ppc64le
This page is used to describe the ppc64le port.
Testing (for developers)
The hosting sponsor for the ppc64le port operates a miniCloud service, which provides ppc64le images to Alpine for testing.
View their website for more info.
Hardware
You can buy POWER8 or POWER9 hardware from IBM or from other vendors. For example, the Raptor Computing System Blackbird workstation is reasonably priced, competitive when compared to similar x86 servers, and is fully supported by the ppc64le port.
The following are the IBM machine models that would support Alpine Linux:
- IBM Power System S821LC [1][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System S822LC for Big Data [2][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System S822LC for Commercial Computing [3][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System S822LC for High Performance Computing [IBM Power System S822LC for High Performance Computing]
- IBM Power System S812L and S822L [4][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System S824L [5][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System S812 [6][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System S822 [7][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System S814 [8][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System S824 [9][Dead Link]
- IBM Power Enterprise Systems for the cloud [10][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System E850C [11][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System E850 [12][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System E870 [13][Dead Link]
- IBM Power System E880 [14][Dead Link]
Raptor Computing System also has machines:
Tyan also has machines:
- Tyan TN76-BP016
- Tyan GT75-BP012
- Tyan TN71-BP012
Open Power machines:
Installation
The Alpine 3.20.3 ppc64le ISO is available here.
The user login is root with no password.
Booting Alpine from CD-ROM using qemu
To start qemu using the Alpine ISO as CD-ROM, you can use a command similar to:
$ doas qemu-system-ppc64 -device spapr-vlan,netdev=net0,mac=4C:45:42:45:79:F7 -netdev bridge,br=br0,id=net0 -m 8G -smp 16,sockets=16,cores=1,threads=1 -nodefaults -nographic -serial stdio -cdrom alpine-standard-3.20.3-ppc64le.iso
If running on a ppc64le host, you can append -enable-kvm
to the above command.
Installing Alpine to hard-disk using qemu
Create a disk to install Alpine on it:
$ qemu-img create alpine_disk.img 16G
Start qemu attaching the created disk and using Alpine ISO as CD-ROM. Here is an example of the qemu command:
$ doas qemu-system-ppc64 -hda alpine_disk.img -device spapr-vlan,netdev=net0,mac=4C:45:42:45:79:F7 -netdev bridge,br=br0,id=net0 -enable-kvm -m 8G -smp 16,sockets=16,cores=1,threads=1 -nodefaults -nographic -serial stdio -cdrom alpine-standard-3.20.3-ppc64le.iso
Run the setup-alpine
script:
setup-alpine
After running the setup-alpine
script, select the disk (in this example, sda) when the following configuration appears:
Available disks are: sda (17.2 GB QEMU QEMU HARDDISK) Which disk(s) would you like to use? (or '?' for help or 'none') [none] : sda
When asked how you would like to use the disk, select sys, and select yes when asked whether to erase the disk.
The installation will format the disk properly. After this finishes, type reboot
.
Booting Alpine from CD-ROM using qemu and saving modifications between reboots
When using Alpine in this mode, you need to use Alpine Local Backup (lbu
) to save your modifications between reboots. This requires some writable medium, usually removable.
Create a disk to save Alpine modifications:
$ qemu-img create alpine_disk.img 8G
Start qemu attaching the created disk and using Alpine ISO as CD-ROM. Here is the example of the qemu command:
$ doas qemu-system-ppc64 -hda alpine_disk.img -device spapr-vlan,netdev=net0,mac=4C:45:42:45:79:F7 -netdev bridge,br=br0,id=net0 -enable-kvm -m 8G -smp 16,sockets=16,cores=1,threads=1 -nodefaults -nographic -serial stdio -cdrom alpine-standard-3.20.3-ppc64le.iso
Format the attached disk and add it to the /etc/fstab file:
$ apk add e2fsprogs $ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda $ echo "/dev/sda /media/sda ext4 noauto,rw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab $ mkdir /media/sda $ mkdir /media/sda/cache
Set lbu
to write to the attached disk, setting LBU_MEDIA=sda
in the /etc/lbu/lbu.conf file.
Run the setup-alpine
command, and select the following configurations when asked:
- Enter where to store configs:
('floppy', 'sda', 'usb' or 'none') [none]: sda
- Enter apk cache directory
(or '?' or 'none') [/media/sda/cache]: /media/sda/cache
The last step is to commit the changes:
$ lbu commit
After performing these configurations, you can reboot Alpine and the modifications will be saved. The next time a change happens, you just need to run the lbu commit
command, as the configurations are already done.
It is important to know that, by default, lbu
only cares about modifications in /etc and its subdirectories, with the exception of /etc/init.d!
See also
- Alpine local backup - For more information about how to use
lbu
and how to include a new folder to backup.
Reference
* ABI - https://openpowerfoundation.org/?resource_lib=64-bit-elf-v2-abi-specification-power-architecture