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Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM arrives after seven years of development

51 points by setra 9y ago

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
digitalsushi 9y ago
I'm asking this half for me, half for the thread - does this mean RHEL on Raspberry Pi? thanks.
- zitterbewegung 9y ago
  It’s only compiled for server SOCs I don’t see any indication that raspberry pi is tested or even supported . Not sure if you would want it even if it worked since it’s probably too much for your board .
- wyldfire 9y ago
  AFAIK Pi 3 supports aarch64, so ... maybe? But AFAIK RHEL is probably targeting commercial servers first. But maybe a CentOS/SL for Pi 3 wouldn't be out of the question. The tricky bit is that Redhat probably doesn't have a market for creating and supporting the Pi 3 boot image. But they've done all the legwork for getting aarch64 support in their distro, so that could be reaped in CentOS/SL once you combine it w/a bootloader.
  - mey 9y ago
    https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/Arm32 https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/Arm32 Having tested this, Debian and Ubuntu on a RPi2, I prefer Ubuntu for the packages available. Correction, Ubuntu's official releases only support RPi2 http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/17.10/release/ http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/17.10/release/
- rwmj 9y ago
  RHEL for ARM only runs on 64 bit ARM server hardware which supports UEFI and ACPI. Things like the Cavium ThunderX/X2, Qualcomm Centriq/Amberwing, HPE Apollo 70, Gigabyte MP30. Fairly recent u-boot provides some UEFI APIs, not sure if enough to run RHEL, and as far as I know no ACPI at all. However in general terms RHEL for ARM isn't going to run on RPi-style hardware. (CentOS is quite different, they have a team taking the RHEL work and targeting cheaper hardware).
- andreiw 9y ago
  https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-arch/msg38872.html https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-arch/msg38872.html RHEL requires 64k base page size, which AFAIK the RPi3 doesn’t support. You can run Fedora and CentOS, though.
Tepix 9y ago
There seems to be a giant gap between low cost ARM boards and server ARM boards. I think a moderately fast, yet low power ARM server would be interesting for things like a private cloud. The cheap ARM offerings are usually very limited in terms of RAM (2GB max) with no option to expand it. Right now this market is (under-)served by some Intel Atom boards.
- wyldfire 9y ago
  Agreed, it would be nice to see an "inexpensive" ARM platform that could include 8-16GB or so of memory.
  - wang_li 9y ago
    And a pcie bus.
    - andreiw 9y ago
      Marvell MacchiatoBIN, Overdrive 3000, Gigabyte MT30-GS2 (ThunderX), Gigabyte R120-P31 (X-Gene1)
  - rwmj 9y ago
    Possibly this board (one day ...) https://www.cnx-software.com/2017/09/24/gigabyte-synquacer-96boards-enterprise-platform-is-powered-by-socionext-sc2a11-24-core-armv8-soc/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2017/09/24/gigabyte-synquacer-9... https://www.socionext.com/cn/pr/sn_pr20170922_01e.pdf https://www.socionext.com/cn/pr/sn_pr20170922_01e.pdf It has 24 low-end 64 bit cores, and up to 64 GB of RAM, dual ethernet, PCIe, ... It's a bit of an odd board because those cores will be very slow, and I guess they're hoping to make up for it by having lots and lots of them. That didn't (IMHO) work well for the Cavium ThunderX, but I guess it will come down to price (supposedly "under $1000" which is many times more than an RPi, and many times less than an Amberwing).
  - andreiw 9y ago
    SoftIron.com. Cheapest option (OverDrive 1000) is $599. https://www.solid-run.com/marvell-armada-family/armada-8040-community-board/ https://www.solid-run.com/marvell-armada-family/armada-8040-... - $369. You can get it in a case too (https://www.solid-run.com/clearcloud-cloud-iot-core/ https://www.solid-run.com/clearcloud-cloud-iot-core/) https://www.phoenicselectronics.com https://www.phoenicselectronics.com will sell you a Gigabyte MT30-GS2 (Cavium ThunderX 32-core) 1U system for around $2k. If you want to provide your own ATX case - much less. Gigabyte XGene-1 designs based on MP30-AR0 in 1U are literally $1k. http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?2465024_g10e http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?2465024_g10e
greenhouse_gas 9y ago
How does ARM compare to Intel or AMD from a "cost per power" perspective (meaning, if ARM is twice weaker then AMD, is it less than 50% as expensive?)
- rwmj 9y ago
  Qualcomm are claiming great things for their Centriq processors. [Qualcomm] says that the 48-core Centriq 2460 offers a 4x uplift in performance-per-dollar and a 45 percent performance-per-watt improvement over Intel’s Xeon Platinum 8180 (The quote is from the first link) https://hothardware.com/news/qualcomm-ships-48-core-centriq-2400-series-server-cpu https://hothardware.com/news/qualcomm-ships-48-core-centriq-... https://www.extremetech.com/computing/259036-early-qualcomm-server-cpu-benchmarks-mean-big-trouble-intel https://www.extremetech.com/computing/259036-early-qualcomm-...

51 points by setra 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

digitalsushi 9y ago

I'm asking this half for me, half for the thread - does this mean RHEL on Raspberry Pi? thanks.

zitterbewegung 9y ago
It’s only compiled for server SOCs I don’t see any indication that raspberry pi is tested or even supported . Not sure if you would want it even if it worked since it’s probably too much for your board .
wyldfire 9y ago
AFAIK Pi 3 supports aarch64, so ... maybe? But AFAIK RHEL is probably targeting commercial servers first. But maybe a CentOS/SL for Pi 3 wouldn't be out of the question. The tricky bit is that Redhat probably doesn't have a market for creating and supporting the Pi 3 boot image. But they've done all the legwork for getting aarch64 support in their distro, so that could be reaped in CentOS/SL once you combine it w/a bootloader.
- mey 9y ago
  https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/Arm32 https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/Arm32 Having tested this, Debian and Ubuntu on a RPi2, I prefer Ubuntu for the packages available. Correction, Ubuntu's official releases only support RPi2 http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/17.10/release/ http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/17.10/release/
rwmj 9y ago
RHEL for ARM only runs on 64 bit ARM server hardware which supports UEFI and ACPI. Things like the Cavium ThunderX/X2, Qualcomm Centriq/Amberwing, HPE Apollo 70, Gigabyte MP30. Fairly recent u-boot provides some UEFI APIs, not sure if enough to run RHEL, and as far as I know no ACPI at all. However in general terms RHEL for ARM isn't going to run on RPi-style hardware. (CentOS is quite different, they have a team taking the RHEL work and targeting cheaper hardware).
andreiw 9y ago
https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-arch/msg38872.html https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-arch/msg38872.html RHEL requires 64k base page size, which AFAIK the RPi3 doesn’t support. You can run Fedora and CentOS, though.

Tepix 9y ago

There seems to be a giant gap between low cost ARM boards and server ARM boards. I think a moderately fast, yet low power ARM server would be interesting for things like a private cloud. The cheap ARM offerings are usually very limited in terms of RAM (2GB max) with no option to expand it. Right now this market is (under-)served by some Intel Atom boards.

wyldfire 9y ago
Agreed, it would be nice to see an "inexpensive" ARM platform that could include 8-16GB or so of memory.
- wang_li 9y ago
  And a pcie bus.
  - andreiw 9y ago
    Marvell MacchiatoBIN, Overdrive 3000, Gigabyte MT30-GS2 (ThunderX), Gigabyte R120-P31 (X-Gene1)
- rwmj 9y ago
  Possibly this board (one day ...) https://www.cnx-software.com/2017/09/24/gigabyte-synquacer-96boards-enterprise-platform-is-powered-by-socionext-sc2a11-24-core-armv8-soc/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2017/09/24/gigabyte-synquacer-9... https://www.socionext.com/cn/pr/sn_pr20170922_01e.pdf https://www.socionext.com/cn/pr/sn_pr20170922_01e.pdf It has 24 low-end 64 bit cores, and up to 64 GB of RAM, dual ethernet, PCIe, ... It's a bit of an odd board because those cores will be very slow, and I guess they're hoping to make up for it by having lots and lots of them. That didn't (IMHO) work well for the Cavium ThunderX, but I guess it will come down to price (supposedly "under $1000" which is many times more than an RPi, and many times less than an Amberwing).
- andreiw 9y ago
  SoftIron.com. Cheapest option (OverDrive 1000) is $599. https://www.solid-run.com/marvell-armada-family/armada-8040-community-board/ https://www.solid-run.com/marvell-armada-family/armada-8040-... - $369. You can get it in a case too (https://www.solid-run.com/clearcloud-cloud-iot-core/ https://www.solid-run.com/clearcloud-cloud-iot-core/) https://www.phoenicselectronics.com https://www.phoenicselectronics.com will sell you a Gigabyte MT30-GS2 (Cavium ThunderX 32-core) 1U system for around $2k. If you want to provide your own ATX case - much less. Gigabyte XGene-1 designs based on MP30-AR0 in 1U are literally $1k. http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?2465024_g10e http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?2465024_g10e

greenhouse_gas 9y ago

How does ARM compare to Intel or AMD from a "cost per power" perspective (meaning, if ARM is twice weaker then AMD, is it less than 50% as expensive?)

rwmj 9y ago
Qualcomm are claiming great things for their Centriq processors. [Qualcomm] says that the 48-core Centriq 2460 offers a 4x uplift in performance-per-dollar and a 45 percent performance-per-watt improvement over Intel’s Xeon Platinum 8180 (The quote is from the first link) https://hothardware.com/news/qualcomm-ships-48-core-centriq-2400-series-server-cpu https://hothardware.com/news/qualcomm-ships-48-core-centriq-... https://www.extremetech.com/computing/259036-early-qualcomm-server-cpu-benchmarks-mean-big-trouble-intel https://www.extremetech.com/computing/259036-early-qualcomm-...