.
Is there any problem if we modify the page about Debian on Xenomai wiki
to point to this page?

We will also try and address the issues which were identified since you
started working on this, namely:
- allowing enabling the SMI workaround without kernel re-compilation
- allow building Xenomai user-space support with _FORTIY_SOURCE
- find the origin of the latency issue with i915 and opengl
- the harcoded 80 in the tsc test

Regards.

-- 
                                                                Gilles.

Re: [Xenomai] Announcing beta x86 Xenomai kernel packages: squeeze, precise, lucid

[John Morris]

On 02/14/2013 06:15 AM, Gilles Chanteperdrix wrote:
> On 02/14/2013 08:24 AM, John Morris wrote:
> 
>> Hello emc-dev and xenomai lists,
>>
>> I'm very pleased to announce the availability of one-size-fits-all
>> Xenomai kernel packages for x86 arch.  These packages have been
>> successfully tested on umpteen motherboards at this point, and are ready
>> for wider testing.
>>
>> * Beta status *
>> Distros: Ubuntu Precise and Lucid; Debian Squeeze
>> Architectures: i686 and amd64
>> Xenomai version: v2.6.2.1, released 2013/01/25
>> Kernel version: v3.5.7 vanilla
>> Kernel config:  Ubuntu 3.5 stock kernel with Xenomai additions
>>
>> The instruction wiki page on linuxcnc.org is somewhat oriented toward
>> LinuxCNC users, but most will apply to the general audience:
>>
>>   http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?XenomaiKernelPackages
> 
> 
> Hi John,
> 
> thanks to you and the LinuxCNC community at large for working on this.
> Is there any problem if we modify the page about Debian on Xenomai wiki
> to point to this page?

Of course you're welcome to do that.  Or if you like, you (or I) can
copy the information to the xenomai.org wiki and the linuxcnc wiki can
point to your page.

I'm hoping that someone else will volunteer to take over package
maintenance once the dust settles a little.  That will be a while, but
if you're interested in hosting the package repos on xenomai.org
eventually, moving the wiki material there makes sense.

> 
> We will also try and address the issues which were identified since you
> started working on this, namely:
> - allowing enabling the SMI workaround without kernel re-compilation

Great!  I'm working around this for now by packaging Jan's smictrl
utility.  That could actually be sufficient; I'd rather put effort into
a more user-friendly wrapper, and maybe a config file and init script
for persistent settings across reboots.

> - allow building Xenomai user-space support with _FORTIY_SOURCE

This affects RedHat-like distros, which turn this on by default in
package builds.  My RPM packages (forthcoming) have a workaround, so
low-priority for the packaging effort.

> - find the origin of the latency issue with i915 and opengl
> - the harcoded 80 in the tsc test

Great.  On my test machine (1.7GHz Celeron), 200 would have been 2x
enough.  Michael saw this problem on his machine too, but I didn't see
his numbers.

Thanks for the support Gilles.  I think this will help the community
greatly, and hopefully reduce the support headache for developers at the
same time!

	John

Re: [Xenomai] Announcing beta x86 Xenomai kernel packages: squeeze, precise, lucid

[Gilles Chanteperdrix]

On 02/14/2013 07:05 PM, John Morris wrote:

> On 02/14/2013 06:15 AM, Gilles Chanteperdrix wrote:
>> On 02/14/2013 08:24 AM, John Morris wrote:
>>
>>> Hello emc-dev and xenomai lists,
>>>
>>> I'm very pleased to announce the availability of one-size-fits-all
>>> Xenomai kernel packages for x86 arch.  These packages have been
>>> successfully tested on umpteen motherboards at this point, and are ready
>>> for wider testing.
>>>
>>> * Beta status *
>>> Distros: Ubuntu Precise and Lucid; Debian Squeeze
>>> Architectures: i686 and amd64
>>> Xenomai version: v2.6.2.1, released 2013/01/25
>>> Kernel version: v3.5.7 vanilla
>>> Kernel config:  Ubuntu 3.5 stock kernel with Xenomai additions
>>>
>>> The instruction wiki page on linuxcnc.org is somewhat oriented toward
>>> LinuxCNC users, but most will apply to the general audience:
>>>
>>>   http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?XenomaiKernelPackages
>>
>>
>> Hi John,
>>
>> thanks to you and the LinuxCNC community at large for working on this.
>> Is there any problem if we modify the page about Debian on Xenomai wiki
>> to point to this page?
> 
> Of course you're welcome to do that.  Or if you like, you (or I) can
> copy the information to the xenomai.org wiki and the linuxcnc wiki can
> point to your page.
> 
> I'm hoping that someone else will volunteer to take over package
> maintenance once the dust settles a little.


To be completely frank, I hope we find a volunteer for the debian
packages too... So, actually, we could add such an announce to the wiki.

>> We will also try and address the issues which were identified since you
>> started working on this, namely:
>> - allowing enabling the SMI workaround without kernel re-compilation
> 
> Great!  I'm working around this for now by packaging Jan's smictrl
> utility.  That could actually be sufficient; I'd rather put effort into
> a more user-friendly wrapper, and maybe a config file and init script
> for persistent settings across reboots.


I guess I have some little piece of code somewhere to handle
configuration files with the "windows ini" style, if you are interested.

The kernel-based approach has a big advantage though: recent kernels
have a driver for the LPC part of the Intel ICH, which is where the
register controlling SMI is found (drivers/mfd/lpc_ich.c), so, basing
our work on this driver in the I-pipe kernel, we could share the table
and avoid the double maintenance.

-- 
                                                                Gilles.

Re: [Xenomai] Announcing beta x86 Xenomai kernel packages: squeeze, precise, lucid

[John Morris]

On 02/14/2013 01:37 PM, Gilles Chanteperdrix wrote:
> On 02/14/2013 07:05 PM, John Morris wrote:
>> On 02/14/2013 06:15 AM, Gilles Chanteperdrix wrote:
>> I'm hoping that someone else will volunteer to take over package
>> maintenance once the dust settles a little.
> 
> 
> To be completely frank, I hope we find a volunteer for the debian
> packages too... So, actually, we could add such an announce to the wiki.

There's a request for volunteer package maintainers on the LinuxCNC
wiki, but probably not in a prominent enough position.

Once the packages are tested and working, I'll be around to help fix
problems.  However I'm quite eager to pass basic maintenance along to
someone else, so I'm trying to make maintenance as easy as possible to
help encourage volunteers.

When a new Xenomai is released, the steps to update the kernel packages
are simple (I might forget something small):

- Rebuild xenomai package; just a few minor tweaks
- Unpack new vanilla kernel and check out /debian directory from git
- Fix version numbers in new debian/changelog entry
- Update the vanilla kernel .config, either:
  - pull a config verbatim from a similar Debian/Ubuntu kernel package
  - or else update the existing config by running 'make fooconfig'
- Rebuild.  Xeno patch is grabbed from /usr/src, and Xeno config is
    automatically overlaid upon the vanilla config.

I'm also working on a Makefile that will automatically assemble all the
ingredients and build the packages in a chroot (using
pbuilder/debootstrap) for all combos of squeeze/precise/lucid and
i386/amd64.  Whether the next maintainer uses it as is, or sets up a
buildbot or buildd, it should make the job trivial.

>>> We will also try and address the issues which were identified since you
>>> started working on this, namely:
>>> - allowing enabling the SMI workaround without kernel re-compilation
>>
>> Great!  I'm working around this for now by packaging Jan's smictrl
>> utility.  That could actually be sufficient; I'd rather put effort into
>> a more user-friendly wrapper, and maybe a config file and init script
>> for persistent settings across reboots.
> 
> I guess I have some little piece of code somewhere to handle
> configuration files with the "windows ini" style, if you are interested.

I'm interested.  It may sit on the back burner for a little, but if it's
easy for you to find, send it over and I'll certainly borrow from it
when the time comes.

> The kernel-based approach has a big advantage though: recent kernels
> have a driver for the LPC part of the Intel ICH, which is where the
> register controlling SMI is found (drivers/mfd/lpc_ich.c), so, basing
> our work on this driver in the I-pipe kernel, we could share the table
> and avoid the double maintenance.

Is the advantage that the lpc_ich driver has more control than Jan's
smictrl?  Anyway, I don't expect to get to the config/init script for a
bit unless there's a lot of demand for it, so for now maybe I can be
lazy here and wait for you to make the first move.  ;)

	John

Re: [Xenomai] Announcing beta x86 Xenomai kernel packages: squeeze, precise, lucid

[Gilles Chanteperdrix]

On 02/15/2013 10:46 PM, John Morris wrote:

> On 02/14/2013 01:37 PM, Gilles Chanteperdrix wrote:
>> On 02/14/2013 07:05 PM, John Morris wrote:
>>> On 02/14/2013 06:15 AM, Gilles Chanteperdrix wrote:
>>> I'm hoping that someone else will volunteer to take over package
>>> maintenance once the dust settles a little.
>>
>>
>> To be completely frank, I hope we find a volunteer for the debian
>> packages too... So, actually, we could add such an announce to the wiki.
> 
> There's a request for volunteer package maintainers on the LinuxCNC
> wiki, but probably not in a prominent enough position.
> 
> Once the packages are tested and working, I'll be around to help fix
> problems.  However I'm quite eager to pass basic maintenance along to
> someone else, so I'm trying to make maintenance as easy as possible to
> help encourage volunteers.
> 
> When a new Xenomai is released, the steps to update the kernel packages
> are simple (I might forget something small):
> 
> - Rebuild xenomai package; just a few minor tweaks
> - Unpack new vanilla kernel and check out /debian directory from git
> - Fix version numbers in new debian/changelog entry
> - Update the vanilla kernel .config, either:
>   - pull a config verbatim from a similar Debian/Ubuntu kernel package
>   - or else update the existing config by running 'make fooconfig'
> - Rebuild.  Xeno patch is grabbed from /usr/src, and Xeno config is
>     automatically overlaid upon the vanilla config.
> 
> I'm also working on a Makefile that will automatically assemble all the
> ingredients and build the packages in a chroot (using
> pbuilder/debootstrap) for all combos of squeeze/precise/lucid and
> i386/amd64.  Whether the next maintainer uses it as is, or sets up a
> buildbot or buildd, it should make the job trivial.


The thing that worries me is that I have to test the debian packages as
part of each release, which means booting on the kernel, and running
xeno-regiression-test. But you are right: I should automate building and
testing the debian packages. I have everything needed at hand to do it.

>>>> We will also try and address the issues which were identified since you
>>>> started working on this, namely:
>>>> - allowing enabling the SMI workaround without kernel re-compilation
>>>
>>> Great!  I'm working around this for now by packaging Jan's smictrl
>>> utility.  That could actually be sufficient; I'd rather put effort into
>>> a more user-friendly wrapper, and maybe a config file and init script
>>> for persistent settings across reboots.
>>
>> I guess I have some little piece of code somewhere to handle
>> configuration files with the "windows ini" style, if you are interested.
> 
> I'm interested.  It may sit on the back burner for a little, but if it's
> easy for you to find, send it over and I'll certainly borrow from it
> when the time comes.


http://sisyphus.hd.free.fr/~gilles/conf.tar.bz2

conf.[ch] is the "configuration parser"
bm_conf.[ch] is an example.

I thought I had another version with the windows ini "[sections]", but I
do not find it, you only have "key = value", but it may be sufficient.

> 
>> The kernel-based approach has a big advantage though: recent kernels
>> have a driver for the LPC part of the Intel ICH, which is where the
>> register controlling SMI is found (drivers/mfd/lpc_ich.c), so, basing
>> our work on this driver in the I-pipe kernel, we could share the table
>> and avoid the double maintenance.
> 
> Is the advantage that the lpc_ich driver has more control than Jan's
> smictrl?  Anyway, I don't expect to get to the config/init script for a
> bit unless there's a lot of demand for it, so for now maybe I can be
> lazy here and wait for you to make the first move.  ;)


The advantage of the lpc_ich is that it has an exhaustive list of all
the Intel LPCs product IDs, which has always been the weak point of
Xenomai's SMI workaround module.

-- 
                                                                Gilles.