The hunt for HV's FIFO/Push buffer...

mitran · Post by **mitran** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:29 pm

2.10 ends RSX !
after updateing to 2.10 linux do not boot !
it starts the kboot promt I hit enter linux boots, screen goes blank, stays that way for 10 min , after some time the sceen blanks , and reblanks and so on , after some time , but noting more.
is it posibel to uninstall the RSX driver and change back to the old driver from the Kboot promt ?

Sdw · Post by **Sdw** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:03 pm

That really sucks, my interest in picking up a PS3 really dropped now. Even if it still is possible to buy a 2.00 PS3, having to stay at an older firmware is just so impractical since you won't be able to play games or use any of the new FW features like DivX.

Good going Sony...NOT!!!

IronPeter · Post by **IronPeter** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:42 pm

I do not know yet if is RSX blocked in FW 2.1

I know that many linux clean Geoff kernels do not boot with FW 2.1. I do not want to make FW upgrade to investigate this problem.

Compound · Post by **Compound** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:34 pm

damn i really hope not, bought my ps3 yesterday, was planning on buying warhawk today, ah well its sonys own fault that they wont get my cash. would test this out, but really need rsx access lol

billb · Post by **billb** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:06 am

mitran wrote:2.10 ends RSX !
after updateing to 2.10 linux do not boot !
it starts the kboot promt I hit enter linux boots, screen goes blank, stays that way for 10 min , after some time the sceen blanks , and reblanks and so on , after some time , but noting more.

I have had the same experience with my Fedora 7 install ... I changed to a different bootloader as described in this post and it boots again.

@ IronPeter, if there is something specific you want to see/test re: the new firmware just let us know.

Akta77 · Post by **Akta77** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:11 am

billb wrote:
mitran wrote:2.10 ends RSX !
after updateing to 2.10 linux do not boot !
it starts the kboot promt I hit enter linux boots, screen goes blank, stays that way for 10 min , after some time the sceen blanks , and reblanks and so on , after some time , but noting more.
I have had the same experience with my Fedora 7 install ... I changed to a different bootloader as described in this post and it boots again.

@ IronPeter, if there is something specific you want to see/test re: the new firmware just let us know.

It's a good point: As some of us have made the upgrade, maybe some ps3's upgraded owners could give "ssh" access to their box to IronPeter & Glaurung in order to test the "new" hypothetic restrictions of the Hypervisor.

d-range · Post by **d-range** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:18 am

billb wrote:
mitran wrote:2.10 ends RSX !
after updateing to 2.10 linux do not boot !
it starts the kboot promt I hit enter linux boots, screen goes blank, stays that way for 10 min , after some time the sceen blanks , and reblanks and so on , after some time , but noting more.
I have had the same experience with my Fedora 7 install ... I changed to a different bootloader as described in this post and it boots again.

@ IronPeter, if there is something specific you want to see/test re: the new firmware just let us know.

So does that mean you have a booting FC7 with the ps3rsx module and FW2.10? Confirming that would already be extremely useful. If so, you could post the dmesg output related to the ps3rsx module.

I won't be updating before this is confirmed. If they really plugged the hole beyond workaround I guess that means my PS3 will just stay at 2.01 and be a linux development machine and I'll just stick with buying 360 games...

billb · Post by **billb** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:39 am

d-range wrote:So does that mean you have a booting FC7 with the ps3rsx module and FW2.10? Confirming that would already be extremely useful. If so, you could post the dmesg output related to the ps3rsx module.

I have a booting F7 with FW2.1 but the ps3rsx module doesn't work -- I posted partial dmesg output here. I'll edit that in a minute to include the full output.

IronPeter · Post by **IronPeter** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:41 am

Test is very simple. Try in the kernel mode

u64 a = 0, b = 0;
lv1_gpu_memory_allocate( 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, &a, &b );
printk( "%8x %8x %8x %8x \n", (u32)a, (u32)(a>>32), (u32)b, (u32)(b>>32) );

It is better to try that call before any RSX stuff ( for example in the ps3fb.c ).

Peter.

d-range · Post by **d-range** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:07 am

IronPeter wrote:Test is very simple. Try in the kernel mode

u64 a = 0, b = 0;
lv1_gpu_memory_allocate( 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, &a, &b );
printk( "%8x %8x %8x %8x \n", (u32)a, (u32)(a>>32), (u32)b, (u32)(b>>32) );

It is better to try that call before any RSX stuff ( for example in the ps3fb.c ).

Peter.

What would it mean for the RSX module if it cannot do lv1_gpu_memory_allocate with zero size parameter anymore? Is it essential to the way the RSX is accessed? Or would a non-zero allocate still enable you to get to the FIFO/RAMIN/etc?

IronPeter · Post by **IronPeter** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:19 am

It is for direct RAMIN access. I can init 3D only with this call ( but I am pretty sure that there are undocumented HV calls for 3D initialization ).

jimparis · Post by **jimparis** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:09 am

This is the problem with new kernels and 2.10:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/g ... -2.10.diff

Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:Subject: ps3fb: Update for firmware 2.10

ps3fb: Update for firmware 2.10

As of PS3 firmware version 2.10, the GPU command buffer size must be at least 2
MiB large. Since we use only a small part of the GPU command buffer and don't
want to waste precious XDR memory, move the GPU command buffer back to the
start of the XDR memory reserved for ps3fb and let the unused part overlap with
the actual frame buffer.

LoaderDude · Post by **LoaderDude** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 1:22 pm

Well, I took the leap and upgraded my Gutsy + ps3rsx to 2.10.

Petitboot came up but failed while attempting to start the X-server.
Backing off to fbdev still works with the same old (painful) performance. Needless to say, the rsx is sorely missed.

I'm ready to pull down source and start tinkering.
Give me a shout if there's something you'd like me to try.

stesmi · Post by **stesmi** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:17 pm

LoaderDude wrote:Well, I took the leap and upgraded my Gutsy + ps3rsx to 2.10.

Petitboot came up but failed while attempting to start the X-server.
Backing off to fbdev still works with the same old (painful) performance. Needless to say, the rsx is sorely missed.

I'm ready to pull down source and start tinkering.
Give me a shout if there's something you'd like me to try.

I'd try what IronPeter asked for although I'm pretty sure it'll fail ...

IronPeter wrote:Test is very simple. Try in the kernel mode

u64 a = 0, b = 0;
lv1_gpu_memory_allocate( 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, &a, &b );
printk( "%8x %8x %8x %8x \n", (u32)a, (u32)(a>>32), (u32)b, (u32)(b>>32) );

It is better to try that call before any RSX stuff ( for example in the ps3fb.c ).

Note that you don't need ps3rsx, etc at all for this, you just need a kernel tree that you've configured correctly, modify ps3fb.c and compile it, start it and see what it displays. So all the ps3rsx/modifying xorg.conf is not necessary at all for this test. Then write here what the results were.

boxbuilder · Post by **boxbuilder** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:48 pm

Troll and Triangle are now working :-D
I found the new (different) mknods.sh in the init directory, and ran it, worked beautiful. Thanks for the n00b support IronPeter, I'm anxious to see the New Year's version. It would be cool if the demo moved, and made the rsx draw it's max number of triangles per frame (although anything cool is usually super hard to code.)

Should I make a howto or (try to) put my patched kernel build onto a gentoo live cd, and put the 3d stuff in the init script?

ps2devman · Post by **ps2devman** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 6:19 pm

Sure, boxbuilder, the more tutorial we get, the merrier Xmas will be!

Just don't upgrade fw to 2.10 now...

Message to all (nasty) hackers : Need to design a downgrade procedure...

ralferoo · Post by **ralferoo** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 6:57 pm

Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:As of PS3 firmware version 2.10, the GPU command buffer size must be at least 2 MiB large.

Now, I got to wondering why the command buffer size was increased unless they're expecting to fill it with lots of commands... perhaps there are now methods that allow the queue to be manipulated and official 3D isn't far off? </hoping>

IronPeter · Post by **IronPeter** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 7:03 pm

> official 3D isn't far off

I hope also. Nice thing is that fb offset is still 64K. fb and fifo alias in memory. Looks like bug or preparing to 2D driver.

ps2devman · Post by **ps2devman** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 7:11 pm

Let's cross fingers but we can't be sure about what Sony has in mind...

So, in case it turns into a bloody war, here are the links to 2.01 fw
(lastest fw known to allow 70% of RSX control under Linux)

http://dus01.ps3.update.playstation.net ... 3UPDAT.PUP

http://deu01.ps3.update.playstation.net ... 3UPDAT.PUP

They won't remain online for long...

2.01 will allow to get both RSX funs and ability to play recent games.
(But if are not forced to, no need to upgrade at all)

jonwil · Post by **jonwil** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:13 pm

Have Sony made any official comments about 3D? Is there evidence that they are deliberatly blocking 3D?

IronPeter · Post by **IronPeter** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:31 pm

jonwil, you do not understand. With this update Sony also breaks half of linux installations. PS3 linux code holder Levand Geoff did not know about these changes.

Panajev2001a · Post by **Panajev2001a** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:52 pm

IronPeter wrote:jonwil, you do not understand. With this update Sony also breaks half of linux installations. PS3 linux code holder Levand Geoff did not know about these changes.

Luckily I did not update to the very latest kboot.bld, I updated to FW 2.10 and the only thing that is not working anymore is ps3rsx kmod and naturally the ps3rsx Xorg driver, but Linux boots fine on the very latest custom kernel (compiled it this morning).

Post by **Oobles** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:49 am

I've just posted a message to the main page.

http://ps2dev.org/News/Is_Sony_blocking_3D_access%3F

Have a read and let me know what you think?

Reply in this other thread I setup.

http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?p=62372

David. aka Oobles.

laichung · Post by **laichung** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:12 pm

Does this matter?

ps3fb: Update for firmware 2.10

As of PS3 firmware version 2.10, the GPU command buffer size must be at least 2
MiB large. Since we use only a small part of the GPU command buffer and don't
want to waste precious XDR memory, move the GPU command buffer back to the
start of the XDR memory reserved for ps3fb and let the unused part overlap with
the actual frame buffer.

From here:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/g ... e263b14a7e

ps2devman · Post by **ps2devman** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:05 pm

You told everything we wanted to express oobles. Thanks a lot.

IronPeter · Post by **IronPeter** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:34 pm

Nice if somebody is able to test lv1_gpu_context_attribute entries.

You can follow testing methodology from this page:
http://wiki.ps2dev.org/ps3:hypervisor:l ... _attribute

I very want to see push buffer after valid FB_SETUP call in FW 2.1. Just dump fifo buffer after that call in ps3fb.c and post that dump.

FIFO hunting is started again :).

Peter.

d-range · Post by **d-range** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:07 am

IronPeter wrote:Nice if somebody is able to test lv1_gpu_context_attribute entries.

You can follow testing methodology from this page:
http://wiki.ps2dev.org/ps3:hypervisor:l ... _attribute

I very want to see push buffer after valid FB_SETUP call in FW 2.1. Just dump fifo buffer after that call in ps3fb.c and post that dump.

FIFO hunting is started again :).

Peter.

Is it of any use to you if I try different calls with different parameters on my 2.01 FW? If so, what exactly should I be looking for?

IronPeter · Post by **IronPeter** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 3:35 am

d-range, any nontrivial push buffers.

So you must memset( 0 ) fifo buffer, make lv1_gpu_context_attribute call, dump fifo bufer ( if there are any non zero values ). Any nonzero values are interesting for me.

Push buffer after FB_SETUP in ps3fb.c is the first candidate to investigate.

PS. FW 2.01 is not very interesting. FW 2.10 is.

d-range · Post by **d-range** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:26 am

IronPeter wrote:...

PS. FW 2.01 is not very interesting. FW 2.10 is.

Ok... I don't want to upgrade to 2.10 for the moment (or anytime for that matter, if RSX turns out impossible after 2.01), so I guess I can only wait until someone finds something for 2.10+. How probable do you think it is you could find another hidden HV call if you had a box with 2.10 yourself? Maybe we could set up some donation scheme to get you a second PS3 to play with ;-). I know I'd be willing to chip in for some $$$ if it would mean a robust and safe RSX driver that won't be bombed by every fw upgrade.

dispo4 · Post by **dispo4** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:49 am

Hello, I follow your discussion, and even if I don't understand all about that your saying, I can test something for you, because I've PS3 EU 40GB model, and I want to help you :)
I'm still at 2.01, and Iwon't upgrade since the 2.1 fw don't allow good rsx...

forums.ps2dev.org

The hunt for HV's FIFO/Push buffer...

test

Re: test

2.10 features

Re: 2.10 features