Linux PPC64 regression tests of Jikes RVM CVS head

Software Development

For the time being Linux PPC64 regression tests of Jikes RVM CVS head will be started manually. I plan on doing this at least once a week.

The need for this arises from the fact that for some reason the host IBM Java SDK crashes during the build process if regression tests start as a cron job:

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(built utility_kludge.jar) \
/opt/IBMJava2-ppc-141/bin/java \
   -Xbootclasspath/p:/opt/regression/powerpc... -Xbootclasspath/a:/opt/regression/powerpc64-... \
        -Xmx400M \
   -classpath /opt/regression/powerpc64-unkn... \
   -Djava.security.policy=rvm.security \
     \
   BootImageWriter\
   -classpath /opt/regression/powerpc64-unkn... \
   -n /opt/regression/powerpc64-unknown-linux-gnu/nightShadow/images/production/RVM.primordials \
   -o /opt/regression/powerpc64-unknown-linux-gnu/nightShadow/images/production/RVM.image \
    \
   -demographics  -m /opt/regression/powerpc64-unknown-linux-gnu/nightShadow/images/production/RVM.map \
   -ia 0x31000000
JVMXM008: Error occured while initialising System ClassException in thread "main" Could not create the Java virtual machine.
make: *** [/opt/regression/powerpc64-unknown-linux-gnu/nightShadow/images/production/RVM.image] Error 1
make: Leaving directory `/opt/regression/powerpc64-unknown-linux-gnu/nightShadow/rvm/src/tools/bootImageWriter'
jbuild.linkImage: Exiting unexpectedly with status 2.
jbuild.linkImage: Cleaning up...
jbuild.linkImage: ...cleaned up.
69 s
jbuild: Trouble while running "./jbuild.linkImage -demographics"
     (exit status 2); aborting execution

I’ve tried changing environmental variables of the cron job so they look exactly like those of a regular account, but it didn’t help.

The problem may have something to do with the 64-bit version of PPC Linux we have. It is one of the first pre-releases of 64-bit Yellow Dog Linux, which has a bunch of custom workarounds and kludges, including a custom-patched kernel 2.6.1

The long term solution I’d like to try is installing the latest Fedora Core 4, which does have 64-bit PPC kernel, and running the regression tests on top of that.