Raspberry Pi 5 Support with Raspberry Pi Kernel

[kashalls]

Heyo 👋,

@samip5 and I managed to get a partially working version of Talos running on the Raspberry Pi 5.

We wanted to start this discussion because we weren’t sure if SideroLabs would consider allowing sbc-raspberrypi to use the Raspberry Pi Linux kernel fork instead of the current SideroLabs kernel.

Currently, we build the Raspberry Pi Linux kernel for 6.12.x and merge its kernel config with the one in Talos.

Why we can't use siderolab's kernel

Siderolabs Linux kernel doesn’t support CONFIG_FIRMWARE_RP1, which is required for the custom RP1 southbridge chip on the Raspberry Pi 5. That’s why we can’t use it.

Issues We're Facing

Here are some of the challenges we’re currently working through:

• U-Boot does not support booting from anything other than the SD card.
• rpi5-uefi lacks support for fan control and ethernet (pxe-booting).

Current Workaround

Right now, we can build images by:

1. Creating a custom profile with the Talos Imager that includes the custom kernel.
2. Combining our custom kernel with the sbc-raspberrypi overlay, including U-Boot and rpi5-uefi.

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Related Discussions

• sbc-raspberrypi #23
• talos #7978

Would love to hear thoughts from the community and maintainers!

[samip5]

Also for reference, with the foundation config, the kernel takes about 24 minutes to build on a Macbook Pro M1 and with talos config, it takes roughly 33 minutes on the same hardware.

[smira]

We never got this fully implemented, but the way it was designed, overlays could bring their own kernel, but that becomes tricky pretty fast, as all kernel modules should also be provided.

Is there a patch maintained somewhere to include RPi specific bits into 6.12.x kernel?

[smira]

I posted above - find RPi patches proposed for upstreaming into Linux, and apply to our kernel. The should have appropriate license, and be maintained. There is no good path forward without it.

[samip5]

Hmm, it seems to have gotten traction just earlier of the month. https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-arm-kernel/list/?series=924936

[samip5]

Possibly also related https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-arm-kernel/list/?series=926931

[blacksd]

Wasn't SUSE working to port upstream the RP1? https://www.phoronix.com/news/Raspberry-Pi-5-RP1-Linux-RFC

[samip5]

Wasn't SUSE working to port upstream the RP1? https://www.phoronix.com/news/Raspberry-Pi-5-RP1-Linux-RFC

Yes, but that might be anywhere from months to years before it lands.

[samip5]

There's also a caveat that currently to boot from a nvme, we need rpi5-uefi on a SD card or USB drive as U-boot lacks support for booting from nvme on Pi5.

So booting goes: SD Card OR USB drive -> rpi5-uefi -> NVME SSD -> Talos

[Cyclonit]

@samip5, do I understand your last comment correctly in that booting from USB is supported now?

[joryirving]

You basically need 2 drives to get it working. You need to boot into the rpi5-uefi first (on either SD or USB), and then boot into Talos from there (on either USB or NVMe).

I'm currently going SD -> NVMe, but you can do SD -> USB as well (if you're using a usb -> SATA adapter)

[Cyclonit]

@Cyclonit That depends what you mean by that. I can boot my Pi5 with either a USB drive or SD-card that has rpi5-uefi.

I'd like to install Talos on USB drives and boot straight from there if possible. I am very new to this level of OS, and am uncertain whether I understand the required setup correctly. Does rpi5-uefi have to run on a separate boot device (e.g. SD) than the OS itself (e.g. USB)?

[samip5]

@Cyclonit That depends what you mean by that. I can boot my Pi5 with either a USB drive or SD-card that has rpi5-uefi.

I'd like to install Talos on USB drives and boot straight from there if possible. I am very new to this level of OS, and am uncertain whether I understand the required setup correctly. Does rpi5-uefi have to run on a separate boot device (e.g. SD) than the OS itself (e.g. USB)?

Yes, you can by just flashing the image to the usb and after booting to uefi, going to Raspberry Pi Settings menu there and changing ACPI to device tree.

However I'm not sure if an upgrade to it will also reset the settings as they are stored on the boot media where rpi5-uefi is which is why I suggest having them seperate.

[nlindblo]

So I was hoping to do the initial boot off a SD card then install Talos on the nvme drive and then boot off that going forward. This would allow me to rebuild from running Talos on proxmox to run on bare metal instead.

[samip5]

So I was hoping to do the initial boot off a SD card then install Talos on the nvme drive and then boot off that going forward. This would allow me to rebuild from running Talos on proxmox to run on bare metal instead.

Not possible at the moment due to the fact that sbc overlays don't respect install disk selector. I haven't looked at why yet, but before that happens, you need another way to flash it onto the nvme.