1 .\" Copyright 2011 Lars Wirzenius <liw@liw.fi>
3 .\" This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
4 .\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
5 .\" the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
6 .\" (at your option) any later version.
8 .\" This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
9 .\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
10 .\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
11 .\" GNU General Public License for more details.
13 .\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
14 .\" along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
18 vmdebootstrap \- install basic Debian system into virtual disk image
21 \-\-image=FILE \-\-size=SIZE [\-\-mirror=URL] [\-\-distribution=NAME]
24 [\-\-output=FILE] [\-\-verbose |\-\-no-verbose] \-\-image=FILE \-\-size=SIZE
25 [\-\-tarball=FILE] [\-\-mirror=URL] [\-\-arch=ARCH] [\-\-distribution=NAME]
26 [\-\-package=PACKAGE] [\-\-custom-package=DEB] [\-\-no-kernel] [\-\-kernel-package]
27 [\-\-enable-dhcp | \-\-no-enable-dhcp] [\-\-root-password=PASSWORD]
28 [\-\-customize=SCRIPT] [\-\-hostname=HOSTNAME] [\-\-user=USER/PASSWORD]
29 [\-\-serial-console | \-\-no-serial-console] [\-\-sudo |\-\-no-sudo] [\-\-owner=OWNER]
30 [\-\-bootsize=BOOTSIZE] [\-\-boottype=FSTYPE] [\-\-roottype=FSTYPE] [\-\-foreign=PATH]
31 [\-\-variant=VARIANT] [\-\-no-extlinux] [\-\-squash] [\-\-configure-apt]
32 [\-\-grub] [\-\-apt-mirror] [\-\-pkglist] [\-\-use\-efi] [\-\-efi\-size]
36 installs a basic Debian system into a virtual disk image,
37 for use with virtual machines,
38 such as KVM, Qemu, or VirtualBox.
41 which does the same thing, but puts the system into a directory,
51 as root. If the \-\-verbose option is not used, no output will be
52 sent to the command line. If the \-\-log option is not used, no
53 output will be sent to any log files either.
56 you probably want to create a virtual machine using your preferred
57 virtualization technology, such as
61 Configure the virtual machine to use the image you've created.
62 Then start the virtual machine, (see
65 and log into it via its console to configure it.
66 The image has an empty root password and will not have networking
67 configured by default. Set the root password before you configure
70 The \-\-enable\-networking option uses the /etc/network/interfaces.d/
71 source directory, with the default settings for
75 being added to /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup. Other networking
76 configuration can be specified using a customisation script.
77 Localhost settings would be:
80 iface lo inet loopback
82 If \-\-enable\-dhcp is specified, these settings are also included
83 into /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup:
89 Unless the \-\-no\-extlinux or \-\-grub options are specified, the
94 is not recommended when using
97 Versions of grub2 in wheezy
98 can fail to install in the VM, at which point vmdebootstrap will fall back to
99 extlinux. It may still be possible to complete the installation of grub2 after
100 booting the VM as the problem may be related to the need to use loopback
101 devices during the grub-install operation. Details of the error will appear in the
102 vmdebootstrap log file, if enabled with the \-\-log option. Note that
108 Use \-\-use\-uefi to use grub\-efi instead of grub\-pc. If the default 5Mb
109 is not enough space, use the \-\-esp\-size option to specify a different
110 size for the EFI partition. Registered firmware is not supported as it
111 would need to be done after boot. If the system you are creating is for
112 more than just a VM or live image, you will likely need a larger ESP,
115 needs manual configuration via the customisation hook scripts,
116 typically support requires adding u\-boot using \-\-package and then
117 copying or manipulating the relevant u\-boot files in the customisation
118 script. Examples are included for beaglebone-black.
119 .SH INSTALLATION IMAGES AND VIRTUAL MACHINES
121 is aimed principally at creating virtual machines, not installers or prebuilt
122 installation images. It is possible to create prebuilt installation images
123 for some devices but this depends on the specific device. (A 'prebuilt
124 installation image' is a single image file which can be written to physical
125 media in a single operation and which allows the device to boot directly
126 into a fully installed system \- in a similar way to how a virtual machine
130 assumes that all operations take place on a local image file, not a
131 physical block device / removable media.
134 is intended to be used with tools like qemu on the command line to launch
135 a new virtual machine. Not all devices have virtualisation support in hardware.
137 This has implications for
139 support in some cases. If the device can support reading the bootloader
140 from a known partition, like the beaglebone-black, then
142 can provide space for the bootloader and the image will work as a prebuilt
143 installation image. If the device expects that the bootloader exists at a
144 specific offset and therefore requires that the bootloader is written as
145 an image not as a binary which can be copied into an existing partition,
147 is unable to include that bootloader image into the virtual machine image.
149 The beagleboneblack.sh script in the examples/ directory provides a worked
150 example to create a prebuilt installation image. However, the beagleboneblack
151 itself does not support virtualisation in hardware, so is unable to launch
152 a virtual machine. Other devices, like the Cubietruck or Wandboard need
154 at a predefined offset but can launch a virtual machine using qemu, so
155 the cubietruck and wandboard6q scripts in the examples/ directory relate
156 to building images for virtual machines once the device is already
157 installed and booted into a suitable kernel.
159 It is possible to wrap
161 in such a way as to prepare a
162 .B physical block device
163 with a bootloader image and then deploy the bootstrap on top. However,
164 this does require physical media to be inserted and removed each time
165 the wrapper is executed. To do this, use the \-\-tarball option instead
166 of the \-\-image option. Then setup the physical media and bootloader
167 image manually, as required for the device, redefine the partitions to
168 make space for the rootfs, create a filesystem on the physical media and
171 tarball onto that filesystem. Once you have working media, an image can be
172 created using dd to read back from the media to an image file, allowing
173 other media to be written with a single image file.
176 write output to FILE, instead of standard output
178 report what is going on
180 put created disk image in FILE
182 create a disk image of size SIZE (1000000000)
184 tar up the disk's contents in FILE
186 use MIRROR as package source (http://http.debian.net/debian/)
188 architecture to use (amd64) - if using an architecture which the
189 host system cannot execute, ensure the \-\-foreign option is also
191 .IP \-\-distribution=NAME
192 release to use (defaults to stable). The release needs to be a valid
193 Debian or Ubuntu release name or codename.
194 .IP \-\-package=PACKAGE
195 install PACKAGE onto system
196 .IP \-\-custom-package=DEB
197 install package in DEB file onto system (not from mirror)
199 do not install a linux package
200 .IP \-\-kernel-package
201 If \-\-no-kernel is not used and the auto-selection of the
207 package is not suitable, the kernel package can be specified
211 .IP \-\-root-password=PASSWORD
213 .IP \-\-customize=SCRIPT
214 run SCRIPT after setting up system. If the script does not exist in the current
215 working directory, /usr/share/vmdebootstrap/examples/ will be checked as a
216 fallback. The script needs to be executable and is passed the root directory of
217 the debootstrap as the only argument. Use chroot if you need to execute binaries
218 within the debootstrap.
219 .IP \-\-hostname=HOSTNAME
220 set name to HOSTNAME (debian)
221 .IP \-\-user=USER/PASSWORD
222 create USER with PASSWORD
224 change the owner of the final image from root to the specified user.
225 .IP \-\-serial\-console
226 configure image to use a serial console
227 .IP \-\-serial-console-command
228 set the command to manage the serial console which will be appended to
229 /etc/inittab. Default is "/sbin/getty \-L ttyS0 115200 vt100", resulting in a line
230 .BR "S0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty \-L ttyS0 115200 vt100"
232 install sudo, and if user is created, add them to sudo group
233 .IP \-\-bootsize=BOOTSIZE
234 If specified, create a /boot partition of the given size within the image.
235 Debootstrapping will fail if this is too small for the selected kernel package.
236 .IP \-\-boottype=FSTYPE
237 Filesystem to use for the /boot partition. (default ext2)
238 .IP \-\-roottype=FSTYPE
239 Filesystem to use for the / (root) partition. (default ext4)
240 .IP \-\-swap=SWAPSIZE
241 If specified, create a swap partition of the given size within the image.
242 Debootstrapping will fail if this results in a root partition which is
243 too small for the selected packages. The minimum swap space is 256Mb as
244 the default memory allocation of QEMU is 128Mb. A default 1Gb image is
245 not likely to have enough space for a swap partition as well.
247 Path to the binfmt_handler to enable foreign support in debootstrap.
248 e.g. /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \- note foreign debootstraps may take a signficant
249 amount of time to complete and that debootstrap will retry five times if
250 packages fail to install by default.
252 Skip installation of extlinux. needs a customize script to make the image
253 bootable. Useful for architectures where extlinux is not supportable.
254 Depending on how the image is to be booted, the \-\-mbr option may also be
255 necessary with extlinux.
257 Run mksquashfs against the final image using xz compression \- requires
258 squashfs-tools to be installed. The final file will have the .squashfs suffix.
259 By default, mksquashfs is allowed to use all processors which may result
260 in high load. Run mksquashfs separately if you need to control the number
261 of processors used per run. squashfs can also have issues with large image
262 files (where large is a factor of the amount of data inside the image rather
263 than the size of the image itself). These errors can result in invalid
264 images (e.g. image does not boot) or corrupted images (truncated file).
265 This is a known bug in squashfs. Avoid using the \-\-squash option and
266 consider squashing the loopback mounted directory tree of the image.
269 will check if the squashed filesystem is less than 1MB and leave the
270 unsquashed image in place with a warning about a possible squashfs
272 .IP \-\-configure\-apt
273 Use the specified mirror and distribution to create a suitable apt source inside
274 the VM. Can be useful if debootstrap fails to create it automatically.
276 Use the specified mirror inside the image instead of the mirror used to
277 build the image. This is useful if you have a local mirror to make building
278 the image quicker but the image needs to run even if that mirror is not
281 Disable extlinux installation and configure grub2 instead. grub2 will be added to
282 the list of packages to install. update-grub will be called once the debootstrap is
283 complete and grub-install will be called in the image.
284 .IP \-\-debootstrapopts
285 Pass additional options to debootstrap as a quoted list of options
286 and values, separated by spaces.
287 e.g. --debootstrapopts="variant=buildd no-check-gpg components=main,contrib".
288 See debootstrap \-\-help and debootstrap (1) for valid options.
290 Disable installation of acpid if not required, otherwise acpid will be
291 installed if \-\-foreign is not used.
293 Output a list of package names installed inside the image. Useful if you
294 need to track the relevant source packages used inside the image for
296 .SH Configuration files and settings:
298 write out the entire current configuration
299 .IP \-\-no-default-configs
300 clear list of configuration files to read
302 add FILE to config files
305 write log entries to FILE (default is to not write log files at all);
306 use "syslog" to log to system log, or "none" to disable logging
307 .IP \-\-log-level=LEVEL
308 log at LEVEL, one of debug, info, warning, error, critical, fatal (default: debug)
310 rotate logs larger than SIZE, zero for never (default: 0)
312 keep last N logs (10)
313 .IP \-\-log-mode=MODE
314 set permissions of new log files to MODE (octal; default 0600)
316 .IP \-\-dump-memory-profile=METHOD
317 make memory profiling dumps using METHOD, which is one of:
318 none, simple, meliae, or heapy (default: simple)
319 .IP \-\-memory-dump-interval=SECONDS
320 make memory profiling dumps at least SECONDS apart
322 To create an image for the stable release of Debian:
324 sudo vmdebootstrap \-\-image test.img \-\-size 1g \\
325 \-\-log test.log \-\-log-level debug \-\-verbose \\
326 \-\-mirror http://mirror.lan/debian/
328 To run the test image, make sure it is writeable. Use the \-\-owner option to set
329 mode 0644 for the specified user or use chmod manually:
331 sudo chmod a+w ./test.img
333 Execute using qemu, e.g. on amd64 using qemu-system-x86_64:
335 qemu-system-x86_64 -drive format=raw,file=./test.img
337 (This loads the image in a new window.) Note the use of -drive
338 file=<img>,format=raw which is needed for newer versions of QEMU.
340 There is EFI firmware available to use with QEMU when testing images built
341 using the UEFI support, but this software is in Debian non-free due to patent
342 concerns. If you choose to install
345 to test UEFI builds, a secondary change is also needed to symlink the provided
346 OVMF.fd to the file required by QEMU: bios-256k.bin and then tell QEMU about
347 the location of this file with the -L option:
349 $ qemu-system-x86_64 \-L /usr/share/ovmf/ -machine accel=kvm \\
350 \-m 4096 \-smp 2 \-drive format=raw,file=test.img
352 For further examples, including u-boot support for beaglebone-black,
353 see /usr/share/vmdebootstrap/examples
355 If you get problems with the bootstrap process, run a similar bootstrap
356 call directly and chroot into the directory to investigate the failure.
357 The actual debootstrap call is part of the vmdebootstrap logfile. The
358 debootstrap logfile, if any, will be copied into your current working
362 will download all the apt archive files into the apt cache and does not
363 remove them before starting the configuration of the packages. This can
364 mean that debootstrap can fail due to a lack of space on the device if
365 the VM size is small. vmdebootstrap cleans up the apt cache once debootstrap
366 has finished but this doesn't help if the package unpack or configuration
367 steps use up all of the space in the meantime. Avoid this problem by
368 specifying a larger size for the image.
370 Note that if you are also using a separate /boot partition in your options to
372 it may well be the boot partition which needs to be enlarged rather than
375 It is advisable to change the mirror in the example scripts to a mirror
376 closer to your location, particularly if you need to do repeated builds.
377 Use the \-\-apt\-mirror option to specify the apt mirror to be used inside
378 the image, after boot.
380 There are two types of examples for ARM devices available with
382 prebuilt installation images (like the beaglebone-black) and virtual
383 machine images (cubietruck and wandboard). ARM devices which do not
384 support hypervisor mode and which also rely on the bootloader being at
385 a specific offset instead of using a normal partition will
387 be supportable by vmdebootstrap. Similarly, devices which support
388 hypervisor will only be supported using virtual machine images, unless
389 the bootloader can be executed from a normal partition.
394 .BR qemu-system-x86_64 (1)
399 Please provide the config section of the logfile when reporting bugs, as well as the complete command line.
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