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rpi23-gen-image

Introduction

rpi23-gen-image.sh is an advanced Debian Linux bootstrapping shell script for generating Debian OS images for all Raspberry Pi computers. The script at this time supports the bootstrapping of the Debian (armhf/armel) releases stretch and buster. Raspberry Pi 0/1/2/3/4 images are generated for 32-bit mode only. Raspberry Pi 3 supports 64-bit images that can be generated using custom configuration parameters (templates/rpi3-stretch-arm64-4.14.y).

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 binfmt-support dosfstools rsync bmap-tools whois git bc psmisc dbus sudo

It is recommended to configure the rpi23-gen-image.sh script to build and install the latest Raspberry Pi Linux kernel. For the Raspberry 3 this is mandatory. Kernel compilation and linking will be performed on the build system using an ARM (armhf/armel/aarch64) cross-compiler toolchain.

The script has been tested using the default crossbuild-essential-armhf and crossbuild-essential-armel toolchain meta packages on Debian Linux stretch build systems. Please check the Debian CrossToolchains Wiki for further information.

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 rpi23-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 rpi23-gen-image.sh script.

Command-line examples:
ENABLE_UBOOT=true ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_CONSOLE=false ENABLE_IPV6=false ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_WM=xfce4 ENABLE_FBTURBO=true ENABLE_MINBASE=true ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_HARDNET=true ENABLE_IPTABLES=true /rpi23-gen-image.sh
APT_SERVER=ftp.de.debian.org APT_PROXY="http://127.0.0.1:3142/" ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_MINBASE=true ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
BUILD_KERNEL=true ENABLE_MINBASE=true ENABLE_IPV6=false ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
BUILD_KERNEL=true KERNELSRC_DIR=/tmp/linux ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_MINBASE=true ENABLE_REDUCE=true ENABLE_MINGPU=true BUILD_KERNEL=true ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
ENABLE_CRYPTFS=true CRYPTFS_PASSWORD=changeme EXPANDROOT=false ENABLE_MINBASE=true ENABLE_REDUCE=true ENABLE_MINGPU=true BUILD_KERNEL=true ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
RELEASE=buster BUILD_KERNEL=true ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
RPI_MODEL=3 ENABLE_WIRELESS=true ENABLE_MINBASE=true BUILD_KERNEL=true ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
RELEASE=buster RPI_MODEL=3 ENABLE_WIRELESS=true ENABLE_MINBASE=true BUILD_KERNEL=true ./rpi23-gen-image.sh

Configuration template files

To avoid long lists of command-line parameters and to help to store the favourite parameter configurations the rpi23-gen-image.sh script supports so called configuration template files (CONFIG_TEMPLATE=template). These are simple text files located in the ./templates directory that contain the list of configuration parameters that will be used. New configuration template files can be added to the ./templates directory.

Command-line examples:
CONFIG_TEMPLATE=rpi3stretch ./rpi23-gen-image.sh
CONFIG_TEMPLATE=rpi2stretch ./rpi23-gen-image.sh

Working with the your template:

  • A Pipe ("|") represents a logical OR
  • A valuetype of boolean represents the options true or false
  • Values without a default are required if you want do use that feature. It is possible that not every feature has a (working) sanity check.
  • If it's not working as expected, search your option in all the files in this repository (With e.g.grep or notepad++).
  • Check if your missing a required option while looking at the code

Supported parameters and settings

APT settings:

Option Value default value value format desciption
APT_SERVER string ftp.debian.org URL 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 string URL 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. If apt-cacher-ng is running on default http://127.0.0.1:3142 it is autodetected and you don't need to set this.
KEEP_APT_PROXY boolean false true|false true=Keep the APT_PROXY settings used in the bootsrapping process in the generated image
APT_INCLUDES string list packageA,packageB,... A comma-separated list of additional packages to be installed by debootstrap during bootstrapping.
APT_INCLUDES_LATE string list packageA,packageB,... A comma-separated list of additional packages to be installed by apt after bootstrapping and after APT sources are set up. This is useful for packages with pre-depends, which debootstrap do not handle well.
APT_EXCLUDES string list packageA,packageB,... A comma-separated list of packages to exclude. Use carefully

General system settings:

Option Value default value value format desciption
SET_ARCH integer 32 32|64 Set Architecture to default 32bit. If you want to compile 64-bit (RPI3/RPI3+/RPI4) set it to 64. This option will set every needed cross-compiler or board specific option for a successful build.
RPI_MODEL string 3P 0|1|1P|2|3|3P|4 Set Architecture. This option will set most build options accordingly. Specify the target Raspberry Pi hardware model.
RELEASE string buster jessie|buster|stretch
|bullseye|testing|stable
|oldstable
Set the desired Debian release name. The script at this time supports the bootstrapping of the Debian releases stretch and buster.
HOSTNAME string RPI_MODEL-RELEASE(e.g. RPI3-buster) SomeImageName.img Set system hostname. It's recommended that the hostname is unique in the corresponding subnet.
DEFLOCAL string en_US.UTF-8 Locale.Charset Set default system locale. This setting can also be changed inside the running OS using the dpkg-reconfigure locales command. Please note that on using this parameter the script will automatically install the required packages locales, keyboard-configuration and console-setup.
TIMEZONE string Europe/Berlin Timezone 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 boolean true true|false true=Expand the root partition and filesystem automatically on first boot

User settings:

Option Value default value desciption
ENABLE_ROOT boolean false true=root login if ROOT_PASSWORD is set
ROOT_PASSWORD string raspberry Set password for root user. It's STRONGLY recommended that you choose a custom password.
ENABLE_USER boolean true true=Create non-root user with password USER_PASSWORD and username USER_NAME
USER_NAME string pi Set username for non-root user, if ENABLE_USER is true
USER_PASSWORD string raspberry Set password for non-root user, if ENABLE_USER is true. It's STRONGLY recommended that you choose a custom password.

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.

Option Value default value value format desciption
XKB_MODEL string pc104 Set the name of the model of your keyboard type
XKB_LAYOUT string us Set the supported keyboard layout(s)
XKB_VARIANT string basic Set the supported variant(s) of the keyboard layout(s)
XKB_OPTIONS string grp:alt_shift_toggle Set extra xkb configuration options

Networking settings:

ethernet setting go to /etc/systemd/network/eth0.network. wifi settings go to /etc/systemd/network/wlan0.network.

The default location of network configuration files in the Debian stretch release was changed to /lib/systemd/network.`

Option Value default value desciption
ENABLE_IPV6 boolean true true=Enable IPv6 support via systemd-networkd
ENABLE_WIRELESS boolean false true=Download and install the closed-source firmware binary blob that is required to run the internal wireless interface of the Raspberry Pi model 3. This parameter is ignored if the specified RPI_MODEL is not 0,3,3P,4
ENABLE_IPTABLES boolean false true=Enable iptables IPv4/IPv6 firewall. Simplified ruleset: Allow all outgoing connections. Block all incoming connections except to OpenSSH service.
ENABLE_HARDNET boolean false true=Enable IPv4/IPv6 network stack hardening settings
ENABLE_IFNAMES boolean true true=creates complex and long interface names like e.g. encx8945924. Enable automatic assignment of predictable, stable network interface names for all NICs

Networking settings (DHCP):

Option Value default value desciption
ENABLE_ETH_DHCP boolean true Set the system to use DHCP on wired interface. This requires an DHCP server
ENABLE_WIFI_DHCP boolean true Set the system to use DHCP on wifi interface. This requires an DHCP server. Requires ENABLE_WIRELESS

Networking settings (ethernet static):

The following static networking parameters are only supported if ENABLE_ETH_DHCP was set to false.

Option Value value format desciption
NET_ETH_ADDRESS string CIDR static IPv4 or IPv6 address and its prefix, separated by "/", eg. "192.169.0.3/24"
NET_ETH_GATEWAY string IP default gateway
NET_ETH_DNS_1 string IP first DNS server
NET_ETH_DNS_2 string IP second DNS server
NET_ETH_DNS_DOMAINS string example.local default DNS search domains to use for non fully qualified hostnames
NET_ETH_NTP_1 string IP first NTP server
NET_ETH_NTP_2 string IP second NTP server

Networking settings (WIFI):

Option Value value format desciption
NET_WIFI_SSID string yourwifiname WIFI SSID
NET_WIFI_PSK string yourwifikeytojoinnetwork WPA/WPA2 PSK

Networking settings (WIFI static):

The following static networking parameters are only supported if ENABLE_WIFI_DHCP was set to false.

Option Value value format desciption
NET_WIFI_ADDRESS string CIDR static IPv4 or IPv6 address and its prefix, separated by "/", eg. "192.169.0.3/24"
NET_WIFI_GATEWAY string IP default gateway
NET_WIFI_DNS_1 string IP first DNS server
NET_WIFI_DNS_2 string IP second DNS server
NET_WIFI_DNS_DOMAINS string example.local default DNS search domains to use for non fully qualified hostnames
NET_WIFI_NTP_1 string IP first NTP server
NET_WIFI_NTP_2 string IP second NTP server

Basic system features:

Option Value default value value format desciption
ENABLE_CONSOLE boolean false true|false true=Enable serial console interface.Recommended if no monitor or keyboard is connected to the RPi2/3. In case of problems fe. if the network (auto) configuration failed - the serial console can be used to access the system. On RPI 0 3 3P the CPU speed is locked at lowest speed.
ENABLE_PRINTK boolean false true|false true=Enables printing kernel messages to konsole. printk is 3 4 1 3 as in raspbian
ENABLE_BLUETOOTH boolean false true|false true=Enable onboard Bluetooth interface on the RPi0/3/3P. See: Configuring the GPIO serial port on Raspbian jessie and stretch
ENABLE_MINIUART_OVERLAY boolean false true|false true=Enable Bluetooth to use this. Adds overlay to swap UART0 with UART1. Enabling (slower) Bluetooth and full speed serial console. - RPI 0 3 3P have a fast hardware UART0 (ttyAMA0) and a mini UART1 (ttyS0)! RPI 1 1P 2 only have a hardware UART0. UART0 is considered better, because is faster and more stable than mini UART1. By default the Bluetooth modem is mapped to the hardware UART0 and mini UART is used for console. The mini UART is a problem for the serial console, because its baudrate depends on the CPU frequency, which is changing on runtime. Resulting in a volatile baudrate and thus in an unusable serial console.
ENABLE_TURBO boolean false true|false true=Enable Turbo mode. This setting locks cpu at the highest frequency. As setting ENABLE_CONSOLE=true locks RPI to lowest CPU speed, this is can be used additionally to lock cpu hat max speed. Need a good power supply and probably cooling for the Raspberry PI
ENABLE_I2C boolean true true|false true=Enable I2C interface on the RPi 0/1/2/3. Please check the RPi 0/1/2/3 pinout diagrams to connect the right GPIO pins
ENABLE_SPI boolean true true|false true=Enable SPI interface on the RPi 0/1/2/3. Please check the RPi 0/1/2/3 pinout diagrams to connect the right GPIO pins
SSH_ENABLE boolean true true|false 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_NONFREE boolean false true|false true=enable non-free|false=disable non free. Edits /etc/apt/sources.list in your resulting image
ENABLE_RSYSLOG boolean false true|false true=keep rsyslog|false=remove rsyslog. If rsyslog is removed (false), logs will be available only in journal files)
ENABLE_SOUND boolean false true|false true=Enable sound|false=Disable sound
ENABLE_HWRANDOM boolean true true|false true=Enable Hardware Random Number Generator(RNG)|false=Disable Hardware RNG|Strong random numbers are important for most network-based communications that use encryption. It's recommended to be enabled
ENABLE_MINGPU boolean false true|false true=GPU 16MB RAM|false=64MB RAM|Minimize the amount of shared memory reserved for the GPU. It doesn't seem to be possible to fully disable the GPU. Also removes start.elf,fixup.dat,start_x.elf,fixup_x.dat form /boot
ENABLE_XORG boolean false true|false true=Install Xorg X Window System
ENABLE_WM string blackbox, openbox, fluxbox,
jwm, dwm, xfce4, awesome
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 set true if ENABLE_WM is used
ENABLE_SYSVINIT boolean false true|false true=Support for halt,init,poweroff,reboot,runlevel,shutdown,init commands|false=use systemd commands
ENABLE_SPLASH boolean true true|false true=Enable default Raspberry Pi boot up rainbow splash screen
ENABLE_LOGO boolean true true|false true=Enable default Raspberry Pi console logo (image of four raspberries in the top left corner)
ENABLE_SILENT_BOOT boolean false true|false true=Set the verbosity of console messages shown during boot up to a strict minimum
DISABLE_UNDERVOLT_WARNINGS integer 1|2 Unset to keep default behaviour. Setting the parameter to 1 will disable the warning overlay. Setting it to 2 will additionally allow RPi2/3 turbo mode when low-voltage is present

Advanced system features:

Option Value default value value format desciption
ENABLE_DPHYSSWAP boolean true true|false Enable swap. The size of the swapfile is chosen relative to the size of the root partition. It'll use the dphys-swapfile package for that
ENABLE_SYSTEMDSWAP boolean false true|false Enables Systemd-swap service. Usefull if KERNEL_ZSWAP is enabled
ENABLE_QEMU boolean false true|false Generate kernel (vexpress_defconfig), file system image (qcow2) and DTB files that can be used for QEMU full system emulation (vexpress-A15). The output files are stored in the $(pwd)/images/qemu directory. You can find more information about running the generated image in the QEMU section of this readme file
QEMU_BINARY string FullPathToQemuBinaryFile Sets the QEMU enviornment for the Debian archive. Set by RPI_MODEL
ENABLE_KEYGEN boolean false true|false Recover your lost codec license
ENABLE_MINBASE boolean false true|false Use debootstrap script variant minbase which only includes essential packages and apt. This will reduce the disk usage by about 65 MB
ENABLE_SPLITFS boolean false true|false Enable having root partition on an USB drive by creating two image files: one for the /boot/firmware mount point, and another for /
ENABLE_INITRAMFS boolean false true|false Create an initramfs that that will be loaded during the Linux startup process. ENABLE_INITRAMFS will automatically get enabled if ENABLE_CRYPTFS=true. This parameter will be ignored if BUILD_KERNEL=false
ENABLE_DBUS boolean true true|false Install and enable D-Bus message bus. Please note that systemd should work without D-bus but it's recommended to be enabled
ENABLE_USBBOOT boolean false true|false true=prepare image for usbboot. use with ENABLE_SPLTFS=true
CHROOT_SCRIPTS string FullPathToScriptFolder Full path to a directory with scripts that should be run in the chroot before the image is finally built. Every executable file in this directory is run in lexicographical order
ENABLE_UBOOT boolean false true|false Replace the default RPi 0/1/2/3 second stage bootloader (bootcode.bin) with U-Boot bootloader. U-Boot can boot images via the network using the BOOTP/TFTP protocol. RPI4 needs tbd
UBOOTSRC_DIR string FullPathToUBootFolder Full path to a directory named u-boot of U-Boot bootloader sources that will be copied, configured, build and installed inside the chroot
ENABLE_FBTURBO boolean false true|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_GR_ACCEL boolean false true|false Install and enable one of the 3D graphics accelerators for Raspi4 vc4-fkms-v3d. Not compatible with fbturbo mutually excluded and installed for Raspberry4 only
FBTURBOSRC_DIR string FullPathToFbTurboFolder Full path to a directory named xf86-video-fbturbo of hardware accelerated Xorg video driver sources that will be copied, configured, build and installed inside the chroot
ENABLE_VIDEOCORE boolean false true|false Install and enable the ARM side libraries for interfacing to Raspberry Pi GPU vcgencmd. Please note that this driver is currently limited to hardware accelerated window moving and scrolling
VIDEOCORESRC_DIR string FullPathToVideoSrcFolder Full path to a directory named userland of ARM side libraries for interfacing to Raspberry Pi GPU that will be copied, configured, build and installed inside the chroot
ENABLE_NEXMON boolean false true|false Install and enable the source code for a C-based firmware patching framework for Broadcom/Cypress WiFi chips that enables you to write your own firmware patches, for example, to enable monitor mode with radiotap headers and frame injection](https://github.com/seemoo-lab/nexmon.git)
NEXMONSRC_DIR string FullPathToNexmonFolder Full path to a directory named nexmon of Source code for ARM side libraries for interfacing to Raspberry Pi GPU that will be copied, configured, build and installed inside the chroot

SSH settings:

Option Value default value value format desciption
SSH_ENABLE_ROOT boolean false true|false Enable password-based root login via SSH. This may be a security risk with the default password set, use only in trusted environments. ENABLE_ROOT must be set to true
SSH_DISABLE_PASSWORD_AUTH boolean false true|false Disable password-based SSH authentication. Only public key based SSH (v2) authentication will be supported
SSH_LIMIT_USERS boolean false true|false Limit the users that are allowed to login via SSH. Only allow user USER_NAME=pi and root if SSH_ENABLE_ROOT=true to login. This parameter will be ignored if dropbear SSH is used (REDUCE_SSHD=true)
SSH_ROOT_PUB_KEY string PathToYourROOT
RSAPublicKeyFile
Full path to file. Add SSH (v2) public key(s) from specified file to authorized_keys file to enable public key based SSH (v2) authentication of user root. The specified file can also contain multiple SSH (v2) public keys. SSH protocol version 1 is not supported. ENABLE_ROOT and SSH_ENABLE_ROOT must be set to true
SSH_USER_PUB_KEY string PathToYourUSER
RSAPublicKeyFile
Full path to file. Add SSH (v2) public key(s) from specified file to authorized_keys file to enable public key based SSH (v2) authentication of user USER_NAME=pi. The specified file can also contain multiple SSH (v2) public keys. SSH protocol version 1 is not supported

Kernel settings:

Option Value default value value format desciption
BUILD_KERNEL true true|false Build and install the latest RPi 0/1/2/3/4 Linux kernel. The default RPi 0/1/2/3/ kernel configuration is used most of the time. ENABLE_NEXMON - Changes Kernel Source to [https://github.com/Re4son/](Kali Linux Kernel) Precompiled 32bit kernel for RPI0/1/2/3 by https://github.com/hypriot/ Precompiled 64bit kernel for RPI3/4 by https://github.com/sakaki-/
CROSS_COMPILE string This sets the cross-compile environment for the compiler. Set by RPI_MODEL
KERNEL_ARCH string This sets the kernel architecture for the compiler. Set by RPI_MODEL
KERNEL_IMAGE string Name of the image file in the boot partition. Set by RPI_MODEL
KERNEL_BRANCH string Name of the requested branch from the GIT location for the RPi Kernel. Default is using the current default branch from the GIT site
KERNEL_DEFCONFIG string Sets the default config for kernel compiling. Set by RPI_MODEL
KERNEL_THREADS integer 1 1|2|3|... Number of threads to build the kernel. If not set, the script will automatically determine the maximum number of CPU cores to speed up kernel compilation
KERNEL_HEADERS boolean true true|false Install kernel headers with the built kernel
KERNEL_MENUCONFIG boolean false true|false Start make menuconfig interactive menu-driven kernel configuration. The script will continue after make menuconfig was terminated
KERNEL_OLDDEFCONFIG boolean false true|false Run make olddefconfig to automatically set all new kernel configuration options to their recommended default values
KERNEL_CCACHE boolean false true|false Compile the kernel using ccache. This speeds up kernel recompilation by caching previous compilations and detecting when the same compilation is being done again
KERNEL_REMOVESRC boolean true true|false Remove all kernel sources from the generated OS image after it was built and installed
KERNELSRC_DIR string FullPathToKernelSrcDir Full path to a directory named linux of RaspberryPi Linux kernel sources that will be copied, configured, build and installed inside the chroot
KERNELSRC_CLEAN boolean false true|false Clean the existing kernel sources directory KERNELSRC_DIR (using make mrproper) after it was copied to the chroot and before the compilation of the kernel has started. This parameter will be ignored if no KERNELSRC_DIR was specified or if KERNELSRC_PREBUILT=true
KERNELSRC_CONFIG boolean true true|false true=enable custom kernel options. This parameter is automatically set to true if no existing kernel sources directory was specified using KERNELSRC_DIR. This parameter is ignored if KERNELSRC_PREBUILT=true
KERNELSRC_USRCONFIG string FullPathToUserKernel.config Copy own config file to kernel .config. If KERNEL_MENUCONFIG=true then running after copy
KERNELSRC_PREBUILT boolean false true|false With this parameter set to true the script expects the existing kernel sources directory to be already successfully cross-compiled. The parameters KERNELSRC_CLEAN, KERNELSRC_CONFIG, KERNELSRC_USRCONFIG and KERNEL_MENUCONFIG are ignored and no kernel compilation tasks are performed
RPI_FIRMWARE_DIR string FullPathToFolder Full path to a directory named firmware, containing a local copy of the firmware from the RaspberryPi firmware project. Default is to download the latest firmware directly from the project
KERNEL_DEFAULT_GOV string ondemand performance|powersave
|userspace|ondemand
|conservative|schedutil
Set the default cpu governor at kernel compilation
KERNEL_NF boolean false true|false Enable Netfilter modules as kernel modules. You want that for iptables
KERNEL_VIRT boolean false true|false Enable Kernel KVM support (/dev/kvm)
KERNEL_ZSWAP boolean false true|false Enable Kernel Zswap support. Best use on high RAM load and mediocre CPU load usecases
KERNEL_BPF boolean true true|false Allow attaching eBPF programs to a cgroup using the bpf syscall (CONFIG_BPF_SYSCALL CONFIG_CGROUP_BPF) [systemd wants it - File /lib/systemd/system/systemd-journald.server:36 configures an IP firewall (IPAddressDeny=all), but the local system does not support BPF/cgroup based firewalls]
KERNEL_SECURITY boolean false true|false Enables Apparmor, integrity subsystem, auditing
KERNEL_BTRFS boolean false true|false enable btrfs kernel support
KERNEL_POEHAT boolean false true|false enable Enable RPI POE HAT fan kernel support
KERNEL_NSPAWN boolean false true|false Enable per-interface network priority control - for systemd-nspawn
KERNEL_DHKEY boolean true true|false Diffie-Hellman operations on retained keys - required for >keyutils-1.6

Reduce disk usage:

The following list of parameters is ignored if ENABLE_REDUCE=false.

Option Value default value value format desciption
ENABLE_REDUCE boolean false true|false Reduce the disk space usage by deleting packages and files. See REDUCE_* parameters for detailed information
REDUCE_APT boolean true true|false Configure APT to use compressed package repository lists and no package caching files
REDUCE_DOC boolean false true|false Remove all doc files (harsh). Configure APT to not include doc files on future apt-get package installations
REDUCE_MAN boolean false true|false Remove all man pages and info files (harsh). Configure APT to not include man pages on future apt-get package installations
REDUCE_VIM boolean false true|false Replace vim-tiny package by levee a tiny vim clone
REDUCE_BASH boolean false true|false Remove bash package and switch to dash shell (experimental)
REDUCE_HWDB boolean false true|false Remove PCI related hwdb files (experimental)
REDUCE_SSHD boolean false true|false Replace openssh-server with dropbear
REDUCE_LOCALE boolean false true|false Remove all locale translation files
REDUCE_KERNEL boolean false true|false Reduce the size of the generated kernel by removing unwanted devices, network and filesystem drivers (experimental)

Encrypted root partition:

On first boot, you will be asked to enter you password several time

See cryptsetup options for a more information about opttion values(https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Device_encryption)

Option Value default value value format desciption
ENABLE_CRYPTFS boolean false true|false Enable full system encryption with dm-crypt. Setup a fully LUKS encrypted root partition (aes-xts-plain64:sha512) and generate required initramfs. The /boot directory will not be encrypted. This parameter will be ignored if BUILD_KERNEL=false. ENABLE_CRYPTFS is experimental
CRYPTFS_PASSWORD string YourPasswordToUnlockCrypto Set password of the encrypted root partition. This parameter is mandatory if ENABLE_CRYPTFS=true
CRYPTFS_MAPPING string secure YourDevMNapperName crypsetup device-mapper name
CRYPTFS_CIPHER string aes-xts-plain64 aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 cryptsetup cipher aes-xts* ciphers are strongly recommended
CRYPTFS_HASH string sha256 sha256|sha512 cryptsetup hash algorithm
CRYPTFS_XTSKEYSIZE integer 256 256|512
CRYPTFS_DROPBEAR boolean false true|false true=Enable Dropbear Initramfs support|false=disable dropbear
CRYPTFS_DROPBEAR_PUBKEY string PathToYourPublicDropbearKeyFile Full path to dropbear Public RSA-OpenSSH Key

Build settings:

Option Value default value value format desciption
BASEDIR string FullPathToScriptRootDir If unset start from scriptroot or set to Full path to rpi123-gen-image directory
IMAGE_NAME string YourImageName if unset creates a name after this template: rpiRPI_MODEL-RELEASE-RELEASE_ARCH

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:

Script Description
10-bootstrap.sh Debootstrap basic system
11-apt.sh Setup APT repositories
12-locale.sh Setup Locales and keyboard settings
13-kernel.sh Build and install RPi 0/1/2/3 Kernel
14-fstab.sh Setup fstab and initramfs
15-rpi-config.sh Setup RPi 0/1/2/3 config and cmdline
20-networking.sh Setup Networking
21-firewall.sh Setup Firewall
30-security.sh Setup Users and Security settings
31-logging.sh Setup Logging
32-sshd.sh Setup SSH and public keys
41-uboot.sh Build and Setup U-Boot
42-fbturbo.sh Build and Setup fbturbo Xorg driver
43-videocore.sh Build and Setup videocore libraries
50-firstboot.sh First boot actions
99-reduce.sh Reduce the disk space usage

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.

Directory Description
apt APT management configuration files
boot Boot and RPi 0/1/2/3 configuration files
dpkg Package Manager configuration
etc Configuration files and rc scripts
firstboot Scripts that get executed on first boot
initramfs Initramfs scripts
iptables Firewall configuration files
locales Locales configuration
modules Kernel Modules configuration
mount Fstab configuration
network Networking configuration files
sysctl.d Swapping and Network Hardening configuration
xorg fbturbo Xorg driver configuration

Custom packages and scripts

Debian custom packages, i.e. those not in the debian repositories, can be installed by placing them in the packages directory. They are installed immediately after packages from the repositories are installed. Any dependencies listed in the custom packages will be downloaded automatically from the repositories. Do not list these custom packages in APT_INCLUDES.

Scripts in the custom.d directory will be executed after all other installation is complete but before the image is created.

Logging of the bootstrapping process

All information related to the bootstrapping process and the commands executed by the rpi23-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 ./rpi23-gen-image.sh' ./build.log

Flashing the image file

After the image file was successfully created by the rpi23-gen-image.sh script it can be copied to the microSD card that will be used by the RPi 0/1/2/3 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/buster/2017-01-23-rpi3-buster.img /dev/mmcblk0
dd bs=4M if=./images/buster/2017-01-23-rpi3-buster.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/buster/2017-01-23-rpi3-buster-frmw.img /dev/mmcblk0
bmaptool copy ./images/buster/2017-01-23-rpi3-buster-root.img /dev/sdc

QEMU emulation

Start QEMU full system emulation:

qemu-system-arm -m 2048M -M vexpress-a15 -cpu cortex-a15 -kernel kernel7.img -no-reboot -dtb vexpress-v2p-ca15_a7.dtb -sd ${IMAGE_NAME}.qcow2 -append "root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw rootfstype=ext4 console=tty1"

Start QEMU full system emulation and output to console:

qemu-system-arm -m 2048M -M vexpress-a15 -cpu cortex-a15 -kernel kernel7.img -no-reboot -dtb vexpress-v2p-ca15_a7.dtb -sd ${IMAGE_NAME}.qcow2 -append "root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyAMA0,115200 init=/bin/systemd" -serial stdio

Start QEMU full system emulation with SMP and output to console:

qemu-system-arm -m 2048M -M vexpress-a15 -cpu cortex-a15 -smp cpus=2,maxcpus=2 -kernel kernel7.img -no-reboot -dtb vexpress-v2p-ca15_a7.dtb -sd ${IMAGE_NAME}.qcow2 -append "root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyAMA0,115200 init=/bin/systemd" -serial stdio

Start QEMU full system emulation with cryptfs, initramfs and output to console:

qemu-system-arm -m 2048M -M vexpress-a15 -cpu cortex-a15 -kernel kernel7.img -no-reboot -dtb vexpress-v2p-ca15_a7.dtb -sd ${IMAGE_NAME}.qcow2 -initrd "initramfs-${KERNEL_VERSION}" -append "root=/dev/mapper/secure cryptdevice=/dev/mmcblk0p2:secure rw rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyAMA0,115200 init=/bin/systemd" -serial stdio

External links and references