Get openSUSE Tumbleweed for s390x (IBM mainframe) on openqa.opensuse.org
an invention by SLindoMansilla
Updated over 5 years ago. 3 hacker ♥️. 2 followers.

Description

On aarch64, ppc64le and x86_64, there is a common os-autoinst backend called qemu, in which qemu is launched from an installed SLE.

os-autoinst's qemu backend offers the qemu snapshot feature, which allows to clean the SUT after each test module is executed.

At the moment, s390x machine type in openQA are using zVM hypervisor (zVM installed in an LPAR as hypervisor for installing SLE) or zKVM (zLinux or SLE installed in an LPAR as KVM hypervisor for installing SLE).

This is mainly because there is no VNC access, there is no "GPU" available for s390x, in qemu nor on real hardware!

That means that on s390x, all modules depends on the system status left by the previous modules.

But a virtio-gpu has been added in recent qemu/kernel [1], so this could the first stack of a way to use qemu backend.

A Proof-Of-Concept can be done with a recent qemu/kernel, but maybe a openSUSE TumbleWeed is needed for this. But, TW is not available anymore since about 2 years because of a lack of maintainer...

Find more info in tickets [2] [3]

Goals:

  1. Make the os-autoinst backend qemu work for s390x.
  2. Make openSUSE Tumbleweed tests on s390x available on openqa.opensuse.org

Motivation:

  • Implement systemd testsuite as openQA perl module: [4]
  • It is fun to work on an archaic architecture that has survived until today by offering retro-compatibility since 1964. A program written for that architecture family, System/360 [5] (55 years ago!), still runs on the recent model, z14 [6].

References

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Hack Week 18

Activity

  • over 5 years ago: enavarro_suse liked this project.
  • over 5 years ago: a_faerber liked this project.
  • over 5 years ago: mfriesenegger liked this project.
  • over 5 years ago: SLindoMansilla started this project.
  • over 5 years ago: SLindoMansilla originated this project.


    • Comments

    • SLindoMansilla
      over 5 years ago by SLindoMansilla | Reply

      Results:

      • I learned how to generate virtual punched cards containing initrd and the linux kernel to start and perform an installation.
      • I learned how to setup a rack server on openSUSE server room.
      • I set up an openQA-worker for x390x(svirt) backend: https://openqa.opensuse.org/tests/967975

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