System mode

[immolo]

Is there any work on system mode being worked on currently?

I'm looking into creating packages so we don't need to be a special kind of masochist to run Gentoo on these consoles. I was planning on using crossdev to achieve this but from my own testing and speaking to the Gentoo MIPS team it seems using QEMU for MIPS packages is the best way to achieve this goal.

I can setup a more generic MIPS build instead but would be a nice goal to have an emulated R5900 CPU create these packages to make testing easier while also increasing the usefulness of this tool.

[frno7]

I heard @philmd started an effort on PlayStation 2 QEMU system mode emulation some years ago, but I don’t know its current status.

Generally speaking, user mode for emulating applications covers most, if not all, of what Gentoo package building needs. Install the app-emulation/qemu-mipsr5900el Gentoo package for it. I use it all the time, and sometimes with Crossdev. Current R5900 QEMU version is 5.2.

We build R5900 QEMU in the Docker, see scripts/install-packages. Build it with USE flags static-user and static-libs for maximum utility, especially with rc-update add qemu-mipsr5900el-binfmt, which is very useful with the schroot command.

Note! The standard app-emulation/qemu package MIPS targets collide with my app-emulation/qemu-mipsr5900el package. Both cannot make use of binfmt for MIPS simultaneously.

[immolo]

I never thought of using usermode like this so this is an interesting concept that I need to look into.

Crossdev isn't creating binary packages like it should so my thought process is to emulate the way Gentoo do it for MIPS then I can compare and submit bugs upstream as needed. This is something for me to work out with the releng team though rather than an issue here.

I'm avoiding Docker for now until I really need to use it but I did just notice the version in this repo built 5.0.1 so is this one behind?
$ # mipsel-linux-user/qemu-mipsel --version qemu-mipsel version 5.0.1

[frno7]

I never thought of using usermode like this so this is an interesting concept that I need to look into.

Crossdev isn't creating binary packages like it should so my thought process is to emulate the way Gentoo do it for MIPS then I can compare and submit bugs upstream as needed. This is something for me to work out with the releng team though rather than an issue here.

I think

mipsr5900el-unknown-linux-gnu-emerge -uva --keep-going @system

should be enough to get started with the essentials for a stage 3 archive, see the Gentoo for the PlayStation 2 wiki article.

I'm avoiding Docker for now until I really need to use it

Personally I never use Docker, but it seems popular, and it has some use within Github as a means to have Gentoo/R5900 available for various repo actions. Which is to say you almost definitely won’t need Docker for essential things related to Gentoo and the PlayStation 2, unless you do Github actions. :-)

but I did just notice the version in this repo built 5.0.1 so is this one behind? $ # mipsel-linux-user/qemu-mipsel --version qemu-mipsel version 5.0.1

Hmm... I have

% qemu-mipsr5900el --version
qemu-mipsel version 5.2.0
Copyright (c) 2003-2020 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers

on my workstation. Curious. Maybe something is unsynced...

[immolo]

I think

mipsr5900el-unknown-linux-gnu-emerge -uva --keep-going @system

should be enough to get started with the essentials for a stage 3 archive, see the Gentoo for the PlayStation 2 wiki article.

You are correct with this one and that works fine it's just the creation of binary packages which isn't working. The documentation Gentoo side is lacking here though so this could be a feature request possibly.

Personally I never use Docker, but it seems popular, and it has some use within Github as a means to have Gentoo/R5900 available for various repo actions. Which is to say you almost definitely won’t need Docker for essential things related to Gentoo and the PlayStation 2, unless you do Github actions. :-)

I'm pretty sure my contributions back will only require keeping a mirror running and maybe a local repo so hopefully I can put off docker for at least one more project :P

Hmm... I have

% qemu-mipsr5900el --version
qemu-mipsel version 5.2.0
Copyright (c) 2003-2020 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers

on my workstation. Curious. Maybe something is unsynced...

I just cloned and built from this repo about an hour ago so I can't see it being my end this time.

[immolo]

@frno7 after speaking to the devs that maintain the stage builds it seems you had the right idea with your solution, so thank you for making this build method clear in my head before I needed to start my own system.

[frno7]

I just cloned and built from this repo about an hour ago so I can't see it being my end this time.

My apologies, there’s now a r5900-v5.2.y branch. I was a bit confused because my app-emulation/qemu-mipsr5900el Gentoo package was indeed version 5.2, but then I recalled that the ebuild has SRC_URI="https://download.qemu.org/qemu-${PV}.tar.xz" and applies two patches, regardless of whether this repo has version 5.2 or not. I mainly use the Gentoo package myself, unless I develop patches for QEMU.

It really pays off to enable binfmt, as mentioned, and for properly building Gentoo/R5900 packages it may be required.