pegasos2: rom reconstruction

@kas1e
My system, which uses QEMU PCI passthrough, works fine with (official/original) pegasos2.rom. It has the U3 update and the latest kernel.
This morning I tested (as described here) the exact same “boot.img” disk image with ATI graphics cards in QEMU.
It’s the exact same version of kickstart.zip that I use for QEMU PCI passthrough PEG2. I used bboot.fth there as well.
I found another issue. If I use non-ATI cards on QEMU PEG2 (without QEMU PCI passthrough - sm501,voodoo3), the system won’t boot either.
Here it looks a little different. You can see that the card is initialized (the contents of the QEMU window change), but the system freezes.
There’s nothing in the kernel debug logs.
If you have the opportunity to test a non-ATI/Radeon card on a real Peg2, maybe you could check that as well.
Hmm. Are you using the official Radeon driver or some developer version? Maybe that’s where the problem lies.
Does the new pegaso2.rom change anything drastically for Radeon cards? Have you also tested with a Radeon HD card?
I have a Radeon RX; I can connect it via QEMU PCI passthrough if you need to check anything else.

EDIT:
Just to clarify everything: a Radeon RX card with QEMU PCI passthrough is capable of booting.
It runs extremely slowly. I didn’t have access to newer kernel releases for PEG2 or Radeon drivers.
If I recall correctly, I also didn’t test the Radeon RX card with the UP3 update for QEMU.

@kas1e

WB naturally launches to screen what is set on screenmode prefs.

So agp port primary allways, pcie primary if only pcie available sounds good.

@smarkusg

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But that probably expected, because sm501/voodoo3 is not real cards on your setup, so how can you passthrough with them ? That the same with original and with new firmware, right ? But yes, i will check with putting any non ATI/AMD card to, just to see if there correct fallback, or if firmware can handle anything else too.

I may try to find some PCI/e and AGP versions of some Nvidia/Voodoo cards, those probably will be good to test.

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I use RadeonRX driver 2.23 on real peg2 which should fit someday in enhancer (if it will ever happens), and i also use beta kernel with peg2 fixes for test, so can use it without BBOOT, but that shouldn't matter, because if the same setup works for you with original firmware on qemu, and simple changing on new firmware cause it to not work, then it mean something changes, and that not related to your components.

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Nope, it didn't change anything for cards, just simple initialization behind bridge and POST running.

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Not for now, but will do. What version of RadeonHD you use ?


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So, RadeonRX cars is booting with both original firmware and new one ? Or only with new one ? Can you try plz to boot RadeonRX without BBOOT on this Update3 (and be sure, that Kickstart.zip contain kernel 54.57 in)

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But you tested it now with UP3 update, right ? It works both with original and our firmware ?


Anyway, what i want to say mainly now is that if you have update3 installed, and you surely have kernel 54.57 and BBOOT "only" fix 64/32 address issues, you can try to not use BBOOT and it should works without. Try it plz if you can.

Thanks for tests !


@Mlehto

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What i found is : The card which i run POST init on the firmware, will be the one taken as the primary by AmigaOS4.

So, i implemented it like this (at least for now): added "primary-vga" environment, which default value is "vga0", meaning the first video card found during PCI scan. The first one usually a PCI one (not AGP one) in the pci probing. So if you have 2 video cards in peg2 , then "vga0" mean pci one, and "vga1" an agp one. If card running alone, then "vga0" will handle any card it find be it agp or pci/pcie.

The good thing is that we don't need removing cards or disconnecting cables, I tested right now with both video cards connected to monitor at the same time : RadeonRX connected via HDMI cable, and Radeon9250 connected via VGA cable to same monitor at the same time, and simple set to "vga0", make firmware outputs to RadeonRX and amigaos4 boots to RadeonRX as the main one, and simple set to "vga1" make Radeon9250 in AGP output on firmware, and amigaos4 take this one as the primary to boot from.

@kas1e
I have the latest kernel and UP3 on my current system.
I’ll do a fresh PEG2 installation today, just to be on the safe side, on a disk image. I’ll update to UP3 and connect it to QEMU instead of NVMe.
Currently, on QEMU PEG2 passthrough, I’m using a real NVMe drive – the NVMe controller is passed through to QEMU.
With a new system image, it will be easiest for me and we’ll be 100% certain about my system. I can then also simply boot the system with or without bboot.
I would have modified the installation disc for PEG2, but from what you wrote, kernel version 54.57 is required, so that’s out of the question.
I also don’t know if the RadeonHD drivers themselves have any requirements regarding the system version

Here is the RadeonHD card I’m using - https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/asus-hd-7750.b614

The strange thing is that the ATI card in QEMU, ‘-device ati-vga,model=rv100’, works. Even the ‘VGABIOS’ patch doesn’t work on it, and it’s emulated in the same way as the sm501 and Voodoo3.
I haven’t checked the RadeonRX card yet. I’ll let you know what else I’ve noticed and what works and what doesn’t.

@smarkusg
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The switch to Balaton's video driver happens only if you use rv100, yes, but that probably out of firmware question and it all the same with original firmware too (at least as far as i can tell).

@kas1e
Very nice progress! Unfortunatelly my Pegasos is now in the box - I have to rebuild my computer place
Thanks!

@smarkusg
OK, new system – full update to UP3 and kernel 54.57
Booting from amigaboot.of gives the same result as with bboot.fth

I'll add this too – I'm not sure if it'll be of any use

My RadeonHD also works without any issues on QEMU PCI passthrough, on an A1 emulation booted from a ‘ROM’ (without bboot), and I can see the U-Boot information on the Radeon display – if that information is helpful.

I’ll check what’s happening on RadeonRx as well.....

@smarkusg
So to make it short, bboot is not need it with original (no our new) firmware and all works without with update3's kernel, right ? You can boots from RadeonHD with no probs ?

(i just need that to understand if we can get rid of bboot now and it's fixes for tests).

@sailor
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You have time for : i ordered Promise TX4 pci2sata card, as well as 3112 and 31114, as well as few Geforce modesl (one agp and one PCIe), so want to make it all works too and to have more real live test cases.

@kas1e
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Thank you so much ;P ... it took me a bit of effort to get it running
It's a bit tricky to run Peg2 QEMU PCI passthrough on a computer where you only have remote access, especially when the original pegasos2.rom freezes during RadenHD initialization.
I have scripts, but I had to improvise a bit here.

YES. It is possible to run QEMU PEG2 with QEMU PCI passthrough without bboot on kernel 54.57 on the original pegasos2.rom.

Screen -> https://ibb.co/HTnNckkm

@smarkusg
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Ok, good ! One issue less ! Not using bboot there make it easy to test things correctly. And in case with new firmware UDMA is added, so booting will be same fast as with bboot.

Now i need to understand our current mambo-jambo, so far it looks like this:

1). original firmware: you can boot via passthrough with RadeonHd and can boot with RadeonRX (just RadeonRX slow like hell), that right ?

2). with our firmware, you still can boot with RadeonRX (while still slow), but can't RadeonHD anymore, and have " ERROR: Could not get the video RAM resource range". That right too ?

It's quite interesting why things changes...

For now, while i trying to fix RTAS issue in the firmware (and there indeed was issue because of which the RTAS scan code of kernel wasn't working for anything in bus more than 0), i found that even RadeonRx start to give me " ERROR: Could not get the video RAM resource range", but then, with beta kernel it works for RadeonRx, so .. i snork something somewhere close enough ..

ps. can you tell me plz what version of RadeonHD and RadeonRX you use for tests ?

@kas1e
We need to do a quick recap of what I’ve been testing on QEMU. I haven’t tested anything yet on a Radeon RX with QEMU, the new pegasos2kas1e.rom, or the original pegasos2.rom with the UP3 update on my machine.
Maybe I wrote something wrong or you misunderstood. Someone might read what we wrote in a few days and won’t be able to understand a thing

1.
On QEMU without PCI passthrough booted via pegasos2kas1e.rom (not bboot), only the emulated ATI RV100 graphics card works: “-device ati-vga,model=rv100,guest_hwcursor=on”

2.
Tests on QEMU PCI passthrough have so far been performed on the “AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series” Asus Radeon HD 7750 card.
Emulation and successful system boot QEMU PCI passthrough with a Radeon HD card using an older kernel < 54.57 (without UPDATE 3 installed) works only with bboot (bboot.fth) and the original pegasos2.rom
Emulation and successful system boot via QEMU PCI passthrough with a RadeonHD card using kernel 54.57 (with UPDATE 3 installed) works via bboot (bboot.fth) with the original pegasos2.rom and the standard boot mode (amigaboot.of)
Currently, the system is unable to boot correctly on my system in QEMU emulation with pegasos2kas1e.rom on a system with kernel 54.57 via bboot (boot.fth) and in standard boot mode (amigaboot.of)

I was going to install RadeonRX yesterday and test it, but you wrote to check the system boot with amigaboot.of.
I haven't tested anything yet with the pegasos2kas1e.rom and the RadeonRX card. From now on, I'll mention which card I used in every post to make things clearer.

@smarkusg
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By "works" you mean can't boot to firmware with correct output, or, can't boot to amigaos4 with Balaton's driver ? If the later, that probably exactly the same with original firmware too ?

I mean is there any difference with original firmware in that terms ? Because as for me, the new one can boot to firmware and with vga, and with cirrus-vga, and with ati-vga, etc, while original firmware can't with some. But then, booting to amigaos4 from CD installation with Balaton's driver can happens only with rv1000 (same on original firmware and on new one).

Or i miss the point of bug ?:)