Some utilities and notes for running Debian 10 Buster on machines with Cavium's ARM64 ThunderX2 processors.
Please report any problems encountered during install, any missing kernel config options, etc. through the issue tracker of this project.
The current Debian 10 Buster firmware-nonfree package includes the firmware files needed for the Qlogic network adapter found on many ThunderX2 machines. Debian policy does not allow these firmware files to be included in the Debian distribution proper and the user must arrange for the files to be available to the Debian installer. Firmware files available during the installation will be copied to the installed system. Once the system reboots, install the firmware-qlogic package.
Typical Debian installer dialog message for missing non-free firmware:
┌───────────────────┤ [!] Detect network hardware ├────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Some of your hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate. The │
│ firmware can be loaded from removable media, such as a USB stick or │
│ floppy. │
│ │
│ The missing firmware files are: │
│ qed/qed_init_values_zipped-8.37.2.0.bin │
│ │
│ If you have such media available now, insert it, and continue. │
│ │
│ Load missing firmware from removable media? │
│ │
│ <Yes> <No> │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
For more info on Debian installation and installation with firmware files see:
Firmware can be loaded from removable media. See: Loading Missing Firmware.
A custom installer initrd that includes the needed firmware files can be created.
The releases page of this project has pre-build netboot initrd images that can be used.
To create a custom initrd yourself use commands like these:
# download
fw_version="8.37.2.0"
wget -O initrd-orig.gz https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/daily/netboot/debian-installer/arm64/initrd.gz
wget https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/daily/MD5SUMS
egrep 'netboot/debian-installer/arm64/initrd.gz' MD5SUMS
md5sum initrd-orig.gz
wget https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/qed/qed_init_values_zipped-${fw_version}.bin
# extract files
rm -rf initrd-files
mkdir initrd-files
(cd initrd-files && cat ../initrd-orig.gz | gunzip | cpio --extract --make-directories --preserve-modification-time --verbose)
# edit files
mkdir -p initrd-files/lib/firmware/qed
cp -v qed_init_values_zipped-${fw_version}.bin initrd-files/lib/firmware/qed/
echo 'base-config apt-setup/non-free boolean true' > initrd-files/preseed.cfg
# archive
(cd initrd-files && find . | cpio --create --format='newc' --owner=root:root | gzip > ../initrd-qed-${fw_version}.gz)Installation can be done with a USB-to-Ethernet adapter or an Ethernet PCI adapter temporarily installed to the system. The alternate device itself must not require additional firmware to operate. When prompted for missing qed firmware files choose to continue the installation without loading those firmware files. Once the system reboots, install the firmware-qlogic package and update the system's network configuration to use the Qlogic network adapter and remove the temporary network adapter from the system.
To install firmware files needed for the Qlogic network adapter, once the OS installation is complete and the system has been re-booted to the newly installed OS, update the sources.list to include non-free packages, install the Debian firmware-qlogic package, and then re-boot:
sudo sed --in-place='.orig' 's/main$/main contrib non-free/' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install firmware-qlogicThe Qlogic network adapter should then be operational. The system should automatically update the installed firmware to match the installed kernel.
build-kernel-builder.sh- Builds a Debian based Docker container (buster-kernel-builder) that has all the packages pre-installed that are needed to build the Debian Linux kernel.run-kernel-builder.sh- Starts the buster-kernel-builder container in interactive mode.build-debian-kernel.sh- Will build the Debian Buster kernel when run from inside the buster-kernel-builder container.
Note that these utilities must be run on an ARM64 machine or through ARM64 emulation.
To install Docker on Debian systems see install-docker-ce. Check the buster package pool to see what Docker versions are available in the stable and edge repositories.
To build a custom kernel use commands like these:
On the host:
$ ./docker/build-kernel-builder.sh --help
$ ./docker/run-kernel-builder.sh --help
$ ./docker/build-kernel-builder.sh
$ ./docker/run-kernel-builder.shInside the buster-kernel-builder container:
# /thunderx-debian/utils/build-debian-kernel.sh --help
# /thunderx-debian/utils/build-debian-kernel.shOr
# cp -a /usr/src/linux-4.xx.yy .
# cd linux-4.xx.yy
# make -f debian/rules.gen setup_arm64_none
# cp debian/build/build_arm64_none_arm64/.config .
# sed --in-place 's|CONFIG_SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYS=.*|CONFIG_SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYS=""|' .config
# make oldconfig
# make-kpkg clean
# make-kpkg -j200 --revision=1.0tx2 --initrd binary-arch
# make-kpkg -j200 --revision=1.0tx2 kernel_sourceTo install, on the host:
# dpkg -i ${WORK_DIR}/linux-image-4.xx.yy_1.0tx2_arm64.deb ${WORK_DIR}/linux-headers-4.xx.yy_1.0tx2_arm64.debFor more info on building a custom Debian kernel see the Debian kernel-package manpage.