e2645255f5
The stalled loader thread is a lost wakeup in Xenia's POSIX threading, fixed on the canary branch as a60fe7d11 and written up here. A thread created suspended publishes state_ and suspend_count_ in two separate lock scopes, and Resume() waits only for state_ before testing suspend_count_ == 0 - so a resumer in the gap drops the resume and the thread waits forever. The Linux XThread::Resume discards that false, which is why the guest saw success. On the first clean boot after the fix the loader thread is the CALLER on 20 kernel-call lines and issues 4 ResolvePath reads. Every failed boot before it had exactly zero of both. Stated plainly as not shown: that boots now reach the menu RELIABLY. One post-fix boot, and it is confounded by the harness. Which is the second half. skip_intro.sh's title test has now been wrong twice in opposite directions: originally one absolute pixel (625,618) - a 1280x720 coordinate against the 1279x675 game surface, so it read the copyright line and timed out with the title on screen - and then my replacement, screen_id.py, which is too loose and called the SQUARE ENIX publisher logo "title" 151s into a boot, spending the script's single press there. is_title.py now counts the green (A) glyph over the whole frame: geometry-independent and specific, measured at 0 pixels on the logo and 1520 on a real title.
Runtime-capture harness (sylph-re container)
Screenshot-driven scripts for reading the running retail game's menus under Xenia
Canary + lavapipe, headless. They assume the container helpers screenshot,
vgamepad, pad are on $PATH and HOME=/sylph-home/re.
| Script | What it does |
|---|---|
skip_intro.sh |
Boot → main menu, unattended. Taps A only while the intro movie is actually playing (frame-to-frame RMSE), then once at the PRESS Ⓐ BUTTON title. Static logo screens are left alone, so a stray tap can never land on NEW GAME. |
wait_title.sh |
Older variant: wait for the title (green Ⓐ glyph at px 625,618) and tap A. Superseded by skip_intro.sh. |
step.sh |
One Arsenal navigation step (down/up/next/prev/none) + a compact capture: weapon list stacked over the DATA SHEET. |
sweep.sh |
Walk a whole weapon-type list, capturing only rows that show a DATA SHEET — locked rows (a "Conditions to Develop" panel) are detected by the brightness of the Range Class label box and skipped. |
type.sh |
Change weapon-type tab N times (RB) and report the header strip. |
hp.sh / cyc.sh |
Hangar hard-point carousel: cyc.sh steps it (d-pad down, not left/right) and captures the Name + DATA SHEET. |
Input timing under lavapipe: the game polls input at its own low frame rate, so a 60 ms d-pad tap is dropped roughly half the time. 200 ms is reliable; 300 ms starts to auto-repeat (two rows per press).
Findings produced with these: docs/re/weapon-datasheet-runtime.md.
Guest-memory tools (no screenshots)
| Script | What it does |
|---|---|
gmem.py |
Read the live guest address space out of /dev/shm/xenia_memory_* (Xenia's backing file), addressed by guest VA. find / read / words. |
weapon_runtime.py |
Solve the Weapon/Shell struct layouts against the disc records and read the fields the disc defaults. |
unit_discover.py |
Find which runtime class carries a set of ID strings, assuming no vtable: tallies the word at pointer_site - k across distinct IDs. |
unit_runtime.py |
Same solver for the unit\UN_*.tbl definition objects (vtable 0x820af844). Unions several snapshots — unit definitions are per-stage. |
schema_order.py |
Merge a sub-record's field-declaration order across all tables (topological sort); the layout check that pins fields no table ever values. |
order_check.py |
Test offset = base + 4*index for one table's sub-record against solver output. |
grab_tutorial.sh |
Cold-boot Canary, walk to the Nth TUTORIAL entry, wait for the stage load, snapshot guest RAM. One emulator per capture — backing out of a loaded mission wedges it. |
Snapshot first — cp --sparse=always /dev/shm/xenia_memory_* snap.bin (~2 s) — and
point $GMEM_FILE at the copy; the running emulator pegs every core under lavapipe.