The state of hardware acceleration on ODROID (xf86-video-sunxi, xf86-video-mali and kernel 3.8)

Yesterday I tried xf86-video-sunxi (thanks to ssvb, rz2k and xjuan for the support!) and I have to say that this driver bears promise, in particular regarding G2D support, that hopefully in future will bring us 2D hardware acceleration.

The rotating horse is always fun, even when you rotate it.

I have run tests with the following combinations (some old test logs available here):

Kernel	X11 Driver	Resolution	es2gears	glmark2-es2	glmark2-es2 --fullscreen	glxgears
3.0.79	ARM mali (31 may)	720p	~ 345  fps	160	96	125 fps
3.0.79	ARM mali	720p	~ 345 fps	160	96	125 fps
3.0.79	ssvb sunxi	720p	~ 261 fps	153	89	125 fps
3.8.13	ARM mali (31 may)	720p	~ 226 fps	61	37	~ 140 fps
3.8.13	ARM mali	720p	~ 226 fps	61	37	~ 140 fps
3.8.13	ssvb sunxi	720p	~ 226 fps	66	42	~ 144 fps

Update 8 June 2013: see 2nd round of tests

The compiled sunxi driver and glmark2-es2 are included in version 0.0.7 of the odroid-wheezy-retro SD image.

RetroArch

With both kernels and with both X11 drivers RetroArch performs well in windowed mode (50FPS with rare frame drops with the 3.8 kernel).

Conclusions

• there is currently a performance issue on kernel 3.8, our beloved mdrjr is working on it
• glxgears is always software-rendered (see HardwareAcceleration), it's included only for reference
• 1080p resolution is slow with all configurations, thus I have not targeted it for testing
• the new Mali drivers (r3p2 released on 31st May) are the same as previous
• xf86-video-sunxi starts to perform better on kernel 3.8, probably because of the NEON bug that affects 3.0

For now I will keep using kernel 3.0 and ARM mali drivers in odroid-wheezy-retro SD image, however I expect great improvements on both fronts (3.8 kernel and sunxi driver).

A couple of updates for odroid-wheezy-retro (kernel 3.0.79 and 3.8.13)

I have released 2 scripts to upgrade your odroid-wheezy-retro image to a more recent kernel:

• upgrade-3.0.75-to-3.0.79.sh, this will upgrade to the most recent 3.0.y kernel. This is currently stable & supported (by me) and will be in next SD image release (0.0.7); also contains a patch to silence the fan message spam in kern.log
• upgrade-3.0.y-to-3.8.13.sh, this is experimental and subject to change without notice. This script will upgrade to a recent (consider it a nightly build) 3.8 kernel, complete with modules

NOTE: it does not work perfectly with X/X2 e.g. you will have to fix some issues manually

I have not yet decided when to put 3.8 on the odroid-wheezy-retro image - I am going to do some testing before that.

If you are installing 3.8 remember to change your device from /dev/fb6 to /dev/fb1 in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Official ODROID forum discussion here.

PCSX-ReARMed on ODROID-U2 (through RetroArch)

These notes are useful to get PCSX-ReARMed (by notaz) running on an ODROID-U2, with full ARM optimizations.

Due to some bug in the current configure/Makefiles, you will not be able to compile&run it succesffully. I got errors like this:

RetroArch [ERROR] :: dylib_load() failed: "pcsx_rearmed_libretro.so: undefined symbol: gteNCLIP_arm".
RetroArch [ERROR] :: Failed to open dynamic library: "pcsx_rearmed_libretro.so"
RetroArch [ERROR] :: Fatal error received in: "load_dynamic()"

And this:

RetroArch [ERROR] :: dylib_load() failed: "pcsx_rearmed_libretro.so: undefined symbol: gteRTPT_neon".
RetroArch [ERROR] :: Failed to open dynamic library: "pcsx_rearmed_libretro.so"
RetroArch [ERROR] :: Fatal error received in: "load_dynamic()"

 
So here you are some instructions to get it running.
First thing, get the libretro port:

git clone https://github.com/libretro/pcsx_rearmed

Apply this patch:

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a472492..ed95702 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ CXXFLAGS += $(CFLAGS)
 #DRC_DBG = 1
 #PCNT = 1

+ARCH = arm
+HAVE_NEON=1
+
 all: config.mak target_ plugins_

 ifndef NO_CONFIG_MAK
diff --git a/Makefile.libretro b/Makefile.libretro
index 9436c8a..8a0d67a 100644
--- a/Makefile.libretro
+++ b/Makefile.libretro
@@ -97,8 +97,6 @@ else ifeq ($(platform), arm)
    DRC_CACHE_BASE = 0
    BUILTIN_GPU = neon
    ARCH = arm
-   CFLAGS += -marm -mcpu=cortex-a8 -mfpu=neon
-   ASFLAGS += -mcpu=cortex-a8 -mfpu=neon
 else
    TARGET := $(TARGET_NAME)_retro.dll
    CC = gcc

Now you're (almost) set. Run this script:

export CFLAGS='-marm -mcpu=cortex-a9 -mtune=cortex-a9 -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=hard'
export CXXFLAGS='-marm -mcpu=cortex-a9 -mtune=cortex-a9 -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=hard'
export ASFLAGS='-marm -mcpu=cortex-a9 -mtune=cortex-a9 -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=hard'
./configure --enable-neon
make -j5 -f Makefile.libretro platform=arm

And enjoy PCSX-ReARMed on your ODROID :)

Issues

It is very slow! It's not performing very well, although all possible optimizations have been enabled. Update 26 June 2013: It's working very fast! Thanks to Squarepusher for the tip of using platform=arm :)

Furthermore, CSO/ISO are not working. Update 26 June 2013: I don't yet know how to work-around this, will publish a new post when I do

odroid-wheezy-retro 0.6 released: you get kernel 3.0.75, 24bit HDMI output and wifi support!

As per title I have just released version 0.0.6 of the image that contains:

• Hardkernel's linux kernel version 3.0.75, that comes with forced 24bit HDMI output (thanks to libv for the patch)
• extra wifi drivers :)

Downloads

If you have kernel 3.0.63 and want to upgrade just use the upgrade script from repository.

I am planning to release an even more streamlined release, so keep tuned! :)
Official ODROID forum discussion here.

Recipe: compiling BSNES debugger (laevateinn) on Linux

BSNES is the best emulator around, there's little to say about that. Unfortunately the debugger is no more available in current higan because of refactoring and othe changes the author is making.

Let's get the last working bsnes debugger, laevateinn, compiling & working (spoiler: it.does.not.work) on Linux:

git clone git://gitorious.org/bsnes/bsnes.git
cd bsnes
git checkout v089
cd bsnes
nano nall/Makefile # replace "gcc-4.7" with "gcc"
make -j3 target=laevateinn

Finally the debugger will be found in out/laevateinn, but we are not yet there! It can only work with "cartridge folders".

So let's compile purify as well, and run it:

cd ..
cd purify
nano nall/Makefile # here replace "gcc-4.6" with "gcc"
make -j3
./purify output your-rom-path/ target-directory/


Now we are ready to run laevateinn:

cd ..
bsnes/out/laevateinn target-directory/

However, I could not use it because it shows me a non-sexy black screen :(
Possibly you might pick up the task from there.

Meanwhile I am using T.Geiger's snes9x debugger and I have contacted the author about sharing the sources (fingers crossed!)

Update 23 July 2013: instructions for Ubuntu 13.04 provided by user Jay Oster
NOTE: bsnes looks for its system ROMs in ~/.config/laevateinn/

Dependencies

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install git build-essential libgtk2.0-dev libasound2-dev
# FOR PURIFY
$ sudo apt-get install libx11-dev

Build Laevateinn

$ git clone git://gitorious.org/bsnes/bsnes.git
$ cd bsnes
$ git checkout d418eda9
$ vim bsnes/nall/Makefile # replace "gcc-4.7" with "gcc"
$ make -C bsnes -j 8 target=laevateinn install

Build Purify

$ vim purify/nall/Makefile # replace "gcc-4.6" with "gcc"
$ vim purify/Makefile # add "link += `pkg-config --libs x11`"
$ make -C purify -j 8

PUTRIFY your ROM library

$ ./purify/purify output your-rom-path/ target-directory/

odroid-wheezy-retro: updated wiki & release

I have started to populate and mantain some wiki pages for odroid-wheezy-retro

ODROID Wheezy Retro Wiki

• Index
• FlashingToSD
• Goals 
• Customization
• Overclocking
• HardwareAcceleration
• RetroArch - for all your emulation needs

It's hosted within the Google Code project's wiki, and it fits the purpose quite well so far.

Current release is 0.0.5, I have fixed the nasty issue with Debian automatic network udev rules, thanks to user be.lietaus for reporting it.

Many thanks to mdrjr for providing a backup location for the release files, that you can find here.

Are you an ODROID forum member? Please vote for me on this thread! Well, only if you like this release and want to see more about it coming  :)

Neagix' excellent (and unofficial) Debian Wheezy Development&Emulation SD image

I have packaged a minimal Debian Wheezy downloadable SD image which achieves the same goals of my previous tutorial (and adds a bit more).

What You See Is What You Will Get 1/3

What You See Is What You Will Get 2/3

What You See Is What You Will Get 3/3

Features of this release

• very small (187M packed), based on odroid.us base rootfs image
• using stable kernel 3.0.68 released by Hardkernel
• X11 hardware accelerated EGL, GLESv1 and GLESv2 (through Hardkernel's proprietary drivers)
• boots automatically into Xorg 
• it will not automatically turn off HDMI output when idle (so be careful with your LCDs!)
• basic development packages already installed (gcc, g++, make, autoconf, automake etc)
• scripts to fetch and build my fork of retroarch (+ related libretro cores)
• retroarch (with snes9x-next core) and retroarch-joyconfig ready-to-run binaries included (these versions have my patches)
• testing scripts for sound and 3D

Coming soon features

• 3.0.75 kernel (I am testing it before adding to next release, but if you prefer you can upgrade using this script)
• 24bit HDMI output support (I am not sure about this)

The first time you boot the image it will automatically re-generate SSH keys and assign a random MAC address (see /root/bin/bootstrap.sh for reference), so it might take a few seconds longer.

See project home page and instructions to flash the SD image.

Downloads

Many thanks to mdrjr and all the other nice IRC people for the help provided since the beginning!

DISCLAIMER: this SD image is not officially supported by Hardkernel, nor I assume any responsability for its use and misuse

Previous posts on this subject:
http://neagix.blogspot.com/2013/04/retroarch-on-odroid-u2-with-hardware.html
http://neagix.blogspot.com/2013/05/retroarch-on-odroid-u2-revisited.html