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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.

Why did I choose Arndale?
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).


Why do we have to make the Fedora 18 image on Fedora 17
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.