Article

Little endian and Linux on IBM Power

Systems
Answers to your frequently asked questions
By Jeff Scheel
Updated January 4, 2019 | Published June 16, 2016

Two years ago, I published my first FAQ about the Linux on IBM® Power Systems™ strategic
shift from big endian to little endian and I still get questions about it today. The questions listed
below are either updates since the first FAQ was published or new ones I’ve been asked. If you
do not see an answer to your particular question, refer to the original document before reaching
out.

Which Linux distributions support little endian on Power

All three Linux on Power partners – Canonical, Red Hat, and SUSE – offer little endian
distributions.

Beginning with the 14.04 distribution, Canonical’s Ubuntu Server supports Power in little endian
mode only and future release plans show this support continuing. No plans exist to provide an
equivalent big endian version optimized for IBM Power Systems.

SUSE’s Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) offers SLES 12 on Power in little endian mode only. As
such, customers will need to migrate from big to little endian as they upgrade from SLES 11 to
SLES 12.

Since the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.1, Red Hat provides both little endian
and big endian versions of Linux on IBM Power Systems. At this time, these products are
separately licensed and non-transferable; customers should pay close attention when ordering
RHEL for Power to request the desired endianness. While Red Hat’s plans around releasing
RHEL as a little endian only distribution remain undisclosed, customers should view RHEL 7 as
the opportunity to migrate from big to little endian versions just in case the next major release
ships as a little endian-only product.

Currently, all community distributions of Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE offer big and little
endian versions.
How long will Linux distributions continue to support big
endian on Power
It remains IBM’s understanding that Red Hat and SUSE will continue to support their existing
big endian releases on Power for their full product life cycles. However, customers running big
endian distributions would be wise to begin planning their transitions to little endian distributions
as their applications become available and time permits.

Does Power Systems support running mixed environments

of big and little endian operating systems
The POWER8® processor supports mixing big and little endian memory accesses at the core
level, by using special purpose register (SPR) settings. While this could technically support
running both big and little endian software threads, the complexity of implementing such a
design point would be high. Therefore, IBM has elected to enable operating system versions as
either big endian or little endian (but not both) by design.

The virtualization capabilities of the Power platform allow for mixed environments of operating
system levels and types. This same isolation mechanism applies to big and little endian operating
systems with Linux and other Power operating systems, such as AIX® and IBM i.

Does Power Systems support running mixed environments

of big and little endian operating systems in both PowerVM
and PowerKVM
As of the PowerKVM™ release 2.1.1 (shipped in October 2014), KVM has supported a mix of
big and little endian guests running simultaneously. Further, little endian support was added to
IBM PowerVM® in the spring of 2015, allowing the system to run in mixed modes. So yes, all
current PowerKVM and PowerVM releases support the mixing of big endian and little endian
operating systems.

More details can be found in the following IBM Knowledge Center topic, Supported
virtualization options for POWER8 Linux on Power servers

Can I run big endian applications on a little endian

operating system or vice versa
No, the operating system enablement only supports applications of the same type. As such, a
little endian operating system (ppc64le or ppc64el) can only run little endian applications built
for this software platform. Likewise, big endian operating systems (ppc64) only support software
built for big endian.
Can I run a mix of big endian and little endian applications
on the same Power System
Virtualization enables mixing of big and little endian application environments on the same
server. Applications of a particular operating system and endian mode must be run in a separate
virtual machine (VM) or logical partition (LPAR).

See the above question about mixed big and little endian operating system environments for
more explanation.

Where can little endian distributions run on Power

Little endian distributions can run virtualized in a VM (PowerKVM or any KVM on Power
distribution from the vendors) on IBM Power Systems S8xxL or IBM Power System S8xxLC
models; in an LPAR (PowerVM) on Power S8xxL, S8xx, or E8xx models; or on bare metal
(directly on the “BIOS-like” firmware that enables KVM) on Power S8xxL or S8xxLC models.

More details can be found in the following IBM Knowledge Center topics:

 Supported virtualization options for POWER8 Linux on Power servers

 Supported features for bare metal POWER8 Linux on Power systems

Does PowerVM support little endian operating systems

PowerVM has supported little endian operating systems since the spring of 2015. More details
can be found in IBM Knowledge Center Supported virtualization options for POWER8 Linux on
Power servers topic.

What about Linux applications that have already been

optimized for big endian on Power
IBM remains committed to transitioning the Linux on Power application ecosystem from big
endian to little endian in an expeditious manner. Most IBM products have completed the
transition and new products have started as little endian only.

Additionally, IBM continues to work both with open source communities and third-party
software providers to grow the Linux on Power ecosystem. While the operating system support
decision lies with the application vendor, IBM strongly encourages new providers to start as little
endian to eliminate any transition planning and to simplify the application development process.

For a list of active open source software, reference the IBM Linux on Power Software wiki page
in the Linux on Power community.
How can I get my questions about little endian and other
Linux on Power topics answered
Connect with other Linux on Power users and meet the development team behind both Linux and
Power technologies.

 Join the Linux on Power Community

 Ask a question