bug#67535: ci.guix.gnu.org 'Cannot allocate memory' while building for i686-linux

bug#67535: ci.guix.gnu.org 'Cannot allocate memory' while building for i686-linux

[Leo Famulari]

I see that ci.guix.gnu.org's builders seem to run out of memory while
building kernel headers for i686-linux:

------
xz: (stdin): Cannot allocate memory
/gnu/store/ns71xxkb3fzr37934bim9l8xiv68kc7w-tar-1.34/bin/tar: /gnu/store/536ifp75wv8i1kb1k0szv7zd57ygpg0n-linux-libre-6.5.13-guix.tar.xz: Wrote only 2048 of 10240 bytes
/gnu/store/ns71xxkb3fzr37934bim9l8xiv68kc7w-tar-1.34/bin/tar: Child returned status 1
/gnu/store/ns71xxkb3fzr37934bim9l8xiv68kc7w-tar-1.34/bin/tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
------

https://ci.guix.gnu.org/build/2736161/details

bug#67535: ci.guix.gnu.org 'Cannot allocate memory' while building for i686-linux

[Efraim Flashner]

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On Wed, Nov 29, 2023 at 03:55:15PM -0500, Leo Famulari wrote:
> I see that ci.guix.gnu.org's builders seem to run out of memory while
> building kernel headers for i686-linux:
> 
> ------
> xz: (stdin): Cannot allocate memory
> /gnu/store/ns71xxkb3fzr37934bim9l8xiv68kc7w-tar-1.34/bin/tar: /gnu/store/536ifp75wv8i1kb1k0szv7zd57ygpg0n-linux-libre-6.5.13-guix.tar.xz: Wrote only 2048 of 10240 bytes
> /gnu/store/ns71xxkb3fzr37934bim9l8xiv68kc7w-tar-1.34/bin/tar: Child returned status 1
> /gnu/store/ns71xxkb3fzr37934bim9l8xiv68kc7w-tar-1.34/bin/tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
> ------
> 
> https://ci.guix.gnu.org/build/2736161/details

This looks like more of the too-many-cores while decompressing tarballs
issues we've had in the past on i686-linux.  Can we change that phase to
use a maximum of 4 cores or would that cause everything to rebuild?

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bug#67535: Does anyone use i686-linux? [was Re: bug#67535: ci.guix.gnu.org 'Cannot allocate memory' while building for i686-linux]

[André Batista]

Hi!

seg 29 jul 2024 às 14:33:59 (1722274439), rekado@elephly.net enviou:
> Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il> writes:
> 
> > On Fri, Jul 26, 2024 at 02:51:49PM -0400, Leo Famulari wrote:
> >> For a long time we've not been able to build linux-libre on i686-linux
> >> because the source unpacking process runs out of memory.
> >
> > I believe if we limit the unpacking process to not more than 8 cores we
> > can avoid that problem.
> >
> >> I'm forwarding this bug to guix-devel to get more attention.
> >> 
> >> Is anybody actually using i686-linux anymore? Or should we begin to
> >> officially remove support for it?
> >
> > Keeping this to i686-linux specifically, what generation of hardware
> > supports i686 but not x86_64? Some (very) quick checking on wikipedia
> > suggests that the x60 from 2006 was either 32-bit or 64-bit, and I
> > believe there was an atom chip from 2015 that was 32-bit. Specifically,
> > that makes the newest hardware (at least from the CPU perspective) 10
> > years old at least.
> 
> FWIW, I'm using one of those Atom chips in a netbook for an installation
> of Sugar Desktop.  I upgrade it every few months or so.  If I'm the only
> user of i686-linux I would not want to condemn the project to supporting
> the architecture for my sake.

For the record, I'm another one still using those atom netbooks. Most
software that I use on that machine still builds and runs fine, with the
occasional hiccup.

But even though I use the arch, I also don't feel particularly inclined
to fix the occasional errors and can understand if people here decide to
drop support to it.

bug#67535: Does anyone use i686-linux? [was Re: bug#67535: ci.guix.gnu.org 'Cannot allocate memory' while building for i686-linux]

[Leo Famulari]

On Tue, Jul 30, 2024 at 06:02:23PM -0300, André Batista wrote:
> seg 29 jul 2024 às 14:33:59 (1722274439), rekado@elephly.net enviou:
> > FWIW, I'm using one of those Atom chips in a netbook for an installation
> > of Sugar Desktop.  I upgrade it every few months or so.  If I'm the only
> > user of i686-linux I would not want to condemn the project to supporting
> > the architecture for my sake.
> 
> For the record, I'm another one still using those atom netbooks. Most
> software that I use on that machine still builds and runs fine, with the
> occasional hiccup.
> 
> But even though I use the arch, I also don't feel particularly inclined
> to fix the occasional errors and can understand if people here decide to
> drop support to it.

Thanks for chiming in Ricardo and André. Do you build your own kernels
for these machines? Or wait for the occasional successful build from CI?
Download substitutes from a different build farm?

bug#67535: Does anyone use i686-linux? [was Re: bug#67535: ci.guix.gnu.org 'Cannot allocate memory' while building for i686-linux]

[André Batista]

Hi

qui 01 ago 2024 às 16:12:18 (1722539538), leo@famulari.name enviou:
> On Tue, Jul 30, 2024 at 06:02:23PM -0300, André Batista wrote:
> > seg 29 jul 2024 às 14:33:59 (1722274439), rekado@elephly.net enviou:
> > > FWIW, I'm using one of those Atom chips in a netbook for an installation
> > > of Sugar Desktop.  I upgrade it every few months or so.  If I'm the only
> > > user of i686-linux I would not want to condemn the project to supporting
> > > the architecture for my sake.
> > 
> > For the record, I'm another one still using those atom netbooks. Most
> > software that I use on that machine still builds and runs fine, with the
> > occasional hiccup.
> > 
> > But even though I use the arch, I also don't feel particularly inclined
> > to fix the occasional errors and can understand if people here decide to
> > drop support to it.
> 
> Thanks for chiming in Ricardo and André. Do you build your own kernels
> for these machines? Or wait for the occasional successful build from CI?
> Download substitutes from a different build farm?

I build my own kernels tailored for that machine so I did not notice that
substitutes were not available. I usually keep pace with whatever is the
latest stable kernel until it goes eol or, if it is a lts, until the
latest stable reaches x.x.3 or x.x.4 minor version. Currently it is on
v. 6.9.12.

I've not had any issues building kernels to it in a long time, but I do
use two local offload builders that are x84_64. None of them have more
than 8 cores though.