Sonnet 7200 PCI programming

[grelbfarlk]

Here's where I say I was wrong about many things as usual. With the 281 version, CSPPC and MMU060.library and MMU-Configuration file, mostly everything is working now. For some reason with just Quake 2, I had to reset file attributes on gameppc.dll in baseq2, then that started working. Now tested a lot of stuff, Nightlong, Crossfire, Amigenerator, WarpSNES, Heretic II, Hexen 2 (with PCI 16-bit 44khz audio), Q1, Q2, Orbit, Payback, WES, WarpNeoMame, WarpMAME, WarpMESS that's all working.

I didn't test very much with the P5 060.lib, but Warp3D seemed to be working but Amigenerator locked up the machine shortly after launch.

[trixster]

I've been doing a bit of testing too. I'm not very good at testing so im not sure what help this will be, but here it is anyway...

So I've found that I've been getting quite a lot of instability whilst using #281. Both Quake2 and BlizQuake (and other non-warp3d programs) will crash quite randomly. It'll happen maybe after a minute or so, sometimes straight away, sometimes after a few runs of the demos. The lockup will often be a hard lock requiring a system reboot.

I've tried running plain Blizquake 68k - this will run indefinitely so I'm happy that the general system and the voodoo3 are ok.

Whilst testing #281, #280 and #278 I've tried two versions of mmulibs - 43.7 68060 library and 43.14 mmu.library, and 46.3 68060.library and 46.12 mmu.library
I've also tried the phase 5 68060 library (46.15) and tried disabling quite a few bits and bobs in my s-s. It doesnt matter what i do with the rest of the system - the most recent builds of powerpc.library will still cause a crash after a while.

With builds #281, #280, #278 i get the relatively quick lockups. These lockups occur with quake2, blizquake WOS, Amigenerator, AmigaAmp, Gears etc. If im running a program whilst in workbench the crash/lockup often manifests as an Instruction Storage Exception.

The good news is that the powerpc.library from the version on aminet (27 MAy 17) is pretty much completely stable. I've been using it for hours today with zero crashes or lockups in all programs. I need to now try going through later builds to see if i can track down from which build the instability starts to appear.

On a different tangent; is there a good memory testing program that i can use to stress-test the sonnet's memory? I'd like to try and rule out the 3x64mb memory sticks i'm using as a point of instability. I've copied a 180mb mp3 too and from the sonnet's memory on multiple occasions and it's re-played fine, but i'm not certain this is a decent test. I use EasyTools Easymemtest on my 68k memory so was wondering if there's something similar for ppc?

[trixster]

Is it possible for someone to upload their neogeo.zip to the zone? I'm struggling to track down the correct bios to work with amidog's neomame

[grelbfarlk]

The one you're looking for is neogeo.zip, file size: 56167 That's the one I have in my roms directory, that should narrow it down for you.

If it's running for hours for you with an old version, I doubt that your memory is at fault, especially if it's an old version that doesn't return memory to the system properly.

If you can start Quake2, set timedemo 1, then hit ~ and it will play the built in demos really fast (in timedemo mode) until you run out of memory, then it should cleanly exit. Repeat as necessary until there's not enough free Sonnet mem to start the program. This is about as good as any memory test as you can get, I guess you could have a few megs at the end that don't get tested this way.

[trixster]

Cheers! The ones i've found so far are all about 800k+

[Hedeon]

@Trixster. I cannot really guess seeing that there is no crash log, but nothing much has changed on the ppc side since the last Aminet release. What did change was Radeon gfx card related. On 68k side only deficons and the hunk patching was altered slightly. All of these changes should either work or not. Not just work for a while and then crash.

The only thing that changed which could be related it the SetCMemDiv option addition. Could you see if you have it set? If so change it to 5? If not, set it to 5 to check if this is causing the trouble?

[Wrangler]

Hi folks. I've just uploaded a "first time installation guide" on the Wiki and have tested this with a fresh install. This goes from scratch to a basic working set up with Warp3D. It works for me but as we know, everyone's set up is different! So if someone could check the guide, that would help everyone.

Curiously/annoyingly, following my guide gets GearsPPC.exe working on my set up whereas it crashes on my main install!! Off to try to bug fix that...

[Hedeon]

Many thanks for all the effort!!

Really want to know what the problem is with your main install, hopefully you find it.

I DO know that gears lacks proper error checking and if something is not there, like a lib of texture, it crashes on my system.

[Wrangler]

Thanks Hedeon, although I think you have put (a lot) more effort into this than I have

I'll let you know if I work out what's up with gearsppc.

[trixster]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

The only thing that changed which could be related it the SetCMemDiv option addition. Could you see if you have it set? If so change it to 5? If not, set it to 5 to check if this is causing the trouble?

I did not have the SetCMemDiv variable set. I've reverted to #281, I've set SetCMemDiv as 5 in ENV:sonnet, rebooted, and that appears to have done the trick! Quake2 and BlizQuake having been running for the last 2 hours with zero issues

So if i understand correctly, this is now running the cache on my 400/1mb at 133mhz? But my card should run normally at 200mhz for the cache?

[trixster]

I've gotta say, Wrangler's guide is excellent!

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by trixster

I did not have the SetCMemDiv variable set. I've reverted to #281, I've set SetCMemDiv as 5 in ENV:sonnet, rebooted, and that appears to have done the trick! Quake2 and BlizQuake having been running for the last 2 hours with zero issues

So if i understand correctly, this is now running the cache on my 400/1mb at 133mhz? But my card should run normally at 200mhz for the cache?

That's right. 400Mhz setting of 5=divider of 3 or 133MHz. Normally the 400Mhz would run a setting of 3=divider of 2 or for 200MHz. Maybe try 4 next and it should run at a 2.5 divider at 160MHz. Maybe your cache is overheating or something.

[trixster]

A quick test with SetCMemDiv 4 (cache at 160) seems to be fine too. Stuff would have definitely crashed by now. All is running great.

So before I started thinking about this I had noticed that the most recent builds were performing better with mame - outrun could run with frameskip 2 rather than 3, street fighter 2 would work great with frameskip 1 whereas previously they hadn't. Now that I've put the cache down to 133mhz I immediately noticed that sf2 definitely lagged more, the music played too slow. Putting ache to 160 almost completely fixes the sound and lag issue. So I'm wondering if my system's cache was running too fast (hence the rapid crashes) until I manually set the SetCMemDiv?

Or is this a load of nonsense?!

[spudje]

Originally Posted by Wrangler

So if someone could check the guide, that would help everyone.

Awesome, I'll take a look. can I add to it if I think I have something valuable to add for my setup?

When I continue my journey I'll try the SetCMemDiv setting. Where do I exactly set this? Mediator ENVARC?

[Wrangler]

Originally Posted by trixster

I've gotta say, Wrangler's guide is excellent!

Thanks trixster

Originally Posted by spudje

Awesome, I'll take a look. can I add to it if I think I have something valuable to add for my setup?

Of course! But can I suggest posting here what the change/addition is.

I'm especially interested to know if the guide works for Radeon set ups as I don't have one.

[grelbfarlk]

Hey uh, stupid question, where is the guide? Maybe it just hasn't made it over to our Internet here yet but I don't see it.

[trixster]

Regarding the guide, is it worth including a small section about the option of placing the PowerPC.library in its own folder rather than directly in libs? And how to make a script so that the sonnet can be initialised from the desktop rather than automatically in the startup-sequence.

[trixster]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Hey uh, stupid question, where is the guide? Maybe it just hasn't made it over to our Internet here yet but I don't see it.

https://github.com/Sakura-IT/SonnetA...allation-guide

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by trixster

https://github.com/Sakura-IT/SonnetA...allation-guide

Thanks, I added it to the index, I don't know why I couldn't see it.

Regarding the cache speed, thinking about it the first time I installed the new version with the cache setting I tried overclocking to 266MHz from 250MHz, that didn't work but I manually set it down to what it should be.

Sorry I added a couple little details to your doc. Something I'm curious about, I never did this:

The important number here is the start of MemSpace1. In my case, the figure is $42000000 but yours will likely be different. So on my system I set the environment variable as follows:

Setenv PowerPC/gfxaddr $42000000
Setenv ENVARC:PowerPC/gfxaddr $42000000

Is there some application which starts working after doing this or breaks if it is not done?

[trixster]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Regarding the cache speed, thinking about it the first time I installed the new version with the cache setting I tried overclocking to 266MHz from 250MHz, that didn't work but I manually set it down to what it should be.

Setting it at 160mhz (4) seems to be absolutely fine. And now setting it at 200mhz (3) also seems to be absolutely ok too, nothing crashing at the moment. How odd.