rpi2-gen-image

Introduction

rpi2-gen-image.sh is an advanced Debian Linux bootstrapping shell script for generating Debian OS images for the Raspberry 2 (RPi2) computer. The script at this time only supports the bootstrapping of the current stable Debian 8 "jessie" release.

Build dependencies

The following list of Debian packages must be installed on the build system because they are essentially required for the bootstrapping process. The script will check if all required packages are installed and missing packages will be installed automatically if confirmed by the user.

debootstrap debian-archive-keyring qemu-user-static dosfstools rsync bmap-tools whois git-core

Command-line parameters

The script accepts certain command-line parameters to enable or disable specific OS features, services and configuration settings. These parameters are passed to the rpi2-gen-image.sh script via (simple) shell-variables. Unlike environment shell-variables (simple) shell-variables are defined at the beginning of the command-line call of the rpi2-gen-image.sh script.

Command-line examples:

ENABLE_UBOOT=true ./rpi2-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_CONSOLE=false ENABLE_IPV6=false ./rpi2-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_WM=xfce4 ENABLE_FBTURBO=true ENABLE_MINBASE=true ./rpi2-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_HARDNET=true ENABLE_IPTABLES=true /rpi2-gen-image.sh
APT_SERVER=ftp.de.debian.org APT_PROXY="http://127.0.0.1:3142/" ./rpi2-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_MINBASE=true ./rpi2-gen-image.sh
BUILD_KERNEL=true ENABLE_MINBASE=true ENABLE_IPV6=false ./rpi2-gen-image.sh

APT settings:

APT_SERVER="ftp.debian.org"

Set Debian packages server address. Choose a server from the list of Debian worldwide mirror sites. Using a nearby server will probably speed-up all required downloads within the bootstrapping process.

APT_PROXY=""

Set Proxy server address. Using a local Proxy-Cache like apt-cacher-ng will speed-up the bootstrapping process because all required Debian packages will only be downloaded from the Debian mirror site once.

APT_INCLUDES=""

A comma seperated list of additional packages to be installed during bootstrapping.

General system settings:

HOSTNAME="rpi2-jessie"

Set system host name. It's recommended that the host name is unique in the corresponding subnet.

PASSWORD="raspberry"

Set system root password. The same password is used for the created user pi. It's STRONGLY recommended that you choose a custom password.

DEFLOCAL="en_US.UTF-8"

Set default system locale. This setting can also be changed inside the running OS using the dpkg-reconfigure locales command. The script variant minbase (ENABLE_MINBASE=true) doesn't install locales.

TIMEZONE="Europe/Berlin"

Set default system timezone. All available timezones can be found in the /usr/share/zoneinfo/ directory. This setting can also be changed inside the running OS using the dpkg-reconfigure tzdata command.

EXPANDROOT=true

Expand the root partition and filesystem automatically on first boot.

Keyboard settings:

These options are used to configure keyboard layout in /etc/default/keyboard for console and Xorg. These settings can also be changed inside the running OS using the dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration command.

XKB_MODEL=""

Set the name of the model of your keyboard type.

XKB_LAYOUT=""

Set the supported keyboard layout(s).

XKB_VARIANT=""

Set the supported variant(s) of the keyboard layout(s).

XKB_OPTIONS=""

Set extra xkb configuration options.

Networking settings (DHCP):

This setting is used to set up networking auto configuration in /etc/systemd/network/eth.network.

ENABLE_DHCP=true

Set the system to use DHCP. This requires an DHCP server.

Networking settings (static):

These settings are used to set up a static networking configuration in /etc/systemd/network/eth.network. The following static networking settings are only supported if ENABLE_DHCP was set to false.

NET_ADDRESS=""

Set a static IPv4 or IPv6 address and its prefix, separated by "/", eg. "192.169.0.3/24".

NET_GATEWAY=""

Set the IP address for the default gateway.

NET_DNS_1=""

Set the IP address for the first DNS server.

NET_DNS_2=""

Set the IP address for the second DNS server.

NET_DNS_DOMAINS=""

Set the default DNS search domains to use for non fully qualified host names.

NET_NTP_1=""

Set the IP address for the first NTP server.

NET_NTP_2=""

Set the IP address for the second NTP server.

Basic system features:

ENABLE_CONSOLE=true

Enable serial console interface. Recommended if no monitor or keyboard is connected to the RPi2. In case of problems fe. if the network (auto) configuration failed - the serial console can be used to access the system.

ENABLE_IPV6=true

Enable IPv6 support. The network interface configuration is managed via systemd-networkd.

ENABLE_SSHD=true

Install and enable OpenSSH service. The default configuration of the service doesn't allow root to login. Please use the user pi instead and su - or sudo to execute commands as root.

ENABLE_RSYSLOG=true

If set to false, disable and uninstall rsyslog (so logs will be available only in journal files)

ENABLE_SOUND=true

Enable sound hardware and install Advanced Linux Sound Architecture.

ENABLE_HWRANDOM=true

Enable Hardware Random Number Generator. Strong random numbers are important for most network based communications that use encryption. It's recommended to be enabled.

ENABLE_MINGPU=false

Minimize the amount of shared memory reserved for the GPU. It doesn't seem to be possible to fully disable the GPU.

ENABLE_DBUS=true

Install and enable D-Bus message bus. Please note that systemd should work without D-bus but it's recommended to be enabled.

ENABLE_XORG=false

Install Xorg open-source X Window System.

ENABLE_WM=""

Install a user defined window manager for the X Window System. To make sure all X related package dependencies are getting installed ENABLE_XORG will automatically get enabled if ENABLE_WM is used. The rpi2-gen-image.sh script has been tested with the following list of window managers: blackbox, openbox, fluxbox, jwm, dwm, xfce4, awesome.

Advanced system features:

ENABLE_MINBASE=false

Use debootstrap script variant minbase which only includes essential packages and apt. This will reduce the disk usage by about 65 MB.

ENABLE_UBOOT=false

Replace default RPi2 second stage bootloader (bootcode.bin) with U-Boot bootloader. U-Boot can boot images via the network using the BOOTP/TFTP protocol.

ENABLE_FBTURBO=false

Install and enable the hardware accelerated Xorg video driver fbturbo. Please note that this driver is currently limited to hardware accelerated window moving and scrolling.

ENABLE_IPTABLES=false

Enable iptables IPv4/IPv6 firewall. Simplified ruleset: Allow all outgoing connections. Block all incoming connections except to OpenSSH service.

ENABLE_USER=true

Create pi user with password raspberry

ENABLE_ROOT=true

Set root user password so root login will be enabled

ENABLE_ROOT_SSH=true

Enable password root login via SSH. May be a security risk with default password, use only in trusted environments.

ENABLE_HARDNET=false

Enable IPv4/IPv6 network stack hardening settings.

ENABLE_SPLITFS=false

Enable having root partition on an USB drive by creating two image files: one for the /boot/firmware mount point, and another for /.

CHROOT_SCRIPTS=""

Path to a directory with scripts that should be run in the chroot before the image is finally built. Every executable file in this direcory is run in lexicographical order.

Kernel compilation:

BUILD_KERNEL=false

Build and install the latest RPi2 linux kernel. Currently only the default RPi2 kernel configuration is used. Detailed configuration parameters for customizing the kernel and minor bug fixes still need to get implemented. feel free to help.

KERNEL_THREADS=1

Number of parallel kernel building threads. If the parameter is left untouched the script will automatically determine the number of CPU cores to set the number of parallel threads to speed the kernel compilation.

KERNEL_HEADERS=true

Install kernel headers with built kernel.

KERNEL_MENUCONFIG=false

Start make menuconfig interactive menu-driven kernel configuration. The script will continue after make menuconfig was terminated.

KERNEL_RMSRC=true

Remove all kernel sources from the generated OS image after building.

Understanding the script

The functions of this script that are required for the different stages of the bootstrapping are split up into single files located inside the bootstrap.d directory. During the bootstrapping every script in this directory gets executed in lexicographical order:

All the required configuration files that will be copied to the generated OS image are located inside the files directory. It is not recommended to modify these configuration files manually.

Logging of the bootstrapping process

All information related to the bootstrapping process and the commands executed by the rpi2-gen-image.sh script can easily be saved into a logfile. The common shell command script can be used for this purpose:

script -c 'APT_SERVER=ftp.de.debian.org ./rpi2-gen-image.sh' ./build.log

Flashing the image file

After the image file was successfully created by the rpi2-gen-image.sh script it can be copied to the microSD card that will be used by the RPi2 computer. This can be performed by using the tools bmaptool or dd. Using bmaptool will probably speed-up the copy process because bmaptool copies more wisely than dd.

Flashing examples:

bmaptool copy ./images/jessie/2015-12-13-debian-jessie.img /dev/mmcblk0
dd bs=4M if=./images/jessie/2015-12-13-debian-jessie.img of=/dev/mmcblk0

If you have set ENABLE_SPLITFS, copy the -frmw image on the microSD card, then the -root one on the USB drive:

bmaptool copy ./images/jessie/2015-12-13-debian-jessie-frmw.img /dev/mmcblk0
bmaptool copy ./images/jessie/2015-12-13-debian-jessie-root.img /dev/sdc