Using CentOS 7.2.1511 Minimal on the Raspberry PI 3 - rharmonson/richtech GitHub Wiki
Using CentOS 7.2.1511 Minimal on the Raspberry PI 3
Revised: November 10, 2018; serial console contribution by seans11
Revised: January 29, 2018; Real Time Clock (RTC).. and I lied about not updating but it is late and I am too tired for Jekyll :)
Revised: November 25, 2017; There will be no further updates to this article! Please visit https://rharmonson.github.io/cos7instpi.html for the most current version.
Revised: April 2, 2017; Guide is tested with CentOS 7.3.1611 / fixed # format issues with recent Github changes :(
Published: October 27, 2016
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to describe how to install CentOS 7.2.1511 or 1603 Minimal on the Raspberry PI 3 B for use as a starting point to install light-weight services such as DNS, NTP, DHCP, Apache, etc.
Raspberry PI 3
At the cost of $35 and an additional $20 to $30 in accessories the PI3 is a steal for a server providing reasonably light-weight services or workloads.
PI3 Specifications
- A 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU
- 802.11n Wireless LAN
- Bluetooth 4.1
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
- 1GB RAM
- 4 USB ports
- 40 GPIO pins
- Full HDMI port
- Ethernet port
- Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video
- Camera interface (CSI)
- Display interface (DSI)
- Micro SD card slot (now push-pull rather than push-push)
- VideoCore IV 3D graphics core
Install CentOS 7
General information
https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/Arm32/RaspberryPi3
Root Password
The default root password is centos.
Media
Begin, by obtaining the CentOS media from:
http://mirror.centos.org/altarch/7/isos/armhfp
I will be using:
Create
There are number of methods, and I found this website on xmodulo.com to be very good.
http://xmodulo.com/write-raspberry-pi-image-sd-card.html
Serial Console
If you want to use a serial console cable on Raspberry Pi 3 B for initial setup/configuration:
- After loading the CentOS image to the SD card, edit or create
/boot/config.txt. You may need mount FAT32 partition on the SD card to editconfig.txt - Add or edit the following entry to enable UART/serial functionality:
enable_uart=1 - Connect Ground, TX, RX. Typically black, white, and green, respectively. Adafruit Referrence
- Connect USB to PC and ensure the Prolific USB-to-Serial driver is installed. A reboot may be necessary if installing for the first time.
- Locate the active COM port with Device Manager -> Ports (COM & LPT)
- Use PuTTy on "Serial" setting and set the COM port and rate to 115200.
- On boot, the Raspberry PI 3 console will display output
README
There is a /README file that describes remaining steps to complete the Raspbery PI 3 setup including how to expand the root (/) partition to capacity of the media. I found touch ./rootfs-repartition failed on reboot with a kernel panic with SanDisk and Samsung 64 GB media, but it did worked with smaller SanDisk 8 GB media.
Follow the instructions to expand the root filesystem and install the wireless drivers. If you receive a kernel panic on reboot after resizing the root partition, see the section below titled "Manual Expand RootFS."
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# cat /root/README
== CentOS 7 userland ==
If you want to automatically resize your / partition, just type the following (as root user):
touch /.rootfs-repartition
systemctl reboot
For wifi on the rpi3, just proceed with those steps :
curl --location https://github.com/RPi-Distro/firmware-nonfree/raw/54bab3d6a6d43239c71d26464e6e10e5067ffea7/brcm80211/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin > /usr/lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin
curl --location https://github.com/RPi-Distro/firmware-nonfree/raw/54bab3d6a6d43239c71d26464e6e10e5067ffea7/brcm80211/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt > /usr/lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt
systemctl reboot
Manual Expand RootFS
There is a /README file that describes remaining steps to complete the Raspbery PI 3 setup including how to expand the root (/) partition to capacity of the media. I tried it and it resulted in a kernel panic.
Below is the method I used to expand the root filesystem.
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 63.9 GB, 63864569856 bytes, 124735488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000a4da3
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 2048 616447 307200 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 616448 1665023 524288 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/mmcblk0p3 1665024 5859327 2097152 83 Linux
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# fdisk /dev/mmcblk0
Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.23.2).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 63.9 GB, 63864569856 bytes, 124735488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000a4da3
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 2048 616447 307200 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 616448 1665023 524288 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/mmcblk0p3 1665024 5859327 2097152 83 Linux
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-3, default 3): 3
Partition 3 is deleted
Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
p primary (2 primary, 0 extended, 2 free)
e extended
Select (default p): p
Partition number (3,4, default 3):
First sector (1665024-124735487, default 1665024):
Using default value 1665024
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (1665024-124735487, default 124735487):
Using default value 124735487
Partition 3 of type Linux and of size 58.7 GiB is set
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at
the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)
Syncing disks.
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# reboot
After reboot, resize the file system using resize2fs.
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p3
resize2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
Filesystem at /dev/mmcblk0p3 is mounted on /; on-line resizing required
old_desc_blocks = 1, new_desc_blocks = 8
The filesystem on /dev/mmcblk0p3 is now 15422208 blocks long.
Services
Immediately after installation, execute systemctl and note the two failing services network and kdump. To fix, I did the following:
network.service
Executing systemctl start network resulted with an error like "Failed to start LSB: Bring up/down networking." Not terribly helpful. The solution was pretty simple, however. Execute echo "NETWORKING=yes" > /etc/sysconfig/network for the "network" file is absent.
kdump.service
Executing systemctl start kdump then journalctl -xe shows the message "Kdump not supported on this kernel." Disable the service by executing systemctl disable kdump.
systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
Periodically, I saw an error with systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service. It would come and go, so I ignored it. Further research is needed.
Disable Wifi/BT
I have no use for the wireless adapter nor bluetooth. Disabling the devices will increase security and reduce electrical / heat.
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# vi /etc/modprobe.d/raspi-blklst.conf
Add
#wifi
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist brcmutil
#bt
blacklist btbcm
blacklist hci_uart
Since I have no intention of using wireless, disable the wpa_suplicant service using systemctl disable wpa_supplicant.service.
Reference: http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/43720/disable-wifi-wlan0-on-pi-3#43721
NetworkManager & firewalld
I am not a fan of NetworkManager nor firewalld on CentOS Minimal installations, so they have to go!
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# systemctl stop NetworkManager firewalld
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# systemctl disable NetworkManager firewalld
Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/NetworkManager.service.
Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/basic.target.wants/firewalld.service.
Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service.
Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.fedoraproject.FirewallD1.service.
Removed symlink /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.service.
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# yum remove NetworkManager NetworkManager-libnm firewalld
Results
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Removing:
NetworkManager armv7hl 1:1.0.6-27.el7 @centos-base_rbf 8.7 M
NetworkManager-libnm armv7hl 1:1.0.6-27.el7 @centos-base_rbf 1.2 M
firewalld noarch 0.3.9-14.el7 @centos-base_rbf 2.3 M
Removing for dependencies:
NetworkManager-team armv7hl 1:1.0.6-27.el7 @centos-base_rbf 31 k
NetworkManager-tui armv7hl 1:1.0.6-27.el7 @centos-base_rbf 209 k
NetworkManager-wifi armv7hl 1:1.0.6-27.el7 @centos-base_rbf 105 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Remove 3 Packages (+3 Dependent packages)
Installed size: 13 M
Is this ok [y/N]:
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# yum install iptables-services
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
base | 3.6 kB 00:00
extras | 2.9 kB 00:00
updates | 2.9 kB 00:00
(1/4): extras/7/armhfp/primary_db | 14 kB 00:00
(2/4): base/7/armhfp/group_gz | 154 kB 00:00
(3/4): updates/7/armhfp/primary_db | 1.0 MB 00:01
(4/4): base/7/armhfp/primary_db | 2.6 MB 00:03
Determining fastest mirrors
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package iptables-services.armv7hl 0:1.4.21-16.el7 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
iptables-services armv7hl 1.4.21-16.el7 base 49 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 1 Package
Total download size: 49 k
Installed size: 24 k
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
warning: /var/cache/yum/armhfp/7/base/packages/iptables-services-1.4.21-16.el7.armv7hl.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA1 Signature, key ID 62505fe6: NOKEY
Public key for iptables-services-1.4.21-16.el7.armv7hl.rpm is not installed
iptables-services-1.4.21-16.el7.armv7hl.rpm | 49 kB 00:00
Retrieving key from file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7
Importing GPG key 0xF4A80EB5:
Userid : "CentOS-7 Key (CentOS 7 Official Signing Key) <[email protected]>"
Fingerprint: 6341 ab27 53d7 8a78 a7c2 7bb1 24c6 a8a7 f4a8 0eb5
Package : centos-userland-release-7-2.1511.el7.centos.0.4.armv7hl (@centos-base_rbf)
From : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Retrieving key from file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-SIG-AltArch-Arm32
Importing GPG key 0x62505FE6:
Userid : "CentOS AltArch SIG - Arm32 (https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/Arm32) <[email protected]>"
Fingerprint: 4d9e 39f1 499c a21d d289 77f8 cafe f11b 6250 5fe6
Package : centos-userland-release-7-2.1511.el7.centos.0.4.armv7hl (@centos-base_rbf)
From : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-SIG-AltArch-Arm32
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Installing : iptables-services-1.4.21-16.el7.armv7hl 1/1
Verifying : iptables-services-1.4.21-16.el7.armv7hl 1/1
Installed:
iptables-services.armv7hl 0:1.4.21-16.el7
Complete!
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# systemctl enable iptables
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/basic.target.wants/iptables.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/iptables.service.
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# systemctl enable network
network.service is not a native service, redirecting to /sbin/chkconfig.
Executing /sbin/chkconfig network on
If you reboot at this point without completing the next step, execute dhclient to obtain an IP address.
Network Interface
I use static IP addresses for infrastructure related services. As such, we need to update ifcfg-eth0.
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Update to reflect your IP topology:
DEVICE=eth0
TYPE=Ethernet
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
IPADDR=192.168.1.253
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.1.254
Name Resolution
# vi /etc/resolv.conf
search myhost.mydomain.net
nameserver 64.6.64.6 # Verisign: Reston, Virginia
nameserver 64.6.65.6 # Verisign: Reston, Virginia
Host Name
Use hostnamectl to set host name.
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# hostnamectl set-hostname myhost.mydomain.net
[root@centos-rpi3 ~]# hostnamectl
Static hostname: myhost.mydomain.net
Icon name: computer
Machine ID: c86851c595a149019a820550c3ccec08
Boot ID: 9d27034c55c84cbda2d7dcf8f7f229e2
Operating System: CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:centos:centos:7
Kernel: Linux 4.1.19-v7
Architecture: arm
After reboot verify changes using ping -n 5 www.google.com.
Results
[root@myhost ~]# ping -c3 www.google.com
PING www.google.com (172.217.5.100) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from sfo03s07-in-f4.1e100.net (172.217.5.100): icmp_seq=1 ttl=51 time=26.6 ms
64 bytes from sfo03s07-in-f4.1e100.net (172.217.5.100): icmp_seq=2 ttl=51 time=26.7 ms
64 bytes from sfo03s07-in-f4.1e100.net (172.217.5.100): icmp_seq=3 ttl=51 time=26.5 ms
--- www.google.com ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 26.594/26.682/26.765/0.201 ms
Time & Date
Use timedatectl to set time, timezone, and/or date.
[root@myhost ~]# timedatectl list-timezones | grep -i angeles
America/Los_Angeles
[root@myhost ~]# timedatectl set-timezone America/Los_Angeles
[root@myhost ~]# timedatectl
Local time: Mon 2016-10-24 19:44:45 PDT
Universal time: Tue 2016-10-25 02:44:45 UTC
RTC time: n/a
Time zone: America/Los_Angeles (PDT, -0700)
NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: yes
RTC in local TZ: no
DST active: yes
Last DST change: DST began at
Sun 2016-03-13 01:59:59 PST
Sun 2016-03-13 03:00:00 PDT
Next DST change: DST ends (the clock jumps one hour backwards) at
Sun 2016-11-06 01:59:59 PDT
Sun 2016-11-06 01:00:00 PST
yum
Check for yum update using yum update yum, then install preferred packages. For example, I install yum related packages and tmux.
yum install yum-utils deltarpm tmux.
Results
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
deltarpm armv7hl 3.6-3.el7 base 81 k
tmux armv7hl 1.8-4.el7 base 211 k
yum-utils noarch 1.1.31-34.el7 base 113 k
Installing for dependencies:
libevent armv7hl 2.0.21-4.el7 base 189 k
python-chardet noarch 2.2.1-1.el7_1 base 227 k
python-kitchen noarch 1.1.1-5.el7 base 267 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 3 Packages (+3 Dependent packages)
Total download size: 1.1 M
Installed size: 4.1 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Update the system. tmux is an alternative to screen. It allows reconnecting to a tmux session with ease using tmux attach.
[root@myhost ~]# tmux new -s update
[root@myhost ~]# yum update -y && reboot
Real Time Clock (RTC)
** Need to update github.io page **
Raspberry PI does not have a hardware clock. Mine showed year 1969 on every boot if NTP was unavailable. To correct this behavior, purchase a hardware clock or RTC. I have experimented with both DS1307 and DC3231. Both work well, so buy whatever is cheapest.
My notes on the installation after the hardware installation bit are:
# echo -e "dtparam=i2c_arm=on\ndtoverlay=i2c-rtc,ds3231" >> /boot/config.txt
# echo -e "i2c-dev" >> /etc/modules-load.d/i2c.conf
# yum -y install i2c-tools && reboot
Results
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository
Size
================================================================================
Installing:
i2c-tools armv7hl 3.1.0-13.el7 base 69 k
Installing for dependencies:
perl armv7hl 4:5.16.3-292.el7 base 7.9 M
perl-Carp noarch 1.26-244.el7 base 19 k
perl-Encode armv7hl 2.51-7.el7 base 1.1 M
perl-Exporter noarch 5.68-3.el7 base 28 k
perl-File-Path noarch 2.09-2.el7 base 26 k
perl-File-Temp noarch 0.23.01-3.el7 base 56 k
perl-Filter armv7hl 1.49-3.el7 base 75 k
perl-Getopt-Long noarch 2.40-2.el7 base 55 k
perl-HTTP-Tiny noarch 0.033-3.el7 base 38 k
perl-PathTools armv7hl 3.40-5.el7 base 82 k
perl-Pod-Escapes noarch 1:1.04-292.el7 base 50 k
perl-Pod-Perldoc noarch 3.20-4.el7 base 86 k
perl-Pod-Simple noarch 1:3.28-4.el7 base 216 k
perl-Pod-Usage noarch 1.63-3.el7 base 26 k
perl-Scalar-List-Utils armv7hl 1.27-248.el7 base 34 k
perl-Socket armv7hl 2.010-4.el7 base 47 k
perl-Storable armv7hl 2.45-3.el7 base 72 k
perl-Text-ParseWords noarch 3.29-4.el7 base 13 k
perl-Time-HiRes armv7hl 4:1.9725-3.el7 base 44 k
perl-Time-Local noarch 1.2300-2.el7 base 24 k
perl-constant noarch 1.27-2.el7 base 18 k
perl-libs armv7hl 4:5.16.3-292.el7 base 596 k
perl-macros armv7hl 4:5.16.3-292.el7 base 43 k
perl-parent noarch 1:0.225-244.el7 base 12 k
perl-podlators noarch 2.5.1-3.el7 base 111 k
perl-threads armv7hl 1.87-4.el7 base 48 k
perl-threads-shared armv7hl 1.43-6.el7 base 37 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 1 Package (+27 Dependent packages)
Total download size: 11 M
Installed size: 30 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]:
# i2cdetect -y 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f
00: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- UU -- -- -- -- -- -- --
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Also,
# ll /sys/class/i2c-dev/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Jan 29 22:18 i2c-1 -> ../../devices/platform/soc/3f804000.i2c/i2c-1/i2c-dev/i2c-1
w = write r = read c = compare
# date
# hwclock -w
# hwclock -r
# hwclock -c
Done!?
At this point, you are ready to add repositories and install packages.
Please star to let me know you found this article useful or open an issue with questions or comments.
Have fun!