We are pleased to announce the second public beta release of CentOS
Linux 7 for the AArch64 platform.

This release contains fixes and code updates provided in the RHELSA
source code recently published to git.CentOS.org as well as rolling previous updates into the installer.

We intend to have a ‘Gold’ release very soon unless a blocker bugs are reported, so please test this release.

Improvements since the initial Beta
==================================
The 4.1rc kernel has been removed in favor of the 3.19 kernel as it contains some additional functionality by default. The 4.x kernel will be available later as a -plus kernel.

Installation/Everything ISO is now available. We’re currently offering an Everything ISO that can be used for usb based installation if desired. This iso is currently too large for standard DVD media, and so is best used via usb media.

Many updated packages, including core packages likebzip2, dbus, grub2, libaio, and more.

Download
=======The full (unsigned) install tree is available at http://buildlogs.CentOS.org/CentOS/7/os/aarch64/

Everything-ISO is available at http://buildlogs.CentOS.org/CentOS/7/isos/aarch64/CentOS-7-aarch64-Everything-beta.iso

Installation
===========Installation guides and documentation will be provided via the CentOS
wiki, at http://wiki.CentOS.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/AArch64

Update procedures for existing installations
===========================================Because the kernel version has been rolled back from 4.x to 3.19, you will need to take some additional steps to update.

1. yum -y update
2. yum distro-sync # This will roll back the installed kernel packages
3. yum remove kernel-core kernel-modules # cleans up kernel leftovers.
4. reboot to new kernel

===========Contributing

The AArch64 effort is meant to be a community effort as part of the AltArch SIG (http://wiki.CentOS.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch), and we welcome enthusiasts and vendors to contribute patches, fixes, documentation, etc. In the AArch64 Extras repository, we have provided the mock package and dependencies so that community members can more easily contribute, as well as testing their own builds locally. Please submit patches, fixes, etc to the Arm-Dev list
(http://lists.CentOS.org/mailman/listinfo/arm-dev) for discussion and acceptance.

We encourage vendors to come and join this effort, we have a loose organization focused on the alternative architectures build process and welcome interaction at the group level. Please get in touch with me
(jperrin@CentOS.org) or K Singh ( kbsingh@CentOS.org ) to find out more details.

The wider CentOS Ecosystem is also welcome to engage with us, both at the project and code level. If you are working with a project that interfaces, manages or develops on top of CentOS, specially in the virtualization, cloud, container and infrastructure management areas –
we would love to have you guys get involved. While we don’t have a lot of resources, we are working with a few vendors to build up a community resource pool that we would encourage other projects to share their development, testing and delivery around CentOS Linux for aarch64.