Latest Bluefield-2 OS with DOCA

Infrastructure & Networking DOCA Getting Started & Resources
1

Hi, in the other thread, it was mentioned that the latest BF2 image comes with DOCA install by default. However, it seems, that version is actually older than the current one installed on my Bluefield-2 (that does not have the DOCA installed). How can this be possible?
And, indeed there is no doca directory in /opt/mellanox, which means no DOCA support by default (?).

My current Bluefield-2 OS is:

ubuntu@localhost:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Release:	20.04
Codename:	focal
ubuntu@localhost:~$ uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 5.4.44-mlnx.9.gdffcb36f52b7 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jul 7 02:43:36 IDT 2020 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

The important part here is the 5.4.44-mlnx version number (or at least, I think it is the version number). Though, it is stated as mlnx not BlueOS/Bluefield

The one I can download:
https://content.mellanox.com/BlueField/BFBs/Ubuntu20.04/DOCA_v1.0_BlueField_OS_Ubuntu_20.04-5.3-1.0.0.0-3.6.0.11699-1-aarch64.bfb
has a version number 5.3 in its filename.

After installing this “latest” version, and issuing the same commands, we can indeed see a lower/smaller version number:

root@localhost:/home/ubuntu# uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 5.4.0-1008-bluefield #11-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Fri Mar 5 13:59:26 UTC 2021 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

The version string here is not mlnx but Bluefield. Is it possible then these versionings are different that’s why I see lower version number?

2

The 5.4.0 here in uname is the kernel version and will be the same for all Ubuntu 20.04 images.

The 5.3.0 in the BF2 image name maps to the OFED mlx5 driver version. The DOCA BFB image also contains some additional DOCA software packages: Installation Guide :: NVIDIA DOCA SDK Documentation

These two version systems don’t track or relate to each other.

In theory it is possible to put together the software stack manually, but reimaging or reinstalling the BF2 using the DOCA BFB package is a nice clean install and one easy step.

3

I see, I had the same feeling! Thanks for confirming @jubetz