path: root/vmdebootstrap.8.in

.\" Copyright 2011 Lars Wirzenius <liw@liw.fi>
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.TH VMDEBOOTSTRAP 8
.SH NAME
vmdebootstrap \- install basic Debian system into virtual disk image
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B vmdebootstrap
\-\-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] [\-\-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]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B vmdebootstrap
installs a basic Debian system into a virtual disk image,
for use with virtual machines,
such as KVM, Qemu, or VirtualBox.
It is like
.BR debootstrap (8),
which does the same thing, but puts the system into a directory,
for use with
.BR chroot (8).
(In fact,
.B vmdebootstrap
is a wrapper around
.BR debootstrap ).
.PP
You need to run
.B vmdebootstrap
as root. If the \-\-verbose option is not used, no output will be
sent to the command line. If the \-\-log option is not used, no
output will be sent to any log files either.
.PP
To use the image,
you probably want to create a virtual machine using your preferred
virtualization technology, such as
.BR kvm (1),
or
.BR qemu (1).
Configure the virtual machine to use the image you've created.
Then start the virtual machine, (see
.B EXAMPLES
)
and log into it via its console to configure it.
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

.SH BOOTLOADERS
Unless the \-\-no\-extlinux or \-\-grub options are specified, the
image will use
.BR extlinux (1)
as a boot loader.
.B bootsize
is not recommended when using
.B extlinux
\- 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
booting the VM as the problem may be related to the need to use loopback
devices during the grub-install operation. Details of the error will appear in the
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
installation images. It is possible to create prebuilt installation images
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
would behave.)
.PP
.B vmdebootstrap
assumes that all operations take place on a local image file, not a
physical block device / removable media.
.PP
.B vmdebootstrap
is intended to be used with tools like qemu on the command line to launch
a new virtual machine. Not all devices have virtualisation support in hardware.
.PP
This has implications for
.B u-boot
support in some cases. If the device can support reading the bootloader
from a known partition, like the beaglebone-black, then
.B vmdebootstrap
can provide space for the bootloader and the image will work as a prebuilt
installation image. If the device expects that the bootloader exists at a
specific offset and therefore requires that the bootloader is written as
an image not as a binary which can be copied into an existing partition,
.B vmdebootstrap
is unable to include that bootloader image into the virtual machine image.
.PP
The beagleboneblack.sh script in the examples/ directory provides a worked
example to create a prebuilt installation image. However, the beagleboneblack
itself does not support virtualisation in hardware, so is unable to launch
a virtual machine. Other devices, like the Cubietruck or Wandboard need
.B u-boot
at a predefined offset but can launch a virtual machine using qemu, so
the cubietruck and wandboard6q scripts in the examples/ directory relate
to building images for virtual machines once the device is already
installed and booted into a suitable kernel.
.PP
It is possible to wrap
.B vmdebootstrap
in such a way as to prepare a
.B physical block device
with a bootloader image and then deploy the bootstrap on top. However,
this does require physical media to be inserted and removed each time
the wrapper is executed. To do this, use the \-\-tarball option instead
of the \-\-image option. Then setup the physical media and bootloader
image manually, as required for the device, redefine the partitions to
make space for the rootfs, create a filesystem on the physical media and
unpack the
.B vmdebootstrap
tarball onto that filesystem. Once you have working media, an image can be
created using dd to read back from the media to an image file, allowing
other media to be written with a single image file.
.SH OPTIONS
.IP \-\-output=FILE
write output to FILE, instead of standard output
.IP \-\-verbose
report what is going on
.IP \-\-image=FILE
put created disk image in FILE
.IP \-\-size=SIZE
create a disk image of size SIZE (1000000000)
.IP \-\-tarball=FILE
tar up the disk's contents in FILE
.IP \-\-mirror=URL
use MIRROR as package source (http://http.debian.net/debian/)
.IP \-\-arch=ARCH
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 (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
set root password
.IP \-\-customize=SCRIPT
run SCRIPT after setting up system. If the script does not exist in the current
working directory, /usr/share/vmdebootstrap/examples/ will be checked as a
fallback. The script needs to be executable and is passed the root directory of
the debootstrap as the only argument. Use chroot if you need to execute binaries
within the debootstrap.
.IP \-\-hostname=HOSTNAME
set name to HOSTNAME (debian)
.IP \-\-user=USER/PASSWORD
create USER with PASSWORD
.IP \-\-owner=OWNER
change the owner of the final image from root to the specified user.
.IP \-\-serial\-console
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"
.IP \-\-sudo
install sudo, and if user is created, add them to sudo group
.IP \-\-bootsize=BOOTSIZE
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.
.IP \-\-boottype=FSTYPE
Filesystem to use for the /boot partition. (default ext2)
.IP \-\-roottype=FSTYPE
Filesystem to use for the / (root) partition. (default ext4)
.IP \-\-swap=SWAPSIZE
If specified, create a swap partition of the given size within the image.
Debootstrapping will fail if this results in a root partition which is
too small for the selected packages. The minimum swap space is 256Mb as
the default memory allocation of QEMU is 128Mb. A default 1Gb image is
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
amount of time to complete and that debootstrap will retry five times if
packages fail to install by default.
.IP \-\-no\-extlinux
Skip installation of extlinux. needs a customize script to make the image
bootable. Useful for architectures where extlinux is not supportable.
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
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. 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.
.IP \-\-apt\-mirror
Use the specified mirror inside the image instead of the mirror used to
build the image. This is useful if you have a local mirror to make building
the image quicker but the image needs to run even if that mirror is not
available.
.IP \-\-grub
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 \-\-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
licence compliance.
.SH Configuration files and settings:
.IP \-\-dump-config
write out the entire current configuration
.IP \-\-no-default-configs
clear list of configuration files to read
.IP \-\-config=FILE
add FILE to config files
.SH Logging:
.IP \-\-log=FILE
write log entries to FILE (default is to not write log files at all);
use "syslog" to log to system log, or "none" to disable logging
.IP \-\-log-level=LEVEL
log at LEVEL, one of debug, info, warning, error, critical, fatal (default: debug)
.IP \-\-log-max=SIZE
rotate logs larger than SIZE, zero for never (default: 0)
.IP \-\-log-keep=N
keep last N logs (10)
.IP \-\-log-mode=MODE
set permissions of new log files to MODE (octal;  default 0600)
.SH Peformance:
.IP \-\-dump-memory-profile=METHOD
make memory profiling dumps using METHOD, which is one of:
none, simple, meliae, or heapy (default: simple)
.IP \-\-memory-dump-interval=SECONDS
make memory profiling dumps at least SECONDS apart
.SH EXAMPLE
To create an image for the stable release of Debian:
.IP
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:
.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 -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
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
.SH NOTES
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.
.PP
.B debootstrap
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.
.PP
Note that if you are also using a separate /boot partition in your options to 
.B vmdebootstrap
it may well be the boot partition which needs to be enlarged rather than
the entire image.
.PP
It is advisable to change the mirror in the example scripts to a mirror
closer to your location, particularly if you need to do repeated builds.
Use the \-\-apt\-mirror option to specify the apt mirror to be used inside
the image, after boot.
.PP
There are two types of examples for ARM devices available with
.B vmdebootstrap:
prebuilt installation images (like the beaglebone-black) and virtual
machine images (cubietruck and wandboard). ARM devices which do not
support hypervisor mode and which also rely on the bootloader being at
a specific offset instead of using a normal partition will
.B not
be supportable by vmdebootstrap. Similarly, devices which support
hypervisor will only be supported using virtual machine images, unless
the bootloader can be executed from a normal partition.
.PP
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR debootstrap (8)
,
.BR qemu-system-x86_64 (1)
,
.BR grub-install (8)
.
.SH BUGS
Please provide the config section of the logfile when reporting bugs, as well as the complete command line.