Marcin Juszkiewicz

Twenty five years ago, in 1996 year, I failed exam for Computer Science studies. And went for Automation and Robotics instead. Next five years were funny, tough, hard and interesting. All at once as it is with studies.

And I got access to the Internet there.

Beginning

One day during walking through university buildings I went to not visited yet corridor. There was a group of people sitting in front of some weird terminals. Turned out that those Hewlett Packard 2623A machines offer access to the Internet. All I had to do was to knock the system admins’ door, show some id and pay 10 PLN per month.

Some time later I got access to terminal. Landed in SunOS without basically any UNIX experience (I was AmigaOS user at that time). Other users gave me some hints:

• use “screen” as soon as you login
• PINE is for email
• Lynx is for web
• Pico is your editor of choice
• IRC is for chatting and you want Venom or Lice for it (popular ircii scripts)
• use exit once you finish

And I started spending time there. First weeks were tough — getting used to text interface and remembering useful commands and hints. One of most important was where to store extra files as account was 1.5 megabyte in size (with warning after crossing 1MB). Ah those /var/tmp/ or /var/news/ etc. subdirectories with everyone-can-write access :D The other was how to transfer them to floppy disks.

Terminal knowledge

None of terminals had a battery to keep configuration data. So often they were setup as 2400bps ones (if you powered it on and kept trashing Return key then SunOS finally appeared at such speed). One of things to learn was how to reconfigure it to 9600bps which meant quite “comfortable” work.

Forget about using tools like Midnight Commander — it refreshed screen too often so most of time you saw only redrawing of characters.

Also none of keys outside of alphanumeric part were usable.

If you want more info about terminal type we used then visit HP Computer Museum page about HP262x terminal family page.

Internet in dormitory

When I was starting fourth year university connected one dormitory to the Internet. Surprise, surprise I lived there (it wasn’t default one for my faculty).

During vacations I earned some good money and bought PCMCIA Ethernet card for my Amiga 1200. Oh, what change it was! No more queues to terminals. All those graphical tools and graphical web browser! And no more wondering where to go to grab files from my shell account.

All that on 14” VGA mono monitor in 720x480 resolution.

Commodore 128dcr can be online too

There were two of us in the room and only one computer. So still the problem of access existed.

One day I came out from visiting home and found out that my room mate bought Commodore 128dcr with 80 column monitor. We wired some serial cable and connected it to my Amiga. After fetching and sending some software over the wire we had 9600bps connection and 80x25 text terminal ready for use.

Oh, those moments on IRC when we said that we use 8-bit Commodore ;D Too bad that we lack any photo from that time.

Personal website

I had some kind of personal website since basically forever. First version was my Lynx bookmarks with a bunch of extra text. This was quite popular type then.

After studies my website moved between servers. Landed on some free hosting, then my friend’s server. Later on some paid space where I also had email in own domain and finally moved to self hosting in the cloud.

The oldest copy I found in the Web Archive is from July 2003. It was on different domain that current page uses. And you can still use it to get here (there are five domains pointing here).

I used several tools to maintain my page: php wiki, own code and over 16.5 years ago decided to give Wordpress a try. After over decade of using it moved to Pelican and it will stay that way for now.

Future is in mobile

I remember presentation of Nokia 9210 Communicator at some event at university. Device in your pocket with direct access to the Internet. It looked like future.

Time passed, I met people with PalmOS devices. They used Irda for data transfer with their cellphones. Then Bluetooth with newer models. Integrated GSM modems in next ones…

Cellphones got first versions of web browsers, mail apps… And all that moved faster and faster. We also started calling them smart phones.

Nowadays I have multicore device in my pocket. With screen resolution higher than many people’s monitors, more memory than computers some of my friends use at work. And close to 4 terabytes of data allowance on my prepaid sim card. Something not imaginable for 20 years younger me.

The big part of my work during last months was related to TensorFlow. We build it on Linaro CI. Resulting wheels are available on Linaro snapshots server.

Versions

When you dig there you can find those versions:

• 1.5.x
• 2.4.x
• 2.5.x
• 2.6.x
• 2.7.x (git HEAD)

How to install?

TensorFlow requires several other Python packages and some of them are not distributed as AArch64 binary wheels. For this we have Python cache repository at Linaro snapshots.

So how to install TensorFlow (2.6.0 or 2.7.0 version):

$ export PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL=https://snapshots.linaro.org/ldcg/python-cache/
$ pip install tensorflow-aarch64

And it will be done. Package is renamed from “tensorflow-cpu” as there is a plan of uploading them to Pypi. For older versions please check our snapshots server.

How do we build?

Jenkins runs shell script which then starts container, installs Ansible and then the rest of build is done using it. Playbooks, roles and shell scripts are stored in Jenkins jobs repository.

The process is quite simple — we choose which versions to build (from 1.5, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, git HEAD selection) and then Ansible loops over them. All dependencies’ versions are stored in variables file.

Whole work is done inside of “manylinux2014” container to get a way of building for wide selection of Python releases. Build covers versions from 3.6 to 3.9 one (we plan to enable 3.10 when possible) in one run.

Build times

To compare speed of several systems I have available I ran a build on each and compared to times on Linaro CI machine.

Some details:

Machine name	processor	cores	threads	memory	note
Oracle cloud A1	Altra	16	16	96	VM.Standard.A1.Flex
Linaro CI	ThunderX2	2x28	56	240	SMT disabled
SolidRun HoneyComb	LX2160	16	16	32
my work laptop	i7-8665U	4	8	32	SMT enabled
my desktop	Ryzen 5 3600	6	12	32	SMT enabled

Build time includes fetching files from network. Python packages comes from either Pypi or Linaro Python cache repository.

Procedure

Install Docker, pull manylinux2014 image, fetch script from Linaro CI job git repository, run it.

$ docker pull quay.io/pypa/manylinux2014_aarch64
$ wget https://git.linaro.org/ci/job/configs.git/plain/ldcg-python-manylinux-tensorflow/build.sh
$ mkdir BUILD
$ cd BUILD
$ export WORKSPACE=
$ time build26=true bash ../build.sh

BUILD directory created as job starts with cleaning workspace (stored in WORKSPACE variable).

Results

Machine name	build time
Oracle cloud A1	3:15:53.250
Linaro CI	1:56:15.994
SolidRun HoneyComb	7:29:01.922
my work laptop	10:01:19.044
my desktop	3:30:34.821

Comments

HoneyComb is a good system for development work. As long as there are other systems which will do hard work on building things.

ThunderX2 is a workhorse. Give it something to do and it delivers. It was also very expensive (Avantek started with 13k USD for workstation).

Oracle cloud instance used Ampere Altra cpu. Would not be surprised if it beats ThunderX2 system when more cores are used (16 cores was limit of free tier).

I used my work laptop because it was available. Did not expected much from it. But in past benchmarks it was close to my previous desktop system.

And with my desktop… It was quite cheap solution 2 years ago. Looks like price/performance is something where x86-64 is a king.

Python is my favourite language. System calls table is my favourite side project. So why not merge them?

That’s how “system-calls” Python package was born.

Why?

Mostly because I could. And thought that maybe someone else will find it useful. Also found out that it allows me to learn how to build own Python package, how Pypi uploads work etc. stuff. And I can remind myself how packaging works as having it in Debian and Fedora would be useful experience.

What it can do?

Module allows to check information about Linux system calls in several ways:

• which number system call has on architecture XYZ
• is system call supported on architecture XYZ

Code for it is quite simple:

import system_calls

syscalls = system_calls.syscalls()

for test_call in ['openat', 'osf_uadmin', 'nosuchcall']:
    try:
        print(f"System call '{test_call}' has number: {syscalls[test_call]}")
    except system_calls.NoSuchSystemCall:
        print(f"No such system call '{test_call}' on any architecture")
    except system_calls.NotSupportedSystemCall:
        print(f"System call '{test_call}' is not supported on this "
              "architecture")

Above example shows usage for host architecture. But treating “system_calls.syscalls” as dictionary does not allow to ask for data of different architecture. For such use there is “get()” method:

import system_calls

syscalls = system_calls.syscalls()

for test_call in ['openat', 'osf_uadmin', 'nosuchcall']:
    try:
        print(f"System call '{test_call}' on arm64 has number: "
              f"{syscalls.get(test_call, 'arm64')}")
    except system_calls.NoSuchSystemCall:
        print(f"No such system call '{test_call}' on any architecture")
    except system_calls.NotSupportedSystemCall:
        print(f"System call '{test_call}' is not supported on this "
              "architecture")

You can also use “get()” method for host architecture as second argument is optional.

You can find more examples in project’s repository.

Extras

There is one bonus script in this project: “syscall”. Can be used to check for information about system calls for host or any supported architecture:

$ syscall open
On x86_64 system call number 2 is open()
$ syscall open arm64
On arm64 system call open() is not supported.
$ syscall 32
On x86_64 system call number 32 is dup()
$ syscall 32 arm64
On arm64 system call number 32 is flock()
$ syscall openat mipso32
On mipso32 system call number 4288 is openat()
$ syscall open noa
Architecture noa is not supported.
$ syscall nos
There is no such system call as nos().
$

Mistakes happen

When I wrote first version I did not thought about uploading it to Pypi and sharing with other users. And when I started packaging it for Fedora I realized that I made some serious mistake.

Package is called “system-calls” but code was stored in “syscalls” directory. Fixed that in 5.15.2 version so it is now stored in “system_calls” one.

5.15.3 has all tests and examples fixed to use proper names.

If you find some other issue then please report it in project’s repository.

Packaging

Fedora 35 and above have “python3-system-calls” package available in distribution repository.

Debian users can use my private APT repository. Not decided yet do I want to became Debian Maintainer/Developer.

Today is Programmer’s Day. 13 years ago I wrote a post “Am I programmer” where I defined myself more as Developer than Programmer.

Wikipedia definition of “Programmer” says:

A computer programmer, sometimes called a software developer, a programmer or more recently a coder (especially in more informal contexts), is a person who creates computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computers or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software.

I still do not write software used directly by users — I usually build someone else’s software. But I used to do write programs and sometimes like to do something. In some programming language and I had a chance to use many of them.

BASIC

Probably most of people born in 70s started their experience with programming using BASIC on 8bit computers. If you were out of luck you could end with Commodore 64 and it’s “PET BASIC” without any way to make use of audio/video capabilities of computer.

I used Atari 65XE. First original Atari BASIC, then moved to Turbo BASIC XL (was faster and better). I wrote several programs in my teenager years. Enhanced some of them with short routines written in 6502 assembler.

Once moved to Amiga and then PC I had two times when BASIC knowledge helped. During studies one of teachers knew only GW-BASIC so we had to write programs using it. Other time was some kind of BASIC on PIC 16F84 microcontroller.

Oh, and I wrote my first 8k intro in something resembling BASIC.

Assembler

Going lower in programming stack… During Atari years I learnt a bit of MOS 6502 assembly. Once moved to Amiga had quick lesson of m68k programming. Used it to understand how “Happy New Year! 96” virus was working. Then wrote simple tool (using High Speed Pascal compiler) to kill it in all infected binaries. Some months later I got antivirus software which did it properly.

During studies we had lot of Zilog Z80 assembly. Mostly on some old controllers from some unnamed milk company (20 keys, 8 places of 7-segment display, ADC/DAC etc.). But, as I know how to drawing block diagrams, I always had beer from other students ;D One day someone brought something weird instead of Z80 code. Turned out it was 16-bit x86 code. Took me a few minutes of reading (it was simple program).

Then came first real MCU: PIC 16F84. First we programmed it in BASIC (it was weird), then C and finally assembly. Small amount of instructions, simple names — was fun to program.

I never learnt x86-64 or ARM assembly. There was no need.

LOGO

Oh, LOGO… And turtle drawings. On Atari you could have 4 (or 5) turtles drawing at same time.

I even tried to write some simple game in LOGO. But need of calling garbage collecting too often made it worthless.

It is also first language where I wrote code for someone on piece of paper. And it worked.

C/C++

Some people would split them into two, but not me. I learnt them in a way that I wrote some of my programs in pure C, some in some form of C++ etc. Depends on needs.

During studies some programs were first written in pure C on my Amiga. Then I used someone’s PC to add Windows UI to it (Borland C Builder mostly). My master thesis was kind of terrible C and I am not proud of it.

My probably most complicated application is my module player. I never released it despite spending about 13 years on it (from time to time). Used it to learn Qt programming a bit.

Pascal

I learnt Turbo Pascal in a school. A bit. Never wrote anything complex in this language. Used it few times on Amiga.

One lab during studies involved Pascal programming. I wrote code, someone reviewed it and we run it. Robot which we were supposed to control went crazy and demolished room a bit. After simple fix we repeated and all went as supposed.

During last year I played a bit with Mad-Pascal for Atari XL/XE (cross compiler runs on Windows or Linux). Maybe there will be something from it one day.

AmigaE

During my Amiga years I wanted to have some way of programming. No one from my friends had any C compiler, Pascal was not popular so I went with AmigaE.

It was strange language. Kind of Pascal, kind of C. Allowed to mix assembly with AmigaE in one file.

But compiler was fast and worked on 1MB machine (I had hard drive). All includes (called ‘modules’) were pre-compiled so building application was quick.

I used it to write several applications. Released one of them in shareware model — full copy costed 5 USD (or 5 PLN for Poland). At the end of development I had about 100 users. It paid for some of my Amiga hardware.

PHP

After studies, when I had fresh Masters in Automation and Robotics, I had to decide which way to go. Turned out that my SQL knowledge from work done during previous years can be used. Just had to learn PHP.

After 2 weeks of learning language I was at test period in one portal. And became ‘main programmer’ there. Not because I knew PHP better then the other guy. I was good at organizing work, sorting out project into steps etc. And being GNU/Linux user I had some knowledge useful to be ‘second after admin’.

I worked in few companies writing PHP code. For several customers. And after about 6 years I dropped it and went into Embedded Linux territory.

Nowadays I officially lack any knowledge of PHP language.

Python

Another “P” language… I started using Python in 2004. Right after I found OpenEmbedded as most of it’s code was (still is) Python.

So for 17 years I am repeating that “one day I will learn Python properly” :D

This is my favourite programming language. Used it in OpenEmbedded, OpenStack, this blog and countless projects. Nowadays if I have to write some script then most of time it is in Python.

Minimal version I target is still 3.6 as this is what RHEL 8 uses.

Shell

Scripts. When not in Python then in shell. Most of time I use Bash. It works, I do not use most of it’s features.

I can write scripts in plain POSIX shell. Not of fan but can. Some lessons learnt from years of working in embedded Linux area.

Perl

When “P” languages are mentioned, Perl has to be present. Never learnt it. Had to maintain some scripts in Perl in past. I even managed to make some improvements to them but no idea was it in proper way. It worked.

Forth

Reverse Polish Notation is crazy. It feels like source code written by master Yoda. I got Forth in Atari times and tried to write something. Probably never went behind ‘hello world’ ;D

Java

Never learnt. In past I found farm bot code for Ingress game. In Java. Took the code, expanded it, added several improvements. It worked fine. But became harder and harder to expand.

So I rewrote it in Python 3 and forgot about Java.

Javascript

Just no. Like PHP.

Other ones

During years of building and porting software I had a chance to write something in several less popular languages. Erlang, Haskell, Rake, Ruby etc.

Most of time it was something just a bit more complex than ‘hello world’ — to check does compiler/interpreter work.

There are moments in a life when we want to change something. So I changed place of living.

Moved out of rented flat into my own one. Still Szczecin, still suburbian part of it (I moved by about 1500 meters). Nothing fancy, plain 3 rooms but it is mine (once I pay bank’s part in next few years).

It needs some changes as I am taller than previous owners. My list of ideas to make gets longer and longer each time I see something interesting in store of someone’s home.

Server wardrobe

Previous owners left several built-in wardrobes so I decided to use one for my servers. Moved my NAS, router, HoneyComb and Mustang into top shelf with all required cabling. This way none of them occupy my desk area.

And why ‘server wardrobe’ name for it? In Polish we use ‘szafa serwerowa’ for ‘server rack’. But ‘szafa’ is also ‘wardrobe’ so that’s why :D

New desk for my office

In previous years I used a custom made desk. It was real monster — L-shaped with several shelves under. That allowed me to keep multiple systems running on/under desk (there were times when 16 ports in Ethernet switches were not enough).

But it was also heavy and hard to manipulate/move. So it went to trash.

For first days I used some table but it was not the right choice. In meantime I looked at several setups and desks to find which features to look for.

Finally ended with buying VS series 901 desk. 180x90 cm gave me a lot of space, all cables go though dedicated gap into cable organiser under desk. And there I have Ethernet switch, laptop’s docking station (and it’s power supply), power supply for my monitor, usb hubs and all cables. No more floating cables! And all that for ~100€ for used one.

Still need to buy some office storage unit with some drawers — it would go on left side of desk (where currently bathroom drawers are present). Looking through used office furniture again.

Hall of fame

On photo above you may see shelf behind my desk. I plan to organize some kind of ‘Hall of fame’ there for devices which helped with my carieer:

• Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 (got one recently from Andrea Adami)
• Atmel AT91SAM9263-EK developer board
• Applied Micro Mustang

And few other ones as I need to track where I have them first or where I can get them (anyone has spare ST NDK-15?).

Trådfri

Due to some weird location of light switches I decided to speedup a bit and move most of home lights to controllable ones. To make things easier I went into system used by one of my friends: Trådfri by Ikea.

Lights, motion sensor to get some dimmed light during night walk to toilet, remotes etc.

Summary

It is good to have own space for living. I can alter it in any way I want. Without checking will it be useful for short people.

In 1996 I started studies at Białystok University of Technology. And one of early days I found that corridor with text terminals. Some time later I joined that crowd and started using HP-2623A term with SunOS account.

And one of first applications crowd shown me was ircII (other were bash, screen, pine and ncftp). So I am IRC user for over 24 years now and this XKCD comics can be about me:

Clients

As wrote above I started with ircII. It was painful to use so quickly some scripts landed — Venom, Lice and some others. Tried Epic, Epic2000 and some other clients to finally end with Irssi. I have never been a fan of GUI based ones.

There were moments when people used CTCP VERSION to check what clients other users use. In old Amiga days I usually had it set to similar one as AmIRC one but with version bumped above whatever was released. Simple trolling for all those curious people. Nowadays it simply replies with “telnet” and there was a day when I logged to IRC server and exchanged some messages using just telnet :D

Networks

For years I was user of IRCnet. It was popular in Poland so why bother with checking other networks. But as time passed and I became more involved in FOSS projects there was a need to start using Freenode, then OFTC, Mozilla etc.

Checked how old my accounts are as it nicely show when I started using which network.

IRCnet

IRCnet was my first IRC network. Stopped using it few years ago as all channels I was on went quiet or migrated elsewhere (mostly Freenode).

For years I was visible on Amiga channels #amisia, #amigapl where I met several friends and I am in contact with many of them still.

Freenode

The journey started on 15th May 2004. This was time when I started playing with OpenEmbedded and knew that this is a project where I will spend some of my free time (it became hobby, then job).

It was a place where CentOS, Fedora, Linaro, OpenStack and several other projects were present.

NickServ- Information on Hrw (account hrw):
NickServ- Registered : Mar 15 10:59:47 2004 (17y 9w 6d ago)
NickServ- Last addr  : ~hrw@redhat/hrw
NickServ- vHost      : redhat/hrw
NickServ- Last seen  : now
NickServ- Flags      : HideMail
NickServ- *** End of Info ***

OFTC

For me OFTC means Debian. Later also virtualization stuff as QEMU and libvirt folks sit there.

NickServ- Nickname information for hrw (Marcin Juszkiewicz)
NickServ- hrw is currently online
NickServ-   Time registered: Fri 10 Jun 2011 17:43:55 +0000 (9y 11m 10d 14:47:05 ago)
NickServ- Account last quit: Tue 18 May 2021 09:07:55 +0000 (1d 23:23:05 ago)
NickServ- Last quit message: Remote host closed the connection
NickServ-         Last host: 00019652.user.oftc.net
NickServ-               URL: http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/
NickServ-      Cloak string: Not set
NickServ-          Language: English (0)
NickServ-           ENFORCE: ON
NickServ-            SECURE: OFF
NickServ-           PRIVATE: ON
NickServ-             CLOAK: ON
NickServ-          VERIFIED: YES

Libera

And since yesterday I am on Libera as well.

NickServ- Information on hrw (account hrw):
NickServ- Registered : May 19 15:26:18 2021 +0000 (17h 32m 35s ago)
NickServ- Last seen  : now
NickServ- Flags      : HideMail, Private
NickServ- *** End of Info ***

What next?

I saw and used several instant messaging platforms. All of them were younger than IRC. Many of them are no longer popular, several are no longer existing. IRC survived so I continue to use it.

During last months I had several discussions about buying a new computer. Helped few friends with choosing setup etc. And several of them were surprised when I told that I never bought ‘a new computer’.

8-bit era

My first computer was Atari 65XE which my parents bought as a new computer. I learnt BASIC, tried few other programming languages (Forth anyone?) and played games. But it was not platform for long use.

Amiiiiga!

Two years later I earned money collecting berries in Swedish forests and bought my first computer — used Amiga 600. And two weeks later added 425MB hard disk inside. Nice improvement, still same 12” green monitor. More programming, less games. Demoscene watching started.

Time passed, I sold A600 and bought used Amiga 1200 instead. Same hdd and monitor (also same mouse as I liked old one more). Then some CPU accelerator card, then another, new ATA controller, new hdd, used cd-rom drive and used 14” VGA mono monitor.

AmigaOS was great operating system but platform was dying, hardware was expensive and slow, no new software.

Let move to PC

Year 2000 was moment when I decided to abandon AmigaOS and bought a PC. Which reused hdd, cd-rom and monitor. In some sense it was a new computer but still kept something from previous system. In next years some minor/major upgrades happened.

In 2006 I switched architecture of my desktop system. From x86 to x86-64. In as cheap as possible way. It was time when embedded Linux was starting to not be “just a hobby”.

Years passed, processors, mainboards, memory amount, storage, cases, expansion cards, monitors etc. were changing. But still there was no point of ‘ok, let me buy whole new computer’ as most of components were reused.

Do laptops count?

There were several laptops in meantime. One of them (Asus UL30A) was even brand new. But, contrary to other users, I use laptops only during travels — at home they usually sit connected to power and sometimes are used as headless build machine (as I tend to use different Linux distribution than my desktop there).

Arm?

And none of Arm systems I use count. I bought Sharp Zaurus SL-5500A (no longer own), Nokia N810 tablet and some small board computers like Wandboard (sold), Raspberry/Pi 3 (sold) or RockPro64. Android devices do not count either.

Summary

Who knows, maybe one day I will buy a new computer. Whole one — case, mainboard, processor, memory, storage, graphics. Or something NUC like.

Just there is nothing interesting so far to make such buy. Or I am not lazy enough to just buy whole workstation instead of building it on my own ;D

Two weeks ago I wrote on Twitter:

Is there some company with spare AArch64 CPU cycles?

Opendev (project behind OpenStack and some more) would make use of another aarch64 server offer.

Current one is iirc paid by @Arm, hosted by @equinixmetal and operated by @LinaroOrg.

Why I did that? Maybe frustration, maybe burnout. Hard to tell. But I did. Without targeting any Arm related company as I did not wanted to force anyone to do anything.

Response

A few hours later I got an email from Peter Pouliot from Ampere Computing. With information that they provided hardware to Oregon State University Open Source Lab (OSUOSL in short) and that we may get nodes there.

As I have no idea how exactly Opendev infrastructure works I added Kevin Zhao to the list. He is Linaro employee working on all instances of Linaro Developer Cloud and he maintained all AArch64 resources provided to Opendev.

Process

Kevin added Opendev infra admins: Clark Boylan and Ian Wienand. Peter added Lance Alberson from OSUOSL. I was just one of addresses in emails looking how things go.

And it went nice. If was pleasure to read how it goes. Two days, 8 emails, arrangements were made. Then changes to Opendev infrastructure configuration followed and week later ‘linaro-us’ was not the only provider of AArch64 nodes.

Result

Opendev has two providers of AArch64 nodes now:

• linaro-us-regionone
• osuosl-regionone

First one is paid by Arm Ltd, hosted at Equinix Metal (formerly Packet) and operated by Kevin Zhao from Linaro.

Second one runs on Ampere provided hardware and is operated by OSUOSL admins.

‘check-arm64’ pipeline on Opendev CI gets less clogged. And I hope that more and more projects will use it to test their code not only on x86-64 ;D