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How To Make a Fedora Image on an ARM Host(Arndale)
ARM Host Hardware Requirements
RAM >= 2GB SSD (for swap and storage)
We will use an Arndale board (running F17) with ADATA SP900 128G SSD to make an F18 image in this Wiki.
You can find the SSD supported by Arndale at Linaro website.
It is the most powerfull development board I could get, and it meets all the requirements (RAM is 2GB and a SATA interface is built in).
Because the current version of livemedia-creator (using anaconda, lorax, and python-blivet) in Fedora 18 is unreliable (only works a small percentage of the time), but the tools (the 'patched' versions) on Fedora 17 work consistently and reliably to make images (note: they require a different kickstart configuration file than stock Fedora 18 tools would use).
Deploying Fedora 17 on Arndale
[Fedora 17 image for Arndale Board].
Decompress the file and flash the image to the SD card:
$ sudo dd if=F17-arndale-201304221157-uboot-buildin.img of=${DEV}
where ${DEV} can be /dev/mmcblkN or /dev/sdN.
Then insert the SD card into the Arndale board and boot.
Attach an SSD to ARM host
We need an SSD for bigger swap and storage.
Format the SSD into two partitions like below :
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 128.0 GB, 128035676160 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15566 cylinders, total 250069680 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6fea5476
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 2048 8390655 4194304 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 8390656 250069679 120839512 83 Linux
format 4GB swap partition and mount it
# mkswap /dev/sda1
# swapon /dev/sda1
# swapoff /dev/mmcblk1p2
# free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2062708 73120 1989588 0 3180 21252
-/+ buffers/cache: 48688 2014020
Swap: 4194300 0 4194300
format another partition and mount it as Extended Storage (ES)
# mkfs.ext4 -L "es" /dev/sda2 # mount /dev/sda2 /es/
make the directory structure on Extended Storage (ES)
# tree /es/
/es/
├── lost+found
└── scratch
└── username
├── arndale
│ ├── F18
│ │ ├── images
│ │ └── kickstarts
│ └── u-boot
└── scripts
Install anaconda and lorax
For making an image on the F17 ARM host, we need to install the 'patched' versions of anaconda and lorax from the xpfa repository.
# yum --nogpgcheck install http://dmarlin.fedorapeople.org/packages/FedoraArm/RPMS/noarch/xpfa-17-1.2.noarch.rpm # yum --enablerepo=xpfa install anaconda lorax
Get a kickstart file
You can download an example kickstart file from [Fedora 17 kickstart file for the Arndale Board]
This kickstart file can make an F18 image for the Arndale Board on an F17 ARM host.
Put the kickstart configuration file in /es/scratch/username/arndale/F18/kickstarts/.
Building image using livemedia-creator
The shell script for making the image is below:
#!/bin/sh
BUILD_TIME=date +%Y%m%d%H%M
livemedia-creator \
--no-virt --make-disk \
--armplatform=None \
--tmp=/es/scratch/username/arndale/F18/images/ \
--image-name=F18-arndale-${BUILD_TIME}.img \
--ks=/es/scratch/username/arndale/F18/kickstarts/F18-arndale-console_in_f17.ks
Put it into /es/scratch/username/scripts, add execute permission and execute it.
Note: If you encounter any errors in the build procedure, you are better off rebooting the board and executing "anaconda-cleanup", and then trying again.