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Am I missing something or is there no documentation about what their distro/hardware support matrix looks like? Do I have to just boot into it and navigate the

by abeyer 4y ago

Am I missing something or is there no documentation about what their distro/hardware support matrix looks like? Do I have to just boot into it and navigate the menus to figure that out?

rwmj 4y ago
https://netboot.xyz/docs/faq#what-operating-systems-are-currently-available-on-netbootxyz https://netboot.xyz/docs/faq#what-operating-systems-are-curr... However they don't list the versions of each OS. As for hardware support, I guess it's i686/x86-64 only?
- theantonym 4y ago
  There is ARM support as well in addition to i686/x86-64. Operating system versions are typically dropped as they go EOL upstream from the menu, we try and keep the menus up to date as changes and new versions are released.
  - abeyer 4y ago
    ~Given that it's already there (and presumably maintained) in the github readme, it might make sense to also provide this info on the docs site.~ Nevermind, I'd found the github link first, not sure how I missed it on the site. What's the state of arm64 booting like? Last I looked at early boot process on arm (which was admittedly a while ago) it was kind of a mess w/o a broadly adopted standard like uefi and every processor/soc/board kind of did its own thing. Has that improved to the point where I can expect _any_ arm64 board to just work? Or do I need to worry about the specific hardware, too?
    - theantonym 4y ago
      Most of my testing was just allocating an ARM machine on Equinix Metal as I didn't have much ARM hardware to test or qualify on. I've also gotten the bootloader and menu to work with an RPI4 but loading operating systems on one was a bit more challenging given reduced memory on the hardware.
      - yownie 4y ago
        Maybe its worth reaching out to Eben and Liz at the raspberry pi foundation to develop better support for this. Seems like it would benefit both parties.
    - rwmj 4y ago
      Arm booting is unfortunately still a mess, but at least for server-class machines there's been some adoption of SBSA/SBBR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Base_System_Architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Base_System_Architectur...). Of course server-class machines are not the same as the cheap tat that everyone buys. You can install SBSA/SBBR-compliant firmware for your Raspberry Pi 4 (https://github.com/pftf https://github.com/pftf) but it's not the default.
- snvzz 4y ago
  Bottom of the linked page. https://netboot.xyz/docs/#supported-architectures https://netboot.xyz/docs/#supported-architectures

by abeyer 4y ago

Am I missing something or is there no documentation about what their distro/hardware support matrix looks like? Do I have to just boot into it and navigate the menus to figure that out?

rwmj 4y ago

https://netboot.xyz/docs/faq#what-operating-systems-are-currently-available-on-netbootxyz https://netboot.xyz/docs/faq#what-operating-systems-are-curr... However they don't list the versions of each OS. As for hardware support, I guess it's i686/x86-64 only?

theantonym 4y ago
There is ARM support as well in addition to i686/x86-64. Operating system versions are typically dropped as they go EOL upstream from the menu, we try and keep the menus up to date as changes and new versions are released.
- abeyer 4y ago
  ~Given that it's already there (and presumably maintained) in the github readme, it might make sense to also provide this info on the docs site.~ Nevermind, I'd found the github link first, not sure how I missed it on the site. What's the state of arm64 booting like? Last I looked at early boot process on arm (which was admittedly a while ago) it was kind of a mess w/o a broadly adopted standard like uefi and every processor/soc/board kind of did its own thing. Has that improved to the point where I can expect _any_ arm64 board to just work? Or do I need to worry about the specific hardware, too?
  - theantonym 4y ago
    Most of my testing was just allocating an ARM machine on Equinix Metal as I didn't have much ARM hardware to test or qualify on. I've also gotten the bootloader and menu to work with an RPI4 but loading operating systems on one was a bit more challenging given reduced memory on the hardware.
    - yownie 4y ago
      Maybe its worth reaching out to Eben and Liz at the raspberry pi foundation to develop better support for this. Seems like it would benefit both parties.
  - rwmj 4y ago
    Arm booting is unfortunately still a mess, but at least for server-class machines there's been some adoption of SBSA/SBBR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Base_System_Architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Base_System_Architectur...). Of course server-class machines are not the same as the cheap tat that everyone buys. You can install SBSA/SBBR-compliant firmware for your Raspberry Pi 4 (https://github.com/pftf https://github.com/pftf) but it's not the default.
snvzz 4y ago
Bottom of the linked page. https://netboot.xyz/docs/#supported-architectures https://netboot.xyz/docs/#supported-architectures