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lighthouse/book/src/installation-binaries.md
Michael Sproul 139b44342f Optimized Docker images (#2966) 
## Issue Addressed

Closes #2938

## Proposed Changes

* Build and publish images with a `-modern` suffix which enable CPU optimizations for modern hardware.
* Add docs for the plethora of available images!
* Unify all the Docker workflows in `docker.yml` (including for tagged releases).

## Additional Info

The `Dockerfile` is no longer used by our Docker Hub builds, as we use `cross` and a generic approach for ARM and x86. There's a new CI job `docker-build-from-source` which tests the `Dockerfile` without publishing anything.
2022-01-31 22:55:03 +00:00

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Pre-built Binaries

Each Lighthouse release contains several downloadable binaries in the "Assets" section of the release. You can find the releases on Github.

Note: binaries are provided for Windows native, but Windows Lighthouse support is still in beta testing.

Platforms

Binaries are supplied for four platforms:

  • x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu: AMD/Intel 64-bit processors (most desktops, laptops, servers)
  • aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu: 64-bit ARM processors (Raspberry Pi 4)
  • x86_64-apple-darwin: macOS with Intel chips
  • x86_64-windows: Windows with 64-bit processors (Beta)

Additionally there is also a -portable suffix which indicates if the portable feature is used:

  • Without portable: uses modern CPU instructions to provide the fastest signature verification times (may cause Illegal instruction error on older CPUs)
  • With portable: approx. 20% slower, but should work on all modern 64-bit processors.

For details, see Portability.

Usage

Each binary is contained in a .tar.gz archive. For this example, lets assume the user needs a portable x86_64 binary.

Steps

  1. Go to the Releases page and select the latest release.
  2. Download the lighthouse-${VERSION}-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-portable.tar.gz binary.
  3. Extract the archive:
    1. cd Downloads
    2. tar -xvf lighthouse-${VERSION}-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
  4. Test the binary with ./lighthouse --version (it should print the version).
  5. (Optional) Move the lighthouse binary to a location in your PATH, so the lighthouse command can be called from anywhere.
    • E.g., cp lighthouse /usr/bin

Windows users will need to execute the commands in Step 3 from PowerShell.

Portability

Portable builds of Lighthouse are designed to run on the widest range of hardware possible, but sacrifice the ability to make use of modern CPU instructions.

If you have a modern CPU then you should try running a non-portable build to get a 20-30% speed up.

  • For x86_64, any CPU supporting the ADX instruction set extension is compatible with the optimized build. This includes Intel Broadwell (2014) and newer, and AMD Ryzen (2017) and newer.
  • For ARMv8, most CPUs are compatible with the optimized build, including the Cortex-A72 used by the Raspberry Pi 4.

Troubleshooting

If you get a SIGILL (exit code 132), then your CPU is incompatible with the optimized build of Lighthouse and you should switch to the -portable build. In this case, you will see a warning like this on start-up:

WARN CPU seems incompatible with optimized Lighthouse build, advice: If you get a SIGILL, please try Lighthouse portable build

On some VPS providers, the virtualization can make it appear as if CPU features are not available, even when they are. In this case you might see the warning above, but so long as the client continues to function it's nothing to worry about.