GNU Cuirass reports arm64 as armhf

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6 participants

Bengt Richter
Ludovic Courtès
Maxim Cournoyer
Mathieu Othacehe
Christopher Rodriguez
zimoun

Owner: unassigned

Submitted by: Christopher Rodriguez

Severity: normal

Christopher Rodriguez wrote on 11 Apr 2022 23:55

Recipients:(address . bug-guix@gnu.org)

Message-ID:pkmp4eczhn9sir.fsf@crane.ant.amazon.com

Reporting this from my local installs of GNU Cuirass, though a cursory glance at

ci.guix.gnu.org (likely) shows the same issue:

GNU Cuirass currently reports both `armhf-linux` and `arm64-linux` targets as

`armhf-linux` on the web interface.

This is not only incorrect, but potentially confusing to newcomers: I have spent

some free time in the last week or two (after purchasing an MNT Reform) trying

to get my home server to build packages for deployment on an ARM-based laptop. I

only discovered that I was targeting the 32-bit version of ARM after asking on

IRC (and then looking through the logs:

https://logs.guix.gnu.org/guix/2022-04-11.log#221203or thereabouts, where

vagrantc mentions `armhf` as suffering bitrot and goes on to mention both

`aarch64` and `arm64` in another sentence).

This is not helped by the Documentation

(https://guix.gnu.org/cuirass/manual/cuirass.html#Specifications)not giving any

examples of supported platforms, highly-search-engine-ranked issues and blog

posts (https://issues.guix.gnu.org/54055and

https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2021/cuirass-10-released/for instance, both

front-page google) only mentioning `armhf-linux`, and all running instances of

GNU Cuirass not even listing `arm64-linux` as an option.

When I have time (I am out of town for the rest of the week) I will try to

submit a patch for the documentation to list the available targets. Changing the

UI is more complex (though wider-reaching) and a bit more out of my

wheelhouse. Help there would be appreciated.

Christopher Rodriguez

Bengt Richter wrote on 12 Apr 2022 01:47

Recipients:(name . Christopher Rodriguez)(address . yewscion@gmail.comis)(address . 54864@debbugs.gnu.org)

Message-ID:20220411234725.GA7517@LionPure

Hi Christopher,

Tl;dr: [Meta-Reply]

I think IWBN if a busy volunteer like yourself could add

a cookie in an email like yours that would automatically

provide a "heads-up" to readers of the documentation you

intend to patch.

The idea is that emails could be automatically scanned for

such cookies/markup, e.g. maybe "[Pending-Patch]", next to

an URL for the doc in question, which URL could then simply

be appended to a log file of such urls, (maybe together with

date and author from the email header).

People could manually grep it if reading a document that

is confusing, to check if an update is on the way, for starters.

But if it's a good idea, then I would hope document reading

tools would start to make automatic use of it, maybe starting

with a notice like "Heads Up: [Pending-Patch]" when opening the doc or

section of the doc.

It could grow features as people came up with new and better ideas,

but I think there are developers here that could prototype something

useful in an evening :)

Thus, given that you took the time to write your email, it would not have

been much extra trouble adding the cookie so your text below would look like e.g.,

([Pending-Patch] https://guix.gnu.org/cuirass/manual/cuirass.html#Specifications)

(IIUC that's the doc you intend to patch) :)

HTH in some way.

Better ideas? I don't mind :)

On +2022-04-11 17:55:41 -0400, Christopher Rodriguez wrote:

Toggle quote (31 lines)> Reporting this from my local installs of GNU Cuirass, though a cursory glance at
> ci.guix.gnu.org (likely) shows the same issue:
> 
> GNU Cuirass currently reports both `armhf-linux` and `arm64-linux` targets as
> `armhf-linux` on the web interface.
> 
> This is not only incorrect, but potentially confusing to newcomers: I have spent
> some free time in the last week or two (after purchasing an MNT Reform) trying
> to get my home server to build packages for deployment on an ARM-based laptop. I
> only discovered that I was targeting the 32-bit version of ARM after asking on
> IRC (and then looking through the logs:
> https://logs.guix.gnu.org/guix/2022-04-11.log#221203 or thereabouts, where
> vagrantc mentions `armhf` as suffering bitrot and goes on to mention both
> `aarch64` and `arm64` in another sentence).
> 
> This is not helped by the Documentation
> (https://guix.gnu.org/cuirass/manual/cuirass.html#Specifications) not giving any
> examples of supported platforms, highly-search-engine-ranked issues and blog
> posts (https://issues.guix.gnu.org/54055 and
> https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2021/cuirass-10-released/ for instance, both
> front-page google) only mentioning `armhf-linux`, and all running instances of
> GNU Cuirass not even listing `arm64-linux` as an option.
> 
> When I have time (I am out of town for the rest of the week) I will try to
> submit a patch for the documentation to list the available targets. Changing the
> UI is more complex (though wider-reaching) and a bit more out of my
> wheelhouse. Help there would be appreciated.
> 
> --
> 
> Christopher Rodriguez

-- 
Regards,
Bengt Richter

Christopher Rodriguez wrote on 12 Apr 2022 01:57

[Pending Patch]

Recipients:(address . 54864@debbugs.gnu.org)

Message-ID:pkmp4e5ynf9nad.fsf@crane.ant.amazon.com

Hi Bengt,

Toggle quote (11 lines)> I think IWBN if a busy volunteer like yourself could add
> a cookie in an email like yours that would automatically
> provide a "heads-up" to readers of the documentation you
> intend to patch.
> 
> The idea is that emails could be automatically scanned for
> such cookies/markup, e.g. maybe "[Pending-Patch]", next to
> an URL for the doc in question, which URL could then simply
> be appended to a log file of such urls, (maybe together with
> date and author from the email header).

I think this is a great idea. Does something like this already exist? If it

does, I'm unaware of it (and I am sorry I didn't use it here).

If I've otherwise misstepped some kind of convention here, please let me

know. I'm not great at picking up subtext, but it sounds like I messed up in

some way, and I'd like to learn so I don't do it again (still very new to

contributing to this community).

That said, I do indeed intend to patch [Pending-Patch]

https://guix.gnu.org/cuirass/manual/cuirass.html#Specificationsto be clearer

about the available targets. I would amend the subject of this issue, but it

doesn't seem like that's something I can do.

Christopher Rodriguez

Christopher Rodriguez wrote on 12 Apr 2022 15:31

Also, [BUG]

Recipients:(address . 54864@debbugs.gnu.org)

Message-ID:pkmp4ewnfu8lv3.fsf@crane.ant.amazon.com

I also wanted to report a [BUG]: the UI for Gnu Cuirass lists

specifications defined as targetting either `armhf-linux` and

`arm64-linux` as `armhf-linux` on the Web UI, which should be changed to

report the accurate build target (if both `armhf-linux` and

`arm64-linux` are indeed still valid targets for builds).

Christopher Rodriguez

Ludovic Courtès wrote on 20 Apr 2022 21:55

Re: bug#54864: GNU Cuirass reports arm64 as armhf

Recipients:(name . Christopher Rodriguez)(address . yewscion@gmail.com)(address . 54864@debbugs.gnu.org)

Message-ID:87h76no7gv.fsf@gnu.org

Hi,

Christopher Rodriguez <yewscion@gmail.com> skribis:

Toggle quote (6 lines)

> Reporting this from my local installs of GNU Cuirass, though a cursory glance at

> ci.guix.gnu.org (likely) shows the same issue:

> GNU Cuirass currently reports both `armhf-linux` and `arm64-linux` targets as

> `armhf-linux` on the web interface.

There’s no ‘arm64-linux’ system type (in Guix); it’s called

‘aarch64-linux’.

Could it be the source of the confusion?

If not, could you point to a page at https://ci.guix.gnu.orgwhere the

problem occurs?

TIA,

Ludo’.

Christopher Rodriguez wrote on 22 Apr 2022 03:33

Recipients:(name . Ludovic Courtès)(address . ludo@gnu.org)

Message-ID:pkmp4eee1pq4n5.fsf@crane.ant.amazon.com

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

Toggle quote (21 lines)> Hi,
>
> Christopher Rodriguez <yewscion@gmail.com> skribis:
>
>> Reporting this from my local installs of GNU Cuirass, though a cursory glance at
>> ci.guix.gnu.org (likely) shows the same issue:
>>
>> GNU Cuirass currently reports both `armhf-linux` and `arm64-linux` targets as
>> `armhf-linux` on the web interface.
>
> There’s no ‘arm64-linux’ system type (in Guix); it’s called
> ‘aarch64-linux’.
>
> Could it be the source of the confusion?
>
> If not, could you point to a page at https://ci.guix.gnu.org where the
> problem occurs?
>
> TIA,
> Ludo’.

Hi Ludo',

I see, yeah, I eventually figured out that aarch64 was what I was

supposed to be using (I think I was reading

https://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/Tupleswhen I realized this).

However, what confuses me still was that 'arm64-linux' did work as a

system type: A bunch of packages failed to build, but some builds were

successful. Maybe that input just makes it default to 'armhf-linux'?

Christopher Rodriguez

Maxim Cournoyer wrote on 22 Apr 2022 06:28

Recipients:(name . Christopher Rodriguez)(address . yewscion@gmail.com)

Message-ID:87czh94u83.fsf@gmail.com

Hi Christopher,

[...]

Toggle quote (8 lines)

> I see, yeah, I eventually figured out that aarch64 was what I was

> supposed to be using (I think I was reading

> https://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/Tuples when I realized this).

> However, what confuses me still was that 'arm64-linux' did work as a

> system type: A bunch of packages failed to build, but some builds were

> successful. Maybe that input just makes it default to 'armhf-linux'?

I've had this experience before, it's very confusing (it goes on trying

to build a toolchain for something that is sure to fail). Perhaps we

could at least have a place to refer to in the manual for the common GNU

triplets which make the most sense in for GNU Guix (e.g., the currently

supported GNU system triplets). Currently I grep the manual for

disparate examples when my memory fail me.

Thanks,

Maxim

Mathieu Othacehe wrote on 26 Apr 2022 09:56

Recipients:(name . Maxim Cournoyer)(address . maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com)

Message-ID:87fsm0wa5k.fsf@gnu.org

Hello,

Toggle quote (7 lines)

> I've had this experience before, it's very confusing (it goes on trying

> to build a toolchain for something that is sure to fail). Perhaps we

> could at least have a place to refer to in the manual for the common GNU

> triplets which make the most sense in for GNU Guix (e.g., the currently

> supported GNU system triplets). Currently I grep the manual for

> disparate examples when my memory fail me.

Yes, I also cannot remember those triplets even though I'm

cross-compiling all day long.

Maybe we could:

* Define all the supported architectures in (gnu platforms). We already

have ARM and Hurd defined there.

* Define %supported-systems and %supported-targets lists constructed by

parsing the <platform> records.

* Use those lists to check the values passed to --system and --target

arguments.

* Add --list-available-systems and --list-available-targets arguments

for all the commands supporting --system and --target arguments.

WDYT?

In the meantime we can close that one I guess.

Thanks,

Mathieu

zimoun wrote on 26 Apr 2022 13:13

Recipients:(name . Mathieu Othacehe)(address . othacehe@gnu.org)

Message-ID:CAJ3okZ3VRSBtrDjsEsjdhdfcSTwo+Ptip4mCJDppJirOUGizsQ@mail.gmail.com

Hi,

On Tue, 26 Apr 2022 at 10:00, Mathieu Othacehe <othacehe@gnu.org> wrote:

Toggle quote (7 lines)

> > I've had this experience before, it's very confusing (it goes on trying

> > to build a toolchain for something that is sure to fail). Perhaps we

> > could at least have a place to refer to in the manual for the common GNU

> > triplets which make the most sense in for GNU Guix (e.g., the currently

> > supported GNU system triplets). Currently I grep the manual for

> > disparate examples when my memory fail me.

[...]

Toggle quote (12 lines)> * Define all the supported architectures in (gnu platforms). We already
>   have ARM and Hurd defined there.
>
> * Define %supported-systems and %supported-targets lists constructed by
>   parsing the <platform> records.
>
> * Use those lists to check the values passed to --system and --target
>   arguments.
>
> * Add --list-available-systems and --list-available-targets arguments
>   for all the commands supporting --system and --target arguments.

I agree. It would ease the dance.

In addition, it would help to have a subsection in the manual about

"cross-compilation"; maybe under the Development section. For

instance, I do not find clear the difference between 'system' and

'target'. And the explanations for the triplet are outside the Guix

manual, pointing to [1] which I do not find very clear. Something

like an explicit list of possible values for this triplet would be

worth.

1: https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/autoconf/manual/autoconf-2.71/autoconf.html#Specifying-target-triplets

Cheers,

simon

Ludovic Courtès wrote on 27 Apr 2022 23:37

Recipients:(name . Maxim Cournoyer)(address . maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com)

Message-ID:87r15igqc8.fsf@gnu.org

Hi Maxim,

Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> skribis:

Toggle quote (17 lines)> [...]
>
>> I see, yeah, I eventually figured out that aarch64 was what I was
>> supposed to be using (I think I was reading
>> https://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/Tuples when I realized this).
>>
>> However, what confuses me still was that 'arm64-linux' did work as a
>> system type: A bunch of packages failed to build, but some builds were
>> successful. Maybe that input just makes it default to 'armhf-linux'?
>
> I've had this experience before, it's very confusing (it goes on trying
> to build a toolchain for something that is sure to fail).  Perhaps we
> could at least have a place to refer to in the manual for the common GNU
> triplets which make the most sense in for GNU Guix (e.g., the currently
> supported GNU system triplets).  Currently I grep the manual for
> disparate examples when my memory fail me.

“aarch64-linux” & co. are Nix/Guix “system types”; GNU triplets look

like “aarch64-linux-gnu” or “i686-pc-linux-gnu” (info "(autoconf)

Specifying Target Triplets"). Triplets are passed to ‘--target’.

Note that the current situation is:

Toggle snippet (38 lines)$ guix build -s arm64-linux coreutils -n
Backtrace:
In guix/memoization.scm:
    101:0 19 (_ #<hash-table 7f5f81694000 0/31> #<package tar@1.34 …> …)
In guix/packages.scm:
  1247:37 18 (_)
  1507:16 17 (package->bag _ _ _ #:graft? _)
  1608:48 16 (thunk)
  1403:25 15 (inputs _)
In srfi/srfi-1.scm:
   586:29 14 (map1 (("coreutils" #<package coreutils@8.32 guix/…>) …))
   586:29 13 (map1 (("grep" #<package grep@3.6 gnu/packages/com…>) …))
   586:29 12 (map1 (("locales" #<package glibc-utf8-locales@2.3…>) …))
   586:29 11 (map1 (("bash" #<package bash-minimal@5.1.8 gnu/pa…>) …))
   586:17 10 (map1 (("gcc" #<package gcc@10.3.0 gnu/packages/co…>) …))
In guix/packages.scm:
  1360:20  9 (rewrite ("gcc" #<package gcc@10.3.0 gnu/packages/com…>))
In guix/memoization.scm:
    101:0  8 (_ #<hash-table 7f5f816f69a0 14/31> #<package gcc@10.3…> …)
In guix/packages.scm:
  1374:13  7 (_)
In guix/build-system/gnu.scm:
   157:33  6 (cut? _)
In gnu/packages/commencement.scm:
  3522:39  5 (arguments #<package gcc@10.3.0 gnu/packages/commenceme…>)
In gnu/packages/gcc.scm:
   200:48  4 (arguments #<package gcc@4.8.5 gnu/packages/gcc.scm:382…>)
In gnu/packages/bootstrap.scm:
   342:14  3 (glibc-dynamic-linker _)
In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
  1685:16  2 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
  1685:16  1 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)
  1685:16  0 (raise-exception _ #:continuable? _)

ice-9/boot-9.scm:1685:16: In procedure raise-exception:
dynamic linker name not known for this system "arm64-linux"

I suspect Cuirass hides this somewhat and goes on building fixed-output
derivations (i.e., source code downloads), which are system-independent,
giving this impression that it’s kinda working when it really isn’t?

HTH,
Ludo’.

Ludovic Courtès wrote on 27 Apr 2022 23:52

Recipients:(name . Mathieu Othacehe)(address . othacehe@gnu.org)

Message-ID:87k0bagpob.fsf@gnu.org

Hi,

Mathieu Othacehe <othacehe@gnu.org> skribis:

Toggle quote (10 lines)>> I've had this experience before, it's very confusing (it goes on trying
>> to build a toolchain for something that is sure to fail).  Perhaps we
>> could at least have a place to refer to in the manual for the common GNU
>> triplets which make the most sense in for GNU Guix (e.g., the currently
>> supported GNU system triplets).  Currently I grep the manual for
>> disparate examples when my memory fail me.
>
> Yes, I also cannot remember those triplets even though I'm
> cross-compiling all day long.

This bug report was about system types, not triplets, but the problem is

kinda similar and equally in need of a fix. :-)

Toggle quote (16 lines)> Maybe we could:
>
> * Define all the supported architectures in (gnu platforms). We already
>   have ARM and Hurd defined there.
>
> * Define %supported-systems and %supported-targets lists constructed by
>   parsing the <platform> records.
>
> * Use those lists to check the values passed to --system and --target
>   arguments.
>
> * Add --list-available-systems and --list-available-targets arguments
>   for all the commands supporting --system and --target arguments.
>
> WDYT?

I think it’s “nice” for ‘--target’ to accept a free-form triplet,

because users might want to target a system triplet that Guix

maintainers do not care about (we only cross-build for a handful of

triplets right now).

Based on that, I thought we could emit warnings when ‘cross-gcc’ &

co. were passed a string that doesn’t look like a valid triplet. But

then I realized that internally these procedures are passed things that

are not quite triplets: see avr.scm and embedded.scm.

So, a list of “supported” triplets like you suggest may be a good idea,

though IMO it should be used to emit a warning rather than error out.

For system types, we can probably error out to strings not in the list.

Thoughts?

Ludo’.

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