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Single Board Computers

Installation of Talos Linux on single-board computers.

1 - Banana Pi M64

Installing Talos on Banana Pi M64 SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image using Image Factory

The default schematic id for “vanilla” Banana Pi M64 is 8e11dcb3c2803fbe893ab201fcadf1ef295568410e7ced95c6c8b122a5070ce4. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/8e11dcb3c2803fbe893ab201fcadf1ef295568410e7ced95c6c8b122a5070ce4/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/8e11dcb3c2803fbe893ab201fcadf1ef295568410e7ced95c6c8b122a5070ce4:v1.10.0-alpha.0

2 - Friendlyelec Nano PI R4S

Installing Talos on a Nano PI R4S SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

The default schematic id for “vanilla” NanoPi R4S is 5f74a09891d5830f0b36158d3d9ea3b1c9cc019848ace08ff63ba255e38c8da4. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/5f74a09891d5830f0b36158d3d9ea3b1c9cc019848ace08ff63ba255e38c8da4/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/5f74a09891d5830f0b36158d3d9ea3b1c9cc019848ace08ff63ba255e38c8da4:v1.10.0-alpha.0

3 - Jetson Nano

Installing Talos on Jetson Nano SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Flashing the firmware to on-board SPI flash

Flashing the firmware only needs to be done once.

We will use the R32.7.2 release for the Jetson Nano. Most of the instructions is similar to this doc except that we’d be using a upstream version of u-boot with patches from NVIDIA u-boot so that USB boot also works.

Before flashing we need the following:

  • A USB-A to micro USB cable
  • A jumper wire to enable recovery mode
  • A HDMI monitor to view the logs if the USB serial adapter is not available
  • A USB to Serial adapter with 3.3V TTL (optional)
  • A 5V DC barrel jack

If you’re planning to use the serial console follow the documentation here

First start by downloading the Jetson Nano L4T release.

curl -SLO https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/l4t/r32_release_v7.1/t210/jetson-210_linux_r32.7.2_aarch64.tbz2

Next we will extract the L4T release and replace the u-boot binary with the patched version.

tar xf jetson-210_linux_r32.6.1_aarch64.tbz2
cd Linux_for_Tegra
crane --platform=linux/arm64 export ghcr.io/siderolabs/sbc-jetson:v0.1.0 - | tar xf - --strip-components=4 -C bootloader/t210ref/p3450-0000/ artifacts/arm64/u-boot/jetson_nano/u-boot.bin

Next we will flash the firmware to the Jetson Nano SPI flash. In order to do that we need to put the Jetson Nano into Force Recovery Mode (FRC). We will use the instructions from here

  • Ensure that the Jetson Nano is powered off. There is no need for the SD card/USB storage/network cable to be connected
  • Connect the micro USB cable to the micro USB port on the Jetson Nano, don’t plug the other end to the PC yet
  • Enable Force Recovery Mode (FRC) by placing a jumper across the FRC pins on the Jetson Nano
    • For board revision A02, these are pins 3 and 4 of header J40
    • For board revision B01, these are pins 9 and 10 of header J50
  • Place another jumper across J48 to enable power from the DC jack and connect the Jetson Nano to the DC jack J25
  • Now connect the other end of the micro USB cable to the PC and remove the jumper wire from the FRC pins

Now the Jetson Nano is in Force Recovery Mode (FRC) and can be confirmed by running the following command

lsusb | grep -i "nvidia"

Now we can move on the flashing the firmware.

sudo ./flash p3448-0000-max-spi external

This will flash the firmware to the Jetson Nano SPI flash and you’ll see a lot of output. If you’ve connected the serial console you’ll also see the progress there. Once the flashing is done you can disconnect the USB cable and power off the Jetson Nano.

Download the Image

The default schematic id for “vanilla” Jetson Nano is c7d6f36c6bdfb45fd63178b202a67cff0dd270262269c64886b43f76880ecf1e. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/c7d6f36c6bdfb45fd63178b202a67cff0dd270262269c64886b43f76880ecf1e/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

Now dd the image to your SD card/USB storage:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M status=progress

| Replace /dev/mmcblk0 with the name of your SD card/USB storage.

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card/USB storage to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/c7d6f36c6bdfb45fd63178b202a67cff0dd270262269c64886b43f76880ecf1e:v1.10.0-alpha.0

4 - Libre Computer Board ALL-H3-CC

Installing Talos on Libre Computer Board ALL-H3-CC SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

The default schematic id for “vanilla” Libretech H3 CC H5 is 5689d7795f91ac5bf6ccc85093fad8f8b27f6ea9d96a9ac5a059997bffd8ad5c. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/5689d7795f91ac5bf6ccc85093fad8f8b27f6ea9d96a9ac5a059997bffd8ad5c/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node.

Create a installer-patch.yaml containing reference to the installer image generated from an overlay: Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/5689d7795f91ac5bf6ccc85093fad8f8b27f6ea9d96a9ac5a059997bffd8ad5c:v1.10.0-alpha.0

5 - Orange Pi 5

Installing Talos on Orange Pi 5 using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

Before you start:

Boot options

You can boot Talos from:

  1. booting from SD card
  2. booting from a USB or NVMe (requires a spi image on the SPI flash)

Booting from SD card

Go to https://factory.talos.dev select Single Board Computers, select the version and select Orange Pi 5 from the options. Choose your desired extensions and fill in the kernel command line arguments if needed.

Download the disk image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/[uuid]/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Flash the Image

The image can be flashed using Etcher on Windows, macOS, or Linux or using dd on Linux:

# Replace /dev/<device> with the destination device
# You can find the device with `lsblk` or `fdisk -l`
sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/<device> bs=1M status=progress && sync

Proceed by following the getting started guide for further steps on how to configure Talos.

Booting from USB or NVMe

Requirements

  • An SD card to boot the Orange Pi 5 board from in order to flash the SPI flash.

Go to https://factory.talos.dev select Single Board Computers, select the version and select Orange Pi 5 from the options. Choose your desired extensions and fill in the kernel command line arguments if needed.

You should also add the spi_boot: true overlay extra option in order to remove u-boot from the final image, as the bootloader will be flashed to the SPI flash.

Download the disk image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/[uuid]/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Steps

  1. Make sure to install the NVMe or USB drive in the Orange Pi 5 board.

  2. Boot the Orange Pi 5 board from the SD card:

    • Flash the Orange Pi 5 variant of Ubuntu to an SD card.
    • Insert the SD card into the Orange Pi 5 board.
    • Boot into the Ubuntu image.
    • Download crane CLI on the Ubuntu image.

  3. From the Ubuntu image, find the latest sbc-rockchip overlay, download and extract the u-boot SPI image:

    • Find the latest release tag of the sbc-rockchip repo.

    • Download and extract the u-boot SPI image:

      crane --platform=linux/arm64 export ghcr.io/siderolabs/sbc-rockchip:<releasetag> | tar x --strip-components=4 artifacts/arm64/u-boot/orangepi-5/u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin

  4. Flash the SPI flash with the u-boot SPI image:

    devicesize=$(blockdev --getsz /dev/mtdblock0)
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mtdblock0 bs=1M count=$devicesize status=progress && sync
dd if=u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin of=/dev/mtdblock0 bs=1M status=progress && sync

  5. Flash the Talos raw image to the NVMe or USB drive:

    sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/<device> bs=1M status=progress && sync

  6. Shutdown the Orange Pi 5 board and remove the SD card.

On the next boot, Talos will now boot from the NVMe/USB and enter maintenance mode.

Proceed by following the getting started guide for further steps on how to configure Talos.

Troubleshooting

Serial console

If you experience any issues you can check the serial console. Follow the official guideline (Section 2.18 — “How to use the debugging serial port”) on how to connect a serial adapter.

6 - Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS

Installing Talos on Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image using Image Factory

The default schematic id for “vanilla” Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS is da388062cd9318efdc7391982a77ebb2a97ed4fbda68f221354c17839a750509. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/da388062cd9318efdc7391982a77ebb2a97ed4fbda68f221354c17839a750509/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/da388062cd9318efdc7391982a77ebb2a97ed4fbda68f221354c17839a750509:v1.10.0-alpha.0

7 - Pine64

Installing Talos on a Pine64 SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

The default schematic id for “vanilla” Pine64 is 185431e0f0bf34c983c6f47f4c6d3703aa2f02cd202ca013216fd71ffc34e175. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/185431e0f0bf34c983c6f47f4c6d3703aa2f02cd202ca013216fd71ffc34e175/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/185431e0f0bf34c983c6f47f4c6d3703aa2f02cd202ca013216fd71ffc34e175:v1.10.0-alpha.0

8 - Pine64 Rock64

Installing Talos on Pine64 Rock64 SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

The default schematic id for “vanilla” Pine64 Rock64 is 0e162298269125049a51ec0a03c2ef85405a55e1d2ac36a7ef7292358cf3ce5a. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/0e162298269125049a51ec0a03c2ef85405a55e1d2ac36a7ef7292358cf3ce5a/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/0e162298269125049a51ec0a03c2ef85405a55e1d2ac36a7ef7292358cf3ce5a:v1.10.0-alpha.0

9 - Radxa ROCK 4C Plus

Installing Talos on Radxa ROCK 4c Plus SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card or an eMMC or USB drive or an nVME drive

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

The default schematic id for “vanilla” Rock 4c Plus is ed7091ab924ef1406dadc4623c90f245868f03d262764ddc2c22c8a19eb37c1c. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/ed7091ab924ef1406dadc4623c90f245868f03d262764ddc2c22c8a19eb37c1c/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card/eMMC/USB/nVME can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

The user has two options to proceed:

  • booting from a SD card or eMMC

Booting from SD card or eMMC

Insert the SD card into the board, turn it on and proceed to bootstrapping the node.

Bootstrapping the Node

Wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/ed7091ab924ef1406dadc4623c90f245868f03d262764ddc2c22c8a19eb37c1c:v1.10.0-alpha.0

10 - Radxa ROCK 5B

Installing Talos on Radxa ROCK 5B SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

Download the Image

Visit the Image Factory, select Single Board Computers, select the version and select Radxa ROCK 5B from the options.

Choose realtek-firmware and any other desired extension. Next fill in the kernel command line arguments if needed.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/[uuid]/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

This guide assumes the node should boot from SD card. Booting from eMMC or NVMe has not been tested yet.

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress bs=4M

First boot

Insert the SD card into the board, turn it on and proceed by following the getting started guide for further steps on how to configure Talos.

Troubleshooting

Serial console

If you experience any issues you can check the serial console. Follow the official guideline on how to connect a serial adapter.

Hint: The rock5b overlay uses baudrate of 115200 instead of the default 1500000

Power supplies and endless restarts

It is a known issue that USB Power Delivery negotiation is performed at a late stage in kernel. This can lead to endless restarts if the power supply cuts power to early. Check the list of known working power supplies.

Tips and tricks

EPHEMERAL on NVMe

The Radxa ROCK 5B SBC provides a M.2 NVMe SSD slot.

This allows to use a separate disk for the EPHEMERAL partition by following Disk Management.

11 - Radxa ROCK PI 4

Installing Talos on Radxa ROCK PI 4a/4b SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card or an eMMC or USB drive or an nVME drive

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

The default schematic id for “vanilla” RockPi 4 is 25d2690bb48685de5939edd6dee83a0e09591311e64ad03c550de00f8a521f51. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/25d2690bb48685de5939edd6dee83a0e09591311e64ad03c550de00f8a521f51/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card/eMMC/USB/nVME can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

The user has two options to proceed:

  • booting from a SD card or eMMC
  • booting from a USB or nVME (requires the RockPi board to have the SPI flash)

Booting from SD card or eMMC

Insert the SD card into the board, turn it on and proceed to bootstrapping the node.

Booting from USB or nVME

This requires the user to flash the RockPi SPI flash with u-boot.

Follow the Radxa docs on Install on M.2 NVME SSD

After these above steps, Talos will boot from the nVME/USB and enter maintenance mode. Proceed to bootstrapping the node.

Bootstrapping the Node

Wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/25d2690bb48685de5939edd6dee83a0e09591311e64ad03c550de00f8a521f51:v1.10.0-alpha.0

12 - Radxa ROCK PI 4C

Installing Talos on Radxa ROCK PI 4c SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card or an eMMC or USB drive or an nVME drive

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

The default schematic id for “vanilla” RockPi 4c is 08e72e242b71f42c9db5bed80e8255b2e0d442a372bc09055b79537d9e3ce191. Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/08e72e242b71f42c9db5bed80e8255b2e0d442a372bc09055b79537d9e3ce191/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card/eMMC/USB/nVME can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

The user has two options to proceed:

  • booting from a SD card or eMMC
  • booting from a USB or nVME (requires the RockPi board to have the SPI flash)

Booting from SD card or eMMC

Insert the SD card into the board, turn it on and proceed to bootstrapping the node.

Booting from USB or nVME

This requires the user to flash the RockPi SPI flash with u-boot.

Follow the Radxa docs on Install on M.2 NVME SSD

After these above steps, Talos will boot from the nVME/USB and enter maintenance mode. Proceed to bootstrapping the node.

Bootstrapping the Node

Wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/08e72e242b71f42c9db5bed80e8255b2e0d442a372bc09055b79537d9e3ce191:v1.10.0-alpha.0

13 - Raspberry Pi Series

Installing Talos on Raspberry Pi SBC’s using raw disk image.

Talos disk image for the Raspberry Pi generic should in theory work for the boards supported by u-boot rpi_arm64_defconfig. This has only been officialy tested on the Raspberry Pi 4 and community tested on one variant of the Compute Module 4 using Super 6C boards. If you have tested this on other Raspberry Pi boards, please let us know.

Video Walkthrough

To see a live demo of this writeup, see the video below:

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -sL 'https://www.talos.dev/install' | bash

Updating the EEPROM

Use Raspberry Pi Imager to write an EEPROM update image to a spare SD card. Select Misc utility images under the Operating System tab.

Remove the SD card from your local machine and insert it into the Raspberry Pi. Power the Raspberry Pi on, and wait at least 10 seconds. If successful, the green LED light will blink rapidly (forever), otherwise an error pattern will be displayed. If an HDMI display is attached to the port closest to the power/USB-C port, the screen will display green for success or red if a failure occurs. Power off the Raspberry Pi and remove the SD card from it.

Note: Updating the bootloader only needs to be done once.

Download the Image

Note: if you need to enable Broadcom VideoCore GPU support, generate a new image from the Image Factory with the correct config.txt configuration and vc4 system extension. More information can be found under the Image Factory Example below.

The default schematic id for “vanilla” Raspberry Pi generic image is ee21ef4a5ef808a9b7484cc0dda0f25075021691c8c09a276591eedb638ea1f9.Refer to the Image Factory documentation for more information.

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/ee21ef4a5ef808a9b7484cc0dda0f25075021691c8c09a276591eedb638ea1f9/v1.10.0-alpha.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Writing the Image

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

Note: Add the vc4 System Extension for V3D/VC4 Broadcom VideoCore GPU support.

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Note: if you have an HDMI display attached and it shows only a rainbow splash, please use the other HDMI port, the one closest to the power/USB-C port.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Upgrading

For example, to upgrade to the latest version of Talos, you can run:

talosctl -n <node IP or DNS name> upgrade --image=factory.talos.dev/installer/ee21ef4a5ef808a9b7484cc0dda0f25075021691c8c09a276591eedb638ea1f9:v1.10.0-alpha.0

Example: Raspberry Pi generic with Broadcom VideoCore GPU support with Image Factory

Let’s assume we want to boot Talos on a Raspberry Pi with the vc4 system extension for V3D/VC4 Broadcom VideoCore GPU support.

First, let’s create the schematic file rpi_generic.yaml:

Schematic example with vc4 system extension

# rpi_generic.yaml
overlay:
  name: rpi_generic
  image: siderolabs/sbc-raspberrypi
  options:
    configTxt: |
      gpu_mem=128
      kernel=u-boot.bin
      arm_64bit=1
      arm_boost=1
      enable_uart=1
      dtoverlay=disable-bt
      dtoverlay=disable-wifi
      avoid_warnings=2
      dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,noaudio      
customization:
  systemExtensions:
    officialExtensions:
      - siderolabs/vc4

The schematic doesn’t contain any system extension or overlay versions, Image Factory will pick the correct version matching Talos Linux release.

And now we can upload the schematic to the Image Factory to retrieve its ID:

$ curl -X POST --data-binary @rpi_generic.yaml https://factory.talos.dev/schematics
{"id":"0db665edfda21c70194e7ca660955425d16cec2aa58ff031e2abf72b7c328585"}

The returned schematic ID 0db665edfda21c70194e7ca660955425d16cec2aa58ff031e2abf72b7c328585 we will use to generate the boot assets.

The schematic ID is based on the schematic contents, so uploading the same schematic will return the same ID.

Now we can download the metal arm64 image:

The Image Factory URL contains both schematic ID and Talos version, and both can be changed to generate different boot assets.

Once installed, the machine can be upgraded to a new version of Talos by referencing new installer image:

talosctl upgrade --image factory.talos.dev/installer/0db665edfda21c70194e7ca660955425d16cec2aa58ff031e2abf72b7c328585:<new_version>

Same way upgrade process can be used to transition to a new set of system extensions: generate new schematic with the new set of system extensions, and upgrade the machine to the new schematic ID:

talosctl upgrade --image factory.talos.dev/installer/<new_schematic_id>:v1.10.0-alpha.0

Example: Raspberry Pi generic with Broadcom VideoCore GPU support with Imager

Let’s assume we want to boot Talos on Raspberry Pi with rpi_generic overlay and the vc4 system extension for Broadcom VideoCore GPU support.

First, let’s lookup extension images for vc4 in the extensions repository:

$ crane export ghcr.io/siderolabs/extensions:v1.10.0-alpha.0 | tar x -O image-digests | grep -E 'vc4'
ghcr.io/siderolabs/vc4:v0.1.4@sha256:548b2b121611424f6b1b6cfb72a1669421ffaf2f1560911c324a546c7cee655e

Next we’ll lookup the overlay image for rpi_generic in the overlays repository:

$ crane export ghcr.io/siderolabs/overlays:v1.10.0-alpha.0 | tar x -O overlays.yaml | yq '.overlays[] | select(.name=="rpi_generic")'
name: rpi_generic
image: ghcr.io/siderolabs/sbc-raspberrypi:v0.1.0
digest: sha256:849ace01b9af514d817b05a9c5963a35202e09a4807d12f8a3ea83657c76c863

Now we can generate the metal image with the following command:

$ docker run --rm -t -v $PWD/_out:/out -v /dev:/dev --privileged ghcr.io/siderolabs/imager:v1.10.0-alpha.0 rpi_generic \
  --arch arm64 \
  --overlay-image ghcr.io/siderolabs/sbc-raspberrypi:v0.1.0@sha256:849ace01b9af514d817b05a9c5963a35202e09a4807d12f8a3ea83657c76c863 \
  --overlay-name=rpi_generic \
  --overlay-option="configTxt=$(cat <<EOF
gpu_mem=128
kernel=u-boot.bin
arm_64bit=1
arm_boost=1
enable_uart=1
dtoverlay=disable-bt
dtoverlay=disable-wifi
avoid_warnings=2
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,noaudio
EOF
)" \
  --system-extension-image ghcr.io/siderolabs/vc4:v0.1.4@sha256:548b2b121611424f6b1b6cfb72a1669421ffaf2f1560911c324a546c7cee655e
profile ready:
arch: arm64
platform: metal
secureboot: false
version: v1.10.0-alpha.0
input:
  kernel:
    path: /usr/install/arm64/vmlinuz
  initramfs:
    path: /usr/install/arm64/initramfs.xz
  baseInstaller:
    imageRef: ghcr.io/siderolabs/installer:v1.10.0-alpha.0
  systemExtensions:
    - imageRef: ghcr.io/siderolabs/vc4:v0.1.4@sha256:a68c268d40694b7b93c8ac65d6b99892a6152a2ee23fdbffceb59094cc3047fc
overlay:
  name: rpi_generic
  image:
    imageRef: ghcr.io/siderolabs/sbc-raspberrypi:v0.1.0-alpha.1@sha256:849ace01b9af514d817b05a9c5963a35202e09a4807d12f8a3ea83657c76c863
  options:
    configTxt: |-
      gpu_mem=128
      kernel=u-boot.bin
      arm_64bit=1
      arm_boost=1
      enable_uart=1
      dtoverlay=disable-bt
      dtoverlay=disable-wifi
      avoid_warnings=2
      dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,noaudio
output:
  kind: image
  imageOptions:
    diskSize: 1306525696
    diskFormat: raw
  outFormat: .xz
initramfs ready
kernel command line: talos.platform=metal console=tty0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 sysctl.kernel.kexec_load_disabled=1 talos.dashboard.disabled=1 init_on_alloc=1 slab_nomerge pti=on consoleblank=0 nvme_core.io_timeout=4294967295 printk.devkmsg=on ima_template=ima-ng ima_appraise=fix ima_hash=sha512
disk image ready
output asset path: /out/metal-arm64.raw
compression done: /out/metal-arm64.raw.xz

Now the _out/metal-arm64.raw.xz is the compressed disk image which can be written to a boot media.

As the next step, we should generate a custom installer image which contains all required system extensions (kernel args can’t be specified with the installer image, but they are set in the machine configuration):

$ docker run --rm -t -v $PWD/_out:/out ghcr.io/siderolabs/imager:v1.10.0-alpha.0 installer \
  --arch arm64 \
  --overlay-image ghcr.io/siderolabs/sbc-raspberrypi:v0.1.0@sha256:849ace01b9af514d817b05a9c5963a35202e09a4807d12f8a3ea83657c76c863 \
  --overlay-name=rpi_generic \
  --overlay-option="configTxt=$(cat <<EOF
gpu_mem=128
kernel=u-boot.bin
arm_64bit=1
arm_boost=1
enable_uart=1
dtoverlay=disable-bt
dtoverlay=disable-wifi
avoid_warnings=2
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,noaudio
EOF
)" \
  --system-extension-image ghcr.io/siderolabs/vc4:v0.1.4@sha256:548b2b121611424f6b1b6cfb72a1669421ffaf2f1560911c324a546c7cee655e
...
output asset path: /out/metal-arm64-installer.tar

The installer container image should be pushed to the container registry:

crane push _out/metal-arm64-installer.tar ghcr.io/<username></username>/installer:v1.10.0-alpha.0

Now we can use the customized installer image to install Talos on Raspberry Pi.

When it’s time to upgrade a machine, a new installer image can be generated using the new version of imager, and updating the system extension and overlay images to the matching versions. The custom installer image can now be used to upgrade Talos machine.

config.txt Information

Refer to the default config.txt file used by the sbc-raspberrypi overlay.

Configure the config.txt file for usage with the vc4 system extension

...
gpu_mem=128 # <== Add or edit this line
...
hdmi_safe:0=1 # <== Remove this line
hdmi_safe:1=1 # <== Remove this line
...
avoid_warnings=2 # <== Add this line
dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,noaudio # <== Add this line
...

Troubleshooting

The following table can be used to troubleshoot booting issues:

Long FlashesShort FlashesStatus
03Generic failure to boot
04start*.elf not found
07Kernel image not found
08SDRAM failure
09Insufficient SDRAM
010In HALT state
21Partition not FAT
22Failed to read from partition
23Extended partition not FAT
24File signature/hash mismatch - Pi 4
44Unsupported board type
45Fatal firmware error
46Power failure type A
47Power failure type B

14 - Turing RK1

Installing Talos on Turing RK1 SOM using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

Before you start, ensure you have:

Download the latest talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/siderolabs/talos/releases/download/v1.10.0-alpha.0/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

Go to https://factory.talos.dev select Single Board Computers, select the version and select Turing RK1 from the options. Choose your desired extensions and fill in the kernel command line arguments if needed.

Download the disk image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://factory.talos.dev/image/[uuid]/v1.9.0/metal-arm64.raw.xz
xz -d metal-arm64.raw.xz

Boot options

You can boot Talos from:

  1. booting from eMMC
  2. booting from a USB or NVMe (requires a spi image on the eMMC)

Booting from eMMC

Flash the image to the eMMC and power on the node: (or use the WebUI of the Turing Pi 2)

tpi flash -n <NODENUMBER> -i metal-arm64.raw
tpi power on -n <NODENUMBER>

Proceed to bootstrapping the node.

Booting from USB or NVMe

Requirements

To boot from USB or NVMe, flash a u-boot SPI image (part of the SBC overlay) to the eMMC.

Steps

Skip step 1 if you already installed your NVMe drive.

  1. If you have a USB to NVMe adapter, write Talos image to the USB drive:

    sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/sda

  2. Install the NVMe drive in the Turing Pi 2 board.

    If the NVMe drive is/was already installed:

    • Flash the Turing RK1 variant of Ubuntu to the eMMC.

    • Boot into the Ubuntu image and write the Talos image directly to the NVMe drive:

      sudo dd if=metal-arm64.raw of=/dev/nvme0n1

  3. Find the latest sbc-rockchip overlay, download and extract the SBC overlay image:

    • Find the latest release tag of the sbc-rockchip repo.

    • Download the sbc overlay image and extract the SPI image:

      crane --platform=linux/arm64 export ghcr.io/siderolabs/sbc-rockchip:<releasetag> | tar x --strip-components=4 artifacts/arm64/u-boot/turingrk1/u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin

  4. Flash the eMMC with the Talos raw image (even if Talos was previously installed): (or use the WebUI of the Turing Pi 2)

    tpi flash -n <NODENUMBER> -i metal-turing_rk1-arm64.raw

  5. Flash the SPI image to set the boot order and remove unnecessary partitions: (or use the WebUI of the Turing Pi 2)

    tpi flash -n <NODENUMBER> -i u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin
tpi power on -n <NODENUMBER>

Talos will now boot from the NVMe/USB and enter maintenance mode.

Bootstrapping the Node

To monitor boot messages, run: (repeat)

tpi uart -n <NODENUMBER> get

Wait until instructions for bootstrapping appear. Follow the UART instructions to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --mode=interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Alternatively, generate and apply a configuration:

talosctl gen config
talosctl apply-config --insecure --nodes <node IP or DNS name> -f <worker/controlplane>.yaml

Copy your talosconfig to ~/.talos/config and fill in the node field with the IP address of the node and endpoints.

Once applied, the cluster will form, and you can use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

15 - Unofficial Ports

List of unofficial ports of Talos Linux to single-board computers.

Certain single-board computers cannot be officially supported by Talos Linux due to the need for a custom fork of the Linux kernel. This page provides a list of unofficial ports of Talos Linux to single-board computers, created and maintained by the community. These ports are not officially supported by Talos Linux and are offered as-is.

Some of these ports may become official in the future.

Raspberry Pi 5

MIXTILE Blade 3