OSTree Image Builder for Garden Linux and Debian

Important

This repository is part of a proof of concept. It is unmaintained and archived.

Builder for OSTree-based operating system images using the Garden Linux Builder.

See this blog post series for background information on the PoC and its motivation.

Refer to the Garden Linux README for setup instructions for the Builder.

Repo Structure

The debian directory contains a build for a debian trixie image. It takes packages from the Debian apt repositories.

The gardenlinux directory contains a build for a gardenlinux today image. It takes packages from the Garden Linux apt repositories. This directory contains a lot of code taken from the gardenlinux/gardenlinux repo.

Building

This repo contains two os builder definitions.

Builds can be parameterized to change certain default values. To change any of the values, create a file using the parameter name inside the feature directory. This might be needed in both the ostreeRepo and the ostreeImage feature.

• REMOTE_URL: Hostname to use as OSTree remote, default value is http://ostree.gardenlinux.io
• OS_NAME: OS Name (Stateroot) used for OSTree, default value is either debian or gardenlinux, change this if you want to build a custom OS
• REMOTE_NAME: Name for the OSTree remote (similar to remote 'origin' in git), default value is main

Debian

To build the debian image yourself, run inside the debian directory:

# Optional: To build the OSTree Repo
$ ./build ostreeRepo
# To build the bootable image
$ ./build ostreeImage

Note

The ostreeImage will download a copy of the OSTree repository from the Garden Linux artifact storage. You don't need to run ostreeRepo locally. To build an image based on your self-created repo, copy the output file from the ostreeRepo build to debian/features/ostreeImage/ostree-debian-repo-(amd64/arm64).tar.gz, depending on your local architecture. This applies both to the Garden Linux and the Debian builder.

Garden Linux

Additionally to the build parameters defined above, the Garden Linux build has another parameter called BUILD_VARIANT.

To build the Garden Linux yourself, run inside the gardenlinux directory:

# Required: Set the platform. Must match between what is set in the BUILD_VARIANT file and in the repo argument.
# Allowed values for PLATFORM: kvm, metal
$ PLATFORM=kvm
$ echo $PLATFORM > features/ostreeRepo/BUILD_VARIANT
$ echo $PLATFORM > features/ostreeImage/BUILD_VARIANT
# Optional: To build the OSTree Repo
$ ./build "$PLATFORM"_dev_curl-ostreeRepo
# To build the bootable image
$ ./build ostreeImage

Note

The ostreeImage will download a copy of the OSTree repository from the Garden Linux artifact storage. You don't need to run ostreeRepo locally. To build an image based on your self-created repo, copy the output file from the ostreeRepo build to gardenlinux/features/ostreeImage/ostree-gardenlinux-repo-$(PLATFORM)-(amd64/arm64).tar.gz, depending on your local architecture and the selected platform. This applies both to the Garden Linux and the Debian builder.

Alternatively, use the ./ostree-build.sh script:

./ostree-build.sh kvm
./ostree-build.sh metal

Running

To boot any of the images, use the start-vm script from the root of this repository:

$ gardenlinux/bin/start-vm debian/.build/*ostreeImage-*-trixie-*.ostree.raw
$ gardenlinux/bin/start-vm gardenlinux/.build/*ostreeImage-*-today-*.ostree.raw

Check for the actual name of the image in the .build directory.

Upgrading

Inside the booted vm, you can run the ostree-upgrade script to upgrade your OS to the latest version.

More information

Refer to the OSTree command man page for instructions of using the cli.