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Building and Testing the Images Locally

You will need:

  • at least one Raspberry Pi (preferably model 3B+). Two is better — one for the builder and another to test with
  • at least one SD card
  • a Linux-based system (a Mac should work but this has not yet been tested)
  • physical access to an ethernet connection on your local network
  • patience (the entire build process can take quite a while)

The process is a little involved but fairly straighforward and reproducible once you get the hang of it. If you get stuck or have questions do reach out at hello@cattlepi.com

Step 1 - clone the latest CattlePi version

git clone git@github.com:cattlepi/cattlepi.git
cd cattlepi/

Step 2 - ensure that you have python installed

python --version

Follow the installation instructions for your own OS version/flavor if you don't have python installed.

Step 3 - ensure you have make installed

make --version

Again, follow installation instructions for your own OS version/flavor if you don't have make installed.

Step 4 - download the latest version of RASPBIAN STRETCH LITE

You can find it here: https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_lite_latest

Step 5 - write this latest image of Raspian to the SD card

You can use something like Etcher for a painless, quick operation

Step 6 - enable ssh

On the /boot partition for the sdcard, create an empty file named ssh. Also see here, method 3

Step 7 - Boot up the Raspberry Pi

Insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi.

The RPi requires:

  • a physical ethernet connection.
  • to be on the same network as your development machine.

Power up the Pi, let it boot, and note its IP Address (this can be done by looking at your router, using nmap, or connecting it to an external display - see the FAQ for suggestions ).

For the rest of the guide let's assume the the IP of the PI is 192.168.1.12
Please replace this with your own IP for the rest of the steps.

Step 8 - Copy your SSH key to the PI

ssh pi@192.168.1.12 "mkdir -p ~/.ssh/"
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | (ssh pi@192.168.1.12 "cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys")

Make sure you swap out the IP with your own. Also, make sure that you have a valid public key for your development machine. If not, you will need to genererate one. For complete steps see here.

The default password for the pi user on Raspian is raspberry (NOTE: it is good security policy to change this immediately, using the passwd command).

Test that the passwordless interaction with your builder Pi now works

ssh pi@192.168.1.12 whoami

The previous command should no longer prompt you for a password

Step 9 - update the configuration with your values

The default configuration values used during the build are specified in tools/cfg/defaults

$ cat tools/cfg/defaults 
# conditionally set the params if not set
BUILDER_NODE=${BUILDER_NODE:-192.168.1.12}
CATTLEPI_BASE=${CATTLEPI_BASE:-https://api.cattlepi.com}
CATTLEPI_APIKEY=${CATTLEPI_APIKEY:-deadbeef}
CATTLEPI_LOCALAPI=${CATTLEPI_LOCALAPI:-192.168.1.166:4567}

BUILDER_NODE is the ip of the raspberry pi you want to use in the build process (e.g. 192.168.1.12 above).
CATTLEPI_BASE is the API endpoint you want to use.
CATTLEPI_APIKEY is the API endpoint you want to use.
CATTLEPI_LOCALAPI is the ip:port of where you will run and/or test the local api. the ip needs to be one of your local ips.

In order to specify your own configuration parameters create a configuration file in your home directory at ~/.cattlepi/configuration. You can copy the defaults file as a starting point and update the parameters as you see fit.

A note on the BUILDER_NODE=${BUILDER_NODE:-192.168.1.12} syntax. What this means is, set BUILDER_NODE to 192.168.1.12 if it's not already set. You can set the the value directly if you want. If you keep this syntax you also have the freedom to just set this environment variable in your shell and use them from there.
Example:

export BUILDER_NODE=192.168.1.99
export CATTLEPI_BASE=http://192.168.1.166:4567
export CATTLEPI_APIKEY=alivebeef
export CATTLEPI_LOCALAPI=192.168.1.166:4567

Step 10 - build the images

In the cattlepi directory, run:

make

This will take anywhere between 15 - 40 minutes (depending on your internet connection for package downloads - as an example: when this was written and tested it took a little over 13 minutes). You can follow along in templates/raspbian/stages.yml to see all the operations that are invoked as part of the ansible playbook that builds the images.
The build process will output two images in builder/latest/output: initramfs.tgz is the initfs and rootfs.sqsh is the rootfs.
You can — and are actively encouraged to — explore these files.

Step 11 - copy the initfs onto [another] SD card

I recommend having a second SD card and RPi, in order to avoid the tedium of the setup process each time you want to build the image. The builder used /tmp on the builder Pi; you can re-use the builder if you have the same hardware. Alternatively, you can use the same SD card/RPi, or even one RPi with two SD cards (just be sure to properly shut down the RPis between swapping out the SD cards).

Create a FAT partition and uncompress the contents of builder/latest/output/initramfs.tgz onto the partition. You can do this manually, or you can try:

make copy_initfs_to_sdcard

Keep in mind that the script assumes that the FAT partition is at /dev/mmcblk0p1 and that you don't have anything at /mnt/SD. Consequently, you may require an alternative, manual, work-around.

Step 12 - start the local server (used to serve the images)

make localapi_run

This assumes that the CATTLEPI_BASE point to the same location as CATTLEPI_LOCALAPI. If that's not the case, the Pi will boot with whatever API endpoint you have specified.

Step 13 - insert the SD card into the RPi and boot it up

The Pi should boot and you should see it downloading the image files and the configuration, applying it and switching to the root filestystem that it has built.