[Automated-testing] Looking for a Debian kernel provisioning solution

[Paul Barker]

On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 6:46 AM, Robert Schwebel
<r.schwebel at pengutronix.de> wrote:
> Hi Tim,
>
> On Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 10:21:01PM +0000, Bird, Timothy wrote:
>> So, I want to test LTS kernels on a MinnowBoard Turbot....
>>
>> I'm looking for a board farm solution that can handle
>> building a mainline (or LTS) kernel, and deploy it to the MinnowBoard,
>> and reboot the board to a Linux shell prompt.
>>
>> The board is running Ubuntu 16.04.3, using a 4.4 Linux kernel by default,
>> and uses grub2, with OS software coming from a micro-SD card.
>> I have power control of the board, and serial console, and a network
>> connection (with ssh).
>>
>> The upstream kernels archive of Ubuntu have the software that I'll need.
>>
>> But I'm wondering if there's existing board farm software (e.g. labgrid)
>> that can handle the intricacies of installing a newly built kernel onto
>> the board, and rebooting it.
>
> We use the Minnowboard Max for realtime testing with labgrid, and for
> the automatic setup we use an SD-USB-Mux:
>
> https://www.pengutronix.de/en/2017-10-23-usb-sd-mux-automated-sd-card-juggler.html
>
> In fact, we still don't have a proper way of selling them, but if you
> send me your address, you'll probably be added to our beta tester
> program :-)

This looks to be one part of what I need for Raspberry Pi
kernel/rootfs testing right now. I would buy a handful if they go on
sale.

Do you have a solution for automating the "Powercycle your target"
step? I've had my eye on the power measurement kit that BayLibre
designed (https://www.tindie.com/products/BayLibre/acme-power-measurement-kit/)
since ELCE a few months ago but it's still not available.

>
>> I'm about to write what I need using ttc and some custom scripts, but
>> I wanted to check if there was existing software out there to do this.
>
> In the blog post, Chris describes how to use it.
>
>> My current strategy is to toggle booting between a known-good kernel,
>> and a kernel under test, using the known-good kernel to write the
>> kernel-under-test to the sdcard, update the grub entries, reboot
>> the board, and navigate the grub entries to select the kernel-under-test.
>>
>> Thanks for any tips or pointers you might have.
>
> Jan might want to comment on the labgrid side.
>
> rsc
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-- 
Paul Barker
Togán Labs Ltd