This hardware was retired on 30JAN2020.

The tala are 16 individual 32-bit ARM (armhf/armhfp) nodes in a Calxeda Highbank 2U chassis.

The nodes are running the latest firmware we've been able to locate. Calxeda is no longer a company so support and documentation are pretty much non-existent.

cxmanage is the Calxeda Server Management Utility. It interacts with the BMC-equivalent of a management controller and allows admins to control aspects of all nodes at once.

For now, here's the output of its --help: show

$ cxmanage –help
usage: cxmanage [-h] [-V] [-u USER] [-p PASSWORD] [-U USER] [-P PASSWORD] [-a]
                [–threads THREAD_COUNT] [–command_delay SECONDS] [–force]
                [–retry COUNT] [–ipmipath IPMIPATH] [-n COUNT] [-i]
                [-v | -q] [–internal-tftp IP:PORT | –external-tftp IP:PORT]
                [–ecme-tftp-port PORT]
                
                {info,fwupdate,partition_config,ipdiscover,ipinfo,power,tspackage,config,networks,eepromupdate,ipmitool,macaddrs,uplinks,sensor,uplink_info,mcreset,fwinfo}
                … hostname

Calxeda Server Management Utility

positional arguments:
  {info,fwupdate,partition_config,ipdiscover,ipinfo,power,tspackage,config,networks,eepromupdate,ipmitool,macaddrs,uplinks,sensor,uplink_info,mcreset,fwinfo}
    power               control server power
    mcreset             reset the management controller
    fwupdate            update firmware
    eepromupdate        update EEPROM
    fwinfo              get FW info
    sensor              read sensor value
    ipinfo              get IP info
    macaddrs            get mac addresses
    partition_config    get partition config
    uplink_info         get uplink info
    uplinks             get uplinks
    networks            get networks
    config              configure hosts
    info                get host info
    ipmitool            run an arbitrary ipmitool command
    ipdiscover          discover server-side IP addresses
    tspackage           Save information about this node/fabric to a .tar
  hostname              nodes to operate on (see examples below)

optional arguments:
  -h, –help            show this help message and exit
  -V, –version         Show version information
  -u USER, –user USER  Username for login
  -p PASSWORD, –password PASSWORD
                        Password for login
  -U USER, –linux-username USER
                        Server-side Linux username
  -P PASSWORD, –linux-password PASSWORD
                        Server-side Linux password
  -a, –all-nodes       Send command to all nodes reported by fabric
  –threads THREAD_COUNT
                        Number of threads to use
  –command_delay SECONDS
                        Per thread time to delay between issuing commands
  –force               Force the command to run
  –retry COUNT         Retry command on multiple times
  –ipmipath IPMIPATH   Path to ipmitool command
  -n COUNT, –nodes COUNT
                        Expected number of nodes
  -i, –ids             Display node IDs in addition to IP addresses
  -v, –verbose         Verbose output
  -q, –quiet           Quiet output
  –internal-tftp IP:PORT
                        Host an internal TFTP server listening on ip:port
  –external-tftp IP:PORT
                        Connect to remote TFTP server at ip:port
  –ecme-tftp-port PORT
                        TFTP port of the ECME

examples:
  cxmanage power status 192.168.1.1             # single host
  cxmanage power on 192.168.1.1,192.168.1.2     # comma-separated hosts
  cxmanage info 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.5         # IP range (5 hosts)
  cxmanage -a sensor temp 192.168.1.1           # all nodes on a fabric
  cxmanage -a fwupdate package ECX-1000_update.tar.gz 192.168.1.1
[dgallowa@dgallowa ~]$ cxmanage –help
usage: cxmanage [-h] [-V] [-u USER] [-p PASSWORD] [-U USER] [-P PASSWORD] [-a]
                [–threads THREAD_COUNT] [–command_delay SECONDS] [–force]
                [–retry COUNT] [–ipmipath IPMIPATH] [-n COUNT] [-i]
                [-v | -q] [–internal-tftp IP:PORT | –external-tftp IP:PORT]
                [–ecme-tftp-port PORT]
                
                {info,fwupdate,partition_config,ipdiscover,ipinfo,power,tspackage,config,networks,eepromupdate,ipmitool,macaddrs,uplinks,sensor,uplink_info,mcreset,fwinfo}
                … hostname

Calxeda Server Management Utility

positional arguments:
  {info,fwupdate,partition_config,ipdiscover,ipinfo,power,tspackage,config,networks,eepromupdate,ipmitool,macaddrs,uplinks,sensor,uplink_info,mcreset,fwinfo}
    power               control server power
    mcreset             reset the management controller
    fwupdate            update firmware
    eepromupdate        update EEPROM
    fwinfo              get FW info
    sensor              read sensor value
    ipinfo              get IP info
    macaddrs            get mac addresses
    partition_config    get partition config
    uplink_info         get uplink info
    uplinks             get uplinks
    networks            get networks
    config              configure hosts
    info                get host info
    ipmitool            run an arbitrary ipmitool command
    ipdiscover          discover server-side IP addresses
    tspackage           Save information about this node/fabric to a .tar
  hostname              nodes to operate on (see examples below)

optional arguments:
  -h, –help            show this help message and exit
  -V, –version         Show version information
  -u USER, –user USER  Username for login
  -p PASSWORD, –password PASSWORD
                        Password for login
  -U USER, –linux-username USER
                        Server-side Linux username
  -P PASSWORD, –linux-password PASSWORD
                        Server-side Linux password
  -a, –all-nodes       Send command to all nodes reported by fabric
  –threads THREAD_COUNT
                        Number of threads to use
  –command_delay SECONDS
                        Per thread time to delay between issuing commands
  –force               Force the command to run
  –retry COUNT         Retry command on multiple times
  –ipmipath IPMIPATH   Path to ipmitool command
  -n COUNT, –nodes COUNT
                        Expected number of nodes
  -i, –ids             Display node IDs in addition to IP addresses
  -v, –verbose         Verbose output
  -q, –quiet           Quiet output
  –internal-tftp IP:PORT
                        Host an internal TFTP server listening on ip:port
  –external-tftp IP:PORT
                        Connect to remote TFTP server at ip:port
  –ecme-tftp-port PORT
                        TFTP port of the ECME

examples:
  cxmanage power status 192.168.1.1             # single host
  cxmanage power on 192.168.1.1,192.168.1.2     # comma-separated hosts
  cxmanage info 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.5         # IP range (5 hosts)
  cxmanage -a sensor temp 192.168.1.1           # all nodes on a fabric
  cxmanage -a fwupdate package ECX-1000_update.tar.gz 192.168.1.1

The tool's oddly particular about the syntax/order. Here's what I've found works.

cxmanage -u inktank -p PASSWORD info tala###.ipmi.sepia.ceph.com

Ubuntu for armhf is not imported in Cobbler. The kernel and initrd were manually uploaded to the cobbler host.

I didn't have much luck directly booting trusty or xenial kernel images but was able to PXE and install Precise then do-release-upgrade.

# Boot the tala node and interrupt boot by pressing <s>
dhcp
tftpboot ${kernel_addr_r} 172.21.0.11:/armhfp/precise/vmlinuz
tftpboot ${ramdisk_addr_r} 172.21.0.11:/armhfp/precise/initrd.gz
setenv bootargs "console=ttyAMA0"
bootz ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r}:${filesize} ${fdt_addr}

The Jessie stable kernel panics. show

U-Boot 2013.01-rc1 (Nov 26 2013 - 12:09:06)

DRAM:  0 Bytes
WARNING: Caches not enabled
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Target spinup took 12 ms.
SATA link 2 timeout. selects; <Enter> activates buttons
SATA link 3 timeout.
SATA link 4 timeout.
AHCI 0001.0300 32 slots 5 ports 3 Gbps 0x1e impl SATA mode
flags: ncq stag pm led clo only pmp pio slum part ccc apst 
scanning bus for devices…
  Device 0: (1:0) Vendor: ATA Prod.: Hitachi HTS72755 Rev: JF3O
            Type: Hard Disk
            Capacity: 476940.0 MB = 465.7 GB (976773168 x 512)
Found 1 device(s).
Net:   xgmac0
Warning: xgmac0 using MAC address from net device
, xgmac1
Warning: xgmac1 using MAC address from net device

Autobooting in 2 seconds…
Press <s> to stop or <d> to delay
Highbank #dhcp
BOOTP broadcast 1
*** Unhandled DHCP Option in OFFER/ACK: 119
*** Unhandled DHCP Option in OFFER/ACK: 119
DHCP client bound to address 172.21.10.9
Using xgmac0 device
TFTP from server 172.21.0.11; our IP address is 172.21.10.9
Filename '01-fc-2f-40-26-a4-74'.
Load address: 0x800000
Loading: #
done
Bytes transferred = 203 (cb hex)
Highbank #pxe get
missing environment variable: pxeuuid
Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/01-fc-2f-40-26-a4-74
Using xgmac0 device
TFTP from server 172.21.0.11; our IP address is 172.21.10.9
Filename 'pxelinux.cfg/01-fc-2f-40-26-a4-74'.
Load address: 0x700000
Loading: #
done
Bytes transferred = 203 (cb hex)
Config file found
Highbank #pxe boot]
pxe - commands to get and boot from pxe files

Usage:
pxe get - try to retrieve a pxe file using tftp
pxe boot [pxefile_addr_r] - boot from the pxe file at pxefile_addr_r

Highbank #pxe boot 
1:	linux
Retrieving file: /dgallowa/initrd.gz
Using xgmac0 device
TFTP from server 172.21.0.11; our IP address is 172.21.10.9
Filename '/dgallowa/initrd.gz'.
Load address: 0x4000000
Loading: #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #####################################
done
Bytes transferred = 12158380 (b985ac hex)
Retrieving file: /dgallowa/vmlinuz
Using xgmac0 device
TFTP from server 172.21.0.11; our IP address is 172.21.10.9
Filename '/dgallowa/vmlinuz'.
Load address: 0x2000000
Loading: #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 #################################################################
	 ####################################
done
Bytes transferred = 3183344 (3092f0 hex)
append: initrd=/dgallowa/initrd.gz lang=  console=ttyAMA0 ip=eth0:dhcp text noipv6 ipv6.disable=1 BOOTIF=01-fc-2f-40-26-a4-74
Wrong Image Format for  command
ERROR: can't get kernel image!
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 00001000
   Booting using the fdt blob at 0x00001000
   reserving fdt memory region: addr=0 size=1000
   Using Device Tree in place at 00001000, end 000068b8

Starting kernel …

[    0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x900
[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[    0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct
[    0.000000] Linux version 3.16.0-4-armmp (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc version 4.8.4 (Debian 4.8.4-1) ) #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-1 (2016-03-06)
[    0.000000] CPU: ARMv7 Processor [413fc090] revision 0 (ARMv7), cr=10c5387d
[    0.000000] CPU: PIPT / VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache
[    0.000000] Machine model: Calxeda Highbank
[    0.000000] Memory policy: Data cache writealloc
[    0.000000] psci: probing for conduit method from DT.
[    0.000000] psci: Using PSCI v0.1 Function IDs from DT
[    0.000000] PERCPU: Embedded 9 pages/cpu @ed7bf000 s12608 r8192 d16064 u36864
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 1045264
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: initrd=/dgallowa/initrd.gz lang=  console=ttyAMA0 ip=eth0:dhcp text noipv6 ipv6.disable=1 BOOTIF=01-fc-2f-40-26-a4-74
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
[    0.000000] Memory: 4130888K/4187136K available (6413K kernel code, 829K rwdata, 2204K rodata, 688K init, 393K bss, 56248K reserved, 3408896K highmem)
[    0.000000] Virtual kernel memory layout:
[    0.000000]     vector  : 0xffff0000 - 0xffff1000   (   4 kB)
[    0.000000]     fixmap  : 0xffc00000 - 0xffe00000   (2048 kB)
[    0.000000]     vmalloc : 0xf0000000 - 0xff000000   ( 240 MB)
[    0.000000]     lowmem  : 0xc0000000 - 0xef800000   ( 760 MB)
[    0.000000]     pkmap   : 0xbfe00000 - 0xc0000000   (   2 MB)
[    0.000000]     modules : 0xbf000000 - 0xbfe00000   (  14 MB)
[    0.000000]       .text : 0xc0008000 - 0xc0872974   (8619 kB)
[    0.000000]       .init : 0xc0873000 - 0xc091f140   ( 689 kB)
[    0.000000]       .data : 0xc0920000 - 0xc09ef650   ( 830 kB)
[    0.000000]        .bss : 0xc09ef650 - 0xc0a51b74   ( 394 kB)
[    0.000000] Hierarchical RCU implementation.
[    0.000000] 	RCU dyntick-idle grace-period acceleration is enabled.
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS:16 nr_irqs:16 16
[    0.000000] L2C-310 erratum 769419 enabled
[    0.000000] L2C-310 enabling early BRESP for Cortex-A9
[    0.000000] L2C-310: enabling full line of zeros but not enabled in Cortex-A9
[    0.000000] L2C-310 ID prefetch enabled, offset 4 lines
[    0.000000] L2C-310 dynamic clock gating enabled, standby mode enabled
[    0.000000] ————[ cut here ]————
[    0.000000] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 0 at /build/linux-U1QJEO/linux-3.16.7-ckt25/arch/arm/mach-highbank/highbank.c:60 highbank_l2c310_write_sec+0x4c/0x68()
[    0.000000] Highbank L2C310: ignoring write to reg 0x104
[    0.000000] Modules linked in:
[    0.000000] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 3.16.0-4-armmp #1 Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-1
[    0.000000] [<c001a250>] (unwind_backtrace) from [<c00149a0>] (show_stack+0x20/0x24)
[    0.000000] [<c00149a0>] (show_stack) from [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack+0x9c/0xb0)
[    0.000000] [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack) from [<c0053150>] (warn_slowpath_common+0x80/0x9c)
[    0.000000] [<c0053150>] (warn_slowpath_common) from [<c00531ac>] (warn_slowpath_fmt+0x40/0x48)
[    0.000000] [<c00531ac>] (warn_slowpath_fmt) from [<c002be30>] (highbank_l2c310_write_sec+0x4c/0x68)
[    0.000000] [<c002be30>] (highbank_l2c310_write_sec) from [<c0024838>] (l2c_enable+0x48/0x124)
[    0.000000] [<c0024838>] (l2c_enable) from [<c087b248>] (l2c310_enable+0x1d0/0x220)
[    0.000000] [<c087b248>] (l2c310_enable) from [<c087b004>] (__l2c_init+0x174/0x1e8)
[    0.000000] [<c087b004>] (__l2c_init) from [<c087b764>] (l2x0_of_init+0x198/0x1ac)
[    0.000000] [<c087b764>] (l2x0_of_init) from [<c0875be8>] (init_IRQ+0x68/0x84)
[    0.000000] [<c0875be8>] (init_IRQ) from [<c0873b60>] (start_kernel+0x27c/0x3f0)
[    0.000000] [<c0873b60>] (start_kernel) from [<00008074>] (0x8074)
[    0.000000] —[ end trace 15c15b4afa9eff8e ]—
[    0.000000] L2C-310 cache controller enabled, 16 ways, 4096 kB
[    0.000000] L2C-310: CACHE_ID 0x420000c8, AUX_CTRL 0x7a4b0001
[    0.000007] sched_clock: 32 bits at 150MHz, resolution 6ns, wraps every 28633115641ns
[    0.000353] Console: colour dummy device 80×30
[    0.000373] Calibrating delay loop… 2189.31 BogoMIPS (lpj=4378624)
[    0.035847] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.035935] Security Framework initialized
[    0.035954] AppArmor: AppArmor disabled by boot time parameter
[    0.035960] Yama: disabled by default; enable with sysctl kernel.yama.*
[    0.036008] Mount-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[    0.036017] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
[    0.036604] Initializing cgroup subsys memory
[    0.036619] Initializing cgroup subsys devices
[    0.036644] Initializing cgroup subsys freezer
[    0.036657] Initializing cgroup subsys net_cls
[    0.036678] Initializing cgroup subsys blkio
[    0.036696] Initializing cgroup subsys perf_event
[    0.036705] Initializing cgroup subsys net_prio
[    0.036753] CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
[    0.036774] ftrace: allocating 23124 entries in 68 pages
[    0.063343] CPU0: thread -1, cpu 0, socket 9, mpidr 80000900
[    0.063420] Setting up static identity map for 0x5c2c58 - 0x5c2cb0
[    0.069453] CPU1: Booted secondary processor
[    0.083832] CPU1: thread -1, cpu 1, socket 9, mpidr 80000901
[    0.084242] CPU2: Booted secondary processor
[    0.099832] CPU2: thread -1, cpu 2, socket 9, mpidr 80000902
[    0.100244] CPU3: Booted secondary processor
[    0.115832] CPU3: thread -1, cpu 3, socket 9, mpidr 80000903
[    0.115885] Brought up 4 CPUs
[    0.115906] SMP: Total of 4 processors activated (8757.24 BogoMIPS).
[    0.115910] CPU: All CPU(s) started in SVC mode.
[    0.116258] devtmpfs: initialized
[    0.118945] VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 3 part 30 variant 9 rev 4
[    0.122477] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[    0.122723] regulator-dummy: no parameters
[    0.124096] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.124952] DMA: preallocated 256 KiB pool for atomic coherent allocations
[    0.128352] No ATAGs?
[    0.128372] hw-breakpoint: found 5 (+1 reserved) breakpoint and 1 watchpoint registers.
[    0.128379] hw-breakpoint: maximum watchpoint size is 4 bytes.
[    0.128447] EXYNOS: PMU not supported
[    0.128835] Serial: AMBA PL011 UART driver
[    0.128906] fff36000.serial: ttyAMA0 at MMIO 0xfff36000 (irq = 52, base_baud = 0) is a PL011 rev3
[    0.717932] console [ttyAMA0] enabled
[    0.743039] edma-dma-engine edma-dma-engine.0: Can't allocate PaRAM dummy slot
[    0.750287] edma-dma-engine: probe of edma-dma-engine.0 failed with error -5
[    0.758057] vgaarb: loaded
[    0.761089] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    0.766618] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    0.772001] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    0.777366] media: Linux media interface: v0.10
[    0.781945] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[    0.786629] pps_core: LinuxPPS API ver. 1 registered
[    0.791593] pps_core: Software ver. 5.3.6 - Copyright 2005-2007 Rodolfo Giometti giometti@linux.it
[    0.800739] PTP clock support registered
[    0.805480] Switched to clocksource arm,sp804
[    0.843417] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.848502] TCP established hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.855613] TCP bind hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[    0.862141] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 8192)
[    0.868612] TCP: reno registered
[    0.871853] UDP hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[    0.877807] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 512 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[    0.884352] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.888987] Unpacking initramfs…
[    1.554266] Freeing initrd memory: 11872K (c4000000 - c4b98000)
[    1.560593] hw perfevents: enabled with ARMv7 Cortex-A9 PMU driver, 7 counters available
[    1.570013] futex hash table entries: 1024 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[    1.576411] audit: initializing netlink subsys (disabled)
[    1.581880] audit: type=2000 audit(1.331:1): initialized
[    1.588335] zbud: loaded
[    1.591132] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.2
[    1.595110] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
[    1.601746] msgmni has been set to 1433
[    1.606616] alg: No test for stdrng (krng)
[    1.610793] bounce: pool size: 64 pages
[    1.614678] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 249)
[    1.622208] io scheduler noop registered
[    1.626156] io scheduler deadline registered
[    1.630531] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
[    1.636854] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 4 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
[    1.644192] Serial: AMBA driver
[    1.647390] of_dma_request_slave_channel: dma-names property of node '/soc/serial@fff36000' missing or empty
[    1.657223] uart-pl011 fff36000.serial: no DMA platform data
[    1.662970] Serial: IMX driver
[    1.668053] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[    1.674344] rtc-pl031 fff35000.rtc: rtc core: registered pl031 as rtc0
[    1.681619] ledtrig-cpu: registered to indicate activity on CPUs
[    1.687705] hidraw: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
[    1.693555] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[    1.699130] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[    1.703477] TCP: cubic registered
[    1.706804] IPv6: Loaded, but administratively disabled, reboot required to enable
[    1.714378] mip6: Mobile IPv6
[    1.717340] mip6: mip6_init: can't add xfrm type(destopt)
[    1.722745] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    1.727218] mpls_gso: MPLS GSO support
[    1.731077] ThumbEE CPU extension supported.
[    1.735356] Registering SWP/SWPB emulation handler
[    1.740531] registered taskstats version 1
[    1.745044] rtc-pl031 fff35000.rtc: setting system clock to 2016-04-06 16:43:43 UTC (1459961023)
[    1.754797] Freeing unused kernel memory: 688K (c0873000 - c091f000)
[    1.765745] Unhandled fault: imprecise external abort (0xc06) at 0xb6fcd884
Bus error
[    1.777577] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00008700
[    1.777577] 
[    1.786709] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: init Tainted: G        W     3.16.0-4-armmp #1 Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-1
[    1.795850] [<c001a250>] (unwind_backtrace) from [<c00149a0>] (show_stack+0x20/0x24)
[    1.803593] [<c00149a0>] (show_stack) from [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack+0x9c/0xb0)
[    1.810813] [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack) from [<c05b77f0>] (panic+0xb0/0x238)
[    1.817685] [<c05b77f0>] (panic) from [<c0056074>] (complete_and_exit+0x0/0x2c)
[    1.824991] [<c0056074>] (complete_and_exit) from [<c005610c>] (do_group_exit+0x4c/0xd4)
[    1.833075] [<c005610c>] (do_group_exit) from [<c00561b4>] (__wake_up_parent+0x0/0x30)
[    1.840991] [<c00561b4>] (__wake_up_parent) from [<c00105c0>] (ret_fast_syscall+0x0/0x38)
[    1.849163] CPU3: stopping
[    1.851867] CPU: 3 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/3 Tainted: G        W     3.16.0-4-armmp #1 Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-1
[    1.861433] [<c001a250>] (unwind_backtrace) from [<c00149a0>] (show_stack+0x20/0x24)
[    1.869171] [<c00149a0>] (show_stack) from [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack+0x9c/0xb0)
[    1.876389] [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack) from [<c001795c>] (handle_IPI+0x15c/0x17c)
[    1.883780] [<c001795c>] (handle_IPI) from [<c0008944>] (gic_handle_irq+0x68/0x6c)
[    1.891349] [<c0008944>] (gic_handle_irq) from [<c05c0d40>] (__irq_svc+0x40/0x54)
[    1.898823] Exception stack(0xec8e1f68 to 0xec8e1fb0)
[    1.903866] 1f60:                   fffedc84 00000000 00000de4 c0024220 ec8e0000 00000003
[    1.912037] 1f80: c0929614 c09f0260 c09e1808 c09295a8 c05ca140 ec8e1fbc ec8e1fc0 ec8e1fb0
[    1.920204] 1fa0: c0011380 c0011384 600f0013 ffffffff
[    1.925255] [<c05c0d40>] (__irq_svc) from [<c0011384>] (arch_cpu_idle+0x48/0x4c)
[    1.932651] [<c0011384>] (arch_cpu_idle) from [<c0094048>] (cpu_startup_entry+0x194/0x1f0)
[    1.940912] [<c0094048>] (cpu_startup_entry) from [<c0017568>] (secondary_start_kernel+0x140/0x14c)
[    1.949953] [<c0017568>] (secondary_start_kernel) from [<00008a64>] (0x8a64)
[    1.956993] CPU1: stopping
[    1.959695] CPU: 1 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Tainted: G        W     3.16.0-4-armmp #1 Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-1
[    1.969261] [<c001a250>] (unwind_backtrace) from [<c00149a0>] (show_stack+0x20/0x24)
[    1.976998] [<c00149a0>] (show_stack) from [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack+0x9c/0xb0)
[    1.984216] [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack) from [<c001795c>] (handle_IPI+0x15c/0x17c)
[    1.991607] [<c001795c>] (handle_IPI) from [<c0008944>] (gic_handle_irq+0x68/0x6c)
[    1.999171] [<c0008944>] (gic_handle_irq) from [<c05c0d40>] (__irq_svc+0x40/0x54)
[    2.006644] Exception stack(0xec8dbf68 to 0xec8dbfb0)
[    2.011689] bf60:                   fffedc84 00000000 000010e0 c0024220 ec8da000 00000001
[    2.019859] bf80: c0929614 c09f0260 c09e1808 c09295a8 c05ca140 ec8dbfbc ec8dbfc0 ec8dbfb0
[    2.028026] bfa0: c0011380 c0011384 60000113 ffffffff
[    2.033075] [<c05c0d40>] (__irq_svc) from [<c0011384>] (arch_cpu_idle+0x48/0x4c)
[    2.040467] [<c0011384>] (arch_cpu_idle) from [<c0094048>] (cpu_startup_entry+0x194/0x1f0)
[    2.048727] [<c0094048>] (cpu_startup_entry) from [<c0017568>] (secondary_start_kernel+0x140/0x14c)
[    2.057764] [<c0017568>] (secondary_start_kernel) from [<00008a64>] (0x8a64)
[    2.064803] CPU2: stopping
[    2.067507] CPU: 2 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/2 Tainted: G        W     3.16.0-4-armmp #1 Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-1
[    2.077073] [<c001a250>] (unwind_backtrace) from [<c00149a0>] (show_stack+0x20/0x24)
[    2.084813] [<c00149a0>] (show_stack) from [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack+0x9c/0xb0)
[    2.092030] [<c05ba488>] (dump_stack) from [<c001795c>] (handle_IPI+0x15c/0x17c)
[    2.099421] [<c001795c>] (handle_IPI) from [<c0008944>] (gic_handle_irq+0x68/0x6c)
[    2.106986] [<c0008944>] (gic_handle_irq) from [<c05c0d40>] (__irq_svc+0x40/0x54)
[    2.114458] Exception stack(0xec8ddf68 to 0xec8ddfb0)
[    2.119503] df60:                   fffedc94 00000000 00000762 c0024220 ec8dc000 00000002
[    2.127673] df80: c0929614 c09f0260 c09e1808 c09295a8 c05ca140 ec8ddfbc ec8ddfc0 ec8ddfb0
[    2.135842] dfa0: c0011380 c0011384 60000013 ffffffff
[    2.140891] [<c05c0d40>] (__irq_svc) from [<c0011384>] (arch_cpu_idle+0x48/0x4c)
[    2.148283] [<c0011384>] (arch_cpu_idle) from [<c0094048>] (cpu_startup_entry+0x194/0x1f0)
[    2.156543] [<c0094048>] (cpu_startup_entry) from [<c0017568>] (secondary_start_kernel+0x140/0x14c)
[    2.165582] [<c0017568>] (secondary_start_kernel) from [<00008a64>] (0x8a64)
[    2.172628] —[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x00008700
[    2.172628] 

1. Set the tala's profile in Cobbler to Debian-8.4.0-armhf-x86_64
2. Set the tala to netboot in Cobbler
3. Boot the tala node and interrupt boot by pressing <s>
4. At the Highbank prompt: dhcp; pxe get; pxe boot

As of this writing, the kernel included in the latest (2016-04-06) daily build of Jessie would PXE boot.

The iso was added to roles/cobbler_profile/defaults/main.yml in ceph-cm-ansible and imported that way.

• This is why the profile is incorrectly named Debian-8.4.0-armhf-x86_64 in Cobbler.
• I gave up on trying to automate/kickstart the install so no kickstart is set for the profile.

To boot Debian, the system's bootargs in U-Boot need to be edited each time the system is rebooted. The default is: console=ttyAMA0 root=LABEL=rootfs nosplash but the root= causes the system to drop to an initramfs prompt. Removing the argument or setting to root=/dev/sda2 both work.

Highbank #setenv bootargs console=ttyAMA0
Highbank #saveenv

The Debian installer was trying to reach package mirrors using IPv6 and failing since IPv6 isn't routable in Sepia at the moment. ipv6.disable=1 was added to the kernel options in Cobbler to combat this.