For current ARM64 systems, most of the time they will use the serial console as the debug console. So, when there is no output from the serial console, it confuses me.

CPU: Ampere Altra Family
Board: AsRock ALTRAD8UD
For example, on my Gentoo system, only need to configure /etc/default/grub to following configuration.

GRUB_TIMEOUT=30
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="domdadm console=ttyAMA0 pcie_aspm=off"
GRUB_TERMINAL=console

Output to serial console will be no problem, but on the Ubuntu 22.04, it cannot output to serial console.

So, on Ubuntu, if you only can see grub menu on VGA and cannot see it on serial console, try this configuration, it will output to serial console and VGA console at the same time.

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_TERMINAL=serial
GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --speed=115200 --unit=0 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1"

Don’t forget to update grub.cfg

update-grub2

ref.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SerialConsoleHowto

The post Ampere Altra ARM64 Grub Cannot Output Message To Serial Console appeared first on richliu's blog.

Install CentOS 7 on Ampere Altra CPU

Earlier CentOS 7 default OS is too old to support ARM64 CPU and SSIF driver,
if you have problem to install on Ampre Altra CPU, it needs to block SSIF and change PCI parameter during booting. Add parameters below on Linux kernel booting parameter when install CentOS7.

modprobe.blacklist=ipmi_si pci=nomsi

Prepare Build Environment

Before download and build Linux kernel 5.x, it needs to run those command to prepare build environment

yum install -y centos-release-scl-rh
yum install -y devtoolset-9*
yum groupinstall -y "Development Tools"
yum install -y ncurses-devel
yum install -y hmaccalc zlib-devel binutils-devel elfutils-libelf-devel
yum install -y python3

Download Linux kernel

Ampere LTS kernel can be download from github, here is the command to checkout Ampere LTS kernel and switch version to 5.10

cd /root
git clone https://github.com/AmpereComputing/ampere-lts-kernel.git
cd /ampere-lte-kernel
git checkout -b origin/linux-5.10.y 5.10.y

On later Linux kernel, it needs to use git switch to switch to 5.10.y

git switch 5.10.y

Build Linux kernel

It’s simple to build Linux kernel

scl enable devtoolset-9 bash
cd /root/ampere-lte-kernel
cp arch/arm64/configs/altra_5.10_defconfig .config
make olddefconfig
make -j `nproc` && make -j `nproc` modules  && make modules_install && make install

GRUB Setting

Suggest to change default GRUB timeout to choice right kernel to boot.

sed -i 's/GRUB_TIMEOUT=5/GRUB_TIMEOUT=30/g' /etc/default/grub
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/centos/grub.cfg

OK, right now it can reboot your system to have try.

Ref:
Good mirror site for CentOS7 package.
https://mirrors.bfsu.edu.cn/centos-altarch/7.9.2009/os/aarch64/

The post Build Linux kernel 5.x on CentOS 7 appeared first on richliu's blog.

主機版是 Z97-A-USB31
CPU 是 i7-5775C 內建的 GPU

現在看起來在 GRUB 開機時加上參數 nomodeset 就可以了.

網路上找來對 nomodeset 的說明

The newest kernels have moved the video mode setting into the kernel. 
So all the programming of the hardware specific clock rates and 
registers on the video card happen in the kernel rather than in 
the X driver when the X server starts.. This makes it possible 
to have high resolution nice looking splash (boot) screens and 
flicker free transitions from boot splash to login screen. 
Unfortunately, on some cards this doesn't work properly and you 
end up with a black screen. Adding the nomodeset parameter 
instructs the kernel to not load video drivers and use BIOS
 modes instead until X is loaded.

也就是說 modeset 已經搬到 kernel 了. 但是有時在 kernel 的 modeset 會有問題, 這就是告訴 kernel 用 grub 的設定, 直到 X 啟動

ref.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/716957/what-do-the-nomodeset-quiet-and-splash-kernel-parameters-mean/716966

The post GRUB 開機會停在 Load Ramdisk 的問題 appeared first on richliu's blog.

不過收到硬碟的時候發現製造日期是 DEC-2016, 生產快一年了, 應該是賣不出去吧 (註: 剛剛查了一下 amazon.com , 才 US$216 , 所以我們買到只是美國的一般價而己)

轉移的文章可以參考這二篇
Raid5/Raid6 指令
Linux Software Raid 系統轉移

這次因為下錯指令結果剛好不小心就從 BIOS Mode, 升級到 UEFI mode.

其實也沒有很難, 以前 GPT + BIOS 的 Partition 長這樣

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048            4095   1024.0 KiB  EF02  BIOS boot partition
   2            4096       209719295   100.0 GiB   FD00  Linux RAID
   3       209719296      5830086655   2.6 TiB     FD00  Linux RAID
   4      5830086656      5860533134   14.5 GiB    FD00  Linux RAID

請注意第一個 partition Code 是 EF02, size 只有 1MB, 這個保留給 GRUB 放 boot loader

如果要用 UEFI 開機 Partition table 是這樣,

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          616447   300.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2          616448       420046847   200.0 GiB   FD00  Linux RAID
   3       420046848     11700000000   5.3 TiB     FD00  Linux RAID
   4     11700000768     11721045134   10.0 GiB    FD00  Linux RAID

第一個 Partition Table code 是 EF00, 這會 format 成 FAT 格式, 放 EFI Binary
我設 300MB 太大了, 一般 100MB 就可以. 硬碟大就是任性!!

mount partition 並且 install EFI binary

$ mkdir -p /boot/efi
$ mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
$ mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi

Grub install 的時候改用這個參數

$ grub-install --efi=directory=/boot/efi

在 /etc/fstab 加上

/dev/sda1  /boot/efi   vfat noauto,noatime 1 2

其他我到是沒有改什麼,

至於 BIOS 我是用技嘉的主機板, 在選擇開機選項時就會有一項
(gentoo) HGST HDN726060AL
這個設為第一個就可以了.

感覺移到 EFI 意外的簡單.

接近 190MB/s 算傳統硬碟內非常快的.

md11 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[2]
      209715136 blocks [2/1] [U_]
      [=======>.............]  recovery = 38.2% (80207808/209715136) finish=11.5min speed=186778K/sec
      bitmap: 2/2 pages [8KB], 65536KB chunk

2018/2/23
不知道為什麼, 今天換主機版的時候開不起來, 理論上之前做的步驟內的 EFI 消失了.
兩顆都消失了那我之前是做什麼的呢?

照上面步驟重新執行一次

另外將檔案 copy 成 default EFI 認得到的檔案, 這樣 EFI BIOS 就直接可以認到了

2022/02/10

兩顆 HGST 似乎在存取上都有點問題，第一顆約半年前下線，下線後大概二個月死亡
第二顆今天也讓他下線了，總使用時數約為 4.3 年左右
果然是特價品啊

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