[kaffe] PS2 Linux FAQ Update (FAQ.ps2linux)

[Patryk Laurent]

Hello,

Here is an updated and corrected version of the PS2Linux building FAQ.  My PS2 has been building from Kaffe CVS for the past few hours -- will let you how it turns out.  I don't remember offhand how long it took to build the 1.1.4 on the PS2, but the CVS version definitely takes over 12 hours.  =)   I think the 1.1.4 build was shorter...  I may build it again just to get that piece of information.

So far, I see a bunch of "Semantic Warning" messages.

Thanks,
Patryk



FAQ.ps2linux

PS2 Linux Kaffe Building FAQ
============================

This document applies to kaffe-1.1.4 (and also contains hints 
for building from CVS).

FAQ.ps2linux Status
===================

Last updated 28-Jan-2005 by Patryk Laurent (patryk at pakl.net)
Original document 18-dec-2002 Dylan Schell (dylans at xs4all.nl)


Test Notes [not updated or confirmed on 28-Jan-2005]
====================================================

- kaffe in interpreter mode currently fails 5 regression tests related to 
  IEEE compliancy. ( See Notes )
- kaffe in jit3 mode currently fails a 27 regression tests since the
  jit is emitting 64 bit floating point instructions that are not supported
  on the PS2. ( see Notes )

Building kaffe on the PS2
=========================

1. Install jikes ( version 1.21 was tested ) on your PS2

http://ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/jikes/

Compiling jikes will take some time on the PS2 but building the
kaffe runtime library with the supplied compiler is a bit of a problem.
Even if you get it to work, it is a lot slower than compiling jikes) 

2. Untar kaffe.  Edit kaffe's libraries/javalib/rebuildLib.in 

Add -target 1.2 to the VERBOSE variable to force jikes to generate
class files compatible with kaffe.

VERBOSE=-target 1.2 

3. Run configure to enable jikes and select the interpreter engine:
./configure --enable-pure-java-math --with-jikes --with-engine=intrp

IF YOU ARE BUILDING FROM CVS, you probably should add --without-kaffe-qt-awt and --disable-native-awt (otherwise you will get gtk+-2.0 missing errors in the configure step.)
January 22, 2005 From CVS:  ./configure --enable-pure-java-math --with-jikes --wit h-engine=intrp --without-kaffe-qt-awt --disable-native-awt

If you want to use faster native math, you supposedly need to install
the GNU MP library.  But I don't know if GNU MP supports any PS2-specific
math so it may not be worth it.  

But, if GNU MP is installed, the following is sufficient:
./configure --with-jikes --with-engine=intrp

Or if you don't need double precision floating point support, you can
build the jit3 version:
./configure --with-jikes

(Remember to run make clean if you change between interpreter and jit!)

4. Compile/install in the regular fashion.
make
sudo make install

Notes about the PS2 Linux port
==============================

The ps2 port is a work in progress, it works with the following limitations:

1. Some IEEE constructs are not supported by the FPU: NaN/+Inf/-Inf/+0.0/-0.0
If the PS2 kernel is ever updated to include a FPU emulator to add these missing constructs, then this port should pass all regression tests.
(This goes for the interpreter as well as for the jit version)

1. jit3 is functional but will cause problems when using double precision floating point operations. This is because the PS2 lacks a double precsion FPU. If, or when the linux kernel is updated with a FPU emulator (and a matching gcc is installed) to make up for this problem, the port will have to be updated ( the PS2 specific patches in config/mips/o32-sysdepCallMethod.h can go away ).

To make sure interpreter bugs don't interfere with building kaffe on the PS2 use jikes to compile the class library/tests. Some versions of jikes generate incorrect class files or class files that are too new for kaffe to handle. Using jikes 1.13 seems to work OK.

The PS2 also lacks the MIPS II "LL" and "SC" instructions. This means locking is somewhat slower. the MIPS II instructions are disabled in config/mips/common.h

The PS2 register set is also different from basic mips processors. This means the FP_OFFSET is much larger ( general purpose registers are 128 bit wide for special multimedia/vector processing instructions )

Note that the changes in o32-sysdepCallMethod.h pass 64 bit floats in a pair
of general purpose registers. This is the convention gcc uses on the PS2 (
This might be the default for all mips systems that lack these registers, I
don't know...)

Files with PS2 specific changes
===============================
config/mips/o32-sysdepCallMethod.h ( work around lack of 64 bit FPU regs )
config/mips/common.h ( set FP_OFFSET / disable MIPS II instructions )
config/mips/linux/md.h ( FP_OFFSET=36 )

Dylan Schell
dylans at xs4all.nl

Patryk Laurent
patryk at pakl.net