Add known issues, roadmap, and conditional Go toolchain patch
- Document SetVariableRT upgrade failure, 16K page size implications, serial console issue, and SBC install disk behavior - Add production roadmap (4K pages, GRUB boot, serial fix, NVMe) - Make overlay Go patch conditional: apply only on Go 1.24.x, skip on 1.25+ where CVEs are already fixed upstream Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Mathias Beaulieu-Duncan
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8178ba195e
11
Makefile
11
Makefile
@ -115,8 +115,15 @@ patches-talos:
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git am "$(PATCHES_DIRECTORY)/siderolabs/talos/"*.patch
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patches-overlay:
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cd "$(CHECKOUTS_DIRECTORY)/sbc-raspberrypi5" && \
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git am "$(PATCHES_DIRECTORY)/talos-rpi5/sbc-raspberrypi5/"*.patch
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@cd "$(CHECKOUTS_DIRECTORY)/sbc-raspberrypi5" && \
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GO_VER=$$(sed -n 's/^go //p' go.work | head -1) && \
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GO_MINOR=$$(echo "$$GO_VER" | cut -d. -f1,2) && \
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if [ "$$GO_MINOR" = "1.24" ]; then \
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echo "Overlay Go $$GO_VER — applying Go toolchain patch (CVE fix)"; \
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git am "$(PATCHES_DIRECTORY)/talos-rpi5/sbc-raspberrypi5/"*.patch; \
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else \
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echo "Overlay Go $$GO_VER — skipping Go toolchain patch (CVEs fixed upstream)"; \
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fi
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patches: patches-pkgs patches-talos patches-overlay
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55
README.md
55
README.md
@ -46,16 +46,71 @@ zstd -d metal-arm64.raw.zst -o metal-arm64.raw
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### Upgrade an existing node
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> **Warning:** In-place upgrades via `talosctl upgrade` may fail on RPi5/CM5 hardware with a `SetVariableRT` EFI firmware error. See [Known issues](#known-issues) below. For now, the recommended upgrade path is to re-flash the disk image.
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```bash
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# Re-flash method (reliable)
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zstd -d metal-arm64.raw.zst -o metal-arm64.raw
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# Flash to eMMC/SD via your preferred tool
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# In-place method (experimental — may fail, see known issues)
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talosctl upgrade --image docker.io/svrnty/talos-rpi5:v1.12.3-k6.12.47-2
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```
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### What's included
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- RPi downstream kernel with CM5/RP1 support
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- 16K page size (RPi Foundation default — see [known issues](#known-issues) for implications)
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- Overclock: 2.6GHz (`arm_freq=2600`, `over_voltage_delta=50000`, `arm_boost=1`)
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- Extensions: `iscsi-tools`, `util-linux-tools`
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## Known issues
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### In-place upgrade fails (SetVariableRT)
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`talosctl upgrade` may fail during the bootloader installation step with:
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```
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Firmware does not support SetVariableRT. Can not remount with rw
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```
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The RPi5/CM5 EFI firmware does not support runtime EFI variable writes, which the Talos bootloader update requires. **Re-flashing the disk image is the reliable upgrade path for now.** We are investigating GRUB-based boot as a fix (see [Roadmap](#roadmap)).
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*Upstream: <a href="https://github.com/talos-rpi5/talos-builder/issues/21" target="_blank">talos-builder#21</a>*
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### 16K memory pages
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The RPi downstream kernel defaults to 16K page size instead of upstream Talos's 4K. This means:
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- **Higher per-page memory overhead** — workloads that allocate many small buffers (e.g. Longhorn v2 data engine) consume significantly more RAM
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- **Potential OOM on control-plane nodes** — systems running etcd + kube-apiserver + workloads may hit memory pressure, especially on 4GB/8GB boards
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- **Incompatibility with some software** that assumes 4K pages
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We plan to switch to 4K pages for production readiness (see [Roadmap](#roadmap)).
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*Upstream: <a href="https://github.com/talos-rpi5/talos-builder/issues/3" target="_blank">talos-builder#3</a>, <a href="https://github.com/talos-rpi5/talos-builder/issues/11" target="_blank">talos-builder#11</a>*
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### No serial console output after boot
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Serial output goes silent after the EFI stub decompresses the kernel and exits boot services. This affects headless debugging on CM5 boards where serial is the primary console.
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*Upstream: <a href="https://github.com/talos-rpi5/talos-builder/issues/4" target="_blank">talos-builder#4</a>*
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### Install disk config ignored on SBCs
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Talos ignores the `machine.install.disk` config field on SBC platforms. You **must flash the disk image directly** to your target disk (eMMC, SD, NVMe). Booting from USB or NVMe also requires flashing directly to that disk — the image targets SD (`mmcblk0`) by default.
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*Upstream: <a href="https://github.com/talos-rpi5/talos-builder/issues/22" target="_blank">talos-builder#22</a>*
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## Roadmap
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This project targets production-ready Talos clusters on RPi5/CM5 hardware. Key milestones:
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- [ ] **Switch to 4K page size** — Align with upstream Talos kernel config to reduce memory overhead and improve workload compatibility. Requires testing RPi peripheral drivers with 4K pages.
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- [ ] **Reliable in-place upgrades** — Investigate GRUB-based boot or alternative bootloader strategies to work around the `SetVariableRT` firmware limitation, enabling `talosctl upgrade` on RPi5/CM5.
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- [ ] **Serial console fix** — Debug U-Boot/kernel handoff to restore serial output after EFI stub exit.
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- [ ] **NVMe boot support** — Produce images that target NVMe directly, or document a supported NVMe boot flow.
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## Building
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For local builds, CI/CD setup, runner configuration, and project structure, see [TECHNICAL.md](TECHNICAL.md).
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