Prepare Target to Install ECI Deb Packages

The section is applicable to:

To leverage all ECI features, the target system should meet the recommended system requirements. Also, the target system must have a compatible OS so that you can install ECI Deb packages. This section explains the procedure to install a compatible OS on the target system.

Please note, some feature compatibility (ex: integrated graphics) is dependent on the OS distribution installed on your Intel platform.

Use the table below to determine which ECI supported OS distribution(s) you should use with your Intel® platform to achieve best results:

Distribution	Distribution Version	< Intel® platforms >
		Series 1 Core™ Ultra (MTL) Meteor Lake	7000 Series Intel Atom® (ASL) Amston Lake	14th/13th Gen Core™ (RPL) Raptor Lake	12th Gen Core™ (ADL) Alder Lake	Xeon® D-1700 (ICL-D) Ice Lake D	6000E Series Intel Atom®™ (EHL) Elkhart Lake	11th Gen Core™ (TGL) Tiger Lake	9th/8th Gen Core™ (CFL/WHL) Coffee/Whiskey Lake
< Debian >	Debian 12 (Bookworm) .	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
	Debian 11 (Bullseye) .				✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
< Canonical® Ubuntu® >	Canonical® Ubuntu® 24.04 (Noble Numbat) .	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
	Canonical® Ubuntu® 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish) .		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
< Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® >	Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 9.3 (Plow) .		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

Do the following to prepare the target system:

1. Install the AMD64 variant of either Debian 12 (Bookworm), Debian 11 (Bullseye), Canonical® Ubuntu® 24.04 (Noble Numbat), Canonical® Ubuntu® 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish), or the ECI installation images on to the target system. Refer to the following table for details:

   Attention

   Please review Canonical Intellectual property rights policy regarding Canonical® Ubuntu®. Note that any redistribution of modified versions of Canonical® Ubuntu® must be approved, certified or provided by Canonical if you are going to associate it with the Trademarks. Otherwise you must remove and replace the Trademarks and will need to recompile the source code to create your own binaries.

   Distribution	Description	Where to Download	Instructions
   Debian	Open-source Debian 12 (Bookworm)	Debian 12 Releases	Debian* Installation Guide
   	Open-source Debian 11 (Bullseye)	Debian 11 Releases	Debian* Installation Guide
   	⚑ ECI installation image for core-bookworm	N/A	Build and install ECI |eci-image-debian|
   Canonical® Ubuntu®	Open-source Canonical® Ubuntu® 24.04 (Noble Numbat)	Canonical® Ubuntu® 24.04 Releases	Ubuntu Installation Guide
   	Open-source Canonical® Ubuntu® 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish)	Canonical® Ubuntu® 22.04 Releases	Ubuntu Installation Guide
   	⚑ ECI installation image for core-noble	N/A	Build and install ECI |eci-image-ubuntu|

   Note: ⚑ These ECI installation images enable you to quickly get started with a blank canvas ready for customization. They are minimal builds of Debian or Canonical® Ubuntu® with the ECI Linux Intel LTS PREEMPT_RT kernel already installed and boot parameters already configured.

2. To achieve real-time determinism and utilize the available Intel® silicon features, you need to configure certain BIOS settings. Reboot the target system and access the BIOS (press the delete or F2 keys while booting to open the BIOS menu).

   

3. Select Restore Defaults or Load Defaults, and then select Save Changes and Reset. As the target system boots, access the BIOS again.

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

   Note: The available configurations depend on the platform, BIOS in use, or both. Modify as many configurations as possible.

   Atom & Core ProcessorsXeon Processors

   Setting Name	Option	Setting Menu
   Hyper-Threading	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ CPU Configuration
   Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x)	Disabled* (see footnote)	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
   Maximum GT freq	Lowest (usually 100MHz)	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ Power & Performance ⟶ GT - Power Management Control
   SA GV	Fixed High	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ Memory Configuration
   VT-d	Enabled* (see footnote)	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ System Agent (SA) Configuration
   PCI Express Clock Gating	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ System Agent (SA) Configuration ⟶ PCI Express Configuration
   Gfx Low Power Mode	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ System Agent (SA) Configuration ⟶ Graphics Configuration
   ACPI S3 Support	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ ACPI Settings
   Native ASPM	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ ACPI Settings
   Legacy IO Low Latency	Enabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ PCH-IO Configuration
   PCH Cross Throttling	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ PCH-IO Configuration
   Delay Enable DMI ASPM	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ PCH-IO Configuration ⟶ PCI Express Configuration
   DMI Link ASPM	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ PCH-IO Configuration ⟶ PCI Express Configuration
   Aggressive LPM Support	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ PCH-IO Configuration ⟶ SATA And RST Configuration
   USB Periodic SMI	Disabled	Intel Advanced Menu ⟶ LEGACY USB Configuration

   • VT-x and VT-d are required by most virtualization solutions (KVM, RTH Hypervisor, ACRN Hypervisor, etc.), so set to enabled for greatest compatibility. However, if you know that virtualization will not be used, you can safely set VT-x and VT-d to disabled.

What Next after Preparing Target

After preparing the target, host the ECI Deb packages.