arm64 Pi Minimal Install Image Suggestions

[flysideways]

Prior to the Raspberry Pi's I've only ever used Gentoo on x86 or amd64 (x86_64) architectures and used the minimal install cd, later thumb drive, for many of those installs. Not having something similar available for the arm architectures is my motivation.

What I intend to do is create an image that can be used to boot into a minimal Gentoo installation that has all of the tools to build itself. I also want this image to be able to be downloaded and installed natively on a Raspberry Pi. The goal is to create a path for someone with a Pi or two to use those and only those to get an arm64 Gentoo up and running on a Pi.

I am open to your suggestions.

First are suggestions for the image.

What tools would you add that are not already in the stage3?

Second are suggestions for what files need to come back out for it to be distributed openly, for others to install from.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[NeddySeagoon]

flysideways,

You need the arm64 stage3, a kernel and all the broadcom provided files in boot.
To make it boot in 64bit mode you need a config.txt too.

Some setup in /etc is nice but not essential.

It should be possible to put the bits together in a script and make an image.
Sakaki had it all automated, including some one time stuff to make the root fs fill the SD card.
Look in the genpi64 overlay on github.

The stage3 is legal to distribute. Gentoo has to make it that way.
The kernel and /boot stuff is legal to distribute as long as you include the licence files in /boot.

Read the end of Bootable 64-bit RPi3/Pi4 Gentoo image (OpenRC/Xfce/VC4) Pt 2. Others are interested in continuing Sakakis binary distro. Consider trying to find common ground and joining them.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[ShorTie]

You might want to look at

[flysideways]

Neddy and ShorTie,

Thanks for the quick response.

[NeddySeagoon]

flysideways,

You may want to join #gentoo-arm on freenode.net too.
Your nick must be registered to speak.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[ShorTie]

Oh, bye the bye.
You really want to use a ssd for this.
The difference for extracting the stage3 is like
20 minutes ssd vs. 2 1/2 hours sdcard

[flysideways]

Agreed on the ssd.

Sakaki's announcement got me motivated to get to it, building my own. I had been using her work since it came out for the Pi 3, mostly just to look about within it and see what her package choices and solutions were, compared to the Foundation.

I have been experimenting with some pi 4's, building up through the desktop profile with various hardware configurations for some first hand empirical experience. I've used an sd card, a good usb thumbdrive, and a Samsung T7 usb-c ssd. I've also built with the pi alone, cross-distcc with my desktop, and qemu-distcc on my desktop. gcc on the desktop qemu-distcc and ssd takes just over five hours less than cross-distcc on the ssd.

I would like, for my personal use, to eventually build the binaries on the desktop and update the pi's from that, internally, here on my network. I've got plenty of reading and learning ahead. This is fun.

I am new to using cross-distcc and qemu-distcc. My cross-distcc seems adequate. While I have been successful a few times with qemu-distcc, I still have a bunch of questions.

[ShorTie]

Well I'm a gluten for punishment, I always do things native.
Never got into any of that other stuff.
Once I get the imager the way I want it,
Twas thinking of making up a optional desktop.sh.
Something like genpi64 is my final goal, maybe.
But taking it one small step at a time.

[flysideways]

I have never user irc before. I joined #gentoo-arm, all was well for a while. I had been viewing it from a Firefox browser. After I asked a question I noticed I was disconnected. When it finally reconnected me, I had no messages. I suppose that means that if my question was answered while I was reconnecting, I will never see the answer?

Is there some better way to view freenode? One that caches the discusion, at least some of it?

Thanks.

[Strange]

There's several IRC clients may provide better experience, like xchat, irssi, weechat ...

[NeddySeagoon]

flysideways,

If you run a quassel core on a system that is on 24/7 you get a 24/7 connection to IRC with all the backlog.
You connect to the core with a client from anywhere and pretty much most devices too.

If you prefer, the a client and core can be on the same system.
A Pi is perfectly adequate no host the core but the database grows without limit as everything gets logged.

-- edit --

From IRC

[flysideways]

I see that was an incomplete question.

As I have been building both natively with distcc support and on the desktop in qemu chroot with distcc support, I suppose I have really two questions.

First, confirm that if I have two separate chroot directories on the desktop, it does not matter that one is using the arm64 stable toolchain and the other is using the arm64 testing toolchain without distcc support. Natively, it is obvious to me that it does not matter.

The part that I do not understand is, is there a way to create a distcc helper that will serve both toolchains at the same time? I do have an older fx8350 based box I could use for the second toolchain's distcc helper, if that is the easiest way.

Or, would it be better, time wise, to just remove one toolchain and then reinstall the other? I ask that in the context of my current desktop is an R9 3900, much faster and with much more memory than the old fx8350 box.

Thanks.

[flysideways]

I think the problem is that the helper needs to be running the full unstable toolchain to match an ~arm64. That was the element that was escaping me.

[NeddySeagoon]

flysideways,

distcc tells helpers almost everything they need to know to help but the compiler version you would like is not sent
Its your problem to ensure that the host and all the helpers use the same version of gcc.
Stuff breaks when you don't do that.

When using a QEMU chroot, you can use the QEMU chroot host as a distcc helper if you wish.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[Hu]

To elaborate on what Neddy wrote, the distcc client process, as run by Portage, will be distcc $CC --options sourcefile outfile, and will send to the server $CC --options sourcefile outfile, and arrange for sourcefile and outfile to be shipped as needed. It will not figure out that gcc is /usr/bin/arm64-gcc-9.3.0 on the client and /usr/bin/arm64-gcc-11.1.0 on the server. However, if you need to distribute two toolchains to the same peer, you can do it. It is your problem to get it right. You could do this by setting CC and CXX to version-qualified paths, so that the client runs distcc gcc-11.1.0, and distcc then sends gcc-11.1.0 to the server. Then each chroot will have its own distinct qualified names, and (assuming the packages actually respect CC and CXX (it is a bug if they do not)), each client will send an appropriate request to the server.

[flysideways]

I have been using the host as a distcc helper for the qemu chroot.

My current Pi with ~arm64 still has aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-9.3.0 selected and the desktop is x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-9.3.0 but I have not been using distcc for that Pi. I intend to move it to aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-10.2.0. aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-10.2.0 is presently built on my desktop, but not selected. I had run crossdev both with and without the --stable option. Is it as simple as selecting aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-10.2.0 with gcc-config on the desktop while I intend to use it ?

As an aside, I presently have both Pi's running the way I want them. That makes these questions esoteric, but still something that I want to learn.

Thanks.

[NeddySeagoon]

flysideways,

Both ways work should work. I have not tested making distcc ask for a particular gcc version on helpers.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.