LinuxQuestions.org - SlackwareARM on RaspberryPI and soft/hard float

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SlackwareARM on RaspberryPI and soft/hard float

AFAIK SlackwareARM packages are compiled (for wide compatibility reasons) as soft-float on the ARM platform.

Not all SoC have hard-float and SlackwareARM aims at supporting as many as possible. Which is very good.

My question is: on the RaspberryPI whose CPU include hardware floating point support, what would be necessary to be recompiled in the Slackware distro so that end user applications (that would benefit from using hard-float and be compiled with hard-float) would need to work properly ?

Off the top of my head I'm thinking: glibc, some system utils, some libraries that would be used by such applications..

AFAIK the kernel (using FatDog's guide) is the binary official one from The Raspberry Foundation, which is hard-float compiled.

Examples: image processing (imagemagic, jpeg, etc), video processing (ffmpeg, etc), mysql (if using FLOAT columns), ... (the list is open)

I assume things like "ls" won't really need the upgrade.

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrixnet (Post 5121653)

The kernels are compiled to support the architectures selected (e.g. ARMv7 Tegra, armv6 Broadcom). When selecting the support you will either choose which features to support, or they will be baked into the CPU type anyway.
So yes, if the CPU contains hardware floating point support, your kernel will be hard float.

However, the kernel <-> userland syscall ABI is divorced from the userland ABI which is why you can run the soft float userland on a hard float kernel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrixnet (Post 5121653)

Examples: image processing (imagemagic, jpeg, etc), video processing (ffmpeg, etc), mysql (if using FLOAT columns), ... (the list is open)

I assume things like "ls" won't really need the upgrade.

Someone recompiled the most significant packages and documented here:

http://mindplusplus.wordpress.com/20...-raspberry-pi/

i think i have heard of - the kernel never ever use any floating point ...

drmozes, that someone was me. :) I rebuild Glibc using "-mfloat-abi=softfp" every time Slackware ARM gets a new version. If nothing else, it relieves some of the memory pressure on my first-edition RPi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gus3 (Post 5192800)

I am doing your guide right now gus3, but i need t add three more lines to grab kernel-headers sources:

Code:

mkdir -p slackware{64,arm}-current/source/d/kernel-headers/

rsync -aP rsync://ftp.slackware.com/slackware/slackware64-current/source/d/kernel-headers/ slackware64-current/source/d/kernel-headers/

rsync -aP rsync://ftp.slackware.org.uk/slackwarearm/slackwarearm-current/source/d/kernel-headers/ slackwarearm-current/source/d/kernel-headers/

I will update here when the builds ends.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frushiyama (Post 5246642)

I am doing your guide right now gus3, but i need t add three more lines to grab kernel-headers sources:

Code:

mkdir -p slackware{64,arm}-current/source/d/kernel-headers/

rsync -aP rsync://ftp.slackware.com/slackware/slackware64-current/source/d/kernel-headers/ slackware64-current/source/d/kernel-headers/

rsync -aP rsync://ftp.slackware.org.uk/slackwarearm/slackwarearm-current/source/d/kernel-headers/ slackwarearm-current/source/d/kernel-headers/

I will update here when the builds ends.

You don't need anything from the Slackware64 tree because the slack-desc is in the ARM tree. It's a rarity, but it's there. Probably because originally the description used to be ARM specific.

Build fails:

Code:

Creating Slackware package:  /root/tgzstash/l/glibc-2.19-arm-3.txz



/sbin/makepkg: line 308: /root/tgzstash/l/glibc-2.19-arm-3.txz: No such file or directory

./

install/

install/doinst.sh

install/slack-desc

ERROR:  xz returned error code 1 -- makepkg failed.



Slackware package /root/tgzstash/l/glibc-2.19-arm-3.txz created.

Full log here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzl...it?usp=sharing

Quote:

Originally Posted by frushiyama (Post 5247180)

Build fails:

Code:

Creating Slackware package:  /root/tgzstash/l/glibc-2.19-arm-3.txz



/sbin/makepkg: line 308: /root/tgzstash/l/glibc-2.19-arm-3.txz: No such file or directory

./

install/

install/doinst.sh

install/slack-desc

ERROR:  xz returned error code 1 -- makepkg failed.



Slackware package /root/tgzstash/l/glibc-2.19-arm-3.txz created.

Full log here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzl...it?usp=sharing

Did you make the target directory?

mkdir -p /root/tgzstash/l

Quote:

Originally Posted by drmozes (Post 5247356)

Did you make the target directory?

mkdir -p /root/tgzstash/l

Yes it was missing the l and d folders too. The packages were built fine and the installation and reboot occurred without problems.
It need more tests but i will do later.

I will look into this. My instructions may be incomplete regarding the tgzstash/ directory.

I had an ABI version error when tried to startx:

Code:

francis@rpi:~$ startx

xauth:  file /home/francis/.serverauth.676 does not exist





X.Org X Server 1.15.2

Release Date: 2014-06-27

X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0

Build Operating System: Slackware 14.2 Slackware Linux Project

Current Operating System: Linux rpi 3.12.29+ #714 PREEMPT Wed Oct 1 23:11:38 BST 2014 armv6l

Kernel command line: dma.dmachans=0x7f35 bcm2708_fb.fbwidth=1814 bcm2708_fb.fbheight=974 bcm2708.boardrev=0xe bcm2708.serial=0xb93539c5 smsc95xx.macaddr=B8:27:EB:35:39:C5 sdhci-bcm2708.emmc_clock_freq=250000000 vc_mem.mem_base=0x1ec00000 vc_mem.mem_size=0x20000000  dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=tty1 nofont root=/dev/sda1 rootfstype=ext4 rootwait ro

Build Date: 03 September 2014  06:25:25PM

 

Current version of pixman: 0.30.0

        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org

        to make sure that you have the latest version.

Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,

        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,

        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.

(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Thu Oct  2 18:25:38 2014

(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"

Initializing built-in extension Generic Event Extension

Initializing built-in extension SHAPE

Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM

Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension

Initializing built-in extension XTEST

Initializing built-in extension BIG-REQUESTS

Initializing built-in extension SYNC

Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD

Initializing built-in extension XC-MISC                                                                                                                                                        

Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA                                                                                                                                                        

Initializing built-in extension XFIXES                                                                                                                                                          

Initializing built-in extension RENDER                                                                                                                                                          

Initializing built-in extension RANDR                                                                                                                                                          

Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE                                                                                                                                                      

Initializing built-in extension DAMAGE                                                                                                                                                          

Initializing built-in extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER

Initializing built-in extension DOUBLE-BUFFER

Initializing built-in extension RECORD

Initializing built-in extension DPMS

Initializing built-in extension Present

Initializing built-in extension DRI3

Initializing built-in extension X-Resource

Initializing built-in extension XVideo

Initializing built-in extension XVideo-MotionCompensation

Initializing built-in extension XFree86-VidModeExtension

Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DGA

Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DRI

Initializing built-in extension DRI2

Loading extension GLX

(EE) module ABI major version (14) doesn't match the server's version (15)

(EE) module ABI major version (14) doesn't match the server's version (15)

(EE) 

Fatal server error:

(EE) no screens found(EE) 

(EE) 

Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 

        at http://wiki.x.org

 for help. 

(EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.

(EE) 

(EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

xinit: giving up

xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused

xinit: server error

I supose that i have to recompile all X series to make it work right?

Thanks to frushiyama for the package build bug report, and drmozes for recognizing the culprit. Yes, the a/ and l/ directories must be present under tgzstash/. I have fixed the build instructions.

frushiyama, I will look into the X problem.

Problem confirmed. To make matters worse, reverting to glibc from -current didn't fix. However, I suspect an issue with the X server packages, as I've seen this before. Again, I'll look into it.

(And apologies for the long delay. I don't have Internet access at home.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by frushiyama (Post 5248189)

I had an ABI version error when tried to startx:[code]francis@rpi:~$ startx
xauth: file /home/francis/.serverauth.676 does not exist

I supose that i have to recompile all X series to make it work right?

Today's updates in -current should address that, assuming that you're using the same modules as I've recompiled.
If the problem continues, look in the Xorg log to see which modules are being loaded and reply here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gus3 (Post 5248579)

gus3 please consider review on some typos on your guide:

Code:

echo "CFLAGS = -O2 -mfloat-abi=softfp -march=native -mtune=native" > /root/configparms

should be

Code:

echo "CFLAGS = -O2 -mfloat-abi=softfp -march=native -mtune=native" > /root/configparms

Building now with Sat Oct 4 updates

Thanks for the heads-up, frushiyama. WordPress's syntax highlighter can sometimes be a nuisance.

glibc rebuilt with new updates, and X also updated.
the X server now start and i can see the screen but the keyborad and the mouse are dead
the nunlk light were on when i was without X, and when the X started the led goes off.
here is my complete /var/log/Xorg.0.log :
http://pastebin.com/CSn4wuCs

Well, this thread has strayed pretty far from the original topic, so I'll throw my two-cents in.

It appears to me that the core X server and some of its modules have gotten out-of-sync. For example, I use the "dummy" video driver. I use an NTSC television, not HDMI, and a GUI is nearly impossible to read on it. By skipping the X framebuffer, I can also specify "gpu_mem=8" in /boot/config.txt. (Yes, the stated minimum is 16, but it Works For Me.) If I want to use a full GUI on the RPi, I can use remote XDMCP from my desktop.

When the RPi XDM stopped launching the X server, I saw the same error in /var/log/xdm.err that frushiyama had, with the first (EE) line appearing right after trying to load GLX. However, examining the more complete /var/log/Xorg.0.log showed that the (EE) line occurred right after trying to activate the video driver, "dummy" in my case. I think that's where the ABI difference was occurring.

And, since the "dummy" driver didn't get rebuilt, I still get the ABI mismatch message, and no X session started on the RPi. (But XDMCP works OK. Go figure.)

How would I go about re-building just the "dummy" module? There's no way I can re-build all of X on my RPi in this lifetime. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by gus3 (Post 5250278)

How would I go about re-building just the "dummy" module? There's no way I can re-build all of X on my RPi in this lifetime. :)

Well it's broken in -current so I'll fix it. I'm going to rebuild all of the 'drivers' modules.

You should be able to build an individual package in almost the same way as for x86, apart from you need to use 'arm/build' instead of ./x11.SlackBuild

Code:

./arm/build lib libX11

The general driver re-build got my X server (with the "dummy" video driver) back up and running. Thanks, drmozes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gus3 (Post 5251071)

The general driver re-build got my X server (with the "dummy" video driver) back up and running. Thanks, drmozes.

Mine too, but i use hdmi :) .