vmdebootstrap.8.in

   1 .\" Copyright 2011 Lars Wirzenius <liw@liw.fi>
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  16 .TH VMDEBOOTSTRAP 8
  17 .SH NAME
  18 vmdebootstrap \- install basic Debian system into virtual disk image
  19 .SH SYNOPSIS
  20 .B vmdebootstrap
  21 --image=FILE --size=SIZE [--mirror=URL] [--distribution=NAME]
  22 .PP
  23 .B vmdebootstrap
  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]
  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] [--foreign=PATH] [--variant=VARIANT]
  31 [--no-extlinux] [--squash] [--configure-apt] [--grub]
  32 .SH DESCRIPTION
  33 .B vmdebootstrap
  34 installs a basic Debian system into a virtual disk image,
  35 for use with virtual machines,
  36 such as KVM, Qemu, or VirtualBox.
  37 It is like
  38 .BR debootstrap (8),
  39 which does the same thing, but puts the system into a directory,
  40 for use with
  41 .BR chroot (8).
  42 (In fact,
  43 .B vmdebootstrap
  44 is a wrapper around
  45 .BR debootstrap ).
  46 .PP
  47 You need to run
  48 .B vmdebootstrap
  49 as root. If the \-\-verbose option is not used, no output will be
  50 sent to the command line. If the \-\-log option is not used, no
  51 output will be sent to any log files either.
  52 .PP
  53 To use the image,
  54 you probably want to create a virtual machine using your preferred
  55 virtualization technology, such as
  56 .BR kvm (1),
  57 or
  58 .BR qemu (1).
  59 Configure the virtual machine to use the image you've created.
  60 Then start the virtual machine, (see
  61 .B EXAMPLES
  62 )
  63 and log into it via its console to configure it.
  64 The image has an empty root password and will not have networking
  65 configured by default. Set the root password before you configure
  66 networking.
  67 .SH BOOTLOADERS
  68 Unless the \-\-no\-extlinux or \-\-grub options are specified, the
  69 image will use
  70 .BR extlinux (1)
  71 as a boot loader.
  72 .B bootsize
  73 is not recommended when using
  74 .B extlinux
  75 - use grub instead.
  76 Versions of grub2 in wheezy
  77 can fail to install in the VM, at which point vmdebootstrap will fall back to
  78 extlinux. It may still be possible to complete the installation of grub2 after
  79 booting the VM as the problem may be related to the need to use loopback
  80 devices during the grub-install operation. Details of the error will appear in the
  81 vmdebootstrap log file, if enabled with the \-\-log option. Note that
  82 .B grub-legacy
  83 is not supported.
  84 .SH OPTIONS
  85 .IP \-\-output=FILE
  86 write output to FILE, instead of standard output
  87 .IP \-\-verbose
  88 report what is going on
  89 .IP \-\-image=FILE
  90 put created disk image in FILE
  91 .IP \-\-size=SIZE
  92 create a disk image of size SIZE (1000000000)
  93 .IP \-\-tarball=FILE
  94 tar up the disk's contents in FILE
  95 .IP \-\-mirror=URL
  96 use MIRROR as package source (http://cdn.debian.net/debian/)
  97 .IP \-\-arch=ARCH
  98 architecture to use (amd64)
  99 .IP \-\-distribution=NAME
 100 release to use (stable)
 101 .IP \-\-package=PACKAGE
 102 install PACKAGE onto system
 103 .IP \-\-custom-package=DEB
 104 install package in DEB file onto system (not from mirror)
 105 .IP \-\-no-kernel
 106 do not install a linux package
 107 .IP \-\-enable-dhcp
 108 enable DHCP on eth0
 109 .IP \-\-root-password=PASSWORD
 110 set root password
 111 .IP \-\-customize=SCRIPT
 112 run SCRIPT after setting up system. If the script does not exist in the current
 113 working directory, /usr/share/vmdebootstrap/examples/ will be checked as a
 114 fallback. The script needs to be executable and is passed the root directory of
 115 the debootstrap as the only argument. Use chroot if you need to execute binaries
 116 within the debootstrap.
 117 .IP \-\-hostname=HOSTNAME
 118 set name to HOSTNAME (debian)
 119 .IP \-\-user=USER/PASSWORD
 120 create USER with PASSWORD
 121 .IP \-\-owner=OWNER
 122 change the owner of the final image from root to the specified user.
 123 .IP \-\-serial\-console
 124 configure image to use a serial console
 125 .IP \-\-serial-console-command
 126 set the command to manage the serial console which will be appended to
 127 /etc/inittab. Default is "/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100", resulting in a line
 128 .BR "S0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100"
 129 .IP \-\-sudo
 130 install sudo, and if user is created, add them to sudo group
 131 .IP \-\-bootsize=BOOTSIZE
 132 If specified, create a /boot partition of the given size within the image. Debootstrapping will fail if this is too small for the selected kernel package.
 133 .IP \-\-boottype=FSTYPE
 134 Filesystem to use for the /boot partition. (default ext2)
 135 .IP \-\-foreign=PATH
 136 Path to the binfmt_handler to enable foreign support in debootstrap. e.g. /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static - note foreign debootstraps may take a signficant amount of time to complete and that debootstrap will retry five times if packages fail to install by default.
 137 .IP \-\-no\-extlinux
 138 Skip installation of extlinux. needs a customize script to make the image bootable. Useful for architectures where extlinux is not supportable.
 139 Depending on how the image is to be booted, the \-\-mbr option may also be
 140 necessary with extlinux.
 141 .IP \-\-squash
 142 Run mksquashfs against the final image using xz compression - requires
 143 squashfs-tools to be installed. The final file will have the .squashfs suffix.
 144 By default, mksquashfs is allowed to use all processors which may result
 145 in high load. Run mksquashfs separately if you need to control the number
 146 of processors used per run.
 147 .IP \-\-configure\-apt
 148 Use the specified mirror and distribution to create a suitable apt source inside
 149 the VM. Can be useful if debootstrap fails to create it automatically.
 150 .IP \-\-grub
 151 Disable extlinux installation and configure grub2 instead. grub2 will be added to
 152 the list of packages to install. update-grub will be called once the debootstrap is
 153 complete and grub-install will be called in the image.
 154 .SH Configuration files and settings:
 155 .IP \-\-dump-config
 156 write out the entire current configuration
 157 .IP \-\-no-default-configs
 158 clear list of configuration files to read
 159 .IP \-\-config=FILE
 160 add FILE to config files
 161 .SH Logging:
 162 .IP \-\-log=FILE
 163 write log entries to FILE (default is to not write log files at all);
 164 use "syslog" to log to system log, or "none" to disable logging
 165 .IP \-\-log-level=LEVEL
 166 log at LEVEL, one of debug, info, warning, error, critical, fatal (default: debug)
 167 .IP \-\-log-max=SIZE
 168 rotate logs larger than SIZE, zero for never (default: 0)
 169 .IP \-\-log-keep=N
 170 keep last N logs (10)
 171 .IP \-\-log-mode=MODE
 172 set permissions of new log files to MODE (octal;  default 0600)
 173 .SH Peformance:
 174 .IP \-\-dump-memory-profile=METHOD
 175 make memory profiling dumps using METHOD, which is one of:
 176 none, simple, meliae, or heapy (default: simple)
 177 .IP \-\-memory-dump-interval=SECONDS
 178 make memory profiling dumps at least SECONDS apart
 179 .SH EXAMPLE
 180 To create an image for the stable release of Debian:
 181 .nf
 182 .IP
 183 sudo vmdebootstrap --image test.img --size 1g \\
 184     --log test.log --log-level debug --verbose \\
 185     --mirror http://mirror.lan/debian/
 186 .PP
 187 To run the test image, make sure it is writeable. Use the \-\-owner option to set mode 0644 for the specified user or use chmod manually:
 188 .IP
 189 sudo chmod a+w ./test.img
 190 .PP
 191 Execute using qemu, e.g. on amd64 using qemu-system-x86_64:
 192 .IP
 193 qemu-system-x86_64 ./test.img
 194 .PP
 195 (This loads the image in a new window.)
 196 .PP
 197 For further examples, including u-boot support for beaglebone-black, see /usr/share/vmdebootstrap/examples
 198 .SH NOTES
 199 If you get problems with the bootstrap process, run a similar bootstrap call directly and chroot into the directory to investigate the failure. The actual debootstrap call is part of the vmdebootstrap logfile. The debootstrap logfile, if any, will be copied into your current working directory on error.
 200 .PP
 201 .B debootstrap
 202 will download all the apt archive files into the apt cache and does not remove them before starting the configuration of the packages. This can mean that debootstrap can fail due to a lack of space on the device if the VM size is small. vmdebootstrap cleans up the apt cache once debootstrap has finished but this doesn't help if the package unpack or configuration steps use up all of the space in the meantime. Avoid this problem by specifying a larger size for the image.
 203 .PP
 204 Note that if you are also using a separate /boot partition in your options to vmdebootstrap, it may well be the boot partition which needs to be enlarged rather than the entire image.
 205 .PP
 206 It is advisable to change the mirror in the example scripts to a mirror closer to your location,
 207 particularly if you need to do repeated builds.
 208 .PP
 209 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 210 .BR debootstrap (8)
 211 ,
 212 .BR qemu-system-x86_64 (1)
 213 ,
 214 .BR grub-install (8)
 215 .
 216 .SH BUGS
 217 Please provide the config section of the logfile when reporting bugs, as well as the complete command line.