User:FlyingBlackbird

Usage

I am using a Blackbird Desktop System with an IBM Power9 v2 (= stepping DD2.3) 8-core CPU as testing infrastructure for open source projects (since Jan, 2020).

Instable hardware watchpoints in stepping DD2.2 (erratum #1: DAWR [Data Access Watchpoint Register] feature is disabled on DD2.2) was the main reason for me to wait for DD2.3 to have reliable low-level debugging available.

System configuration

Component	Brand	Model	Costs in EUR
Mainboard	Raptor	Blackbird Rev. 1.01
CPU	IBM	8-Core POWER9v2 with 3U HSF
Desktop Case	Fractal Design	Define R6 USB-C	140
Power Supply	be quiet!	Straight Power 11 (650 W)	120
RAM	Samsung (OEM by phs memory)	2 x M393A4K40CB2-CTD7Q 32 GB DDR 4 RDIMM	344
Video Card	Aspeed	AST 2500 onboard VGA	0
Optical Drive	Asus	BW-16D1HT Retail (Blu Ray Writer)	75
HDD	Seagate	IronWolf Pro 8 TB (ST8000NE0004) SATA III	300
Operating System	Ubuntu	Server 19.10	0
Total

Hardware being tested at the moment (but not yet fully successfully in the complete system due to NVMe problems when installing Linux)

• NVMe M.2 SSD together with a SATA HDD and Ubuntu 19.10 Server
  • RaidSonic ICY BOX IB-PCI214M2-HSL M.2 to PCIe adapter
  • Samsung 970 EVO Plus (M.2 with NVMe) 2 TB

Test-Status:

• Generally (independent of hardware): Ubuntu Server 19.10 Installation says:

  SQASHFS error: xz decompression failed, data probably corrupt
  SQASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x0
  SQASHFS error: Unable to read metadata cache entry [0]

• NVMe SSD is recognized but the installation seems to use the wrong device name later:

  Error: Could not stat device /dev/disk/by-id/wwn-eui.0025... - No such file or directory
  ...
  An error occured handling 'disk-nvme0n1': OSError - [Errno Failed to find device at path: %s] /dev/disk/by-id/wwn-eui.0025...
  ...
  Traceback:
  ...
  File "/snap/subiquity/1286/lib/python3.6/site-packages/curtin/commands/block_meta.py", line 182, in devsync

 TODO: Add link to workaround (sym link of by-id to nvme

TODO

Measures

Power Consumption:

• 2.2 W plugged in
• 68 W Idle
• 186 W with 100 % CPU load (testet with stress --cpu 32 -t 180s)

Temperatures:

• CPU idle: 45 degree Celsius
• CPU 100 % load: 72 degree Celsius
• DIMM 0 (32 GB ECC RAM): 44 Degree Celsius
• DIMM 1 (32 GB ECC RAM): 49 degree Celsius

Noise Level:

• Surprisingly quiet during idle and normal use (low CPU usage)
• Fans spinning fast but not too loud during 100 % CPU load (slow RPM increase and decrease, no annoying sudden changes)

Boot-up durations

• Cold boot (powered off)
  • Switching on the power supply switch: Time until the case power switch reacts to start Hostboot: 2 minutes
  • After cold boot: Time until Petitboot boot menu appears: 2 minutes
  • Booting Ubuntu 19.10 Server on a NVMe SSD: Time from Petitboot boot menu to Ubuntu lightdm login screen: 34 s
• Soft boot (powered on but switched off via the case power switch)
  • Time until the Petitboot boot menu appears: about 100 seconds
• Reboot from Ubuntu until Petitboot boot menu appears: about 4 - 10 seconds (after Ubuntu has shut down)

Summary:

• A cold start takes quite long compared x86_64 architecture (about 4,5 minutes until the Ubuntu login screen appears)
• A warm start does also take longer compared x86_64 architecture (about 2 minutes until the Ubuntu login screen appears)

Software

Ubuntu Server 19.10

• Gnome installed via tasksel command:
  • choose "Ubuntu desktop" to install Gnome