rob thijssen
3a2fc2a329
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build image / build (push) Has been cancelled
It boots from the internal drive with the stick removed — 18s to multi-user,
no failed units.
The first thing tried on it was `dnf install net-tools`, which failed with:
Transaction failed: Rpm transaction failed.
- systemd is needed by net-tools-2.0-0.77.20160912git.fc44.aarch64
systemd is obviously installed; the machine had just booted. The cause is the
clock. This machine's RTC cannot be set at all — ioctl(RTC_SET_TIME) returns
"No such device" — and reads 1970 every boot, so systemd advances it to its own
build date. That is close enough to look plausible and early enough that rpm
treats package signatures created after it as not yet valid, skips those
headers outright, and reports the packages as absent:
Signature created at Sat Jul 25 18:33:30 2026 invalid: signature is not alive
error: rpmdbNextIterator: skipping h# 282
package systemd is not installed
chrony was already added to base.pkgs for the drift; it turns out to be load
bearing rather than a nicety, and it syncs within about five seconds of the
network appearing. Documented, because the symptom points nowhere near the
cause.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01XWRjNJMistCy6ngXH5aJLS
179 lines
8.0 KiB
Markdown
179 lines
8.0 KiB
Markdown
# Fedora for the Lenovo Yoga C630 13Q50
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Builds a ready-to-write Fedora aarch64 disk image for the Lenovo Yoga C630
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(model 81JL, Qualcomm SDM850), using Gitea Actions.
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The approach is borrowed from [aarch64-laptops/build][aal], but the heavy
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lifting that project had to do in 2019 is now unnecessary: mainline Linux has
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carried `sdm850-lenovo-yoga-c630.dts` since 5.5, and Fedora ships it in
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`kernel-core`. There is no kernel to patch and no GRUB to compile. What is left
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is assembling a disk image that boots on hardware whose firmware hands Linux no
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device tree.
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[aal]: https://github.com/aarch64-laptops/build
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## What you get
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`output/fedora-44-<variant>-lenovo-yoga-c630-<date>-<ref>.img.zst` — a GPT disk
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image with an ESP, a `/boot` partition and an ext4 root. Decompress, write it to
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a USB stick or microSD card, and boot. The root filesystem grows to fill the
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medium on first boot.
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Two variants:
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| Variant | Size | Contents |
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|---------------|-------|----------------------------------------------|
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| `minimal` | 8 GiB | Console, sshd, and enough tools to debug the machine |
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| `workstation` | 16 GiB| GNOME desktop |
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Default login is `fedora` / `fedora`, and the password must be changed at first
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login. Root is locked.
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## Hardware status
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| Works out of the box | Needs firmware from Windows | Not supported |
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|---------------------------------|-----------------------------|---------------|
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| UFS storage, USB, keyboard, touchpad, touchscreen | Graphics (Adreno 630 zap shader) | LTE modem |
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| WiFi + Bluetooth (ath10k WCN3990) | Audio | |
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| Battery and charging | Sensor hub — lid switch, accelerometer, auto-rotate | |
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| Display (unaccelerated) | Hardware video decode (venus) | |
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Fedora ships everything Qualcomm permits to be redistributed, which covers
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WiFi and Bluetooth outright. Graphics is the awkward case: the generic Adreno
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pieces (`a630_gmu.bin`, `a630_sqe.fw`) are packaged, but the C630's device tree
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asks for a **model-signed** zap shader, `qcdxkmsuc850.mbn`, which exists only in
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your machine's Windows partition — Fedora's generic `sdm845/a630_zap.mbn` is not
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what this device requests. Audio, sensors and video decode are the same story.
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Run `sudo c630-firmware` once after installing — see
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[docs/firmware.md](docs/firmware.md) for the full list and a manual fallback.
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## Building
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CI does this on every push to `main`. To run it yourself:
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```sh
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./build/build-image.sh --variant minimal
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```
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You need `podman` and, on an x86_64 host, aarch64 emulation:
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```sh
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sudo dnf install -y qemu-user-static-aarch64
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sudo systemctl restart systemd-binfmt
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```
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`build/build-image.sh` runs on the host and only sets up the container.
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`build/stage2.sh` runs inside an aarch64 Fedora container and does everything
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else: `dnf --installroot`, the overlay, dracut, and the disk assembly. It builds
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filesystems from directory trees with `mke2fs -d` and `mcopy` rather than
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mounting loop devices, so it does not need `/dev/loop-control` — which CI
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runners generally will not hand out.
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### Iterating
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Every aarch64 binary runs under emulation, and the `dnf` transaction is
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essentially all of the cost — 500-odd packages' worth of rpm scriptlets for
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`minimal`, four times that for `workstation`. Everything after it takes
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minutes. Since getting this machine to boot will take a few attempts, the build
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is arranged so you only pay that once:
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- The post-`dnf` root filesystem is staged under `<work>/base`, keyed on a hash
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of the package lists, release and variant. Editing `config/device.env`,
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`overlay/`, or the bootloader config reuses it. Editing `config/packages/`
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invalidates it automatically.
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- The working copy is made with `cp --reflink=auto`, so on btrfs or xfs it is
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a copy-on-write clone rather than a real copy.
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- Downloaded rpms live in `.cache/dnf`, outside the staged tree, so even
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`--fresh` re-runs the scriptlets without re-downloading.
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In practice a kernel-command-line change rebuilds in a few minutes.
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```sh
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./build/build-image.sh --variant minimal # reuses the staged base
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./build/build-image.sh --variant minimal --fresh # forces a reinstall
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./build/build-image.sh --variant minimal --keep-rootfs # keep the tree to poke at
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```
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CI points `--work` and `--cache` at `/var/tmp/c630-build` so both survive
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between jobs. That is per-runner, so the first build on a given runner is cold.
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The build container defaults to `git.lair.cafe/gongfoo/build-fedora-44-aarch64`,
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which ships the assembly tooling so it does not have to be installed under
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emulation on every run. If that image is not reachable the build falls back to
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stock Fedora and installs the tooling itself — slower, but it works.
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## Repository layout
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```
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config/device.env C630 parameters: DTB path, kernel command line, geometry
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config/packages/*.pkgs Package lists — base plus one file per variant
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overlay/ Files copied into the root filesystem (*.in are templated)
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build/build-image.sh Host driver: emulation checks, podman invocation
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build/stage2.sh The actual build, inside an aarch64 container
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firmware/local/ Optional drop-in for firmware you extracted yourself (gitignored)
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.gitea/workflows/ CI
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docs/ Installation, firmware, runner setup
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```
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## Documentation
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- [docs/install.md](docs/install.md) — writing the image and booting the laptop
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- [docs/firmware.md](docs/firmware.md) — what needs extracting from Windows and why
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- [docs/runner-setup.md](docs/runner-setup.md) — one-time Gitea runner preparation
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## Boot status
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Confirmed on hardware, from a USB stick:
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- GRUB loads the kernel and the device tree
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- The kernel comes up and probes the SDM850 — UFS controller, display
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subsystem, WiFi and IPA all appear as platform devices, so
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`DEVICE_CMDLINE` and the DTB are right
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- The framebuffer console works (`simple-framebuffer`, 240x67)
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- The root filesystem mounts, systemd starts, and it reaches a login prompt
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- Networking works over a USB WiFi dongle, and sshd is reachable
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- `build/install-to-disk.sh` copies it onto the internal UFS, and it boots from
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there with the stick removed — 18s to multi-user, no failed units
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The RTC cannot be set on this machine and reads 1970 at every boot, so `chrony`
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is installed and corrects the clock once the network is up. Until it does, rpm
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rejects package signatures dated after the (wrong) current time and reports
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installed packages as missing — see [docs/install.md](docs/install.md).
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Onboard WiFi does not appear at all, and audio, sensors, video decode and
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accelerated graphics are all absent — every one of them waiting on the
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model-signed firmware described in [docs/firmware.md](docs/firmware.md). On
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this machine Windows has been wiped, so those blobs are gone; the kernel names
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each missing file explicitly in `dmesg`.
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The internal drive needs `build/install-to-disk.sh` rather than `dd`: its UFS
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uses 4096-byte logical sectors, which the 512-byte image geometry cannot be
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written onto directly. See [docs/install.md](docs/install.md).
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SELinux is shipped permissive — see below.
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### SELinux
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The build labels the filesystem offline with `setfiles`, so enforcing should
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work. It ships **permissive** anyway, because the failure mode is unusually
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punishing: an unlabelled root takes PID 1 down with `Failed to allocate manager
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object` before anything can be logged into and repaired, and `/.autorelabel`
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cannot save it because nothing survives long enough to act on the flag.
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Once the machine is up and you are happy with it:
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```sh
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sudo setenforce 1 # try it for this boot
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sudo sed -i 's/^SELINUX=.*/SELINUX=enforcing/' /etc/selinux/config
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```
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Or set `SELINUX_MODE=enforcing` in `config/device.env` and rebuild.
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## Caveats
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The kernel command line and firmware layout are taken from Fedora's Snapdragon
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WoA documentation and the aarch64-laptops project; the parts specific to the
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C630's older SDM850 are reasoned from those rather than derived from
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documentation for this machine. Findings belong in this README.
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