Author Topic: Installing FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT powerpc64 BE on Talos II  (Read 1534 times)

DKnoto

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Installing FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT powerpc64 BE on Talos II
« on: July 19, 2022, 02:44:45 am »
I have tried several times to install FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT powerpc64 BE on my Talos II,
unfortunately without a positive ending. I have tried several versions 220617, 220701, 220708
and each time the system installed without error messages but Petitboot did not see the system.
Yesterday I tried the 220715 version and also did not have success. So I decided to take a closer
look at it and found that the installer incorrectly fills /boot/etc/kboot.conf:

Code: [Select]
default=
='/kernel/kernel kernelname=/boot/kernel/kernel vfs.root.mountfrom=ufs:/dev/nda0p2'

After changing the entry to the following:

Code: [Select]
default=FreeBSD
FreeBSD='/kernel/kernel kernelname=/boot/kernel/kernel vfs.root.mountfrom=ufs:/dev/nda0p2'

I made the changes manually from the Petitbnoot shell. Just keep in mind that Petitboot mounts
read-only /boot by default. You have to unmount it and mount it with write permission. After the fix,
vi is helpful here, you need to unmount the partition and re-mount it read-only. Without this last
step and after direct loading of the system, the changes will not be saved. You have to repeat
them from the system level.

One final note about ZFS, by default FreeBSD on ppc64 does not support this filesystem. This
is due to Petitboot limitations. You have to compile the system yourself. The recipe can be found
here "FreeBSD/powerpc64 (POWER9) with ZFS on /".

Currently my Talos II is compiling the kernel on a single core since yesterday. I did it consciously
to have a benchmark  ;)
Desktop: Talos II T2P9S01 REV 1.01 | IBM Power 9/18c DD2.3, 02CY646 | AMD Radeon Pro WX7100 | 64GB RAM | SSD 1TB

MPC7500

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Re: Installing FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT powerpc64 BE on Talos II
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2022, 07:17:15 am »
You could also limit the frequency to 2.2 ... 2.5GHz ;)

DKnoto

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Re: Installing FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT powerpc64 BE on Talos II
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2022, 10:45:38 am »
I did initial tests of what I care about and it is not so tragic ;)
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Desktop: Talos II T2P9S01 REV 1.01 | IBM Power 9/18c DD2.3, 02CY646 | AMD Radeon Pro WX7100 | 64GB RAM | SSD 1TB