Ubuntu for IBM z Systems and LinuxONE

Ubuntu s390x port is available from Xenial Xerus (16.04 LTS) release and up. The target architecture is zEC12 and up.

Downloads

Please complete the form at http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server/linuxone to get access to ISO downloads.

The ISO contains multiple files in /boot/ sub-directory to load/IPL on LPAR, z/VM, and KVM.

Installation

• A dedicated Installation Guide for IBM z Systems and LinuxONE is available here:

  • Ubuntu 16.04 for Linux on IBM z Systems and LinuxONE Installation Guide

• It includes references to the following three step-by-step installation instructions:

  • Step-by-step Ubuntu Linux in LPAR installation example

  • Step-by-step Ubuntu Linux on z/VM installation example

  • Step-by-step Ubuntu Linux on KVM for IBM z Systems installation example

Bugs

• Use ubuntu-bug tool

• Include/add s390x tag to manual bug reports

Community

• #ubuntu-s390x on freenode

• ~ubuntu-s390x launchpad porting team

• ubuntu-s390x@lists.launchpad.net team mailing list hosted on launchpad

Status

• Most packages are available
• Juju local and manual providers are available
• LXD and LXC are available
• Cloud images are available
• Docker is available

• OpenStack Mitaka is available

FAQ

Q: What Virtualization Modes are Supported?

A: Ubuntu is supported as:

• A native install in an LPAR
• A KVM instance within Ubuntu on an LPAR
• A KVM instance within KVM for z Systems
• A z/VM instance

Q: Is there an emulator I can use to run Ubuntu s390x on non-mainframe hardware?

A: Unfortunately there is currently no emulator support for Ubuntu s390x port - this includes current releases of Hercules, PDT, and QEMU.

Q: How to tweak boot arguments?

A: Simply edit /etc/zipl.conf and run sudo zipl to update the configuration.

Q: How to bump crashkernel limits?

A: Depending on the number of available devices crashdump setting in /etc/zipl.conf may not be appropriate. One can either increase it further, or limit the amount of devices visible to the kernel, and thus lower the requirements for the crashdump setting.

To ignore devices you can run cio_ignore tool to generate appropriate stanza to ignore all devices, but the currently active/in-use. Simply add the generated stanza to the boot parameters in /etc/zipl.conf:

$ sudo cio_ignore -u -k
cio_ignore=all,!c000-c002,!e000,!e100