armV8 libASICamera2.a issues (again)

[Jonk2]

A while ago, I posted an issue with the compiling, due to having a 64Bit OS installed.

I've recently decided to wipe my outdoor allsky (RPi 4B 8GB) and start again.

I used the raspberry Pi imager (latest version 1.7.4) and installed a fresh 32bit default Pi OS.

All good so far.

However, using uname -a I get this:

Linux allsky 6.1.19-v8+ #1637 SMP PREEMPT Tue Mar 14 11:11:47 GMT 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Notice the Kernel is now 6.1.x aarch64.

The hardware is indeed 64 bit but the OS is not (or at least should not be).

What I'm getting at, is upon trying to compile the allsky dev branch, I am yet again faced with this error:

pi@allsky:~/allsky $ ./install.sh

****************************************
*** Welcome to the Allsky Installer! ***
****************************************

Using 'dev' branch.
* Using ZWO camera.
* Size of current swap (2048 MB) is sufficient; no change needed.
* /home/pi/allsky/tmp is currently in memory; no change needed.

The following steps can take about an HOUR depending on the speed of your Pi
and how many of the necessary dependencies are already installed.
* Installing the web server.
* Installing dependencies.
* Preparing Allsky commands.

*** ERROR:
**********
Compile failed
**********

The full log file is in /home/pi/allsky/config/installation_logs/make_all.log
The end of the file is:
/usr/bin/ld: lib/armv8/libASICamera2.a: error adding symbols: file format not recognized
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [Makefile:142: capture_ZWO] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/pi/allsky/src'
make: *** [Makefile:24: all] Error 2

It would seem like "armV8 libASICamera2.a" is either not working with the latest kernel or allsky is checking the kernel and looking to use this when it should be looking to use the arm7 version.

Am I right, or have I widely misunderstood it?

Interestingly, on another RPi4B 8GB I have, I'm using a very recent dev branch of allsky (not the latest as of today) and that compiled fine - but I 'think' this was prior to updating the kernel to the newer v6.1.x. The allsky program still runs fine on this PI and it also shows the 6.1.x kernel.

So, what to do?

[Jonk2]

Sorry, I need to be clear - the other PI that's running the dev allsky fine also had a 32Bit OS installed, and the recent fw update means that it is now also reporting aarch64. I couldn't even begin to understand why.

This could be a PI OS issue - nontheless, it's an issue that appears to be causing allsky to not compile properly.

My 2 PIs:

[EricClaeys]

@Jonk2, @ea1ii,
Would you please rename the v8 file to V8, then copy the v7 file into the v8 directory? The install should then use the copied v7 version.
If that works, then we need to fix the algorithm for determining if v6, v7, or v8 should be used.
Thanks for reporting. This would have been really bad if it made it to the general public.

@linuxkidd Michael, FYI

Eric

[remidone]

Same problem, now it works, thanks a lot!

[EricClaeys]

@remidone would you please run lscpu and let me know the results? Are you running 32 or 64-bit Bullseye?

[remidone]

I'm running 32 bit Bullseye

[EricClaeys]

@remidone thanks. This is the Pi you were having the compile issue on?

[remidone]

Yes

[Jonk2]

@EricClaeys Ok that seems to have worked, copying the v7 file into the v8 folder...

The packages are being installed now, so progress is good.

I'd like to know why a 32bit OS installed on a 64bit capable computer is showing as 64bit. Windows never does that!

[EricClaeys]

The word "Architecture" usually refers to the hardware and with your Pi the hardware is 64 bit, even if the operating system is only 32 bit. Plus, programs designed to run using 64 bits (on 64-bit OSs) often have ro be compiled differently, which I assume is why ZWO has v7 and v8, but I don't know for sure.
Thanks much for testing this. I will do some research into the (new?) proper way to determine e v7 or v8.

@Alex-developer FYI

[EricClaeys]

Would you please run lscpu on your machines?

[EricClaeys]

If that is true, would you please run uname -m on both?

[Jonk2]

Both show aach64.

[Jonk2]

@Jonk2 Jon, so both Pi's are running the exact same 32-bit Bullseye and both report aarch64 but one fails compilation and the other doesn't when they both use the v8 libASICamera2 that came with Allsky?

PI1: A fresh 32bit OS was installed prior to installing a dev allsky, so everything is new. It used to be a 32bit OS, Linux 5.7.something prior to wiping, it is now 6.1.19-v8+ aarch64 (from the 32bit OS installation). This allsky complilation failed due to it looking at v8 of the ASI library (now a known problem). Copying the v7 into the v8 folder as you suggested worked.

PI2: Was a 32bit OS, at version 5.7. something (can't remember). A version of dev allsky was installed (again, can't remember the version) which compiled and ran fine. I then ran a full os upgrade and it's now showing 6.1.19-v8+ aarch64.
Allsky dev (version unknown) continues to fine. I have not tried to compile a newer version as it will likely fail.

Make sense?

[EricClaeys]

@Jonk2 Jon, that makes sense. 32-bit Bullseye version 5.7 works fine and uname -m and lscpu returned armvl7 but in Bullseye version 6.1.19-v8+ those commands both return aarch64 which breaks Allsky compilation because aarch64 USED to mean it was the 64-bit Bullseye, and the compiler therefore tries the 64-bit version of the ZWO library (armv8) and fails.

I would expect Allsky to continue running on PI2 since 32-bit programs can run on 64-bit operating systems but not the other way around.

Please try the following:

cd ~/allsky/src
rm capture_ZWO
make capture_ZWO

I expect it will fail but Allsky uses a copy of the original file in ~/allsky/bin so will work fine.

[Jonk2]

On which PI? PI1 (fresh OS, reasonably recent dev version compiled with the copied over v7 ASI library) is outside allskying as we speak so I'd rather not touch it for now.
PI2 is inside the ROR shed running and is running a slightly older dev version. I'm happy to run a fresh dev allsky on that one to test any recent changes?

[EricClaeys]

@Jonk2 Jon, based on reading some Raspberry Pi forums, version 6.1.19, which is only available via "apt upgrade" right now, changed the reported architecture on 64-bit hardware from "armv7l" to "aarch64", which is technically more correct. It was done on a Friday and wasn't advertised ahead of time because they thought it would "have minimal impact". Thanks guys...

Would you please run getconf LONG_BIT; uname -a on ALL your Pi's and let me know the results as well as the Pi model and if the Pi is running 32-bit or 64-bit OS.

Thanks

[Jonk2]

@EricClaeys The 'working' PI has just been wiped due to a corruption following a reboot, I cannot recover it. Luckily it's the test PI so nothing lost really.

The main allsky PI outside is as follows:

pi@allsky:~ $ getconf LONG_BIT; uname -a
32
Linux allsky 6.1.19-v8+ #1637 SMP PREEMPT Tue Mar 14 11:11:47 GMT 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

This is a week old completely fresh 32Bit OS (the default option in the Pi imager) and the hardware is a PI4b 8GB (Both Pis are the same, and I'm about to install a fresh 32Bit OS on the 2nd one too.)

I won't install Allsky on the test PI just yet, I'll wait a few days for some of these bugs / issues / confusions to be sorted first.

Happy to do whatever testing is needed though on the test PI, so just let me know.

[EricClaeys]

Thanks @Jonk2. I have found a solution but it only works on the Pi. Hope to post it in a few days. It will be an updated src/Makefile so I can give it to you to test.