BF-Bundle Installation and Upgrade

Users have three options for installing or upgrading DOCA on BlueField DPU or SuperNIC:

 Installing DOCA-Host

Make sure to update DOCA on the host side before installing the BF-bundle on the BlueField.

Installing Software on BlueField Using BF-Bundle

Users can install DOCA on BlueField DPU or SuperNIC by upgrading the full DOCA image on BlueField. 

Option 1 – No Pre-defined Password

To install a BFB, use the following command:

host# sudo bfb-install --rshim rshim<N> --bfb <image_path.bfb>

Where:

• <N> – the appropriate RShim device identifier. If you have only one BlueField device, use rshim0.

• <image_path.bfb> – Replace this with the path to the BFB image file.

To list the RShim devices present on your system, run the following command:

host# ls -la /dev/ | grep rshim

Option 2 – Set Pre-defined Password

Ubuntu users can set a unique password for the ubuntu user in the bf.cfg configuration file, which will be applied automatically at the end of the BlueField BFB bundle installation. 

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Generate the hashed password: 

   host# openssl passwd -1
   Password:
   Verifying - Password:
   $1$3B0RIrfX$TlHry93NFUJzg3Nya00rE1
   

   
   

2. Add the password hash to the bf.cfg configuration file: 

   host# echo ubuntu_PASSWORD='$1$3B0RIrfX$TlHry93NFUJzg3Nya00rE1' > bf.cfg
   

   
   

3. Use the --config flag to specify the configuration file when running the installation command: 

   host# sudo bfb-install --rshim rshim<N> --bfb <image_path.bfb> --config bf.cfg
   

   If --config is not used, then upon first login to the BlueField device, users will be prompted to update the default ubuntu password.

   
   

   Optionally, to upgrade the BlueField integrated BMC firmware using BFB bundle, please provide the current BMC root credentials in a bf.cfg file, as shown in the following:

   BMC_PASSWORD="<root password>"
   BMC_USER="root"
   BMC_REBOOT="yes"
   

   Unless previously changed, the default BMC root password is 0penBmc.

   The following is an example output of Ubuntu-22.04 BFB bundle installation (version may vary in the future):

   host# sudo bfb-install --rshim rshim0 --bfb bf-bundle-2.7.0_24.04_ubuntu-22.04_prod.bfb --config bf.cfg
   Pushing bfb 1.41GiB 0:02:02 [11.7MiB/s] [           <=>                                                                                                                                ]
   Collecting BlueField booting status. Press Ctrl+C to stop
    INFO[PSC]: PSC BL1 START
    INFO[BL2]: start
    INFO[BL2]: boot mode (rshim)
    INFO[BL2]: VDDQ: 1120 mV
    INFO[BL2]: DDR POST passed
    INFO[BL2]: UEFI loaded
    INFO[BL31]: start
    INFO[BL31]: lifecycle GA Secured
    INFO[BL31]: VDD: 850 mV
    INFO[BL31]: runtime
    INFO[BL31]: MB ping success
    INFO[UEFI]: eMMC init
    INFO[UEFI]: eMMC probed
    INFO[UEFI]: UPVS valid
    INFO[UEFI]: PMI: updates started
    INFO[UEFI]: PMI: total updates: 1
    INFO[UEFI]: PMI: updates completed, status 0
    INFO[UEFI]: PCIe enum start
    INFO[UEFI]: PCIe enum end
    INFO[UEFI]: UEFI Secure Boot 
    INFO[UEFI]: PK configured
    INFO[UEFI]: Redfish enabled
    INFO[UEFI]: exit Boot Service
    INFO[MISC]: Found bf.cfg
    INFO[MISC]: Ubuntu installation started
    INFO[MISC]: Installing OS image
    INFO[MISC]: Changing the default password for user ubuntu
    INFO[MISC]: Ubuntu installation completed
    INFO[MISC]: Updating NIC firmware...
    INFO[MISC]: NIC firmware update done
    INFO[MISC]: Installation finished 
   
   

   
   

4. To verify that the BlueField device has completed booting, wait 90 seconds after the installation process finishes and run the following command:

   host# sudo cat /dev/rshim<N>/misc
   ...
    INFO[MISC]: Linux up
    INFO[MISC]: DPU is ready  
   

   
   

5. Retrieve installed packages and their versions as part of BF-Bundle installation:

   1. Log into BlueField.

   2. Run the following: 

      bf# sudo bf-info
      

      Example output: 

      Versions:
      - ATF: v2.2(release):4.9.0-16-g221717c68
      - UEFI: 4.9.0-37-gcbeaab0650
      - BSP: 4.9.0.13322
      - NIC Firmware: 32.43.0356
      - DOCA Base (OFED): 24.10-0.5.1.0
      ...
      Storage:
      - mlnx-libsnap 1.6.0-1
      - spdk 23.01.5-24
      - virtio-net-controller 24.10.15-1
      DOCA:
      - doca-apsh-config 2.9.0064-1
      - libdoca-sdk-urom-dev 2.9.0064-1
      ...
      FlexIO:
      - flexio-samples 24.10.2447
      - flexio-sdk 24.10.2447
      ...
      SoC Platform:
      - mlxbf-gige-modules 1.0-0.kver.6.1.0-11-arm64
      - sdhci-of-dwcmshc-modules 1.0-0.kver.6.1.0-11-arm64
      ...
      OFED:
      rdma-core 2410mlnx54-1.2410051
      ucx 1.18.0-1.2410051
      ...
      

      
      

6. To configure the tmfifo_net0 interface over IPv4 for SSH access to the BlueField Arm OS:

   host# ifconfig tmfifo_net0 192.168.100.1/24

   SSH into the BlueField Arm OS with 192.168.100.2 (preconfigured default): 

   host# ssh ubuntu@192.168.100.2

Upgrading BlueField Using Standard Linux Tools

This procedure allows for upgrading DOCA components on BlueField networking platforms (DPUs or SuperNICs) using standard Linux tools (e.g., apt update and yum update). It leverages native package manager repositories to update components without requiring a full reinstallation.

This process has the following benefits:

• Only updates components that include modifications

• Includes upgrade of:

  • DOCA drivers and libraries 

  • DOCA reference applications

  • BSP (UEFI/ATF) upgrade while maintaining the configuration

  • NIC firmware upgrade while maintaining the configuration

  • BMC components upgrade

• Does not:

  • Impact user binaries

  • Upgrade non-Ubuntu OS kernels

• After completion of BlueField upgrade:

  • If NIC firmware was not updated, perform BlueField Arm reset (software reset/reboot BlueField)

  • If NIC firmware was updated, perform firmware reset (mlxfwreset) or perform a graceful shutdown and power cycle

<bf> $ apt remove --purge mlxbf-bootimages* -y

<bf> $ apt update
<bf> $ apt install gnupg2

<bf> $ export DOCA_REPO="<URL>"

<bf> $ curl $DOCA_REPO/GPG-KEY-Mellanox.pub | gpg --dearmor > /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/GPG-KEY-Mellanox.pub

<bf> $ echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/GPG-KEY-Mellanox.pub] $DOCA_REPO ./" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/doca.list

<bf> $ apt update

<bf> $ apt install mlxbf-bootimages-signed mlxbf-scripts

<bf> $ bfrec

<bf> $ apt install mlnx-fw-updater-signed

<bf> $ sudo /opt/mellanox/mlnx-fw-updater/mlnx_fw_updater.pl --force-fw-update

<bf> $ cat > /etc/bf-upgrade.conf << EOF
BMC_PASSWORD="<password>"
EOF

<bf> $ cat >> /etc/bf-upgrade.conf << EOF
BMC_REBOOT="yes"
CEC_REBOOT="yes"
EOF

<bf> $ apt -y install bf3-bmc-nic-fw-* bf3-bmc-fw-signed bf3-cec-fw-signed bf3-bmc-gi-signed
<bf> $ apt -y install bf-release*

<bf> $ dpu-bmc-upgrade

<bf> $ apt-get remove doca* mlnx-ofed* kernel-mft* -y

<bf> $ apt-get install doca-runtime doca-devel -y

<bf> $ apt upgrade

<bf> $ yum -y remove mlxbf-bootimages* --noautoremove
<bf> $ yum makecache

<bf> $ export DOCA_REPO="<URL>"

echo "[doca] 
name=DOCA Online Repo 
baseurl=$DOCA_REPO 
enabled=1 
gpgcheck=0 
priority=10 
cost=10" > /etc/yum.repos.d/doca.repo

<bf> $ yum makecache

<bf> $ yum install -y mlxbf-bootimages-signed mlxbf-bfscripts

<bf> $ bfrec

<bf> $ yum install -y mlnx-fw-updater-signed

<bf> $ cat > /etc/bf-upgrade.conf << EOF
BMC_PASSWORD="<password>"
EOF

<bf> $ cat >> /etc/bf-upgrade.conf << EOF
BMC_REBOOT="yes"
CEC_REBOOT="yes"
EOF

<bf> $ yum -y install bf3-bmc-nic-fw-* bf3-bmc-fw-signed bf3-cec-fw-signed bf3-bmc-gi-signed
<bf> $ yum -y install bf-release*

<bf> $ dpu-bmc-upgrade

<bf> $ yum remove doca*  mlnx-ofed* kernel-mft* -y

<bf> $ yum remove strongswan-bf strongswan-swanctl
<bf> $ yum remove strongswan-bf strongswan-swanctl libreswan

<bf> $ yum -y install doca-runtime doca-devel

<bf> dnf install python3-dnf-plugin-versionlock
<bf> dnf versionlock kernel*

<bf> $ yum upgrade --nobest

<bf> $ sed -i 's/GRUB_ENABLE_BLSCFG=true/GRUB_ENABLE_BLSCFG=false/' /etc/default/grub; mv /boot/efi/EFI/anolis/grub.cfg.rpmsave /boot/efi/EFI/anolis/grub.cfg

Building Custom BFB Installation Image

Users wishing to build their own customized BlueField OS image can use the BFB build environment. For more details, refer to the bfb-build project in this GitHub webpage. 

To boot a customized BlueField OS image on a UEFI secure-boot-enabled BlueField (the default secure boot setting), the following conditions must be met:

• The OS image must be signed with a key already present in the UEFI DB (e.g., the Microsoft key)

• If the above is not possible, UEFI secure boot must be disabled to allow booting of an unsigned or differently signed image

For detailed instructions on managing UEFI secure boot, refer to the "Secure Boot" page in the BlueField Platform SW Documentation.

Last updated: March 18, 2025