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Promote 15.3 profiles given 15.2 is EOL #81
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phillxnet authored Jan 14, 2022
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Expand Up @@ -14,143 +14,115 @@ The "target system" element is either generic, i.e. **x86_64** or **AArch64**, o
With the latter ARM64EFI spanning both generic (Arm64) and specific (64 bit EFI).

## Core Profiles
Our current intention is to distribute pre-built installers, pending any trademark prerequisites, made from the following profiles:
Our current pre-built installers, see: [Downloads](https://rockstor.com/dls.html), are built using the following profiles:

- **Leap15.2.x86_64**
- **Leap15.2.RaspberryPi4**
- **Leap15.2.ARM64EFI**
- **Leap15.3.x86_64**
- **Leap15.3.RaspberryPi4** (supports RPi400 also)
- **Leap15.3.ARM64EFI** (N.B. Full Ten64 compatibility awaiting mcbridematt repo update)

These will be linked to from our [Downloads](http://rockstor.com/download.html) page upon reaching our first Rockstor 4 Stable release.

## Contributing a Profile
### Contributing a Profile
If you would like to add a specific target system installer profile, please take a look at the [examples](https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi-descriptions) referenced in the second link above.
The rockstor.kiwi file itself also contains comments with links to example configs used during it's development.
We can make no promises for the 'supported' status of any additional profiles but '[The Rockstor Project](http://rockstor.com/about-us.html)' will endeavour to make available the more popular resulting installers, in binary form, pending Trademark prerequisites etc.

## Current Profiles

### Working Profiles:
- **Leap15.2.x86_64** (recommended) - proposed for our Rockstor 4 're-launch')
- **Leap15.2.RaspberryPi4** (RPi400 built-in keyboard does not work)
- **Leap15.2.ARM64EFI**

## In-Development Profiles
- **Leap15.3.x86_64** (potential for Rockstor 4 're-launch')
- **Leap15.3.RaspberryPi4** (required for RPi400 built-in keyboard function)
- **Leap15.3.ARM64EFI** (N.B. Ten64 compatibility awaiting mcbridematt repo update)

#### Raspberry Pi4 Notes:
As we are attempting to stick as closely as possible to upstream, and have limited resources, this installer requires
the recent Raspberry OS initiated firmware updates and associated /boot files copied over to enable USB boot.
See later "AArch64 host ..." section for more details.
However, regular microSD card boot should work out-of-the-box.
We can make no promises for the 'supported' status of any additional profiles but '[The Rockstor Project](https://rockstor.com/about-us.html)' will endeavour to make available the more popular resulting installers.

#### Raspberry Pi400 Notes:
We have had reports that the current Leap15.2 based profiles do not enable the built-in keyboard.
This bug was not seen in our Leap 15.3 profile.
### Raspberry Pi4 Notes:
This installer requires a recent Raspberry OS initiated firmware updates to be booted from a USB device.
However, regular microSD card boot should work out-of-the-box without a more modern firmware in the Pi4.

### Broken Profiles
Prior to Tumbleweed dropping some Python 2 libraries this profile was functional.
We used this target to inform our developmental direction and as a more leading-edge installer option.
We are preserving this profile for when our in-process Python 2 to 3 move is complete.
Note however that it is not currently maintained.
Please contribute to this profile if you are interested as we would very much like to again be available in the Tumbleweeds.

### Special mention:
- Leap15.2.ARM64EFI
- ARM64EFI

We are very exited to welcome contributions for the innovative [Traverse Ten64](https://www.crowdsupply.com/traverse-technologies/ten64) AArch64 platform.
[Traverse technologies](https://traverse.com.au/) are an important contributor to the [rockstor-core](https://github.com/rockstor/rockstor-core) code base
and have been instrumental in achieving our initial AArch64 aims.
Although this profile includes Ten64 specific drivers (inactive on non Ten64 platforms), it is otherwise a modern generic Arm64 installer.
The resulting installer is intended to supports 64-bit ARM systems that implement the [Embedded Boot](https://github.com/ARM-software/ebbr) or [Server boot](https://github.com/ARM-software/sbsa-acs) standard.
The resulting installer is intended to supports 64-bit ARM systems that implement the [Embedded Boot](https://github.com/ARM-software/ebbr) or [Server boot](https://github.com/ARM-software/sbsa-acs) standard.
Note that additional drives may be required for your specific hardware, if so consider [Installing the Stable Kernel Backport](https://rockstor.com/docs/howtos/stable_kernel_backport.html).
Also see the following subsection for enabling these same repositories/facilities within the resulting installer itself.

### Stable Kernel Backport & matching btrfs-progs
Note that we have, remarked out, the 'Stable Kernel Backport' and 'filesystems' repositories within our rockstor.kiwi config.
This enables building a custom installer with these back-ported modifications out-of-the-box.
See [Installing the Stable Kernel Backport](https://rockstor.com/docs/howtos/stable_kernel_backport.html) for more information.
Note that this is not a supported configuration so do indicate this modification if reporting issues on our forum or GitHub.

## HOWTO

Please see the [overview](https://osinside.github.io/kiwi/overview.html) section of the kiwi-ng docs for the canonical
[System Requirements](https://osinside.github.io/kiwi/overview.html#system-requirements): e.g. 15 GB free space, Python 3.5+ etc.
[System Requirements](https://osinside.github.io/kiwi/overview.html#system-requirements) for building the installer: e.g. 15 GB free space, Python 3.5+ etc.

Given our image target OS is exclusively 'Built on openSUSE', a vanilla openSUSE Leap 15.2 install is recommended as the kiwi-ng host operating system.
Given our image target OS is exclusively 'Built on openSUSE', a vanilla openSUSE Leap 15.3 install is recommended if not using the kiwi-ng boxbuild method.
But if the newer kiwi-ng boxbuild method in "Building on any linux host... " is used, any relatively modern linux system can be used to build the installer.

### rockstor-installer local copy

In order to build the installer you need a local copy of the [rockstor-installer](https://github.com/rockstor/rockstor-installer) GitHub repository.
This README.md file is part of that repository.
To get this copy you simply need to 'git clone' that repository to your local openSUSE instance:

```shell script
```shell
zypper in git
git clone https://github.com/rockstor/rockstor-installer.git
cd rockstor-installer/
```

The above commands installs the 'git' program, uses it to 'clone' (read copy locally) the GitHub repo, and sets your working directory to be inside the local copy.
The above commands install the 'git' program, and uses it to 'clone' (read copy locally) the GitHub repo, then sets your working directory to be inside this local copy.
Now you just need the kiwi-ng program this config requires to make the final installer.

### For building on any linux host with KVM support
Kiwi now has support for using KVM virtual machines to build in isolated environments, regardless of the linux host.
### Building on any linux host (KVM support required)
Kiwi now has support for using KVM virtual machines to build in an isolated environments, regardless of the linux host.

On any linux platform with KVM virtualization enabled, and python3, you can use an isolated python virtualenvironment to
build without touching your host OS, or needing to manually set up a openSUSE virtual machine. This does have some overhead
compared to building on a baremetal installation, but on reasonably powerful hardware it still took less than twenty minutes.
On any linux platform with KVM virtualization enabled, and python3, you can use an isolated python virtual environment to build the installer without modifying your host OS,
or needing to manually set up an openSUSE virtual machine (see below for this alternative).
This boxbuild approach does have some overheads compared to building on a baremetal installation, but on reasonably powerful hardware it can still take less than twenty minutes.

By default, kiwi-boxed-plugin will reserve 8GB of memory, and 4 CPU cores. This can be edited with
`--box-memory=<vm>G --box-smp-cpus=<number>`, e.g. `--box-memory 4G --box-smp-cpus=2`. On machines with low ram, building with as
low as 1GB has been tested successfully. Assigning too much ram will crash your host, so be sure to set a safe amount smaller than
your current available ram when running. Arguments before the `--` are passed to boxbuild, and after are passed to the kiwi-ng
build itself.
By default, the kiwi-boxed-plugin will reserve 8GB of memory, and 4 CPU cores.
This can be modified with `--box-memory=<vm>G --box-smp-cpus=<number>`, e.g. `--box-memory 4G --box-smp-cpus=2`.
On machines with low ram, building with as low as 1GB has been tested successfully.
Assigning too much ram will crash your host, so be sure to set a safe amount smaller than your current available host ram.
Arguments before the `--` are passed to boxbuild, and after are passed to the kiwi-ng build itself.

```shell
python3 -m venv kiwi-env
./kiwi-env/bin/pip install kiwi kiwi-boxed-plugin
./kiwi-env/bin/kiwi-ng --profile=Leap15.2.x86_64 --type oem \
system boxbuild --box leap \
-- --description ./ --target-dir ./images
./kiwi-env/bin/kiwi-ng --profile=Leap15.3.x86_64 --type oem \
system boxbuild --box leap -- --description ./ --target-dir ./images
```

### For building on dedicated openSUSE installations
This was the preferred method before the above kiwi-ng boxbuild capability existed.

#### kiwi-ng install
For an openSUSE Leap 15.2 OS from kiwi-ng's doc [Installation](https://osinside.github.io/kiwi/installation.html#installation) section we have:
For an openSUSE Leap 15.3 OS from kiwi-ng's doc [Installation](https://osinside.github.io/kiwi/installation.html#installation) section we have:

#### x86_64 host for x86_64 profiles
Any x86_64 machine, although keep in mind that building the ISO installer is computationally expensive so Haswell or better is recommended.

##### Leap 15.2 host
```shell script
sudo zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Virtualization:/Appliances:/Builder/openSUSE_Leap_15.2/ appliance-builder
sudo zypper install python3-kiwi btrfsprogs gfxboot qemu-tools gptfdisk e2fsprogs squashfs xorriso
```

##### Leap 15.3 host
```shell script
The openSUSE host version should, ideally, be at least the version of the target profile.
```shell
sudo zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Virtualization:/Appliances:/Builder/openSUSE_Leap_15.3/ appliance-builder
sudo zypper install python3-kiwi btrfsprogs gfxboot qemu-tools gptfdisk e2fsprogs squashfs xorriso
```


#### AArch64 host (e.g. a Pi4) for AArch64 profiles
See [HCL:Raspberry Pi4](https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:Raspberry_Pi4).
Install, for example, an appliance JeOS Leap 15.2 image as the host OS.
Install, for example, an appliance JeOS Leap 15.3 image as the host OS.
Enabling USB boot on older Pi4 systems will allow for the use of, for example, an SSD as the system drive which will massively speed up installer building.
USB booting on the Pi4 may require a bootloader update via a fully updated Raspberry OS.
Also, using a 15.2 appliance will likely require updated /boot/start4* and /boot/fixup4* files from say Raspberry OS.
Use these to overwrite the ones found in the JeOS Leap 15.2 /EFI dir.
These files do not need updating when using a Leap 15.3 Appliance image.
Note that for 15.2 profiles the same procedure may also be required for USB booting the resulting Rockstor installer.
Sdcard booting of both the appliance JeOS images and the resulting Rockstor installer should work without these modifications.

Pi4 EEPROM/bootloader version "Jun 15 2020" or later will be required for USB boot regardless of any installer /EFI file changes.

##### For a JeOS Leap 15.2 host:

```shell script
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Virtualization:/Appliances:/Builder/openSUSE_Leap_15.2_ARM/ appliance-builder
sudo zypper install python3-kiwi btrfsprogs qemu-tools gptfdisk e2fsprogs squashfs xorriso
```

##### For a JeOS Leap 15.3 host:
(Leap 15.3 has moved to mixed X86_64/aarch64 repos)

```shell script
```shell
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Virtualization:/Appliances:/Builder/openSUSE_Leap_15.3/ appliance-builder
sudo zypper install python3-kiwi btrfsprogs qemu-tools gptfdisk e2fsprogs squashfs xorriso
```
Expand All @@ -160,17 +132,17 @@ No edit is required if you wish to use the generic installer filename and defaul
To change these defaults edit all lines directly preceded by **<!--Change to ...** as per the **...** details given.
Our release infrastructure performs these same edits to set official installer filenames and rockstor package versions.

### Leap15.2.x86_64 profile
### Leap15.3.x86_64 profile
Executed, as the root user, in the directory containing this repositories rockstor.kiwi file.
```shell script
kiwi-ng --profile=Leap15.2.x86_64 --type oem system build --description ./ --target-dir /home/kiwi-images/
```shell
kiwi-ng --profile=Leap15.3.x86_64 --type oem system build --description ./ --target-dir /home/kiwi-images/
```

### Leap15.2.RaspberryPi4 profile
### Leap15.3.RaspberryPi4 profile
Executed, as the root user, in the directory containing this repositories rockstor.kiwi file.
N.B. RPi400 built in keyboard is known not to work with this profile.
```shell script
kiwi-ng --profile=Leap15.2.RaspberryPi4 --type oem system build --description ./ --target-dir /home/kiwi-images/
```shell
kiwi-ng --profile=Leap15.3.RaspberryPi4 --type oem system build --description ./ --target-dir /home/kiwi-images/
```

## Resulting Rockstor installers
Expand All @@ -183,14 +155,14 @@ Use the file ending in ".raw".

The resulting installs will grow, on first boot, to the size of their host devices.
All partitioning is fully automatic.
Please see [Rockstor’s “Built on openSUSE” installer](http://rockstor.com/docs/installer-howto/installer-howto.html) HowTo for a user guide.
Please see [Rockstor’s “Built on openSUSE” installer](https://rockstor.com/docs/installer-howto/installer-howto.html) HowTo for a user guide.

## Help or Assistance
Our [friendly forum](https://forum.rockstor.com/) is a good place to ask question regarding this HowTo.
Please be patient however as our support is predominantly community based and the above newly released procedure is not yet well known or tested by our community members.
Please be patient however as our support is predominantly community based and the above procedure is not that well known by our community members.
If you find an issue with this procedure and it's associated kiwi-ng config, please consider submitting a pull request with any fixes or improvements you consequently discover or invent.

'The Rockstor Project' is a community endeavour and depends on [update channel](http://rockstor.com/docs/update-channels/update_channels.html)
'The Rockstor Project' is a community endeavour and depends on [update channel](https://rockstor.com/docs/update-channels/update_channels.html)
subscriptions and contributions for it's continued open source development.


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