re: confirmed — the probe was causing the guest stalls

The control needed no new decoding: hunting pilot, keep-out 1400, 300 s, and no
memory probe at all, judged only from the pilot's own log. It ran healthy the
whole way -- 211, 257, 250, 241 and 200 distinct speed values in successive 60 s
windows, with no decline in the last one -- against probed runs that stalled at
roughly 27, 83 and 255 s and ended with a single distinct speed across 400 lines.

So the instrument was degrading the thing it measured. AGENT.md warned that a
full scan competes with the emulator for every core under lavapipe, and the
probes grew heavier each iteration until wave6 was reading the entire 32 MB
entity heap plus about 300 extra preads every 12 seconds while the game
rendered.

The control is n=1. The contrast is stark and the mechanism was predicted in
advance, so this is recorded as confirmed enough to act on rather than proven; a
second clean control would settle it.

What it costs is worth stating plainly. Every "no arrival" result so far was
collected while the probe was running, under conditions the game was struggling
with and in some runs after it had frozen. That does not make them wrong -- the
elimination test at t=163 s sits in a window the witness later showed was live --
but none of them is as strong as written, and the arrival question deserves
re-running with cheap sampling before silence is read as evidence.

wave7_probe.py is the fix: one full enumeration, then polling only the hull word
at each known craft base, about 1.2 KB per sample instead of 32 MB, with a full
rescan every 90 s to catch anything genuinely new. Three or four heavy scans per
run instead of twenty-five. Implemented but not yet run, so the claim that it
stops the stalling is untested and the next run must report the witness first.
This commit is contained in:
Sylpheed RE agent
2026-08-24 16:13:04 +00:00
parent 120a8ee50c
commit f92d60483a
5 changed files with 214 additions and 3 deletions

View File

@@ -402,9 +402,17 @@ search cannot find a *schedule*.
long runs stalled at ~255 s, 83 s and **~27 s**. 🟡 **Leading suspect: the probe
itself** — it reads the whole 32 MB heap plus ~300 `pread`s every 12 s while
lavapipe renders, and AGENT.md warns a full scan competes for every core.
**Next: run the pilot 300 s with NO probe**, judge from its log alone; if it
does not stall, the instrument is degrading what it measures and sampling must
get much cheaper. ❔ Multi-squadron threshold test did not run (zero losses).
**CONFIRMED (2026-08-24): the probe was causing the stalls.** The no-probe
control ran **300 s clean** — 211/257/250/241/200 distinct speeds per 60 s
window, no decline — against probed runs stalling at 27/83/255 s and ending on
**1** distinct speed. The instrument was degrading what it measured, exactly as
AGENT.md warned. Control is **n=1**: acted on, not proven.
⚠️ **Consequence: every "no arrival" result was collected under a struggling or
frozen guest** — none is as strong as written, and the arrival question needs
re-running with cheap sampling before silence means anything.
✅ Fix written: `wave7_probe.py` enumerates once then polls only the hull word
per known craft (~1.2 KB/sample vs 32 MB), full rescan every 90 s — **not yet
run**. ❔ Multi-squadron threshold test still not run (zero losses that run).
⚠️ The ~210 s title movie at boot is the binding constraint on observable game
time per turn.
Earlier framing:

View File

@@ -71,3 +71,57 @@ only the craft bases already located rather than rescanning).
The multi-squadron kill-threshold test did not run: the guest froze before the
pilot destroyed anything, so there were zero losses and nothing to threshold.
---
# ✅ Confirmed: the probe was causing the stalls (2026-08-24)
The control needed no new decoding — hunting pilot, `SYLPH_KEEPOUT=1400`, 300 s,
and **no memory probe at all**, judged only from the pilot's own log.
```
last pilot timestamp: 299.4s
t= 0- 60s distinct speeds: 211
t= 60-120s distinct speeds: 257
t=120-180s distinct speeds: 250
t=180-240s distinct speeds: 241
t=240-300s distinct speeds: 200
```
Healthy through the entire run, with no decline in the final window. Against the
probed runs, which stalled at ~255 s, ~83 s and ~27 s and ended with **1** distinct
speed value across 400 log lines.
**The instrument was degrading the thing it measured.** `AGENT.md` warned about
exactly this — "the full scan competes with the emulator for every core under
lavapipe" — and the probes grew heavier each iteration until `wave6_probe` was
reading the entire 32 MB entity heap plus ~300 extra `pread`s every 12 seconds
while the game rendered.
**Strength of the claim:** the contrast is stark and the mechanism was predicted
in advance, but the control is **n = 1**. It is recorded as confirmed-enough to
act on, not as proven; a second clean control would settle it.
## What this costs
Every "no arrival" result in
[mission-arrival-watch.md](mission-arrival-watch.md) was collected while the
probe was running, i.e. under conditions the game was struggling with, and in
some runs after it had frozen outright. That does not make them wrong — the
elimination test at t = 163 s happened in a window the witness later showed was
live — but it does mean **none of them is as strong as written**, and the whole
arrival question deserves re-running with cheap sampling before any conclusion
is drawn from silence.
## The fix: sample ~4 orders of magnitude less
The full rescan is nearly all waste. After the first scan the craft bases and
their roster links are already known, so a sample only needs the **hull word at
each known base** — 300 × 4 bytes ≈ 1.2 KB, against 32 MB.
`wave7_probe.py` does that: one full enumeration at the start, then cheap hull
polling, with a full rescan only every ~90 s to catch anything genuinely new.
That is 34 heavy scans per run instead of 25.
Implemented, **not yet run** — so the claim that it stops the stalling is
untested, and the next run must report the witness before anything else.

View File

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# CONTROL: hunting pilot, NO memory probe at all. The only question is whether
# the guest still stalls when nothing is scanning /dev/shm alongside it.
set -u
export HOME=/sylph-home/re SDL_AUDIODRIVER=dummy DISPLAY=:98
export PYTHONPATH=/sylph-home/.local/lib/python3.12/site-packages
SD="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)"
SECS="${1:-300}"
CFG=/tmp/nav-ctl.json
"$SD/launch_mission.sh" fly || { echo "BOOT FAILED"; exit 1; }
if python3 "$SD/entities2.py" self 0x130 "$CFG" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
SYLPH_HUNT=1 SYLPH_KILL_TURRETS=1 SYLPH_KEEPOUT=1400 \
nohup python3 "$SD/pilot.py" "$CFG" "$SECS" </dev/null >/tmp/ctl-pilot.log 2>&1 &
PILOT=$!; echo "--- pilot only, no probe"
else echo "BIND FAILED"; exit 1; fi
python3 -c "import time,sys; time.sleep(int(sys.argv[1]))" "$SECS"
kill "$PILOT" 2>/dev/null
echo "CONTROL DONE"

115
tools/re-capture/wave7_probe.py Executable file
View File

@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Cheap per-record watch: the heavy rescan was stalling the guest.
A no-probe control ran 300 s clean while probed runs stalled at 27-255 s
(guest-stalls.md), so the 32 MB rescan every 12 s has to go. After one full
enumeration the craft bases and their roster links are known, and a sample only
needs the hull word at each base -- about 1.2 KB instead of 32 MB. A full rescan
runs only every RESCAN seconds to catch anything genuinely new.
"""
import os, sys, time, struct, collections, importlib.util
SD = __file__.rsplit('/', 1)[0]
sys.path.insert(0, SD)
import gmem, gworld, entities2
_w3 = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location('w3', SD + '/wave3_probe.py')
wave3 = importlib.util.module_from_spec(_w3); _w3.loader.exec_module(wave3)
ROSTER_VT = struct.pack('>I', 0x820AF030)
DELTA, WIN, LINK, HULL = 0x130, 0x400, 0x08, 0x154
BASELINE, RESCAN = 116, 90
def scan_vt(fd, size, vt):
out = []
for a, b in gmem.extents(fd, size):
pos = a
while pos < b:
m = min(1 << 24, b - pos)
blob = os.pread(fd, m, pos)
i = blob.find(vt)
while i != -1:
if (pos + i) % 4 == 0: out.append(pos + i)
i = blob.find(vt, i + 1)
pos += m
return sorted(out)
def enumerate_craft(fd, defs, want):
"""Heavy: full heap scan. Returns [(base, unit, roster_off)]."""
lo, hi = gmem.va_to_off(entities2.ENT_VA_LO), gmem.va_to_off(entities2.ENT_VA_HI)
out, pos = [], lo
while pos < hi:
m = min(1 << 24, hi - pos)
blob = os.pread(fd, m, pos)
for k in range(0, len(blob) - 3, 4):
nm = defs.get(blob[k:k+4])
if not nm: continue
base = pos + k - DELTA
head = os.pread(fd, WIN, base)
own = None
for j in range(0, len(head) - 3, 4):
(p,) = struct.unpack_from('>I', head, j)
if p in want: own = want[p]; break
out.append((base, nm, own))
pos += m
return out
def alive(fd, base):
try: return struct.unpack('>f', os.pread(fd, 4, base + HULL))[0] > 0
except Exception: return False
def main():
secs = int(sys.argv[1]) if len(sys.argv) > 1 else 300
every = int(sys.argv[2]) if len(sys.argv) > 2 else 15
w = gworld.World(); fd = w.fd
defs = entities2.definitions(w)
if not defs: print('NOT IN A MISSION'); return 2
roster = scan_vt(fd, w.size, ROSTER_VT)
print('roster records: %d (baseline %d)' % (len(roster), BASELINE))
if len(roster) != BASELINE:
print('DISCARD: not the reproduced baseline'); return 3
f = os.fdopen(os.dup(fd), 'rb')
label, want = {}, {}
for o in roster:
va = gmem.primary_va(o)
if va is None: continue
label[o] = wave3.resolve_id(f, w.size, o)[0] or '?'
want[va + LINK] = o
tick = None
lo = gmem.va_to_off(0xBC000000)
a = os.pread(fd, 1 << 20, lo); time.sleep(2.0); b = os.pread(fd, 1 << 20, lo)
for k in range(0, len(a) - 3, 4):
va, vb = struct.unpack_from('>I', a, k)[0], struct.unpack_from('>I', b, k)[0]
if va < vb and 5 < (vb - va) / 2.0 < 1 << 18: tick = lo + k; break
print('tick witness: %s' % (('%#x' % tick) if tick else 'NONE'))
last_tick = struct.unpack('>I', os.pread(fd, 4, tick))[0] if tick else 0
craft = enumerate_craft(fd, defs, want)
print('craft %d, linked %d' % (len(craft), sum(1 for c in craft if c[2])))
prev = collections.Counter(c[2] for c in craft if c[2] and alive(fd, c[0]))
print('t= 0s deployed=%d strengths %s'
% (len(prev), sorted(collections.Counter(prev.values()).items())), flush=True)
t0 = time.time(); last_rescan = t0; arr = los = 0; stalls = 0
while time.time() - t0 < secs:
time.sleep(every)
el = round(time.time() - t0)
if time.time() - last_rescan > RESCAN:
craft = enumerate_craft(fd, defs, want); last_rescan = time.time()
cur = collections.Counter(c[2] for c in craft if c[2] and alive(fd, c[0]))
st = ''
if tick:
now = struct.unpack('>I', os.pread(fd, 4, tick))[0]
if now <= last_tick: st = ' *** GUEST STALLED ***'; stalls += 1
last_tick = now
a_ = [(o, cur[o]) for o in cur if prev.get(o, 0) == 0 < cur[o]]
l_ = [(o, prev[o], cur.get(o, 0)) for o in prev if cur.get(o, 0) < prev[o]]
arr += len(a_); los += len(l_)
print('t=%4ds deployed=%d ARRIVALS=%d losses=%d (cum %d/%d)%s'
% (el, len(cur), len(a_), len(l_), arr, los, st), flush=True)
for o, c in a_: print(' ARRIVAL %-30s 0 -> %d' % (label.get(o, '?'), c), flush=True)
for o, x, y in l_: print(' loss %-30s %d -> %d' % (label.get(o, '?'), x, y), flush=True)
prev = cur
print('\nTOTAL arrivals=%d losses=%d stalled samples=%d' % (arr, los, stalls))
return 0
if __name__ == '__main__':
sys.exit(main())

View File

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -u
export HOME=/sylph-home/re SDL_AUDIODRIVER=dummy DISPLAY=:98
export PYTHONPATH=/sylph-home/.local/lib/python3.12/site-packages
SD="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)"
SECS="${1:-180}"; EVERY="${2:-10}"; HUNT="${3:-1}"
CFG=/tmp/nav-live.json
"$SD/launch_mission.sh" fly || { echo "BOOT FAILED"; exit 1; }
if python3 "$SD/entities2.py" self 0x130 "$CFG" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
SYLPH_HUNT="$HUNT" SYLPH_KILL_TURRETS=1 SYLPH_KEEPOUT="${SYLPH_KEEPOUT:-1400}" nohup python3 "$SD/pilot.py" "$CFG" "$SECS" \
</dev/null >/tmp/live-pilot.log 2>&1 &
PILOT=$!; echo "--- pilot (SYLPH_HUNT=$HUNT)"
else PILOT=""; echo "--- BIND FAILED, no pilot"; fi
python3 "$SD/wave7_probe.py" "$SECS" "$EVERY"; rc=$?
[ -n "$PILOT" ] && kill "$PILOT" 2>/dev/null
echo "LIVENESS DONE rc=$rc"