Guide to run commands/tests on a IBM Power9 using systemsim(mambo) from your Laptop using op-test and buildroot

Env Used:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz
Fedora 31(5.3.7-301.fc31.x86_64)

Pre-requisite:

Install packages needed for cross compilation

For Ubuntu env:
    apt-get install gcc-powerpc64le-linux-gnu gcc valgrind \
    expect libssl-dev device-tree-compiler make \
    xz-utils
For Fedora env:
    dnf install gcc-powerpc64le-linux-gnu \
    binutils-powerpc64-linux-gnu gcc make diffutils findutils \
    expect valgrind-devel dtc openssl-devel xz

How to:

Clone skiboot, Cross compile and get skiboot.lid.

Clone linux kernel, Cross compile and get vmlinux.

 ARCH=powerpc CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc64le-linux-gnu- make ppc64le_defconfig
 ARCH=powerpc CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc64le-linux-gnu- make -j `nproc`

Clone buildroot, Compile and get rootfs image.
- run ‘make menuconfig’.
- Choose
  
  Target options —> Target Architecture (PowerPC64 (little endian)) Target Architecture Variant (power8)
  
  Filesystem images —> cpio the root filesystem (for use as an initial RAM filesystem)`
  
  and other packages you would need.
- run make.
- Find root filesystem in output/images(rootfs.cpio).
Install systemsim(mambo) rpm for power9 and check for systemsim(mambo) binary for power9 under /opt/ibm/systemsim-p9/run/p9/.

Create op-test config to run OpTestMamboBuildRoot test, same test can modified to run different commands inside power9 host systemsim.

 $cat mambo_p9.cfg
 [op-test]
 bmc_type=mambo
 mambo_binary=/opt/ibm/systemsim-p9/run/p9/power9;5dc2cbf4
 flash_skiboot=/home/satheesh/github/skiboot/skiboot.lid
 flash_kernel=/home/satheesh/github/linux/vmlinux
 flash_initramfs=/home/satheesh/github/buildroot/output/rootfs.cpio
 host_user=root
 host_password=

Run OpTestMamboBuildRoot test, which executes cat /proc/interrupts and cat /proc/cpuinfo inside a power9 host systemsim(mambo) env as shown below.

 $./op-test -c mambo_p9.cfg --run testcases.OpTestMamboBuildRoot.OpTestMamboBuildRoot

 ...
 ...
 runTest (testcases.OpTestMamboBuildRoot.OpTestMamboBuildRoot) ... Using initial run script skiboot.tcl
 No network support selected^M
 INFO: 0: (0): !!!!!! Simulator now in TURBO mode !!!!!!
 [    0.000170223,5] OPAL v6.5-86-g1c282887 starting...^M
 [    0.000176398,7] initial console log level: memory 7, driver 5^M
 [    0.000181940,6] CPU: P9 generation processor (max 4 threads/core)^M
 [    0.000187332,7] CPU: Boot CPU PIR is 0x0000 PVR is 0x004e1200^M
 [    0.000194047,7] OPAL table: 0x30113630 .. 0x30113ba0, branch table: 0x30002000^M
 [    0.000202048,7] Assigning physical memory map table for nimbus^M
 [    0.000208137,7] FDT: Parsing fdt @0x1f00000^M
 [    0.001023665,5] Enabling Mambo console^M
 [    0.001027953,5] CHIP: Detected Mambo simulator^M
 [    0.001096322,5] CHIP: Chip ID 0000 type: P9N DD2.30^M
 [    0.001346958,5] PLAT: Detected Mambo platform^M
 [    0.001558571,5] CPU: All 1 processors called in...^M
 [    0.001600800,3] SBE: Master chip ID not found.^M
 [    0.001767201,3] NVRAM: Partition at offset 0x0 has incorrect 0 length^M
 [    0.001773195,3] NVRAM: Re-initializing (size: 0x00040000)^M
 [    0.001935098,5] STB: secure boot not supported^M
 [    0.001943298,5] STB: trusted boot not supported^M
 [    0.002078002,4] FLASH: Can't load resource id:0. No system flash found^M
 [    0.002095952,4] FLASH: Can't load resource id:1. No system flash found^M

 ...
 ...
 [console-expect]#lsprop /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/ibm,firmware-versions
 lsprop /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/ibm,firmware-versions
 -sh: lsprop: not found^M^M
 [console-expect]#
 date
 which whoami && whoami

 [console-expect]#date
 which whoami && whoami
 Tue Nov 19 07:03:56 UTC 2019^M^M
 [console-expect]#/usr/bin/whoami^M^M
 root^M^M
 [console-expect]#echo $?
 echo $?
 0^M^M
 [console-expect]#stty -echo
 stty -echo
 [console-expect]#echo $?
 echo $?
 0^M^M
 [console-expect]#uname -a
 uname -a
 Linux buildroot 5.3.0-rc7 #1 SMP Wed Sep 4 14:34:53 IST 2019 ppc64le GNU/Linux^M^M
 [console-expect]#echo $?
 echo $?
 0^M^M
 [console-expect]#cat /proc/cpuinfo
 cat /proc/cpuinfo
 processor	: 0^M^M
 cpu		: POWER9, altivec supported^M^M
 clock		: 512.000000MHz^M^M
 revision	: 2.0 (pvr 004e 1200)^M^M
 ^M^M
 timebase	: 512000000^M^M
 platform	: PowerNV^M^M
 model		: Mambo,Simulated-System^M^M
 machine		: PowerNV Mambo,Simulated-System^M^M
 firmware	: OPAL^M^M
 MMU		: Radix^M^M
 [console-expect]#echo $?
 echo $?
 0^M^M
 [console-expect]#cat /proc/interrupts
 cat /proc/interrupts
            CPU0       ^M^M
  16:          0      XICS   2 Edge      IPI^M^M
  17:          0  OPAL EVT  11 Level     opal-msg^M^M
  18:         21  OPAL EVT   4 Edge      hvc_console^M^M
 LOC:      33666   Local timer interrupts for timer event device^M^M
 BCT:          0   Broadcast timer interrupts for timer event device^M^M
 LOC:          0   Local timer interrupts for others^M^M
 SPU:          0   Spurious interrupts^M^M
 PMI:          0   Performance monitoring interrupts^M^M
 MCE:          0   Machine check exceptions^M^M
 HMI:          0   Hypervisor Maintenance Interrupts^M^M
 NMI:          0   System Reset interrupts^M^M
 WDG:          7   Watchdog soft-NMI interrupts^M^M
 DBL:          0   Doorbell interrupts^M^M
 [console-expect]#echo $?
 echo $?
 0^M^M
 ok

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Ran 1 test in 28.541s

 OK

Thanks for Reading…, Hope this blog helps you in someways :-)