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-   -   GVM on N900 (no oabi) = no armlets (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=52748)

javispedro 2010-05-15 15:29

GVM on N900 (no oabi) = no armlets
 
I found the reason why recent N900 firmwares don't like GVM. GVM seems to issue a cacheflush syscall via OABI (aka swi $1 with $1 != 0) from time to time while running ARMlets, and I just noticed that the latest N900 kernel doesn't have CONFIG_OABI_COMPAT.

Enabling CONFIG_OABI_COMPAT in kernel build config causes GVM to work again like on the N8x0.

Sorry for not providing a fix (but should be easy enough to fix if you're using a patched/"community" kernel). I think I'll email GVM about this to see if they can fix it in the next version.

BrentDC 2010-05-15 15:44

Re: GVM on N900 (no oabi) = no armlets
 
I've been having a lot of trouble getting some programs to work in the GVM on my N900 that had worked on my N800.

Most notably, The Quest by Redshift. It was not very usable on the N800 because it was very graphic-intensive and slow, but with the N900's upgraded hardware I was hoping for better results.

However, the program does not run (crashes on startup). Doesn't matter how much memory I give it, it still crashes. I've noticed this with many of the more advanced Palm programs (for OS 5+), while OS 3.5 programs seem to work fine.

Do you think that it is some system call by newer Palm programs that is unavailable which is causing this problem? I know, a shot in the dark...

Sorry if this is way off-topic!

javispedro 2010-05-15 15:56

Re: GVM on N900 (no oabi) = no armlets
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by BrentDC (Post 659730)
Doesn't matter how much memory I give it, it still crashes. I've noticed this with many of the more advanced Palm programs (for OS 5+), while OS 3.5 programs seem to work fine.

Actually this is completely on topic, as this is exactly the issue I'm experiencing; most "OS5+ only" programs contain ARMlets/PNOlets, and as I explain on my post, they fail to work on the N900 because of the OABI cacheflush call.

Solutions:
A ) ACCESS should be able to easily fix/workaround this, so poke them. I already sent them the above using their feedback form :).
B) Use a kernel with CONFIG_OABI_COMPAT=y. I can build it (zImage only), but won't provide support for it, so better ask titan or somebody who will.
C) Binary patch GVM. Ugly, and hard :(.

And yes, performance of armlets seems improved on N900, as I get nearly 30% more frames per second on my PalmGL port.

mtjioe 2010-05-15 16:12

Re: GVM on N900 (no oabi) = no armlets
 
Perhaps we should ask titan then, As ACCESS will probably never update their GVM...

I really would like to have Mobipocket and iSilo work properly again... Perhaps this will fix it.

javispedro 2010-05-15 16:30

Re: GVM on N900 (no oabi) = no armlets
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by mtjioe (Post 659750)
As ACCESS will probably never update their GVM...

I used to say this but they have been regularly updating it -- in fact you should expect next update this month.

mtjioe 2010-05-15 18:35

Re: GVM on N900 (no oabi) = no armlets
 
OK, lets wait and see....

BrentDC 2010-05-15 18:51

Re: GVM on N900 (no oabi) = no armlets
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by javispedro (Post 659737)
Actually this is completely on topic, as this is exactly the issue I'm experiencing; most "OS5+ only" programs contain ARMlets/PNOlets, and as I explain on my post, they fail to work on the N900 because of the OABI cacheflush call.

Solutions:
A ) ACCESS should be able to easily fix/workaround this, so poke them. I already sent them the above using their feedback form :).
B) Use a kernel with CONFIG_OABI_COMPAT=y. I can build it (zImage only), but won't provide support for it, so better ask titan or somebody who will.
C) Binary patch GVM. Ugly, and hard :(.

And yes, performance of armlets seems improved on N900, as I get nearly 30% more frames per second on my PalmGL port.

I haven't followed much of the kernel modding stuff, but this sounds promising! Are you planning on releasing a flashable version of the kernel with that flag set? If you did, I would certainly try it out.

javispedro 2010-05-16 17:33

Re: GVM on N900 (no oabi) = no armlets
 
I uploaded a zImage with oabi compatibility enabled here: zImage-n900-oabi-compat. Note though that it is the SDK PR1.2 version of the kernel, thus I'm not sure if I'd use it for daily operation.

You need flasher or flasher-3.5 to load or flash it.


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