OESF Portables Forum

Everything Else => Zaurus Distro Support and Discussion => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => Sharp ROMs => Topic started by: Tehas on February 16, 2004, 09:46:39 pm

Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: Tehas on February 16, 2004, 09:46:39 pm
Has anyone else running the Preemptive / overclock ROMs noticed a problem with VNCServer?  When I start the Server I can see the Z from my workstation but many of the applications that I \"tap\" on fail to start or seg-fault.  This happens even if I use the stylus and tap on the physical screen.

After several tries the QT environment reboots back to the count-down screen but it doesn\'t come back - I have to flip the \"replace battery\" switch on the back of the unit.

I\'ve flashed back to the standard Sharp 1.32 ROM and it worked fine.  I\'ve un- and re-installed VNCServer and still no luck with the pre-emptive rom.

I posted to the SDGSystems forum but no responses in more than a week.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: derekp on February 16, 2004, 10:24:06 pm
I\'ve tried the pre-emptive patches on my 5500 kernel, and noticed that a lot of the modules will need to be re-compiled against the patched kernel.  Things like \"ps\" segfaulting with the bluetooth drivers loaded, for example.  After recompiling the appropriate modules, the problems went away.  Don\'t know if it\'s the same problem with the 5600 pre-empt kernel or not.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: tumnus on February 17, 2004, 03:19:23 am
Yeah, I think that\'s the one problem I have noticed with this kernel.

Don\'t know what it is though. I\'ve recompiled the VNC kernel modules but that had no effect
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: w4lna on February 17, 2004, 09:32:22 am
Not sure if I mentioned this before, but my digitizer totally stopped working with the overclock kernel.  It is fine with the standard preemptive kernel.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: rka on February 17, 2004, 05:07:23 pm
Does this problem occur with the Preemptive Only ROM (i.e. without overclocking)?
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: w4lna on February 17, 2004, 05:34:10 pm
Quote
Does this problem occur with the Preemptive Only ROM (i.e. without overclocking)?

No, it\'s fine with the \"standard\" preemptive kernel.  The buttons still worked, I was able to bring up applications and shutdown, the digitizer just stopped working.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: rka on February 17, 2004, 05:38:53 pm
Do the problems Tehas mentioned (i.e. VNC and seg fault issues) occur with the Preemptive Only kernel (i.e. without overclocking)?
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: w4lna on February 17, 2004, 09:35:35 pm
Quote
Do the problems Tehas mentioned (i.e. VNC and seg fault issues) occur with the Preemptive Only kernel (i.e. without overclocking)?

Don\'t know yet, installing VNC is on my list of things to do...  that and getting Kismet working.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: tumnus on February 18, 2004, 03:51:01 am
w4lna, did you try launching the Recalibrate app and went through the touchscreen calibration with the special kernel?

I have a feeling the VNC Server problem is down to the pre-emptive patch. I might remove it and see if it works again.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: w4lna on February 18, 2004, 09:48:10 am
Quote
w4lna, did you try launching the Recalibrate app and went through the touchscreen calibration with the special kernel?

I have a feeling the VNC Server problem is down to the pre-emptive patch. I might remove it and see if it works again.


Yes, I did try the Recalibrate app, but it wouldn\'t detect a screen press anywhere on the screen.  My unit may be a bit marginal, I had noticed some jittery-ness when I first tried the standard preemptive kernel, but recalibration has seemed to eliminate most of that.

Are the kernel/ROM build instructions archived somewhere now?
I\'ve converted my RH9 system to Fedora and would like to try
rebuilding the kernel myself.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: tumnus on February 18, 2004, 10:11:03 am
The general and special kernel building instructions are in the ZUG howtos.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: derekp on February 18, 2004, 10:21:52 pm
Tumnus,
You may have to recompile all kernel modules that get loaded up.  I found that with the pre-empt patches applied, problems crop up in seemingly unrelated processes.
I\'m busy tracking down sources for all the modules that ship with OZ, not all of them ship with the kernel (of course, I know there is no source for the sd module, unfortunately).
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: Murga on February 19, 2004, 12:58:14 am
I had a problem with copying files over 1Mb to my SD ... I flashed back to the latest Sharp ROM and it now works.

So more problems for the pre-emtive patch :-(

http://www.zaurususergroup.com/index.php?n...c&p=10124#10124 (http://www.zaurususergroup.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=10124#10124)
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: tumnus on February 19, 2004, 03:21:11 am
Quote
You may have to recompile all kernel modules that get loaded up.  I found that with the pre-empt patches applied, problems crop up in seemingly unrelated processes.
Already tried that. There\'s only one kernel module with the VNC Server and that is to simulate keyboard input. The touchscreen is dealt with via a daemon process (which I recompiled just in case), but that didn\'t work either.

I\'m just beginning to think that if all these incompatability problems are being caused by the pre-emptive patch alone, it isn\'t worth it since it is the PXA250 workaround being turned off that is what gives the speed boost.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: Anonymous on February 27, 2004, 11:09:25 am
Does this help?
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?f...045&atid=434956 (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=712435&group_id=43045&atid=434956)

Using OZ3.2 fbvncserver from stable feed doesn\'t
register any keyboard/input events from the remote end.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: grey_moon on February 27, 2004, 11:25:23 am
Not too sure if this will help too

http://www.currybrothers.com/zaurus/sl5600...00_patches.html (http://www.currybrothers.com/zaurus/sl5600_patches.html)
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: tumnus on February 27, 2004, 12:00:04 pm
Thanks, but no. The fbvncserver for the Sharp ROM works fine with the standard Sharp kernel. Also it does respond, but as soon as you do anything with the screen it does about 1 screen update and then crashes a Qtopia process. It doesn\'t consume 100% of the CPU, but Qtopia acts like it. Only a reboot seems to sort it out.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: tumnus on February 28, 2004, 07:06:28 pm
I\'ve done some more research. Sadly it looks like it is a problem with turning off the XScale cache bug workaround off. I tried VNC server with the standard Sharp kernel and it worked fine. I then tried it with the standard Sharp kernel with the only difference being the XScale cache bug workaround was turned off and it caused the screen to stop updating  (And yes I recalibrated the VNC touchscreen settings and recompiled the only VNC kernel module)

Ho hum. In any case I\'ve compiled a new \'Special\' kernel which is not overclocked by default, but the CPU speed can be increased if you want. I have also removed the pre-emptive patch as it gave negligible benefit and broke module compatibility. All standard kernel modules should work fine with this. The XScale cache bug workaround is still turned off to give you the full 400MHz (otherwise there would be no point in this kernel). Apart from this VNC Server problem I do not know of any other problems. It should appear on the page linked below soon, as Special kernel v1.2, and means we don\'t have to maintain two kernels (with and without overclocking) and two sets of modules.

http://www.zaurususergroup.com/modules.php...download&sid=53 (http://www.zaurususergroup.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=UpDownload&file=index&req=viewsdownload&sid=53)
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: w4lna on February 28, 2004, 09:46:49 pm
Quote
The general and special kernel building instructions are in the ZUG howtos.

I have the cross-compiler installed, but can\'t seem to find the kernel source mentioned in the special kernel build instructions.   Is there any other places that I can find it?
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: tumnus on February 28, 2004, 09:54:53 pm
Ignore v1.2 of the Special Kernel when it appears on the download pages as I didn\'t get the module compatibility quite right. Look for v1.3 instead.

As for the kernel source, a quick google turned up this:
http://developer.ezaurus.com/sl_j/source/c...rom1_10.tar.bz2 (http://developer.ezaurus.com/sl_j/source/c860/20031107/linux-c860-20031107-rom1_10.tar.bz2)
I guess I\'ll have to update the descriptions.

It would be nice if we could get rid of all the kernels apart from Special Kernel v1.3 (when it is approved) since that is all that should be needed now.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: w4lna on February 28, 2004, 10:04:13 pm
Quote
Ignore v1.2 of the Special Kernel when it appears on the download pages as I didn\'t get the module compatibility quite right. Look for v1.3 instead.

As for the kernel source, a quick google turned up this:
http://developer.ezaurus.com/sl_j/source/c...rom1_10.tar.bz2 (http://developer.ezaurus.com/sl_j/source/c860/20031107/linux-c860-20031107-rom1_10.tar.bz2)
I guess I\'ll have to update the descriptions.

Thanks, I found it at another site too...

Found a little error in the setup of the Qtopia development enviironment.   It should mention copying \"tmake.conf\"  *after* the Qtopia environment is installed.  Fedora also did not need the extra packages called out for RH9.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: grey_moon on March 04, 2004, 03:31:18 pm
What modules does the preemptive patch break please?
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: tumnus on March 04, 2004, 05:49:54 pm
Lots, that\'s why I took it out.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: Anonymous on March 04, 2004, 06:35:07 pm
HI,
 So the 1.3 release of special kernel (by default) will fix the pxa250 problems? It will make it equivalent to the pxa255 then?
  Also, how would you change the clock speed , is there a dynamic way, and will this cause a problem with the vnc server?
  Does this special 1.3 kernel have the wireless extensions built into it?

Thanks and regards.
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: grey_moon on March 04, 2004, 06:42:31 pm
doh, I guess i\'ll spend tomorrow night redoing my kernel...  I have netfilter and routing functionality in mine
one thing...  if i dont use the preemtive patch, I\'m guessing that mean si dont need to worry about the bluez patches

cheers
moon
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: tumnus on March 05, 2004, 03:20:13 am
Quote
So the 1.3 release of special kernel (by default) will fix the pxa250 problems?
Generally speaking, yes.

Quote
It will make it equivalent to the pxa255 then?
Not quite. Same speed, but the PXA255 also includes a few power efficiency improvements.

Quote
Also, how would you change the clock speed , is there a dynamic way, and will this cause a problem with the vnc server?  
  Does this special 1.3 kernel have the wireless extensions built into it?
Please read the v1.3 Special Kernel description:
http://www.zaurususergroup.com/modules.php...download&sid=53 (http://www.zaurususergroup.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=UpDownload&file=index&req=viewsdownload&sid=53)
Title: 5600 Preemptive ROM & VNCServer
Post by: grey_moon on March 06, 2004, 10:06:03 am
Well I redid my kernel with out the preemptive patch and i got an increase in my drhystone test

***
special kernel with preemptive
Dhrystone Benchmark, Version 2.1 (Language: C)
Register option not selected.
Microseconds for one loop:     2.1
Dhrystones per second:   477463.7
VAX MIPS rating:    271.749

***
special kernel without preemptive
Dhrystone Benchmark, Version 2.1 (Language: C)
Register option not selected.
Microseconds for one loop:     2.1
Dhrystones per second:   479892.5
VAX MIPS rating:    273.132


Notice the increase!
From what i gather premptive reduces the latency of the kernel by preassigning time slices to every process, so I guess a batch task like the dhrystone test would benefit from not having the preemptive patch..
*scratches his head and goes and does some more reading*

Cheers
Moon