Bring up a VCK190

Where this stands

SpaceOS does not run on the VCK190 today. No target profile ships for it, and the platform source lists the board under “Not currently supported” in its support matrix (docs/support-matrix.md).

The board was demonstrated under the OSIP T1 programme, which exercised five boards against the substrates each one got working. That is programme history, and it is not reproducible from the platform source: the strings Vitis, Versal and VCK190 name no board and no accelerator anywhere in the code, and none of the five shipped profiles declares an accelerator at all.

The PetaLinux steps below are the ones we run on our own VCK190. They build and flash a working Linux image for the board. The SpaceOS half does not exist, so this page stops where that image boots.

The Xilinx Versal VCK190 is intended as a daemon install in the target matrix, with PetaLinux keeping the boot path. PetaLinux is Xilinx’s board support package and build system for Versal boards. The image needs KVM and the Deep Learning Processing Unit (DPU) turned on, plus a working Linux console.

Xilinx Versal VCK190: aarch64 with an AI Engine.

Before you start, get the board’s network settings and management credentials from its operator.

Caution

Use PetaLinux 2022.2. Validate any later PetaLinux release on the target before operational use.

Hardware topology

The VCK190 has two distinct subsystems on a single board:

• DUT (device under test): the subsystem that runs the Versal chip. This is where SpaceOS and its workloads run.
• System controller: a separate processor with its own memory that manages board-level functions such as power and clocking.

Boards usually expose a web management interface, such as Xilinx BEAM or a vendor equivalent. Use it to read board state and to reset the DUT.

Two bench facts that the management interface does not give you:

• The SD card is wired to either the DUT or the build host, never both. A multiplexer switches it. On our bench that is a usbsdmux command, and the DUT must be halted before you throw it.
• After you reflash the SD card, only a physical power cycle reboots the board reliably. The management interface’s reset lands the DUT at a Versal > prompt often enough that a switched power outlet is the method we use, and it sometimes takes two cycles.

Step 1: Create the PetaLinux project

Install PetaLinux 2022.2 on the build host, and adjust the paths below for your install.

Source the PetaLinux environment in every fresh shell:

source <petalinux-install-dir>/settings.sh

Download the matching VCK190 board support package (BSP) from Xilinx and create a project:

petalinux-create -t project -s <path-to-bsp>.bsp -n vck190-spaceos
cd vck190-spaceos

Step 2: Configure the firmware

petalinux-config

In the menu:

• Select Image Packaging Configuration → Root file system type and choose EXT4 (SD/eMMC/SATA/USB).
• Select DTG Settings → Kernel Bootargs → Add extra boot args and append cma=900M.

cma sizes the contiguous memory area, the block of physically contiguous memory the kernel sets aside at boot for devices that cannot scatter their transfers. 900 MB covers typical SpaceOS unikernel and DPU workloads. Raise it if your service set needs more.

Step 3: Configure the Linux kernel

petalinux-config -c kernel

Enable Virtualization first, which is what makes the KVM entry appear, then:

• Virtualization → Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) support.
• Device Drivers → Misc devices → Xilinx Deep learning Processing Unit (DPU) Driver.
• Device Drivers → Misc devices → Xilinx AI Engine, when using AI Engine workloads. It sits in the same submenu as the DPU driver.

KVM is what a Solo5 hvt substrate would need. The DPU driver is what Vitis AI on Versal needs.

Step 4: Configure the root filesystem

petalinux-config -c rootfs

Enable the packages your service set needs. A typical VCK190 root filesystem includes package management, networking tools, OCI container support, OpenCV, Python modules, Vitis acceleration packages, and the standard PetaLinux utilities.

Step 5: Build the image

petalinux-build
petalinux-package --boot --plm --psmfw --u-boot --dtb --force
petalinux-package --wic

The output is a petalinux-sdimage.wic file under images/linux/.

Boot the generated image in QEMU before you flash hardware:

petalinux-boot --qemu --kernel

To exit the QEMU console, press Ctrl+A, then X.

Step 6: Flash and boot

Halt the DUT, move the SD card to the build host, and flash the image:

sudo dd if=images/linux/petalinux-sdimage.wic \
  of=/dev/<sd-card-device> conv=fsync status=progress bs=4M

Danger

Double-check the target device before running dd. Do not write to a mounted partition.

Reconnect the SD card to the DUT and power-cycle the board by hand, so the bootloader picks up the new image.

Step 7: Verify the substrate

Once Linux is up, check that KVM and the acceleration devices are present. The substrate that runs each service depends on them:

ls /dev/kvm
ls /dev/xdpu*
cat /proc/device-tree/compatible

With KVM and the acceleration devices present, the board has what a SpaceOS daemon install would require.

This is where the page stops today. There is no VCK190 target profile to name, so there is no space target connect command to run against this board and no SpaceOS workload to place on it. Prove the workload on the Raspberry Pi CM5, which is a supported target, and follow the support matrix for the board’s status.