ARM64
FreeBSD/arm64 is the FreeBSD port to the 64-bit ARM architecture, also known as AArch64 or ARMv8. All supported FreeBSD releases include out-of-the-box support for ARMv8, and over 20,000 packages are available in the 3rd party software collection. Ampere eMAG and Altra platforms are the primary reference platforms for FreeBSD/arm64. arm64 is classified as a Tier-1 architecture on FreeBSD as of FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE. Before that it was classified as tier-2.
Contents
Targets
FreeBSD Release Engineering builds specific images for arm64 including Pine64 and RPi3 & 4. The Cavium Thunder and SoftIron Overdrive series are supported via the normal build chain. Images for certain other boards can be built by crochet.
Source
The basic FreeBSD/arm64 support is available in FreeBSD-CURRENT, FREEBSD-13-STABLE, FREEBSD-12-STABLE, and FREEBSD-11-STABLE. (For reference, also see the history of FreeBSD/arm64 commits).
main (CURRENT) build status:
stable/13 (13.x-STABLE) build status:
stable/12 (12.x-STABLE) build status:
Building
World
The standard buildworld sequence works:
export MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX=<path-to-suitable-objdir> make buildworld TARGET=arm64
Kernel
The build sequence for the kernel is a fairly standard one:
export MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX=<path-to-suitable-objdir> make buildkernel TARGET=arm64
This results in an image called 'kernel' created in:
$MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX/arm64.aarch64/<svn-checkout-path**>/sys/GENERIC
** See the 'Source' section above for the svn-checkout-path.
Running
Emulation
ARM Foundation Model
The ARMv8 Foundation Model is available from ARM. You must read and accept a click-through license to obtain it. The Foundation model may be run in a Linux virtual machine, or by using the experimental 64-bit Linux emulation support.
AndrewTurner has a GitHub repo set up to help run on the Foundation Model.
QEMU
QEMU now has aarch64 system mode emulation support. It is available by installing the qemu-devel package or emulators/qemu-devel port.
The Release Engineers build periodic snapshots, including for arm64 on QEMU. Instructions on where to find these are sent to the snapshots mailing list.
See arm64/QEMU for further details on booting FreeBSD/arm64 in QEMU, including links to AArch64 EFI firmware files that are not included with the QEMU port.
Single Boards
ESPRESSObin
Gem5
HiKey
The HiKey is a low cost (~$75 - $100 + shipping) ARMv8 board from Linaro.
MACCHIATObin
The http://macchiatobin.net/MACCHIATObin series of boards is supported.
As noted by Greg at unrelenting.technology:
affordable 4-core (Cortex A72) with DDR4 (takes one full size DIMM), SATA, USB 3.0 and PCIe. There is excellent firmware support (upstream EDK2+!TrustedFirmware). However, an affordable 4-core (Cortex A72) with DDR4 (takes one full size DIMM), SATA, USB 3.0 and PCIe. However, the PCIe is rather quirky.
Allwinner based boards
See main Allwinner page at arm/Allwinner
Rockchip based boards
This section has moved to arm/RockChip
Raspberry Pi 3 + 4 ( RPI3 + RPI4 + RPI400 )
This section has moved to arm/Raspberry Pi
Complete Systems
Cavium ThunderX
Cavium's ThunderX is the initial reference target platform for FreeBSD/arm64.
FreeBSD supports the ThunderX EVB (evaluation board) and CRB (customer reference board) in SMP mode (48 CPU cores). SATA drives, PCIe expansion cards, and the on-chip network interface are fully supported.
FreeBSD is available on the 2 socket, 96 core Type 2A ThunderX systems at Packet.net.
Demo of SMP kernel on ThunderX
HoneyComb
Although the HoneyComb from SolidRun is available as a single board, it is more targeted at the workstation market.
(See this mailing list thread for current FreeBSD developer notes.)
Lenovo ThinkSystem SR330/SR350
These servers are based on the Ampere eMAG chipset. There is ongoing active work to support them. A number of FreeBSD developers have these systems, and they are well supported from 13.0-RELEASE onwards.
See arm/Ampere for more details.
SoftIron Overdrive 1000
The FreeBSD 12.0R GENERIC (and later) memstick installation images work on the SoftIron Overdrive 1000 but requires opensolaris_load="YES" to be set in /boot/loader.conf. This can be performed at the end of installation or on first boot by typing ESC during the (likely garbled) "Beastie" boot screen, and typing:
load /boot/kernel/kernel load /boot/kernel/opensolaris.ko load /boot/kernel/zfs.ko boot
Otherwise, the first boot will hit mountroot>
Once booted, add "opensolaris_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf with the editor of your choice.
To suppress the garbled Beastie boot screen, add beastie_disable="YES" to /boot/loader.conf
Other notes:
The power button is the vertical chrome rectangle on the front.
Be cautious not to frequently cut power to the OD1K as it may corrupt the firmware.
SoftIron Overdrive 3000
FreeBSD mostly works, other than the internal dual 10G networking, however support for this is being worked on. In the interim PCIe NICs work.
Cloud Services
AWS
Screenshot
Useful Links
Porting Applications to 64bit ARM slides written by Riku Voipio.
Known Limitations
- Userland SDT DTrace probes (usdt) do not work
- The Cavium ThunderX vnic driver has several issues, but it's generally functional. See PRs:
- libc does not provide sbrk and some ports have not been updated to cope.
- Much profiling and performance work is still needed
Bugs
Search for open PRs with Hardware = arm64.
Ports and Packages
arm64 port failures are tracked in PR 201763.
TODO cite email from Mark Millard when it shows up in the archives