Here’s how to install Ubuntu 16.04 on PPC64LE server. In my case Barreleye, our openPOWER server is running OPAL as BIOS firmware with Petitboot bootloader:
Here are steps through install:
1) Login to Out of band management and get into host console
- Logging into host OOB console is important since Ubuntu 16.04 PPC64EL installer doesn’t have ASPEED VGA / Graphics drivers. So you cannot see the install progress through the VGA console.
- In your case this might be a ipmi based command to get to host console
- In my case since we are running a openBMC firmware for our out of band needs :
- a) SSH into BMC
- b) Typed the command: obmc-console-client
2) Power on the server and get to Petitboot bootloader. Which should look like below:
2) Now type “n” to have add a new boot option.
We are netboot installing 16.04. So let’s grab and add the kernel and initrd url’s for Xenial (16.04 code name) respectively:
Kernel (Link for Power9 with newer kernel in a new blog post ):
Initrd: (Link for Power9 with newer initrd in a new blog post ):
Your screen should look like this:
3) Press OK and you should return to Petitboot main screen. The boot option you just added should come up as “User Item 1”:
4) Select and enter “User Item 1” for starting the install. Following which you will go through standard Ubuntu Install process, that you should be familiar with.
Thanks I hope this post helps you Install not just Ubuntu 16.04 but any OS of your choice using Petitboot.
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