Getting started guide for Intel NUC

The Intel® NUC (NUC6CAYH) is the primary tested platform for ACRN development, and its setup is described below.

Hardware setup

Two Apollo Lake Intel platforms, described in Supported Hardware, are currently supported for ACRN development:

Firmware update on the NUC

You may need to update to the latest UEFI firmware for the NUC hardware. Follow these BIOS Update Instructions for downloading and flashing an updated BIOS for the NUC.

Software setup

Set up a Clear Linux Operating System

Currently, an installable version of ARCN does not exist. Therefore, you need to setup a base Clear Linux OS and you’ll build and bootstrap ACRN on your platform. You’ll need a network connection for your platform to complete this setup.

Note

ACRN v0.5 (and the current master branch) requires Clear Linux version 27230 or newer. If you use a newer version of Clear Linux, you’ll need to adjust the instructions below to reference the version number of Clear Linux you are using.

  1. Download the compressed Clear installer image from https://download.clearlinux.org/releases/27230/clear/clear-27230-installer.img.xz and follow the Clear Linux installation guide as a starting point for installing Clear Linux onto your platform. Follow the recommended options for choosing an Manual (Advanced) installation type, and using the platform’s storage as the target device for installation (overwriting the existing data and creating three partitions on the platform’s storage drive).

    High-level steps should be:

    1. Install Clear on a NUC using the “Manual (Advanced)” option.
    2. Use default partition scheme for storage
    3. Name the host “clr-sos-guest”
    4. Add an administrative user “clear” with “sudoers” privilege
    5. Add these additional bundles “editors”, “user-basic”, “desktop-autostart”, “network-basic”
    6. For network, choose “DHCP”

  2. After installation is complete, boot into Clear Linux, login as clear, and set a password.

  3. Clear Linux is set to automatically update itself. We recommend that you disable this feature to have more control over when the updates happen. Use this command to disable the autoupdate feature:

    $ sudo swupd autoupdate --disable

    Note

    The Clear Linux installer will automatically check for updates and install the latest version available on your system. If you wish to use a specific version (such as 27230), you can achieve that after the installation has completed using sudo swupd verify --fix --picky -m 27230

  4. If you have an older version of Clear Linux already installed on your hardware, use this command to upgrade Clear Linux to version 27230 (or newer):

    $ sudo swupd update -m 26770     # or newer version

  5. Use the sudo swupd bundle-add command and add these Clear Linux bundles:

    $ sudo swupd bundle-add service-os kernel-iot-lts2018
    Table 1 Clear Linux bundles
    Bundle Description
    service-os Add the acrn hypervisor, the acrn devicemodel and Service OS kernel
    kernel-iot-lts2018 Run the Intel kernel”kernel-iot-lts2018” which is enterprise-style kernel with backports

Add the ACRN hypervisor to the EFI Partition

In order to boot the ACRN SOS on the platform, you’ll need to add it to the EFI partition. Follow these steps:

  1. Mount the EFI partition and verify you have the following files:

    $ sudo ls -1 /boot/EFI/org.clearlinux
bootloaderx64.efi
kernel-org.clearlinux.native.4.20.2-683
kernel-org.clearlinux.iot-lts2018-sos.4.19.13-1901141830
kernel-org.clearlinux.iot-lts2018.4.19.13-1901141830
kernel-org.clearlinux.pk414-sos.4.14.74-115
loaderx64.efi

    Note

    On Clear Linux, the EFI System Partion (e.g.: /dev/sda1) is mounted under /boot by default The Clear Linux project releases updates often, sometimes twice a day, so make note of the specific kernel versions (iot-lts2018 and *iot-lts2018-sos) listed on your system, as you will need them later.

    Note

    The EFI System Partition (ESP) may be different based on your hardware. It will typically be something like /dev/mmcblk0p1 on platforms that have an on-board eMMC or /dev/nvme0n1p1 if your system has a non-volatile storage media attached via a PCI Express (PCIe) bus (NVMe).

  2. Put the acrn.efi hypervisor application (included in the Clear Linux release) on the EFI partition with:

    $ sudo mkdir /boot/EFI/acrn
$ sudo cp /usr/lib/acrn/acrn.efi /boot/EFI/acrn/

  3. Configure the EFI firmware to boot the ACRN hypervisor by default

    The ACRN hypervisor (acrn.efi) is an EFI executable loaded directly by the platform EFI firmware. It then in turns loads the Service OS bootloader. Use the efibootmgr utility to configure the EFI firmware and add a new entry that loads the ACRN hypervisor.

    $ sudo efibootmgr -c -l "\EFI\acrn\acrn.efi" -d /dev/sda -p 1 -L "ACRN"

    Note

    Be aware that a Clearlinux update that includes a kernel upgrade will reset the boot option changes you just made. A Clearlinux update could happen automatically (if you have not disabled it as described above), if you later install a new bundle to your system, or simply if you decide to trigger an update manually. Whenever that happens, double-check the platform boot order using efibootmgr -v and modify it if needed.

    The ACRN hypervisor (acrn.efi) accepts three command-line parameters that tweak its behaviour:

    1. bootloader=: this sets the EFI executable to be loaded once the hypervisor is up and running. This is typically the bootloader of the Service OS and the default value is to use the Clearlinux bootloader, i.e.: \EFI\org.clearlinux\bootloaderx64.efi.
    2. uart=: this tells the hypervisor where the serial port (UART) is found or whether it should be disabled. There are three forms for this parameter:
      1. uart=disabled: this disables the serial port completely
      2. uart=bdf@<BDF value>: this sets the PCI serial port based on its BDF. For example, use bdf@0:18.1 for a BDF of 0:18.1 ttyS1.
      3. uart=port@<port address>: this sets the serial port address
    3. vuart=ttySn@irqN: this tells the hypervisor which virtual serial device SOS will use and its IRQ number. This is used to avoid conflict with SOS passthrough devices’ interrupt. If UART is set to ttyS1, and its native IRQ is 5, you’d better set vuart=ttyS1@irq5 (Use ‘dmesg | grep tty’ to get IRQ information). Also set console=ttyS1 in acrn.conf to match the SOS boot args.

    Here is a more complete example of how to configure the EFI firmware to load the ACRN hypervisor and set these parameters.

    $ sudo efibootmgr -c -l "\EFI\acrn\acrn.efi" -d /dev/sda -p 1 -L "ACRN NUC Hypervisor" \
      -u "bootloader=\EFI\org.clearlinux\bootloaderx64.efi uart=disabled"

  4. Create a boot entry for the ACRN Service OS by copying a provided acrn.conf and editing it to account for the kernel versions noted in a previous step.

    It must contain these settings:

    Setting Description
    title Text to show in the boot menu
    linux Linux kernel for the Service OS (*-sos)
    options Options to pass to the Service OS kernel (kernel parameters)

    A starter acrn.conf configuration file is included in the Clear Linux release and is also available in the acrn-hypervisor/hypervisor GitHub repo as acrn.conf as shown here:

    Code Block 1 efi-stub/clearlinux/acrn.conf
    title The ACRN Service OS
linux   /EFI/org.clearlinux/kernel-org.clearlinux.iot-lts2018-sos.4.19.13-1901141830
options console=tty0 console=ttyS0 i915.nuclear_pageflip=1 root=PARTUUID=<UUID of rootfs partition> rw rootwait ignore_loglevel no_timer_check consoleblank=0 i915.tsd_init=7 i915.tsd_delay=2000 i915.avail_planes_per_pipe=0x01010F i915.domain_plane_owners=0x011111110000 i915.enable_guc_loading=0 i915.enable_guc_submission=0 i915.enable_preemption=1 i915.context_priority_mode=2 i915.enable_gvt=1 i915.enable_guc=0 hvlog=2M@0x1FE00000

    On the platform, copy the acrn.conf file to the EFI partition we mounted earlier:

    $ sudo cp /usr/share/acrn/samples/nuc/acrn.conf /boot/loader/entries/

    You will need to edit this file to adjust the kernel version (linux section), insert the PARTUUID of your /dev/sda3 partition (root=PARTUUID=<UUID of rootfs partition>) in the options section, and add the hugepagesz=1G hugepages=2 at end of the options section.

    Use blkid to find out what your /dev/sda3 PARTUUID value is.

    Note

    It is also possible to use the device name directly, e.g. root=/dev/sda3

  5. Add a timeout period for Systemd-Boot to wait, otherwise it will not present the boot menu and will always boot the base Clear Linux

    $ sudo clr-boot-manager set-timeout 20
$ sudo clr-boot-manager update

  6. Reboot and select “The ACRN Service OS” to boot, as shown below:

    Code Block 2 ACRN Service OS Boot Menu
    => The ACRN Service OS
Clear Linux OS for Intel Architecture (Clear-linux-iot-lts2018-4.19.13-1901141830)
Clear Linux OS for Intel Architecture (Clear-linux-iot-lts2018-sos-4.19.13-1901141830)
Clear Linux OS for Intel Architecture (Clear-linux-native.4.20.2-683)
EFI Default Loader
Reboot Into Firmware Interface

  7. After booting up the ACRN hypervisor, the Service OS will be launched automatically by default, and the Clear Linux desktop will be showing with user “clear”, (or you can login remotely with an “ssh” client). If there is any issue which makes the GNOME desktop doesn’t show successfully, then the system will go to shell console.

  8. From ssh client, login as user “clear” using the password you set previously when you installed Clear Linux.

  9. After rebooting the system, check that the ACRN hypervisor is running properly with:

$ dmesg | grep ACRN
[    0.000000] Hypervisor detected: ACRN
[    1.687128] ACRNTrace: acrn_trace_init, cpu_num 4
[    1.693129] ACRN HVLog: acrn_hvlog_init

If you see log information similar to this, the ACRN hypervisor is running properly and you can start deploying a User OS. If not, verify the EFI boot options, SOS kernel, and acrn.conf settings are correct (as described above).

ACRN Network Bridge

ACRN bridge has been setup as a part of systemd services for device communication. The default bridge creates acrn_br0 which is the bridge and acrn_tap0 as an initial setup. The files can be found in /usr/lib/systemd/network. No additional setup is needed since systemd-networkd is automatically enabled after a system restart.

Set up Reference UOS

  1. On your platform, download the pre-built reference Clear Linux UOS image version 27230 (or newer) into your (root) home directory:

    $ cd ~
$ mkdir uos
$ cd uos
$ curl -O https://download.clearlinux.org/releases/27230/clear/clear-27230-kvm.img.xz

    Note

    In case you want to use or try out a newer version of Clear Linux as the UOS, you can download the latest from http://download.clearlinux.org/image. Make sure to adjust the steps described below accordingly (image file name and kernel modules version).

  2. Uncompress it:

    $ unxz clear-27230-kvm.img.xz

  3. Deploy the UOS kernel modules to UOS virtual disk image (note: you’ll need to use the same iot-lts2018 image version number noted in step 1 above):

    $ sudo losetup -f -P --show clear-27230-kvm.img
$ sudo mount /dev/loop0p3 /mnt
$ sudo cp -r /usr/lib/modules/4.19.13-1901141830.iot-lts2018 /mnt/lib/modules/
$ sudo umount /mnt
$ sync

  4. Edit and Run the launch_uos.sh script to launch the UOS.

    A sample launch_uos.sh is included in the Clear Linux release, and is also available in the acrn-hypervisor/devicemodel GitHub repo (in the samples folder) as shown here:

    Code Block 3 devicemodel/samples/nuc/launch_uos.sh
    #!/bin/bash

function launch_clear()
{
mac=$(cat /sys/class/net/e*/address)
vm_name=vm$1
mac_seed=${mac:9:8}-${vm_name}

#check if the vm is running or not
vm_ps=$(pgrep -a -f acrn-dm)
result=$(echo $vm_ps | grep "${vm_name}")
if [[ "$result" != "" ]]; then
  echo "$vm_name is running, can't create twice!"
  exit
fi

#for memsize setting
mem_size=2048M

acrn-dm -A -m $mem_size -c $2 -s 0:0,hostbridge -s 1:0,lpc -l com1,stdio \
  -s 2,pci-gvt -G "$3" \
  -s 5,virtio-console,@pty:pty_port \
  -s 6,virtio-hyper_dmabuf \
  -s 3,virtio-blk,/home/clear/uos/clear-27230-kvm.img \
  -s 4,virtio-net,tap0 \
  --mac_seed $mac_seed \
  -k /usr/lib/kernel/default-iot-lts2018 \
  -B "root=/dev/vda3 rw rootwait maxcpus=$2 nohpet console=tty0 console=hvc0 \
  console=ttyS0 no_timer_check ignore_loglevel log_buf_len=16M \
  consoleblank=0 tsc=reliable i915.avail_planes_per_pipe=$4 \
  i915.enable_hangcheck=0 i915.nuclear_pageflip=1 i915.enable_guc_loading=0 \
  i915.enable_guc_submission=0 i915.enable_guc=0" $vm_name
}

# offline SOS CPUs except BSP before launch UOS
for i in `ls -d /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu[1-99]`; do
        online=`cat $i/online`
        idx=`echo $i | tr -cd "[1-99]"`
        echo cpu$idx online=$online
        if [ "$online" = "1" ]; then
                echo 0 > $i/online
		# during boot time, cpu hotplug may be disabled by pci_device_probe during a pci module insmod
		while [ "$online" = "1" ]; do
			sleep 1
			echo 0 > $i/online
			online=`cat $i/online`
		done
                echo $idx > /sys/class/vhm/acrn_vhm/offline_cpu
        fi
done

launch_clear 1 1 "64 448 8" 0x070F00

    Note

    In case you have downloaded a different Clear Linux image than the one above (clear-27230-kvm.img.xz), you will need to modify the Clear Linux file name and version number highlighted above (the -s 3,virtio-blk argument) to match what you have downloaded above. Likewise, you may need to adjust the kernel file name on the second line highlighted (check the exact name to be used using: ls /usr/lib/kernel/org.clearlinux.iot-lts2018*).

    By default, the script is located in the /usr/share/acrn/samples/nuc/ directory. You can edit it there, and then run it to launch the User OS:

    $ cd /usr/share/acrn/samples/nuc/
$ sudo ./launch_uos.sh

  5. At this point, you’ve successfully booted the ACRN hypervisor, SOS, and UOS:

    ../_images/gsg-successful-boot.png