ed9a7d702d
Direct follow-through on this session's own named next step. The prior result (f1-held-down-measured-no-repeat-via-file-driver.md) concluded the file driver cannot show menu repeat because its GetKeystroke() never emits a REPEAT-flagged event, and that the menu's repeat is very likely driven by that flag rather than raw polled state. Testable, so tested: patched /canary/src/xenia/hid/file/file_input_driver.h to add opt-in repeat behind a new --pad_file_repeat cvar (off by default, every other scripted script unaffected), using the SDL driver's own constants verbatim (HID_SDL_REPEAT_DELAY/_RATE = 400/100, guest-time ms via Clock::QueryGuestUptimeMillis) rather than re-deriving them. Incremental rebuild, ~1 minute (only xenia_main.cc needed recompiling). Control: the driver's own log confirms repeated keystroke events fire as designed, zero crashes. Result: re-ran the identical held-DOWN capture. The cursor that moved once and stopped in the null result now cycles continuously through the whole 5-item menu, wrapping, for as long as the button is held -- the null result was real for that driver path, and giving the driver the one thing it lacked reverses it completely. Measured at this run's achieved 29.87 fps guest rate: 12 frames (~402ms) initial delay from the press-triggered step to the first repeat step; 4 frames (~133ms) steady-state interval for 13 of 15 gaps, 3 frames (~100ms) for the other 2 -- slower than the raw 100ms constant driving it, which this page flags but does not trace further (most likely the game batches drained keystrokes per its own frame tick rather than reacting to each one instantly). The 4-frame figure is what matters for the port: it's what the cursor visibly does. Honestly scoped: this measures what the game does when FED repeat events shaped like the SDL driver's, not a capture through an actual physical controller (none exists in this container) -- classified measured, not decoded, for exactly that reason. One run only; the corpus's two-run minimum isn't met, flagged rather than overclaimed. f1_hold_capture.py gains an optional `repeat` argument. The Canary source patch itself lives in /canary, outside this repo (Canary source, not sylpheed-formats) -- fully described inline in the finding doc so it can be reapplied if that tree doesn't persist across a container reset. Reference data: docs/re/data/f1-repeat-cursor-transitions.tsv -- every transition's frame, guest tick and Y position, not the raw draw log.
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.
🔴 pgrep -f / pkill -f match YOUR OWN shell
An agent driving this toolkit runs its commands through a wrapper shell whose command line contains the pattern being searched for. So
pgrep -f 'pilot\.py' # matches the wrapper running this very command
pkill -f 'fly_session|pilot\.py' # kills that wrapper — the script dies mid-way
This has cost four separate mistakes in one session: two scripts killed
mid-execution, and twice a "is it already running?" guard that answered yes
because it had found itself. The [p]ilot bracket trick does not help when
the literal invocation (python3 pilot.py …) also appears on the wrapper's
command line.
What works:
pgrep -x xenia_canary # exact NAME match, no -f
ps -eo pid,args | grep 'python3 pilot.py' | grep -v snapshot-bash
kill -9 <explicit pid> # look it up first, then kill by pid
The snapshot-bash filter is the reliable tell: the wrapper's command line
always contains the shell-snapshot path.
🔴 The emulator does not survive the end of an agent turn
/work/.claude/settings.json defines a Stop hook that kill -9s every
xenia_canary when a turn ends, printing "Stop hook killed N stale xenia
process(es)".
So:
- never launch a run intending to read it in a later turn — it will be dead;
- an experiment has to produce its evidence within the turn that starts it;
- prefer measurements that land in the first minutes of flight.
REMAINING OBsteps4 → 8 → 12inside the first few minutes, which is why a two-pass differential works in one turn while a 25-minute freeze watch does not.
This cost three iterations of investigating a "mysterious external SIGKILL", complete with cgroup and host memory forensics, before the hook was found. When a process dies at a session boundary, check the harness first.