Hi Emilio, On 2026-06-25 15:21, Emilio Pozuelo Monfort wrote: > On 24/06/2026 19:34, Aurelien Jarno wrote: > > Hi Emilio, > > > > On 2026-06-24 14:06, Emilio Pozuelo Monfort wrote: > > > Hi Aurelien, > > > > > > On 27/05/2026 21:31, Aurelien Jarno wrote: > > > > Hi Paul and release team, > > > > > > > > On 2026-05-26 21:30, Paul Gevers wrote: > > > > > Hi riscv64 porters, > > > > > > > > > > In bug 1092153 [1] we discussed the slowness of the riscv64 hardware > > > > > available for Debian. At the time we accepted the situation as a > > > > > bootstrapping problem. Recently we've witnessed some delays because of > > > > > riscv64 build speed (e.g. migration delay for linux kernel CVE > > > > > fixes), and > > > > > since riscv64 got added to ci.debian.net it needed shepherding to > > > > > stay up > > > > > and a lot of tests actually fail because of the slowness. > > > > > > > > > > Hence, I'd like to request an update on the situation. When do you > > > > > think the > > > > > situation can be improved realistically? As an example, I've heard > > > > > that for > > > > > some of the faster hardware, the kernel patches still aren't accepted > > > > > upstream. Also, on what timescale can the slow hardware (both buildds > > > > > and > > > > > the ci.d.n hardware) be replaced with faster hardware that runs > > > > > reliably? > > > > > > > > I am answering here about the build daemons part as the debci part has > > > > already been answered by Bo Yu. > > > > > > > > First of all the requirements for the build daemons is a bit more > > > > challenging than debci, as we want to run them on our own hardware, > > > > using the Debian (bpo) kernel, in a rack-mountable format. As pointed > > > > out in bug #1092153, we had identified two possible hardware platforms. > > > > Unfortunately neither turn out to be suitable for build daemons. > > > > Complete kernel support for the HiFive Premier P550 is still lacking, > > > > and we experienced some stability issues with the Milk-V Pioneer. > > > > > > > > We therefore looked for alternatives and found the Milk-V Jupiter board > > > > with a SpacemiT K1 CPU to be a good candidate, with a lot of upstreaming > > > > work happening. The Debian 7.0 backports kernel is now suitable to run a > > > > build daemon. Testing shows a performance improvement by a factor of 1.7 > > > > to 2.2, depending on the level of parallelism. For example, the Linux > > > > kernel can be built in about 9 hours and rustc in about 14 hours. We > > > > also expect an additional 10% gain once cpufreq support is available, > > > > as the CPU is currently not running at its nominal speed. In addition > > > > support for vector instructions may further improve performance for some > > > > specific packages. > > > > > > > > The other option that appeared recently is the SpacemiT K3. The > > > > upstreaming process is progressing quite fast, also benefiting from the > > > > existing K1 code. The Debian backports kernel is already able to boot on > > > > such a machine, but with a quite limited set of devices. Kernel 7.2 or > > > > 7.3 (the 7.2 merge window is not yet fully closed) should provide > > > > sufficient support for use as a build daemons, so likely around fall. > > > > Online benchmarks indicate we should expect to halve the build time > > > > compared to the K1, although we have not yet been able to validate this > > > > ourselves due to lack of hardware. > > > > > > > > Regarding the timescale, we started the process of upgrading the build > > > > daemons with the Spacemit K1, beginning with MANDA. The first two boards > > > > arrived there last week and are waiting to be installed. The plan is to > > > > upgrade the two other boards once we are sure everything is working fine > > > > with the two first boards. > > > > > > Any progress on those first boards? Have they been installed, and has > > > testing on them begun? > > > > Unfortunately they haven't been installed yet. There is an option to > > send someone on site instead, but that cannot happen before around mid > > July. > > Ack, thanks for the update.
rv-manda-02 and rv-manda-04 are now running on the new boards. A big thanks to the MANDA local contact who did the work this evening. Cheers Aurelien -- Aurelien Jarno GPG: 4096R/1DDD8C9B [email protected] http://aurel32.net
