Debian 9 installation
- Benoît Roche
The default system at the ESRF is Debian. This page describe how it was installed on the µTCA crate. The aim of this page is not to give general rules to install any system, but just to give an overview of the difficulties we had at the ESRF to install Debian 9.
The different steps of installation are the following:
E-key configuration
AMC720's Gigabit Ethernet ports have to be configured correctly (c.f. Bringing up MBF → E-key configuration → CPU e-key).
BIOS configuration
Enter BIOS to change a few things:
Boot priorities
In the boot menu we changed the boot order to first try to do a PXE boot, and then boot on the SSD.
In Network Device BBS Priorities we disable all network interface but "IBA GE Slot 0103 v1350", which corresponds to the front panel connector labelled "Eth0". It will just speed up a little the boot process.
In Hard Drive BBS Priorities we set "P5: 32GB NANDrive" as first drive (although I don't really know what the other device is).
Then we just need to change boot order on the main Boot page (see above screen capture).
Serial speed
It is advised to keep a 9600 bauds speed for the serial link during system installation (because it is GRUB default's speed, otherwise we will not be able to see anything at the first boot). It will be possible to increase serial port speed later on.
PXE boot and system installation
Debian 9 installation at the ESRF is performed via a PXE server called Cobbler which holds installation images. The first step is to boot on this server, and then to start Debian 9 installation.
PXE boot was found to be tedious, the reason being not clear (problem of PXE server configuration, or bad configuration of the µTCA crate?).
A procedure was found by chance, which make it possible to boot via PXE:
- Start the crate
→ It will try a first time to boot via PXE, without success
→ It starts Fedora's bootloader, with a promp to ask you which drive you want to boot on - Before it automatically starts Fedora, press 'e' to enter the bootloader's menu
- type 'exit' (or 'quit', I am not so sure)
→ The crate will actually boot via PXE, with success!
Before starting installation, you have to specify that standard output is redirected on the serial port. With Cobbler, select the image you want to install, press F5 to edit the command line, and add at the end the option:
console=ttyS0,9600n8
The installation should go quite smoothly now.
Final configuration
Once installation is done, you still have to modify GRUB default's entry in order to add the output redirection to serial port.
Just as we did before, you have to add the following argument:
console=ttyS0,9600n8
At this moment you should be able to start your system.
However, you may want to change serial port's speed now to 115200 bauds in order to have the same speed on every serial port on the µTCA crate.
Enter the BIOS, go in Advanced → Serial Port Console Redirection, and change Bits per second to 115200.
Be careful that you have to change the console option accordingly in GRUB's boot entries. You will have also to change GRUB's configuration in order to see its prompt menu at startup with this new speed (I don't remember our to do this unfortunately).
Finally you can remove PXE boot in the boot priorities.