Netbooting the live server installer on IBM Power (ppc64el) with Petitboot
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Open a terminal window on your workstation and make sure the ‘ipmitool’ package is installed.
-
Verify if you can reach the BMC of the IBM Power system via ipmitool with a simple ipmitool call like:
$ ipmitool -I lanplus -H Power9Box -U <user> -P <password> power status Chassis Power is offor:
$ ipmitool -I lanplus -H Power9Box -U <user> -P <password> fru print 47 Product Name : OpenPOWER Firmware Product Version : open-power-SUPERMICRO-P9DSU-V2.12-20190404-prod Product Extra : op-build-1b9269e Product Extra : buildroot-2018.11.3-12-g222837a Product Extra : skiboot-v6.0.19 Product Extra : hostboot-c00d44a-pb1307d7 Product Extra : occ-8fa3854 Product Extra : linux-4.19.30-openpower1-p22d1df8 Product Extra : petitboot-v1.7.5-p8f5fc86or:
$ ipmitool -I lanplus -H Power9Box -U <user> -P <password> sol info Set in progress : set-complete Enabled : true Force Encryption : false Force Authentication : false Privilege Level : OPERATOR Character Accumulate Level (ms) : 0 Character Send Threshold : 0 Retry Count : 0 Retry Interval (ms) : 0 Volatile Bit Rate (kbps) : 115.2 Non-Volatile Bit Rate (kbps) : 115.2 Payload Channel : 1 (0x01) Payload Port : 623 -
Open a second terminal and activate serial-over-LAN (sol), so that you have two terminal windows open:
- to control the BMC via IPMI
- for the serial-over-LAN console
-
Activate serial-over-LAN:
$ ipmitool -I lanplus -H Power9Box -U <user> -P <password> sol activate ... -
And power the system on in the ‘control terminal’ and watch the sol console:
$ ipmitool -I lanplus -H Power9Box -U <user> -P <password> power on ...It takes some time to see the first lines in the sol console:
[SOL Session operational. Use ~? for help] --== Welcome to Hostboot ==-- 2.77131|secure|SecureROM valid - enabling functionality 3.15860|secure|Booting in secure mode. 5.59684|Booting from SBE side 0 on master proc=00050000 5.60502|ISTEP 6. 5 - host_init_fsi 5.87228|ISTEP 6. 6 - host_set_ipl_parms 6.11032|ISTEP 6. 7 - host_discover_targets 6.67868|HWAS|PRESENT> DIMM[03]=A0A0000000000000 6.67870|HWAS|PRESENT> Proc[05]=8800000000000000 6.67871|HWAS|PRESENT> Core[07]=3FFF0C33FFC30000 6.98988|ISTEP 6. 8 - host_update_master_tpm 7.22711|SECURE|Security Access Bit> 0xC000000000000000 7.22711|SECURE|Secure Mode Disable (via Jumper)> 0x0000000000000000 7.22731|ISTEP 6. 9 - host_gard 7.43353|HWAS|FUNCTIONAL> DIMM[03]=A0A0000000000000 7.43354|HWAS|FUNCTIONAL> Proc[05]=8800000000000000 7.43356|HWAS|FUNCTIONAL> Core[07]=3FFF0C33FFC30000 7.44509|ISTEP 6.10 - host_revert_sbe_mcs_setup … -
After a moment the system reaches the Petitboot screen:
Petitboot (v1.7.5-p8f5fc86) 9006-12P 1302NXA ───────────────────────────────────────────────── [Network: enP2p1s0f0 / 0c:c4:7a:87:04:d8] Execute netboot enP2p1s0f0 (pxelinux.0) [CD/DVD: sr0 / 2019-10-17-13-35-12-00] Install Ubuntu Server [Disk: sda2 / 295f571b-b731-4ebb-b752-60aadc80fc1b] Ubuntu, with Linux 5.4.0-14-generic (recovery mode) Ubuntu, with Linux 5.4.0-14-generic Ubuntu System information System configuration System status log Language Rescan devices Retrieve config from URL Plugins (0) *Exit to shell ───────────────────────────────────────────────── Enter=accept, e=edit, n=new, x=exit, l=language, g=log, h=helpSelect ‘*Exit to shell’
Notice:
Make sure you really watch the sol, since the petitboot screen (above) has a time out (usually 10 or 30 seconds) and afterwards it automatically proceeds and it tries to boot from the configured devices (usually disk). This can be prevented by just navigating in petitboot.
The petitboot shell is small Linux based OS:... Exiting petitboot. Type 'exit' to return. You may run 'pb-sos' to gather diagnostic dataNotice:
In case one needs to gather system details and diagnostic data for IBM support, this can be done here by running ‘pb-sos’ (see msg). -
Now download the ‘live-server’ ISO image (notice that ‘focal-live-server-ppc64el.iso’ uses subiquity, ‘focal-server-s390x.iso’ uses d-i):
Again for certain web locations a proxy needs to be used:/ # export http_proxy=http://squid.proxy:3128 # in case a proxy is required / # / # wget http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/daily-live/current/focal-live-server-ppc64el.iso Connecting to <proxy-ip>:3128 (<proxy-ip>:3128) focal-live-server-pp 100% |....................| 922M 0:00:00 ETA -
Next is to loop-back mount the ISO:
/ # mkdir iso / # mount -o loop focal-live-server-ppc64el.iso isoOr in case autodetect of type iso9660 is not supported or not working, explicitly specify the ‘iso9660’ type:
/ # mount -t iso9660 -o loop focal-live-server-ppc64el.iso iso -
Now load kernel and initrd from the loop-back mount, specify any needed kernel parameters and get it going:
/ # kexec -l ./iso/casper/vmlinux --initrd=./iso/casper/initrd.gz --append="ip=dhcp url=http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/daily-live/current/focal-live-server-ppc64el.iso http_proxy=http://squid.proxy:3128 --- quiet" / # kexec -e The system is going down NOW! Sent SIGTERM to all processes Sent SIGKILL to all processes ...
Note that in order to boot with and install the hwe kernel (if available), just substitute vmlinux with vmlinux-hwe in the first kexec line.
- The system now performs the initial boot of the installer:
[ 1200.687004] kexec_core: Starting new kernel [ 1277.493883374,5] OPAL: Switch to big-endian OS [ 1280.465061219,5] OPAL: Switch to little-endian OS ln: /tmp/mountroot-fail-hooks.d//scripts/init-premount/lvm2: No such file or directory Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.4.1 Copyright 2004-2018 Internet Systems Consortium. All rights reserved. For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/ Listening on LPF/enP2p1s0f3/0c:c4:7a:87:04:db Sending on LPF/enP2p1s0f3/0c:c4:7a:87:04:db Listening on LPF/enP2p1s0f2/0c:c4:7a:87:04:da Sending on LPF/enP2p1s0f2/0c:c4:7a:87:04:da Listening on LPF/enP2p1s0f1/0c:c4:7a:87:04:d9 Sending on LPF/enP2p1s0f1/0c:c4:7a:87:04:d9 Listening on LPF/enP2p1s0f0/0c:c4:7a:87:04:d8 Sending on LPF/enP2p1s0f0/0c:c4:7a:87:04:d8 Sending on Socket/fallback DHCPDISCOVER on enP2p1s0f3 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3 (xid=0x8d5704c) DHCPDISCOVER on enP2p1s0f2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3 (xid=0x94b25b28) DHCPDISCOVER on enP2p1s0f1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3 (xid=0x4edd0558) DHCPDISCOVER on enP2p1s0f0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3 (xid=0x61c90d28) DHCPOFFER of 10.245.71.102 from 10.245.71.3 DHCPREQUEST for 10.245.71.102 on enP2p1s0f0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 (xid=0x280dc961) DHCPACK of 10.245.71.102 from 10.245.71.3 (xid=0x61c90d28) bound to 10.245.71.102 -- renewal in 236 seconds. Connecting to 91.189.89.11:3128 (91.189.89.11:3128) focal-live-server-pp 1% | | 14.0M 0:01:04 ETA focal-live-server-pp 4% |* | 45.1M 0:00:38 ETA focal-live-server-pp 8% |** | 76.7M 0:00:33 ETA focal-live-server-pp 11% |*** | 105M 0:00:31 ETA focal-live-server-pp 14% |**** | 133M 0:00:29 ETA focal-live-server-pp 17% |***** | 163M 0:00:27 ETA focal-live-server-pp 20% |****** | 190M 0:00:26 ETA focal-live-server-pp 24% |******* | 222M 0:00:25 ETA focal-live-server-pp 27% |******** | 253M 0:00:23 ETA focal-live-server-pp 30% |********* | 283M 0:00:22 ETA focal-live-server-pp 34% |********** | 315M 0:00:21 ETA focal-live-server-pp 37% |*********** | 343M 0:00:20 ETA focal-live-server-pp 39% |************ | 367M 0:00:19 ETA focal-live-server-pp 42% |************* | 392M 0:00:18 ETA focal-live-server-pp 45% |************** | 420M 0:00:17 ETA focal-live-server-pp 48% |*************** | 451M 0:00:16 ETA focal-live-server-pp 52% |**************** | 482M 0:00:15 ETA focal-live-server-pp 55% |***************** | 514M 0:00:14 ETA focal-live-server-pp 59% |****************** | 546M 0:00:13 ETA focal-live-server-pp 62% |******************** | 578M 0:00:11 ETA focal-live-server-pp 65% |********************* | 607M 0:00:10 ETA focal-live-server-pp 69% |********************** | 637M 0:00:09 ETA focal-live-server-pp 72% |*********************** | 669M 0:00:08 ETA focal-live-server-pp 75% |************************ | 700M 0:00:07 ETA focal-live-server-pp 79% |************************* | 729M 0:00:06 ETA focal-live-server-pp 82% |************************** | 758M 0:00:05 ETA focal-live-server-pp 85% |*************************** | 789M 0:00:04 ETA focal-live-server-pp 88% |**************************** | 817M 0:00:03 ETA focal-live-server-pp 91% |***************************** | 842M 0:00:02 ETA focal-live-server-pp 93% |****************************** | 867M 0:00:01 ETA focal-live-server-pp 97% |******************************* | 897M 0:00:00 ETA focal-live-server-pp 100% |********************************| 922M 0:00:00 ETA mount: mounting /cow on /root/cow failed: No such file or directory Connecting to plymouth: Connection refused passwd: password expiry information changed. [ 47.202736] /dev/loop3: Can't open blockdev [ 52.672550] cloud-init[3759]: Cloud-init v. 20.1-10-g71af48df-0ubuntu1 running 'init-local' at Wed, 18 Mar 2020 15:18:07 +0000. Up 51.87 seconds. ... - And you will eventually reach the initial subiquity installer screen:
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Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! Добро пожаловать! Welkom
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* The rest is (subiquity-) installation as usual...