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Installing ECI-A

You are now ready to deploy the ECI-A image on a target system in either of the following cases:

• You have built an image for either of the following targets:

  • acrn-sos

  • acrn-zephyr-ehl

• You have a ACRN based prebuilt image, such as:

  • ECI Performance ACRN

For more information on aliases and targets, refer to Building ECI.

To deploy the image on a target system, you need to do the following:

1. Create a bootable USB

2. Configure the target system BIOS

3. Boot and install the image

ECI-A: Create Bootable USB

The following steps are applicable to:

Do the following to create a bootable USB, which you will later use to build and install ECI-A:

1. Open a terminal to the ECI directory. In Ubuntu*, you can right-click an empty space in the directory explorer and select Open in Terminal.

   

2. Insert a USB drive with at least 12GB capacity into the Linux build system.

   Note: For best performance, use a USB 3.1 (or greater) device and port.

   Warning

   All data on the USB mass storage device will be erased!

   At the terminal prompt, run the provided create_bootable_usb.sh script:

   ./create_bootable_usb.sh
   

   If the message “Please run as root” appears, run the script again with sudo:

   sudo ./create_bootable_usb.sh
   

   

   If no ECI images have been built yet, the script will display the message: No built images found. Refer to acrn-sos or acrn-zephyr-ehl and build an ECI-A image. Then, run the create_bootable_usb.sh script.

   

3. The script will display a list of available ECI images. Enter an image name from the list. For example, enter acrn-sos to install an ECI-A image.

   

   If a mass storage device cannot be located, the script will display the message: ERR: No removable mass storage devices found. Insert a USB drive with at least 12GB capacity into the Linux build system and run the create_bootable_usb.sh script again.

   

4. The script will display a list of available removable mass storage devices.

   

   Enter the name of a device from the displayed list. In this example, the device name displayed is sdc.

   

   When the warning, Warning All data will be erased on <device> Proceed? y/[n], enter y to proceed. The target ECI image will be written to the removable mass storage device.

5. At this point, the USB is ready to use. However, an additional prompt may appear: Do you want to include an ECI image for ACRN hypervisor use? y/[n].

   The prompt will not be displayed, if either of the following scenarios exist:

   1. An ECI image is already embedded as a VM. In this case, there is no need to perform additional steps. Click this link to proceed.

   2. An ECI image is not yet embedded as a VM, and there are no ECI images available to be embedded. If you want to embed an ECI image embedded as a VM, refer to Building ECI and build additional ECI targets. Then, run the create_bootable_usb.sh script again.

   If the prompt is displayed, then an ECI image is not yet embedded as a VM, and there are ECI images available to be embedded. Continue with the following steps:

   

   Click the corresponding tabs to learn more:

   Do not embed ECI imageEmbed ECI image as VM

   You can use the ECI-A image as-is, without embedding an ECI image as a VM. You can always add VM images after the ECI-A image is installed on the target system. To proceed with this option, enter n at the prompt.

   After the script completes, you will have a USB drive that can install the ECI-A image. Eject the USB drive from the Linux build system. Follow the section Configure Target System BIOS to continue.

   

Configure Target System BIOS

The following section is applicable to:

For ECI-A image, certain BIOS settings need to be configured to boot properly. Do the following:

1. Boot the target system and access the BIOS (typically pressing the delete or F2 keys while booting will open the BIOS menu).

   

2. Select Restore Defaults or Load Defaults and then select Save & Exit.

3. Reboot the target system and open the BIOS again (as per Step 1).

4. Modify the BIOS configuration as listed in the following table.

   Note

   The available configurations depend on the platform, BIOS in use, or both. In this case, modify as many configurations as possible.

   Setting Name	Option	Setting Menu
   Hyper-Threading	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ CPU Configuration
   Intel (VMX) Virtualization	Enabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ CPU Configuration
   Intel(R) SpeedStep	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ Power & Performance ⟶ CPU - Power Management Control
   Turbo Mode	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ Power & Performance ⟶ CPU - Power Management Control
   C States	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ Power & Performance ⟶ CPU - Power Management Control
   RC6 (Render Standby)	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ Power & Performance ⟶ GT - Power Management Control
   VT-d	Enabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ System Agent (SA) Configuration
   Above 4GB MMIO BIOS assignment	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ System Agent (SA) Configuration
   PM Support	Enabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ System Agent (SA) Configuration ⟶ Graphics Configuration
   DVMT Pre-Allocated	64M	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ System Agent (SA) Configuration ⟶ Graphics Configuration

5. After modifying the BIOS configuration, save the configuration. Follow the section Boot & Install ECI-A to continue.

Boot & Install ECI-A

The following steps are applicable to:

Click the tab corresponding to the variant of ECI-A image being installed.

acrn-sosacrn-zephyr-ehl

1. Insert the bootable USB drive created earlier (see section ECI-A: Create Bootable USB) into the target system.

2. Reboot the target system and access the BIOS (typically pressing the delete or F2 keys while booting will open the BIOS menu).

   

3. At the BIOS menu, navigate to the Save & Exit tab or open the Boot Manager Menu. On this page, you should see an entry with the prefix “UEFI …”. Select the entry that looks like: UEFI: <vendor>…, where <vendor> is the vendor of the USB drive.

   Note: If the USB device does not appear in the boot menu, you might need to enable “Legacy USB Support” in BIOS. Configure the following BIOS setting, then reboot the system for the changes to take effect:

   Setting Name	Option	Setting Menu
   Legacy USB Support	Enabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ USB Configuration ⟶ Legacy USB Support

   

4. The system will boot from the USB drive. A boot menu will appear with a few options. Choose the “install” option.

   

5. The system will begin the installation process. During the installation, you will be prompted to: Please select an install target or press n to exit. Enter an available install target (make sure that the target is correct). For example, enter sdb.

6. If you see the prompt: /dev/sdb# contains a ext4 file system … Proceed anyway? (y,N) , press y at the prompt.

7. After the installation is complete, remove the USB drive and press Enter on the keyboard to reboot the system.

8. Let the system boot completely. Select ACRN from the GRUB menu (this option will automatically be selected after 5 seconds).

   Note

   The Linux option in the GRUB menu boots the Linux kernel and Service OS without the ACRN hypervisor. This can be useful to help diagnose boot or hardware issues if using a custom platform (see: Compiling ACRN for different platforms).

   

9. A login prompt will eventually appear. Login with user root. At the terminal prompt, type: uname -a. Check the build date to make sure that the image is correct.

   

10. Verify that ACRN hypervisor is active by using the command dmesg | grep ACRN The output should appear similar to the following:

# dmesg | grep ACRN
[    0.000000] Hypervisor detected: ACRN

See also

Refer to Launch virtual machines to start using ACRN.

See also

Refer to Verifying Deployment to learn more about using ECI.