Translation(s): none

DebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware. Therefore potential buyers would know if that hardware is supported and owners would know how get the best out of that hardware.

The purpose is not to duplicate the Debian Official Documentation, but to document how to install Debian on some specific hardware.

If you need help to get Debian running on your hardware, please have a look at our user support channels where you may find specific channels (mailing list, IRC channel) dedicated to certain types of hardware.

Models covered
Cavium ThunderXStation

Sub-models (CN99XX) options fitted:
- Video card Nvidia ?GeForce GT 710B
- 32GB RAM, 64 cores
- 1T SSD, 4T HD
Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection

Overall Status

Core Components

[ATTACH]

Boot Standard Kernel:

[OK]

LAN network:

[OK]

Detect hard drives:

[OK]

Audio:

[-]

Extra Features

CPU Frequency Scaling

[?]

Hibernation

[?]

Sleep / Suspend

[?]

Xorg

[i]

- OpenGL

[?]

- Resize-and-Rotate(randr)

[?]

Keyboard's Hotkeys

[?]

~-Legend :
{OK} = OK ; {X} Unsupported(No Driver) ; /!\ = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
{i} = Configuration Required; X-( = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware

Important Note

You need to use at least Buster for a new-enough kernel. Standard Debian Buster installer as of September 2018 works fine.

The machine defaults to a serial interface, not the VGA display. See below if you want to install using just the display.

Display and serial interfaces

The machine defaults to using the serial port as primary user interface.

The serial connector is an 8P8C (aka RJ45) - you need the blue 8P8C to 9-pin D adaptor cable that comes with the machine to interface with a serial port or USB/serial adaptor.

It is also necessary for the EUFI setup/('BIOS') setting for 'EMS serial' to be enabled otherwise nothing after UEFI setup will appear on the serial port. This is enabled by default. Don't turn it off :-)

The display used for BIOS or installation is the built-in BMS VGA port (next to the power plug), not any graphics card plugged into PCI. The instructions in booting below assume you have a display plugged into this port.

The buster installer defaults to the serial port. You need to explicitly specify console=tty0 to get the installer running on the display. Details are given in the Startup section below.

Startup

The ?ThunderStation is derived from a server design so has a rather slow and involved boot procedure with some long delays. This section explains what happens, what you see where, and how long you should expect to wait.

There are two relevant controls.

both on the front panel.

The power rocker toggles the power state - i.e turn off if on, or on if off. Don't operate it twice as it remembers state and will boot up (for a while) then promptly turn itself off. It can take up to 30 seconds to power down after rocking the switch. You can hold the rocker down for 8 seconds to cause an immediate powerdown.

The sequence on power-up (i.e rocking the power switch with power off) is:

1) Fan starts on full speed (noisy!) after 2 secs. Runs for 1 min 20 till 'EL3 exit to normal world' shown on serial output.

2) AMI BIOS screen appears on display after 1m50s

3) It takes 20 secs for EUFI setup (Bios) screen to appear. This is blue and white text menus. It appears on both display and serial.

The sequence on reset (i.e pushing the red button) is the same, but there is a 7 second pause between pushing the button and the fan starting up. The timings to fan-slowdown and BIOS screen are the same (1m 20 and 1m 50).

UEFI setup

To boot from a debian-installer USB stick, having got to the EUFI setup screen, you need to find the "Boot Override" list, on the "Save & Exit page" , and choose your USB stick (which will appear as whatever the disk/device name is, mine appears as 'EUFI:KingstonDataTraveller'). A plain 'debian (drivename)' or 'ubuntu (drivename)' entry is typically an existing installation on the internal HD/flash drive.

Selecting this option and hitting return should cause a grub installer menu (light blue text on dark blue background) to appear on both display and serial almost immediately. To continue using the display from here on you (for buster) need to change the linux command line:

hit 'e' to edit the command line. Change: {{{linux /linux --- quiet }}} to {{{linux /install.a64/vmlinuz console=tty0 }}} to run on the screen

Hit ctrl-X or escape to run the command and boot the kernel

You will see 4 lines of "EFI stub: Booting Linux Kernel" type messages, as UEFI runs the specified command.

Kernel boot

After 20 seconds pause, kernel messages start. They appear on the serial only for about 25 seconds until the efifb (UEFI frame buffer) is enabled, at which point they start appearing on the display as well.

After about 45 seconds the Debian installer screen should appear, either on the display if you specified console=tty0, or on serial if you specified nothing or console=ttyAMA0,115200n8, or on both if using a new-enough version of the installer.

Now you can proceed with the normal Debian installer process.

Configuration

Display

By default, X seems to pick the BMC VGA adapter for the default display. To enable graphics via NVIDIA ?GeForce graphics card add the following snippet to /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nouveau.conf

Section "Device" 
   Identifier "gk208b" 
   Driver "nouveau" 
EndSection

With this in place, restart the X server.

Audio

Mouse

Power Management


System Summary

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af00
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:03.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:08.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:09.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:0e.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
00:0f.0 USB controller: Broadcom Limited Device 9026
00:0f.1 USB controller: Broadcom Limited Device 9026
00:10.0 SATA controller: Broadcom Limited Device 9027
00:10.1 SATA controller: Broadcom Limited Device 9027
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208 [GeForce GT 710B] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GK208 HDMI/DP Audio Controller (rev a1)
03:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Techman Electronics (Changshu) Co., Ltd. Device b100
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection
0e:00.0 PCI bridge: ASPEED Technology, Inc. AST1150 PCI-to-PCI Bridge (rev 04)
0f:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family (rev 41)
80:00.0 Host bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af00
80:01.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:02.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:03.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:04.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:05.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:06.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:07.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:08.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:09.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:0a.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:0b.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:0c.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:0d.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84
80:0e.0 PCI bridge: Cavium, Inc. Device af84

lsusb

lsusb -v | grep -E '\<(Bus|iProduct|bDeviceClass|bDeviceProtocol)' 2>/dev/null

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:0411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04b3:310c IBM Corp. Wheel Mouse
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 045e:0752 Microsoft Corp. Wired Keyboard 400
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:5411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

USB Host controllers entries (without OHCI, UHCI, EHCI) are removed too.

Resources

Attachments

Some configuration files and sample outputs.

Credits