vmdebootstrap \- install basic Debian system into virtual disk image
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B vmdebootstrap
---image=FILE --size=SIZE [--mirror=URL] [--distribution=NAME]
+\-\-image=FILE \-\-size=SIZE [\-\-mirror=URL] [\-\-distribution=NAME]
.PP
.B vmdebootstrap
-[--output=FILE] [--verbose | --no-verbose] --image=FILE --size=SIZE
-[--tarball=FILE] [--mirror=URL] [--arch=ARCH] [--distribution=NAME]
-[--package=PACKAGE] [--custom-package=DEB] [--no-kernel]
-[--enable-dhcp | --no-enable-dhcp] [--root-password=PASSWORD]
-[--customize=SCRIPT] [--hostname=HOSTNAME] [--user=USER/PASSWORD]
-[--serial-console | --no-serial-console] [--sudo | --no-sudo] [--owner=OWNER]
-[--bootsize=BOOTSIZE] [--boottype=FSTYPE] [--roottype=FSTYPE] [--foreign=PATH]
-[--variant=VARIANT] [--no-extlinux] [--squash] [--configure-apt]
-[--grub] [--apt-mirror] [--pkglist]
+[\-\-output=FILE] [\-\-verbose |\-\-no-verbose] \-\-image=FILE \-\-size=SIZE
+[\-\-tarball=FILE] [\-\-mirror=URL] [\-\-arch=ARCH] [\-\-distribution=NAME]
+[\-\-package=PACKAGE] [\-\-custom-package=DEB] [\-\-no-kernel] [\-\-kernel-package]
+[\-\-enable-dhcp | \-\-no-enable-dhcp] [\-\-root-password=PASSWORD]
+[\-\-customize=SCRIPT] [\-\-hostname=HOSTNAME] [\-\-user=USER/PASSWORD]
+[\-\-serial-console | \-\-no-serial-console] [\-\-sudo |\-\-no-sudo] [\-\-owner=OWNER]
+[\-\-bootsize=BOOTSIZE] [\-\-boottype=FSTYPE] [\-\-roottype=FSTYPE] [\-\-foreign=PATH]
+[\-\-variant=VARIANT] [\-\-no-extlinux] [\-\-squash] [\-\-configure-apt]
+[\-\-grub] [\-\-apt-mirror] [\-\-pkglist] [\-\-use\-efi] [\-\-efi\-size]
+[\-\-debootstrapopts]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B vmdebootstrap
installs a basic Debian system into a virtual disk image,
The image has an empty root password and will not have networking
configured by default. Set the root password before you configure
networking.
+.SH NETWORKING
+The \-\-enable\-networking option uses the /etc/network/interfaces.d/
+source directory, with the default settings for
+.B lo
+and
+.B eth0
+being added to /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup. Other networking
+configuration can be specified using a customisation script.
+Localhost settings would be:
+
+ auto lo
+ iface lo inet loopback
+
+If \-\-enable\-dhcp is specified, these settings are also included
+into /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup:
+
+ auto eth0
+ iface eth0 inet dhcp
+
+For systems running newer versions of systemd, the interface name needs
+to be set in advance of the first boot instead of being dependent on the
+boot itself. See the http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames/
+.B vmdebootstrap
+disables this behaviour by symlinking /dev/null to /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-setup-link.rules
+
.SH BOOTLOADERS
Unless the \-\-no\-extlinux or \-\-grub options are specified, the
image will use
.B bootsize
is not recommended when using
.B extlinux
-- use grub instead.
+\- use grub instead.
Versions of grub2 in wheezy
can fail to install in the VM, at which point vmdebootstrap will fall back to
extlinux. It may still be possible to complete the installation of grub2 after
vmdebootstrap log file, if enabled with the \-\-log option. Note that
.B grub-legacy
is not supported.
+.B vmdebootstrap
+also supports
+.B EFI.
+Use \-\-use\-uefi to use grub\-efi instead of grub\-pc. If the default 5Mb
+is not enough space, use the \-\-esp\-size option to specify a different
+size for the EFI partition. Registered firmware is not supported as it
+would need to be done after boot. If the system you are creating is for
+more than just a VM or live image, you will likely need a larger ESP,
+up to 500Mb.
+.B UBoot
+needs manual configuration via the customisation hook scripts,
+typically support requires adding u\-boot using \-\-package and then
+copying or manipulating the relevant u\-boot files in the customisation
+script. Examples are included for beaglebone-black.
.SH INSTALLATION IMAGES AND VIRTUAL MACHINES
.B vmdebootstrap
is aimed principally at creating virtual machines, not installers or prebuilt
for some devices but this depends on the specific device. (A 'prebuilt
installation image' is a single image file which can be written to physical
media in a single operation and which allows the device to boot directly
-into a fully installed system - in a similar way to how a virtual machine
+into a fully installed system \- in a similar way to how a virtual machine
would behave.)
.PP
.B vmdebootstrap
.IP \-\-tarball=FILE
tar up the disk's contents in FILE
.IP \-\-mirror=URL
-use MIRROR as package source (http://cdn.debian.net/debian/)
+use MIRROR as package source (http://http.debian.net/debian/)
.IP \-\-arch=ARCH
-architecture to use (amd64)
+architecture to use (amd64) - if using an architecture which the
+host system cannot execute, ensure the \-\-foreign option is also
+used.
.IP \-\-distribution=NAME
-release to use (stable)
+release to use (defaults to stable). The release needs to be a valid
+Debian or Ubuntu release name or codename.
.IP \-\-package=PACKAGE
install PACKAGE onto system
.IP \-\-custom-package=DEB
install package in DEB file onto system (not from mirror)
.IP \-\-no-kernel
do not install a linux package
+.IP \-\-kernel-package
+If \-\-no-kernel is not used and the auto-selection of the
+.B linux-image-586
+or
+.B linux-image-armmp
+or
+.B linux-image-$ARCH
+package is not suitable, the kernel package can be specified
+explicitly.
.IP \-\-enable-dhcp
enable DHCP on eth0
.IP \-\-root-password=PASSWORD
configure image to use a serial console
.IP \-\-serial-console-command
set the command to manage the serial console which will be appended to
-/etc/inittab. Default is "/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100", resulting in a line
-.BR "S0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 vt100"
+/etc/inittab. Default is "/sbin/getty \-L ttyS0 115200 vt100", resulting in a line
+.BR "S0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty \-L ttyS0 115200 vt100"
.IP \-\-sudo
install sudo, and if user is created, add them to sudo group
.IP \-\-bootsize=BOOTSIZE
not likely to have enough space for a swap partition as well.
.IP \-\-foreign=PATH
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
+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.
.IP \-\-no\-extlinux
Depending on how the image is to be booted, the \-\-mbr option may also be
necessary with extlinux.
.IP \-\-squash
-Run mksquashfs against the final image using xz compression - requires
+Run mksquashfs against the final image using xz compression \- requires
squashfs-tools to be installed. The final file will have the .squashfs suffix.
By default, mksquashfs is allowed to use all processors which may result
in high load. Run mksquashfs separately if you need to control the number
-of processors used per run.
+of processors used per run. squashfs can also have issues with large image
+files (where large is a factor of the amount of data inside the image rather
+than the size of the image itself). These errors can result in invalid
+images (e.g. image does not boot) or corrupted images (truncated file).
+This is a known bug in squashfs. Avoid using the \-\-squash option and
+consider squashing the loopback mounted directory tree of the image.
+.B
+vmdebootstrap
+will check if the squashed filesystem is less than 1MB and leave the
+unsquashed image in place with a warning about a possible squashfs
+failure.
.IP \-\-configure\-apt
Use the specified mirror and distribution to create a suitable apt source inside
the VM. Can be useful if debootstrap fails to create it automatically.
Disable extlinux installation and configure grub2 instead. grub2 will be added to
the list of packages to install. update-grub will be called once the debootstrap is
complete and grub-install will be called in the image.
+.IP \-\-debootstrapopts
+Pass additional options to debootstrap as a quoted list of options
+and values, separated by spaces.
+e.g. --debootstrapopts="variant=buildd no-check-gpg components=main,contrib".
+See debootstrap \-\-help and debootstrap (1) for valid options.
+.IP \-\-no\-acpid
+Disable installation of acpid if not required, otherwise acpid will be
+installed if \-\-foreign is not used.
.IP \-\-pkglist
Output a list of package names installed inside the image. Useful if you
need to track the relevant source packages used inside the image for
make memory profiling dumps at least SECONDS apart
.SH EXAMPLE
To create an image for the stable release of Debian:
-.nf
.IP
-sudo vmdebootstrap --image test.img --size 1g \\
- --log test.log --log-level debug --verbose \\
- --mirror http://mirror.lan/debian/
+sudo vmdebootstrap \-\-image test.img \-\-size 1g \\
+ \-\-log test.log \-\-log-level debug \-\-verbose \\
+ \-\-mirror http://mirror.lan/debian/
.PP
-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:
+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:
.IP
sudo chmod a+w ./test.img
.PP
Execute using qemu, e.g. on amd64 using qemu-system-x86_64:
.IP
-qemu-system-x86_64 ./test.img
+qemu-system-x86_64 -drive format=raw,file=./test.img
+.PP
+(This loads the image in a new window.) Note the use of -drive
+file=<img>,format=raw which is needed for newer versions of QEMU.
.PP
-(This loads the image in a new window.)
+There is EFI firmware available to use with QEMU when testing images built
+using the UEFI support, but this software is in Debian non-free due to patent
+concerns. If you choose to install
+.B
+ovmf
+to test UEFI builds, a secondary change is also needed to symlink the provided
+OVMF.fd to the file required by QEMU: bios-256k.bin and then tell QEMU about
+the location of this file with the -L option:
+.IP
+$ qemu-system-x86_64 \-L /usr/share/ovmf/ -machine accel=kvm \\
+ \-m 4096 \-smp 2 \-drive format=raw,file=test.img
.PP
For further examples, including u-boot support for beaglebone-black,
see /usr/share/vmdebootstrap/examples
projects / forks / vmdebootstrap.git / blobdiff