Fedora 24 Alpha for AArch64
The Fedora ARM Team is pleased to announce the release of Fedora 24 Alpha for AArch64, ready to run on your next generation servers. Fedora 24 Alpha 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 24 Alpha AArch64 Release
Fedora Server
Fedora Server makes service management simple with RoleKit, a programmatic interface for quick deployment, and Cockpit, a remote web GUI. Now in Fedora Server 24, you can manage Kubernetes clusters from the Cockpit Admin Console, or launch a FreeIPA domain controller from a kickstart file. Get Fedora Server this morning and have an identity management solution in place by lunchtime.
Updated Components
As with every Fedora release, almost every component has a new version, with improvements across the board.
Fedora 24 Alpha also has important under-the-hood security improvements, with increased hardening for all compiled software and with insecure SSL3 and RC4 protocols disabled. We've also updated all of the software installed by default in Fedora Cloud Base Image and Fedora Workstation to use Python version 3.
Perhaps most importantly, Unicode 8.0 support now enables the crucial U1F32D character.
Mirror List
Supported Hardware
- Applied Micro X-Gene (Mustang)
- Advanced Micro Devices Opteron A1100 (aka Seattle)
Overview of Hardware Support Status
| Hardware | ACPI | Network | USB | DVD | Display | Audio | Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Micro Devices Opteron A1100 (Seattle) |  |
|
Tested with 74E firmware. | |||||
| Applied Micro X-Gene (Mustang) | |
|
Tested with APM Tianocore - 1.15.10. | |||||
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/23/html/Installation_Guide/chap-pxe-server-setup.html
The above documentation 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 24 Alpha for AArch64 installation tree below:
Installation Tree
http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/test/24_Alpha/Server/aarch64/os/
Install with QEMU
You will need to use qemu-2.3.0-4+ for the below to work.
To use Fedora 24 Alpha on QEMU you will need to use a build of UEFI that is not hosted by Fedora for licensing reasons. For convenience a dnf|yum repository had been created
sudo curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/firmware.repo https://www.kraxel.org/repos/firmware.repo sudo dnf install edk2.git-aarch64 libguestfs-tools-c
To install:
sudo virt-install \
--name Fedora_24_Alpha_AArch64 --ram 2048 --arch aarch64 \
--boot loader_ro=yes,loader_type=pflash,loader=/usr/share/edk2.git/aarch64/QEMU_EFI-pflash.raw,nvram_template=/usr/share/edk2.git/aarch64/vars-template-pflash.raw \
--disk size=8 --os-variant fedora22 \
--location https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/test/24_Alpha/Server/aarch64/os/
*Add kickstart with (root password is 'fedora'):
--extra-args "inst.ks=https://pwhalen.fedorapeople.org/kickstarts/Fedora-24-Alpha-Minimal-AArch64.ks"
For a full list of QEMU installation options and instructions:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/AArch64/Install_with_QEMU
Reported Bugs and Known Issues
- When using an encrypted partition, "plymouth.enable=0" must be added to the kernel command line. Failure to do so will not allow the passphrase to be entered to unlock the encrypted partition. (BZ#1172740).
- After installation on the Mustang, you must update the boot entry in UEFI to boot from 'grubaa64.efi' instead of the default 'shim.efi'. Failure to do so will result in an error when unpacking the initrd (BZ#1309147).