Architectures/AArch64/F21/Installation

Fedora 21 for AArch64

The Fedora ARM Team is pleased to announce the release of Fedora 21 for AArch64, ready to run on your next generation servers. Fedora 21 is a game-changer for the Fedora Project, and we think you're going to be very pleased with the results.

Highlights in the Fedora 21 AArch64 Release

Fedora 21 Server

The Fedora Server flavor is a common base platform that is meant to run featured application stacks, which are produced, tested, and distributed by the Server Working Group. Want to use Fedora as a Web server, file server, database server, or platform for an Infrastructure-as-a-Service? Fedora 21 Server is for you.

Fedora Server Management Features

The Fedora Server flavor introduces new Server management features aimed at making it easier to install discrete infrastructure services. The Fedora Server introduces three new technologies to handle this task, rolekit, Cockpit, and OpenLMI.

Rolekit is a Role deployment and management toolkit that provides a consistent interface to administrators to install and configure all the packages needed to implement a specific server role. Rolekit is at an early stage of development in Fedora 21.

Cockpit is a user interface for configuring and monitoring your server or servers. It is accessible remotely via a web browser.

OpenLMI is a remote management system built atop DMTF-CIM. Use OpenLMI for scripting management functions across many machines and for querying for capabilities and monitoring for system events.

Domain Controller Server Role

As part of the server role offerings available for Fedora 21, the Server flavor ships with a role deployment mechanism. One of the roles offered in 21 is the Domain Controller Service.

The Domain Controller Service packages freeIPA's integrated identity and authentication solution for Linux/UNIX networked environments.

A FreeIPA server provides centralized authentication, authorization, and account information by storing data about user, groups, hosts, and other objects necessary to manage the security aspects of a network of computers.

Mirror List

• https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/21/aarch64/

Supported Hardware

• Applied Micro X-Gene (Mustang)
• Advanced Micro Devices Opteron A1100 (aka Seattle)

Network Installation

A network installation is the preferred installation method for current Aarch64 hardware targets. In order to begin you will need to setup the installation server, a guide can be found below:

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/20/html/Installation_Guide/sn-pxe-server-manual.html

Note
The above docuementation references grubx86.efi, but this is the name for x86_64 EFI grub binaries. The grub binary name on AArch64 systems is grubaa64.efi.

Once configured use the Fedora 21 AArch64 installation tree below:

Installation Tree

http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/21/Server/aarch64/os/

USB Installation

IMPORTANT
On older Applied Micro Mustang systems you must first upgrade from UBOOT to UEFI (minimum 'TianoCore 1.1-rh-0.12') before performing these steps (systems shipped since November 2014 come with UEFI pre-installed, and are identified by a "UEFI" sticker on the chassis). Detailed instructions can be found on APM Mustang page.

It is possible to start an installation of Fedora 21 without going through the steps of setting up a PXE server, and rather initiating a network installation through a USB drive formatted appropriately. This may be created using the Fedora 21 installation media provided, or the following prepared image.

http://pwhalen.fedorapeople.org/Fedora/21/aarch64/Fedora-Server-netinst-aarch64-21.img.xz

Copy the USB image to an appropriate USB device (minimum 128MB USB stick).

MEDIA= # location of your USB device
xzcat Fedora-Server-netinst-aarch64-21.img.xz | sudo dd of=$MEDIA bs=4M

Insert the USB device into the bottom port located at the back of the Mustang board (below the network port), power on the machine and interrupt the boot, choosing the 'shell' option. Once at the EFI shell, enter:

FS0:\EFI\BOOT\BOOTAA64.EFI                    # NOTE - if you recieve an error try - FS1:\EFI\BOOT\BOOTAA64.efi

This will boot the Fedora 21 installer. When prompted, choose either VNC or Text installation. By default the installer will use the Fedora Master Mirror but you can also use the "Closest Mirror" option for best results.

Reported Bugs and Known Issues

• Common F21 bugs

• When using an encrypted partition you must include the appropriate console in the kernel args(eg for Mustang "console=ttyS0,115200n8" or on Seattle "console=ttyAMA0,115200n8"). Failure to do so will not allow you to enter the passphrase to unlock the encrypted partition. (BZ#1172740).

• At the end of the installation on a Mustang you may receive an error about removing or adding the 'EFI' boot menu entry, if so type 'yes' to continue the installation and once rebooted, interupt the boot process (press any key) add the menu entry as shown below (BZ#1151571):

TianoCore 1.1-rh-0.12 UEFI 2.4.0 Jun 17 2014 12:42:52
CPU: APM ARM 64-bit Potenza 2400MHz PCP 2400MHz
     32 KB ICACHE, 32 KB DCACHE
     SOC 2000MHz IOBAXI 400MHz AXI 250MHz AHB 200MHz GFC 125MHz
Board: X-Gene Mustang Board
The default boot selection will start in   4 seconds
-----------------------
Global FDT Config
	- VenHw(F40A3869-92C4-4275-8501-4491A1A20C19)/\mustang.dtb
-----------------------
[a] Boot Manager
[b] Shell
[c] Reboot
[d] Shutdown
Start: a
[1] Add Boot Device Entry
[2] Update Boot Device Entry
[3] Remove Boot Device Entry
[4] Update FDT path
[5] Return to main menu
Choice: 1
[1]  (199 MB)
[2] VenHw(6C9CEEF0-A406-11E3-A5E2-0800200C9A66)
[3] VenHw(02118005-9DA7-443A-92D5-781F022AEDBB)
[4] VenHw(F40A3869-92C4-4275-8501-4491A1A20C19)
[5] VenHw(B225ED30-6DFD-43A9-BF6B-5753358F2F70)
[6] PXE on MAC Address: 00:01:73:02:0C:E3
[7] TFTP on MAC Address: 00:01:73:02:0C:E3
Select the Boot Device: 1
File path of the EFI Application or the kernel: EFI\fedora\grubaa64.efi
Is your application is an OS loader? [y/n] y
Description for this new Entry: Fedora 21