blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html

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   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</title>
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  14  <h1>
  15      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  16
  17  </h1>
  18
  19 </div>
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</div>
  24       <div class="date">27th October 2013</div>
  25       <div class="body"><p>The
  26 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
  27 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
  28 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
  29 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
  30 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
  31 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
  32 of a plan to simplify the build system for the FreedomBox project.
  33 The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for the virtualbox
  34 images, but its current build system made multistrap based system for
  35 Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for Raspberry Pi.</p>
  36
  37 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
  38 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
  39 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
  40 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
  41 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
  42 <a href=http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html"">Debian
  43 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
  44 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
  45 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
  46 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
  47 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
  48 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
  49 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
  50 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
  51 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
  52 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
  53 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
  54 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
  55 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
  56 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
  57 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
  58 available from
  59 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
  60 upstream project page</a>.</p>
  61
  62 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
  63 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
  64 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
  65 list:</p>
  66
  67 <p><pre>
  68 #!/bin/sh
  69 set -e # Exit on first error
  70 rootdir="$1"
  71 cd "$rootdir"
  72 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
  73 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
  74 EOF
  75 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
  76 # install a kernel somewhere too.
  77 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
  78     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
  79 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
  80 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
  81 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
  82 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
  83 </pre></p>
  84
  85 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
  86 to build the image:</p>
  87
  88 <pre>
  89 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
  90     --variant minbase \
  91     --arch armel \
  92     --distribution jessie \
  93     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
  94     --image test.img \
  95     --size 600M \
  96     --bootsize 64M \
  97     --boottype vfat \
  98     --log-level debug \
  99     --verbose \
 100     --no-kernel \
 101     --no-extlinux \
 102     --root-password raspberry \
 103     --hostname raspberrypi \
 104     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
 105     --customize `pwd`/customize \
 106     --package netbase \
 107     --package git-core \
 108     --package binutils \
 109     --package ca-certificates \
 110     --package wget \
 111     --package kmod
 112 </pre></p>
 113
 114 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
 115 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
 116 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
 117 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
 118 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
 119 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
 120 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
 121
 122 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
 123 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
 124 build dependency list.</p>
 125
 126 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
 127 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
 128 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
 129 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
 130 </div>
 131
 132       <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.</div>
 133
 134
 135     </div>
 136
 137
 138
 139
 140     <div id="sidebar">
 141
 142
 143
 144 <h2>Archive</h2>
 145 <ul>
 146
 147 <li>2013
 148 <ul>
 149
 150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 151
 152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
 153
 154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
 155
 156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
 157
 158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 159
 160 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
 161
 162 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 163
 164 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 165
 166 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 167
 168 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
 169
 170 </ul></li>
 171
 172 <li>2012
 173 <ul>
 174
 175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 176
 177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 178
 179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 180
 181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 182
 183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 184
 185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 186
 187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 188
 189 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 190
 191 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 192
 193 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 194
 195 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 196
 197 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 198
 199 </ul></li>
 200
 201 <li>2011
 202 <ul>
 203
 204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 205
 206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 207
 208 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 209
 210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 211
 212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 213
 214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 215
 216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 217
 218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 219
 220 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 221
 222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 223
 224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 225
 226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 227
 228 </ul></li>
 229
 230 <li>2010
 231 <ul>
 232
 233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 234
 235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 236
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 239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
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 244
 245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 246
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 248
 249 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 250
 251 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 252
 253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 254
 255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 256
 257 </ul></li>
 258
 259 <li>2009
 260 <ul>
 261
 262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 263
 264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 265
 266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 267
 268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 269
 270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
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 272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
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 274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 275
 276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 277
 278 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 279
 280 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 281
 282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 283
 284 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 285
 286 </ul></li>
 287
 288 <li>2008
 289 <ul>
 290
 291 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 292
 293 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 294
 295 </ul></li>
 296
 297 </ul>
 298
 299
 300
 301 <h2>Tags</h2>
 302 <ul>
 303
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 315
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 317
 318  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (88)</a></li>
 319
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 321
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 326  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
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 330  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
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 332  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 333
 334  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (12)</a></li>
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 336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (5)</a></li>
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 338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
 339
 340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (37)</a></li>
 341
 342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (7)</a></li>
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 344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
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 346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
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 348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
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 350  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 351
 352  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (3)</a></li>
 353
 354  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
 355
 356  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (236)</a></li>
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 358  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (156)</a></li>
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 360  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
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 362  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 363
 364  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (45)</a></li>
 365
 366  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (67)</a></li>
 367
 368  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
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 370  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
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 372  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
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 384  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
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 386  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
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 388  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
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 396  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
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 398  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
 399
 400  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (39)</a></li>
 401
 402  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 403
 404  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (28)</a></li>
 405
 406 </ul>
 407
 408
 409     </div>
 410     <p style="text-align: right">
 411  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
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