1. Release Notes for Oracle Linux 7.7 (aarch64)
  2. Installation and Availability

5 Installation and Availability

You can download a full Oracle Linux 7.7 (aarch64) installation media image from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud at https://edelivery.oracle.com/. You can also obtain the latest Oracle Linux 7 packages from the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) and the Oracle Linux yum server.

Oracle Linux 7.7 (aarch64) is made available in two forms:

  • A disk image that uses the file name format, rpi3-ol7.7-image-timestamp.img.xz, which can be installed onto an SD Card and used on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B or Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ single-board computer. This image includes the necessary firmware to boot the Raspberry Pi 3 directly into Oracle Linux 7. This image is made available for developers who may not have access to alternate Arm hardware.

    Note:

    The disk image for the Raspberry Pi is available as a technology preview for developer use only. Oracle does not provide support for Oracle Linux on Raspberry Pi systems. Developers are encouraged to visit the Oracle Linux for Arm community forum at https://community.oracle.com/community/technology_network_community/server_%26_storage_systems/linux/oracle-linux-for-arm for further assistance.

  • OracleLinux-R7-U7-Server-aarch64-dvd.iso: An ISO image that can be used for a standard installation on generic 64-bit Armv8 hardware. This ISO has been tested on Arm hardware and is engineered for use with Ampere™ eMAG™-based EVK platform and the Cavium ThunderX2® processor. For the latest hardware validated for Oracle Linux 7.7 (aarch64), refer to the Hardware Certification List at https://linux.oracle.com/hardware-certifications. Note that hardware is listed as it becomes available.

You can install additional software for Oracle Linux 7 by subscribing to the different channels on ULN or by enabling the required repositories within your yum configuration. To explore the channels that are available to you on ULN, log in to https://uln.oracle.com/ and view the Channels option. To view the Oracle Linux yum repositories that are available for Oracle Linux 7, visit https://yum.oracle.com/oracle-linux-7.html.

Note:

The Oracle Linux yum server does not provide equivalent repositories for some channels that are available on ULN. These channels provide non-open source packages.

UEK R5 is the default boot kernel for fresh installations of Oracle Linux 7.7 (aarch64). Note that this is the only kernel that is available for the aarch64 platform in this update. For more information, see Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel: Release Notes for Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 5 Update 2 (4.14.35-1902).

Installing the ISO

The process to install Oracle Linux 7.7 (aarch64) does not differ substantially from the installation process on the x86_64 platform. The same instructions and information that are provided in Oracle Linux 7: Installation Guide also apply to the aarch64 platform.

The recommended installation process is as follows:

  1. Obtain the ISO image from the Oracle Technology Network (https://www.oracle.com/linux/products.html)

  2. Configure a network installation server to perform the installation. See Oracle Linux 7: Installation Guide for more information.

  3. Create a kickstart file to automate your installation. See Oracle Linux 7: Installation Guide for more information on the contents of this file and how to use it when booting the installer.

  4. Connect your target Arm hardware to the network and configure the firmware to boot from the network or by performing a PXE boot. Refer to your hardware documentation for instructions.

  5. Boot the target hardware and wait for the installation to complete.

The following exceptions and additional information might be required to complete the installation:

Graphical network-based installation

If you are performing a manual installation over the network and intend to use the remote graphical installer over VNC by setting the inst.vnc boot option, you must also set boot options to configure the network. Otherwise, the graphical installer fails to load and the installation reverts to text mode.

To ensure that the VNC server starts at boot, append the appropriate ip option to your kernel boot command. Typically, for a DHCP configuration, this may look similar to the following: ip=eth0:dhcp.

Software Selection Groups

Note that the available Software Selection Groups in the installer may differ slightly from the groups that are available in the x86_64 installer.

Software Sources

Note that unlike the x86_64 installer, there are no alternate Software Source repositories provided on this ISO.

Installation of Raspberry Pi 3 Image

Oracle provides an installation image of Oracle Linux 7.7 (aarch64) that is specifically designed to run on Raspberry Pi 3 Model B or Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ hardware. The provided installation image is a default installation of Oracle Linux 7.7 (aarch64) into a raw disk image that can be cloned block-by-block to an SD Card for immediate boot. The default file system used in the image is btrfs. Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

For more information about installing a Linux image onto the Raspberry Pi, visit https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/linux.md.

The following is a summary of the recommended installation process:

  1. Obtain the Raspberry Pi 3 disk image from the Oracle Technology Network at https://www.oracle.com/linux/products.html. Unzip the disk image when you have downloaded it.

  2. On an existing Oracle Linux 7 system, insert the SD Card into an SD Card reader that is connected to the system. The image is 5 GB in size. At minimum, your SD Card must have the capacity to store this image. An 8 GB SD Card is the recommended minimum.

  3. Identify the device name for the SD Card. You can obtain this information from the output of dmesg, when you connect the device by using the lsblk or fdisk -l commands to list device names and device information.

  4. Use the dd command to perform a block copy of the image file to the SD Card device, for example: 

    sudo dd if=/path/to/img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=4M

    where /path/to/img is the relative path to the image file and /dev/mmcblk0 is the device name for the SD Card.

    Important:

    This operation is destructive and will overwrite any data on the device that you have specified. Ensure that you have specified the correct device name. The operation may take some time to complete.

  5. When the operation has completed, eject the SD Card from the reader, insert it into the SD Card reader on the Raspberry Pi and boot into Oracle Linux 7.

  6. Log into the image as the root user using the password oracle. Change the password immediately after logging into to image.

If your SD Card is larger than the image (5 GB), you can grow the partition size to maximize disk usage. To grow the partitiion size, run the following commands after the installation has completed and after logging into the system on the Raspberry Pi: 

sudo growpart /dev/mmcblk0 4 
sudo btrfs filesystem resize max /

Tip:

If you require a graphical user interface (GUI), the XFCE desktop environment, which is available in the ol7_developer_EPEL yum repository, is usable and may be more suitable for devices with limited resources, such as the Raspberry Pi.