These instructions explain how to prepare an Intel Gordon Ridge MRB target hardware platform to boot and run the QNX Hypervisor.
Preparing a board for a hypervisor system is no different from preparing a board for a non-virtualized system. You need to set DIP switches to configure board behavior (such as where it looks for IPL and startup code), and connect Ethernet, USB, and serial cables so you can connect to your host system and your network (see the QNX Intel Gordon Ridge MRB BSP User's Guide, and the board manufacturer's documentation).
About virtualization and the Gordon Ridge MRB
The Gordon Ridge MRB board revision must be a -401 revision or more recent. The revision information should be on a sticker on the board, which includes the following: alphanumeric-401; for example: “J17532-401”.
At present, the ABL shipped with the Intel Gordon Ridge MRB board doesn't support virtualization. Before you begin, please obtain from Intel an ABL that supports virtualization, and install it on your board. We have conducted our QNX Hypervisor 2.0 testing for Gordon Ridge MRB boards with ABL 1729.
The ABL module stitching is important; for example, without proper stitching it may not be possible to boot from a micro SD card (see “Configure the board switches” in the QNX Intel Gordon Ridge MRB BSP User's Guide, and Intel's Gordon Ridge MRB Getting Started guide).
In the reference images for x86-64 boards, the smmuman utility is configured to use the board's ACPI tables to get the locations of the VT-d registers responsible for remapping PCI device DMA. To use this feature, make sure that your startup doesn't include the -B option, which instructs the startup to not get the ACPI tables.
For more information, see “Configuring pass-through” in the “Configuration” chapter, and “DMA device containment (smmuman)” in the “Using Your Hypervisor System” chapter.
Disabling booting from Linux
Access to the ABL shell is required to configure and execute the boot. In its default configuration, this board automatically boots from Linux. You must disable this automatic Linux boot so you can to access the ABL shell.
To disable automatic boot from Linux, set the board's SW1 DIP switch as follows:
Figure 1. SW1 DIP switch configured to disable automatic Linux boot.
For more information about using the Gordon Ridge DIP switches, see the QNX BSP User's Guide for the Intel Gordon Ridge MRB, and the board manufacturer's documentation.