Development:Setting up FEX

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Revision as of 05:32, 10 October 2021 by Sonicadvance1 (talk | contribs)
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Build dependencies

  • git
  • cmake
  • ninja-build
  • ccache (Recommended if you're rebuilding constantly)
  • clang
  • lld (For ThinLTO)
  • binfmt-support (For AArch64 binfmt_misc support)
  • libsdl2-dev (For GUI)
  • libepoxy-dev (For GUI)
  • g++-x86-64-linux-gnu (For building thunks)
  • nasm (only if building tests)
  • python3-clang (for struct verifier)
  • libstdc++-10-dev-i386-cross (for struct verifier)
  • libstdc++-10-dev-amd64-cross (for struct verifier)
  • squashfs-tools (For squashfs rootfs support)

Build Configuration

  • Ensure release mode is enabled
  • Disable static pie
    • Bug with glibc means static-pie needs to be disabled for thunks to work.
    • This is necessary for chroot and pressure-vessel, but is currently incompatible with thunks
    • If using LLD then you need at least LLD 13.0
    • If using LLD then you need at least glibc 2.35
    • Recommendation: Disable LLD, use binutils ld
  • Enable LTO - Currently bugged in some configurations
    • Disable if enabling static-pie
  • Disable test building

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/FEX-Emu/FEX.git

cd FEX

mkdir Build

cd Build

CC=clang CXX=clang++ cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DENABLE_LTO=False -DENABLE_STATIC_PIE=False -DBUILD_TESTS=False -DENABLE_ASSERTIONS=False -G Ninja ..

ninja

Installation

sudo ninja install

On AArch64 hosts

You can install a binfmt_misc handler for both 32bit and 64bit x86 execution directly from the environment. If you already have box86's 32bit binfmt_misc handler installed then I don't recommend installing FEX's until it is useful. Make sure to have run install prior to this, otherwise binfmt_misc will install an old handler even if the executable has been updated.

sudo ninja binfmt_misc_32

sudo ninja binfmt_misc_64

binfmt_misc problems

  • Double check that binfmt_misc has worked
    • `ls /usr/share/binfmts/FEX*` should return files
    • `ls /var/lib/binfmts/FEX*` should return files
    • `/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/status` should exist
      • If it doesn't exist then make sure your kernel has `CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC=y`
      • If it still doesn't exist then make sure systemd isn't disabling it `systemctl enable binfmt-support`

Runtime Configuration

FEXConfig is the application to use for runtime configuration setup.

CTRL+SHIFT+O will open default "global" configuration.

CTLR+S saves it.

Things to ensure to set

On AArch64 host, a rootfs path is mandatory, while it is optional on x86-64 host

  • Core: JIT
  • RootFS
  • Silent Logging (Useful to get FEX information spam out of the way)
  • Block Size (500 is a good default. Optimization passes may break things though)
  • Multiblock: enabled (Can cause more stuttering)
  • Emulated CPU Cores: 1 (threading bugs cause issues with more)

RootFS generation

AArch64 hosts require a rootfs for running applications Follow the instructions here https://wiki.fex-emu.org/index.php/Development:Setting_up_RootFS

Installing Thunks

Only if you want

Follow the instructions here: https://wiki.fex-emu.org/index.php/Development:Setting_up_Thunks

Additional details here: https://github.com/FEX-Emu/FEX/blob/main/ThunkLibs/README.md

Binaries

  • FEXLoader
    • This is useful for development purposes but is generally recommended against using.
    • Allows passing arguments to FEX for configuration purposes, which can break under some execve situations
  • FEXInterpreter
    • This is a hardlink to FEXLoader which refuses to treat arguments as configuration options
    • Is recommended to use over FEXLoader; Using FEXConfig to set configuration
    • Requires being a hardlink or executable copy, execve logic sees through a softlink
    • Is the executable used for binfmt_misc for interpreters
  • FEXConfig
    • Used for setting configuration options from a GUI
    • Written using Dear ImGui
    • Can load/save global configuration and application configuration files
    • Application configuration files are compared against the executable filename
  • FEXMountDaemon
    • This is a mount daemon that will run in the background when you are using a squashfs based rootfs
    • Usually one one instance open at any given moment
    • It usually closes when the FEXInterpreter exits, but not always. See the problems section in setting up a rootfs
      • Has a ten second timeout window in case a another instance of FEX opens and uses it.

Debug binaries

  • TestHarnessRunner
    • Used for running FEX's ASM unit tests
    • Runs some binary in a host x86_64 host environment or FEX and checks results
    • Useful for quickly creating ASM based unit tests
  • IRLoader
    • Used for running FEX's IR based unit tests
    • Only runs through FEX and checks the results
    • Minimal number of tests
  • UnitTestGenerator
    • This is supposed to be an x86-64 instruction generator
    • Has an understanding of x86-64 instruction encoding format
    • Generates hundreds of thousands of instructions
    • Used to be used with a lockstep runner to ensure correct behaviour
    • Largely unsupported, avoiding undefined behaviour is difficult and FEX doesn't need to match undefined behaviour
    • Lockstep hostrunner wasn't ever made to be bug free, hard to support
    • Doesn't ensure correct behaviour on AArch64 device
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