TalosII
The Talos II is a dual socket Power 9 motherboard from Raptor Computing Systems. It features opensource firmware and openBMC.
Hardware
Standard
| Device | Make/model | Status | Vendor ID / Product ID | Kernel driver(s) | Kernel version | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | IBM Power 9 | Works | N/A | N/A | 4.17.12 | Requires kernel version 4.16+, ideally 4.17+. Also benefits from very recent gcc releases. |
| Video card | ASpeed Graphics | Works | 1a03:2000 | ast | 4.17.12 | Kernel driver works without issue. xf86-video-ast has build issues, xf86-video-modesetting works fine with glamor disabled. |
Installation
The system uses petitboot as main bootloader. The grub based ppc64le install media iso contents can be copied to a partition of an usb storage and used.
Make sure to pass console=hvc0 as boot argument if you are using the OpenBMC console.
OpenBMC
The openbmc will ask for an address if the first Ethernet port is connected. It would listen to port 22 and port 2200. Petitboot will be directly reachable from port 2200.
Kernel
Use powernv_defconfig.
To enable hardware accelerated virtualization:
--- Virtualization
<M> KVM support for PowerPC book3s_64 processors
<M> KVM for POWER7 and later using hypervisor mode in host
< > KVM support without using hypervisor mode in host
Configuration
Bootloader
The Talos uses petitboot as part of its firmware and bootloader. This means there is no need to install grub/yaboot/etc, as all petitboot needs is the config file. kboot has a delightfully simple config format, which is easily written.