This guide provides instructions on how to install Fuchsia on an Intel NUC{:.external} (Next Unit of Computing) device using a Zedboot-based bootable USB drive.
Caution: This legacy installation method is being deprecated in favor of the mkinstaller command.
The steps are:
Before you start installing Fuchsia on a NUC device, make sure that you've completed the following tasks:
To set up the Fuchsia development environment on your workstation, complete the Get started with Fuchsia guide.
Note: Fuchsia only supports the NUC configurations listed in Supported system configurations. However, unsupported NUC configurations may also work with Fuchsia. For more information on experimental setups, see Experimental hardware.
The following parts are required for this guide:
Note: The 2. Build Fuchsia and 3. Prepare a USB drive sections do not require a NUC device, so you can complete these sections prior to obtaining a NUC device. However, you will need a USB flash drive for the 3. Prepare a USB drive section.
Installing Fuchsia on a NUC device requires that you build a Workstation image (workstation_eng.x64) and generate build artifacts on your workstation.
To build Fuchsia for NUC installation, do the following:
Set your build configuration to workstation_eng.x64:
fx set workstation_eng.x64
Build Fuchsia:
fx build
Building Fuchsia can take up to 90 minutes.
You need to prepare a bootable USB drive that is based on Fuchsia's Zedboot. Later in the Install Fuchsia on the NUC section, you will use this USB drive to boot your NUC into the Zedboot mode.
Note: The instructions below require that you've completed the build in the previous Build Fuchsia section.
To prepare a bootable USB drive, do the following:
Plug the USB drive into your workstation.
Identify the path to the USB drive:
fx list-usb-disks
This command prints output similar to the following:
$ fx list-usb-disks /dev/sda - My Example USB Disk
Create a Zedboot-based bootable USB drive:
fx mkzedboot {{ "<var>" }}PATH_TO_USB_DRIVE{{ "</var>" }}
Replace PATH_TO_USB_DRIVE with the path to the USB drive from the step above, for example:
$ fx mkzedboot /dev/sda
This command creates a Zedboot-based bootable USB drive and dismounts the USB drive.
Unplug the USB drive from the workstation.
Update your NUC's BIOS setup so that it can boot from a USB drive.
Two versions of BIOS are available on NUC devices: Visual BIOS (for instance, NUC7) and Aptio V BIOS (for instance, NUC11). The steps are slightly different depending on which BIOS is included in your system.
Important: To be able to enter the BIOS setup mode, you may need to unplug the Ethernet cable from the NUC device if it's already connected to the host machine.
{Visual BIOS}
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Figure 1. A screenshot of Visual BIOS
To enable EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) booting on your NUC, do the following:
Reboot your NUC.
To enter the BIOS setup, press F2 while booting.
Click the Advanced button at the top.
Click the Boot tab.
Click the Boot Priority tab and confirm the following settings:
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Click the Boot Configuration tab and confirm the following settings:
In the UEFI Boot window:
In the Boot Devices window:
UEFI PXE & iSCSI.
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Click the Secure Boot tab and confirm the following settings:
{: width=“400”}
To save and exit BIOS, press F10 and click Yes.
{Aptio V BIOS}
{: width=“700”}
Figure 2. A screenshot of Aptio V BIOS
To enable EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) booting on your NUC, do the following:
Reboot your NUC.
To enter the BIOS setup, press F2 while booting.
Click the Boot tab.
Click Secure Boot and confirm the following settings:
Disabled.
{: width=“500”}
To return, click the < button on the left.
Click Boot Priority and confirm the following settings:
UEFI Boot is checked.
Legacy Boot is unchecked.
Note: If you don't see the UEFI Boot and Legacy Boot options, it means that your system does not support legacy boot. Skip these first two checks.
Boot USB Devices First is checked.
Boot Network Devices Last is checked.
Unlimited Boot to Network Attempts is checked.
USB is checked.
Network Boot is set to UEFI PXE & iSCSI.
{: width=“500”}
To save and exit BIOS, press F10 and click Ok.
Use the Zedboot-based bootable USB drive to boot your NUC into the Zedboot mode. Then pave the Workstation prebuilt image from your workstation to the NUC to install Fuchsia for the first time.
On a NUC, Fuchsia boots the device using a chain of bootloaders. The instructions in this section creates a bootable USB drive for Fuchsia that handles the first two steps in the bootloader chain: Gigaboot and Zedboot. Gigaboot is a UEFI boot shim with some limited functionality (for instance, netbooting and flashing). By default, Gigaboot chains into Zedboot, which is a bootloader built on top of Zircon. Zedboot then can boot the device into a Fuchsia product or allow you to pave a Fuchsia image to the device.
To install Fuchsia on your NUC, do the following:
Plug the Zedboot-based bootable USB drive into the NUC.
Connect the NUC directly to the workstation using an Ethernet cable (or connect the NUC to a router or WiFi modem in the same Local Area Network as the workstation).
Note: Network booting only works with the NUC's built-in Ethernet port – netbooting with an USB port (via an Ethernet-to-USB adapter) is not supported.
Reboot your NUC.
The NUC boots into Fuchsia‘s Zedboot mode, displaying Zedboot’s signature blue screen.
On the Zedboot screen, press Alt + F3 to switch to a command-line prompt.
Note: If you cannot press Alt+F3 because the keyboard on the NUC is not working, see Keyboard not working after Zedboot in Troubleshoot.
On the NUC, view the HDD or SSD's block device path:
lsblk
Take note of the block device path (for example, the path might look like /dev/sys/platform/pci/00:17.0/ahci/sata0/block).
On the NUC, wipe and initialize the partition tables of the NUC:
install-disk-image wipe-partition-tables --block-device <BLOCK_DEVICE_PATH>
install-disk-image init-partition-tables --block-device <BLOCK_DEVICE_PATH>
Replace BLOCK_DEVICE_PATH with the block device path from the step above, for example:
$ install-disk-image wipe-partition-tables --block-device /dev/sys/platform/pci/00:17.0/ahci/sata0/block $ install-disk-image init-partition-tables --block-device /dev/sys/platform/pci/00:17.0/ahci/sata0/block
On your workstation, pave the Fuchsia image to the NUC:
fx pave
When the paving is finished, unplug the USB drive from the NUC.
Fuchsia is now installed on your NUC. When you reboot the device, it will load Gigaboot, Zedboot, and Fuchsia all from your device's storage. Therefore, you no longer need to keep the USB drive plugged in.
Later, if you need to install a new version of Fuchsia (for instance, after re-building a new Workstation image using fx build), see Flash a new Fuchsia image to the NUC.
After plugging the Zedboot USB drive to the NUC, if you notice that the keyboard on the NUC is not working, then skip Step 4 through 6 and perform the following workaround instead:
On your workstation, try to install Fuchsia on the NUC:
fx pave
This command may fail due to the partition tables issue on the NUC.
View the kernel logs:
fx klog
In the logs, look for an error message similar to the following:
Unable to find a valid GPT on this device with the expected partitions. Please run *one* of the following command(s): fx init-partition-tables /dev/sys/platform/pci/00:17.0/ahci/sata0/block
To initialize the partition tables on the NUC, run the suggested command in the logs, for example:
$ fx init-partition-tables /dev/sys/platform/pci/00:17.0/ahci/sata0/block
Now, to install Fuchsia on the NUC, run the following command again:
fx pave
After issuing the fx pave command, if paving does not complete, make sure the Ethernet cable is directly connected to the Ethernet port of the NUC, and is not using an Ethernet-to-USB adapter to connect to a USB port of the NUC – even though an Ethernet-to-USB adapter works after Fuchsia has been paved (for instance, when doing fx ota), the USB port doesn't work with Zedboot when paving.
When you run the fx pave command, you may run into the following error:
2022-01-20 15:23:00 [bootserver] cannot bind to [::]:33331 48: Address already in use there may be another bootserver running
When you see this error, do the following:
Check the processes that are currently using the port 33331:
sudo lsof -i:33331
This command prints output similar to the following:
$ sudo lsof -i:33331 COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME ffx 69264 alice 15u IPv6 0xb12345ed61b7e12d 0t0 UDP *:diamondport
Terminate all the processes in the list, for example:
kill 69264
For GPU support, get a NUC7 (Kaby Lake) or NUC8 (Coffee Lake), or a higher generation.
The list below shows some example models:
Some NUC devices do not come with RAM or an SSD. In which case, you need to install them manually.
Figure 1. A NUC device and RAM and SSD sticks.
The table below shows some RAM and SSD example models:
| Item | Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| RAM | Crucial 8GB DDR4-2400 SODIMM{:.external} | Works fine. |
| SSD | Samsung SSD 850 EVO SATA M.2 250GB{:.external} | Works fine. |
| SSD | ADATA Ultimate SU800 M.2 2280 3D NAND SSD{:.external} | Works fine. |
| SSD | CRUCIAL MX300 SSD{:.external} | Works fine, but is discontinued. |
To install the RAM and SSD on your NUC, do the following:
Remove the Phillips screws on the bottom feet of the NUC.
Install the RAM.
Remove the Phillips screws that would hold the SSD in place (a Phillips screwdriver with a magnetic tip is useful here).
Install the SSD.
Mount the SSD in place using the screws from Step 3.
Put the bottom feet and screws back in.
Plug the power, monitor (using HDMI), and keyboard into the NUC.
To enable remote management, including KVM, you need to configure Intel AMT{:.external} (Active Management Technology).
Note: This assumes you're using NUC connected to the EdgeRouter. If your networking setup is different, you may need a different network configuration.
First, configure Intel ME on your NUC:
Reboot your NUC.
Enter Intel ME settings by pressing Ctrl+P on the boot screen.
Select MEBx Login
Set up a new password, the default one is admin.
Note: The password must be at least 8 characters long, contain both lowercase and uppercase characters, at least one digit and at least one non alphanumeric character (“_” is considered alphanumeric).
Tip: If you choose a password that is exactly 8 characters long, you can use the same password as the VNC password below.
Configure network:
Select Intel(R) AMT Configuration.
Unconfigure existing network settings:
Y to confirm.Select Network Setup > TCP/IP Settings > Wired LAN IPV4 Configuration.
Set DHCP Mode to Disabled.
Set IPV4 Address to an address reachable from your host machine via the EdgeRouter.
On your host machine, run ifconfig and find the entry that corresponds to the EdgeRouter, for example:
$ ifconfig enx00e04c0c13ba: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 inet 192.168.42.86 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.42.255 ...
In this case, you could try using the address 192.168.42.20
Set Subnet Mask Address to the netmask of your host machine to EdgeRouter connection, for example 255.255.255.0.
Press Esc until you return to Intel(R) AMT Configuration.
Select Activate Network Access and press Y to confirm.
Exit Intel ME settings and save your changes.
Now, configure the amtctrl{:.external} command-line utility on your host machine:
These instructions assume you have set some environment variables:
AMT_HOST: The IPv4 address you configured in the Intel ME settings.AMT_PASSWORD: The password you chose for Intel ME.VNC_PASSWORD: A password for accessing the NUC over VNC.Note: The password used for VNC_PASSWORD must be exactly 8 characters long, must contain both lowercase and uppercase characters, at least one digit and at least one non alphanumeric character.
Clone the amtctrl repository:
git clone https://github.com/sdague/amt
Install amtctrl:
cd amt && sudo ./setup.py install
Configure NUC IP address and passwords:
amtctrl set -V $VNC_PASSWORD nuc $AMT_HOST $AMT_PASSWORD
Enable VNC:
amtctrl nuc vnc
Now, you can access the NUC from your host machine using any VNC client by connecting to the IP address set in AMT_HOST. Enter the password set in VNC_PASSWORD when prompted.
Note: The NUC needs to be plugged in to a monitor with a HDMI cable to accept VNC connections.
You can also turn on, turn off or reboot the NUC with the following terminal commands:
To turn on the NUC:
amtctrl nuc on
To turn off the NUC:
amtctrl nuc off
To reboot the NUC:
amtctrl nuc reboot