Tims minnowboard test provisioning

Tim is (in early 2018), trying to come up with a provisioning system for the Minnowboard turbot in his lab.

He put out a request for information on the automated-testing e-mail list, and got back lots of options. See https://lists.yoctoproject.org/pipermail/automated-testing/2018-January/subject.html#152

Here is an evaluation of those options, along with his own test experiences setting this up for his lab:

principles

• If possible to avoid hardware, that would be good.
  • I don't mind special hardware
• I want to boot the machine for testing as similar to how it will be used in production as possible
  • This means that automatic boot from sdcard is preferable to network boot, or especially boot with network filesystem.
• fewer package dependencies is better
• fewer runtime host dependencies is better

issues

• the default configuration of the board is to boot using grub, from the sdcard
• the default control of booting is via hdmi screen and keyboard

 * how easy is it to configure grub to be usable over serial console (I'd rather not)

• can you control this with timing?

 * boot to stable kernel as default
 * boot to kernel under test using keystrokes (to USB?)
   * use a network-connected USB keyboard?
     * one person made a Raspberry Pi Zero act like a USB keyboard (https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=151940)

suggestions

• use LAVA, with network download of kernel and ramdisk (suggested by Matt Hart)
  • No specifics were mentioned
  • Collabora is using LAVA on a Minnowboard. An example usage is here:
    • https://lava.collabora.co.uk/scheduler/job/105394
• use labgrid and SD-USB-Mux (suggested by Robert Schwebel)
  • SD-USB-Mux info at: https://www.pengutronix.de/en/2017-10-23-usb-sd-mux-automated-sd-card-juggler.html
• use ci-rt project stuff for this (suggested by Thomas Gleixner)
  • supports debian-packaged kernels - good for kbuild?
  • presumably this uses r4d for low-level board control, and libvirt and
    • r4d requires sqlite3 python-sqlalchemy python-pysimplesoap snimpy snmp-mibs-downloader
    • daemon must be running at all times (ugh)
  • presumably starts new kernel using kexec
    • does it support non-x86_64? What platforms support kexec?
• use efi network boot of grub, then temp kernel and initramfs to write to USB, then reboot to grub again and boot
  • not sure if this uses serial console grub (probably)
  • uses efi network boot and dnsmask to deliver grub to target
  • uses LAVA to control grub for both boots
  • NOTE: this one actually provisions something

overview of provisioning/booting options

• install kernel to SD card, boot from grub (kernel selection at boot)
• install kernel to USB flash, boot from grub (kernel selection at boot?)
• install kernel to host, boot from network
• install kernel to target fs, kexec boot from local file

action items

• get an SD-USB-Mux for testing from Robert Schwebel
• can a wireless SD card be used for this?
• find out if r4d relies on kexec support
• find out if configuring grub for serial port control requires rebuilding grub
• test grub with serial control
• see if LAVA grub control can be separated from rest of LAVA
• see if temp kernel and initramfs for writing to SD card or USB already exist
• see if scripts for
• find out about efi network boot
• find out about grub serial console
• find out about dnsmasq

Completed action items

• find out what sispmctl is - used by: https://energenie4u.co.uk/catalogue/product/ENER011
  • Answer: a program (available as a Debian package) specifically for controlling this product