1 - Banana Pi M64

Installing Talos on Banana Pi M64 SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest alpha talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/metal-bananapi_m64-arm64.img.xz
xz -d metal-bananapi_m64-arm64.img.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-bananapi_m64-arm64.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

2 - Libre Computer Board ALL-H3-CC

Installing Talos on Libre Computer Board ALL-H3-CC SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest alpha talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/metal-libretech_all_h3_cc_h5-arm64.img.xz
xz -d metal-libretech_all_h3_cc_h5-arm64.img.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-libretech_all_h3_cc_h5-arm64.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

3 - Pine64 Rock64

Installing Talos on Pine64 Rock64 SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest alpha talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/metal-rock64-arm64.img.xz
xz -d metal-rock64-arm64.img.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-rock64-arm64.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

4 - Radxa ROCK PI 4c

Installing Talos on Radxa ROCK PI 4c SBC using raw disk image.

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest alpha talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Download the Image

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/metal-rockpi_4-arm64.img.xz
xz -d metal-rockpi_4-arm64.img.xz

Writing the Image

The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-rockpi_4-arm64.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Boot Talos from an SSD Drive

Note: this is only tested on Rock PI 4c

Rock PI 4 has an M2 slot which supports NVMe disks. It is possible to run Talos without any SD cards right from that SSD disk.

The pre-installed SPI loader won’t be able to chain Talos u-boot on the SSD drive because it’s too outdated. The official docs on booting from the SSD also propose using an outdated SPI to flash u-boot.

Instead, it is necessary to update u-boot to a more recent version for this process to work. The Armbian u-boot build for Rock PI 4c has been proved to work: https://users.armbian.com/piter75/.

Steps

  • Flash any OS to the SD card (can be Armbian for example).
  • Download Armbian u-boot and update SPI flash:
curl -LO https://users.armbian.com/piter75/rkspi_loader-v20.11.2-trunk-v2.img
sudo dd if=rkspi_loader-v20.11.2-trunk-v2.img of=/dev/mtdblock0 bs=4K
  • Optionally, you can also write Talos image to the SSD drive right from your Rock PI board:
curl -LO https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/metal-rockpi_4-arm64.img.xz
xz -d metal-rockpi_4-arm64.img.xz
sudo dd if=metal-rockpi_4-arm64.img.xz of=/dev/nvme0n1
  • remove SD card and reboot.

After these steps, Talos will boot from the SSD and enter maintenance mode. The rest of the flow is the same as running Talos from the SD card.

5 - Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Installing Talos on Rpi4 SBC using raw disk image.

Video Walkthrough

To see a live demo of this writeup, see the video below:

Prerequisites

You will need

  • talosctl
  • an SD card

Download the latest alpha talosctl.

curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/talosctl https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/talosctl-$(uname -s | tr "[:upper:]" "[:lower:]")-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/talosctl

Updating the EEPROM

At least version v2020.09.03-138a1 of the bootloader (rpi-eeprom) is required. To update the bootloader we will need an SD card. Insert the SD card into your computer and use Raspberry Pi Imager to install the bootloader on it (select Operating System > Misc utility images > Bootloader > SD Card Boot). Alternatively, you can use the console on Linux or macOS. The path to your SD card can be found using fdisk on Linux or diskutil on macOS. In this example, we will assume /dev/mmcblk0.

curl -LO https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-eeprom/releases/download/v2020.09.03-138a1/rpi-boot-eeprom-recovery-2020-09-03-vl805-000138a1.zip
sudo mkfs.fat -I /dev/mmcblk0
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0 /mnt
sudo bsdtar rpi-boot-eeprom-recovery-2020-09-03-vl805-000138a1.zip -C /mnt

Remove the SD card from your local machine and insert it into the Raspberry Pi. Power the Raspberry Pi on, and wait at least 10 seconds. If successful, the green LED light will blink rapidly (forever), otherwise an error pattern will be displayed. If an HDMI display is attached to the port closest to the power/USB-C port, the screen will display green for success or red if a failure occurs. Power off the Raspberry Pi and remove the SD card from it.

Note: Updating the bootloader only needs to be done once.

Download the Image

Download the image and decompress it:

curl -LO https://github.com/talos-systems/talos/releases/latest/download/metal-rpi_4-arm64.img.xz
xz -d metal-rpi_4-arm64.img.xz

Writing the Image

Now dd the image to your SD card:

sudo dd if=metal-rpi_4-arm64.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=fsync bs=4M

Bootstrapping the Node

Insert the SD card to your board, turn it on and wait for the console to show you the instructions for bootstrapping the node. Following the instructions in the console output to connect to the interactive installer:

talosctl apply-config --insecure --interactive --nodes <node IP or DNS name>

Once the interactive installation is applied, the cluster will form and you can then use kubectl.

Note: if you have an HDMI display attached and it shows only a rainbow splash, please use the other HDMI port, the one closest to the power/USB-C port.

Retrieve the kubeconfig

Retrieve the admin kubeconfig by running:

talosctl kubeconfig

Troubleshooting

The following table can be used to troubleshoot booting issues:

Long FlashesShort FlashesStatus
03Generic failure to boot
04start*.elf not found
07Kernel image not found
08SDRAM failure
09Insufficient SDRAM
010In HALT state
21Partition not FAT
22Failed to read from partition
23Extended partition not FAT
24File signature/hash mismatch - Pi 4
44Unsupported board type
45Fatal firmware error
46Power failure type A
47Power failure type B