Raspberry Pi Available Over the Internet on 1st Boot

This boilerplate project allows you to build your own image based on official Ubuntu 20.04 Server for Raspberry Pi in an easy way.

The project utilises Hashicorp Packer and packer-builder-arm plugin.

Additional software/configuration for Ubuntu 20.04 Server introduced by this template:

• Wi-Fi configuration based on Netplan - enabled on 1st boot.
• Husarnet VPN Client for over the Internet access with a systemd service for VPN connection setup on 1st boot.
• Docker & Docker-Compose

You can install your own packets or change the system configuration as well! See ubuntu_server_20.04_arm64.pkr.hcl for details.

Using the template

Click [ Use this template ] button to create a copy of this repository on your GitHub profile and choose one of 4 ways of using it:

[ Locally ] Docker-Compose and *.pkrvars.hcl File

Clone your repository, rename a configs.pkrvars.hcl.template file to configs.pkrvars.hcl and place your Wi-Fi and Husarnet credentials there.

Then execute:

docker-compose up --build

[ Locally ] Docker and Environment Variables

Clone your repository, and set Wi-Fi and Husarnet credentials as environment variables. Then build and run the container:

export MY_SSID="place-your-wifi-ssid-here"
export MY_PASS="place-your-wifi-pass-here"
export MY_HOSTNAME="place-a-hostname-for-your-pi-here"
export MY_JOINCODE="place-your-husarnet-join-code-here"

docker build -t "rpi-image-builder" .

docker run --rm --privileged \
-v /dev:/dev \
-v ${PWD}/packer_cache:/build/packer_cache \
-v ${PWD}/output:/build/output \
rpi-image-builder \
build -var "wifi_ssid=${MY_SSID}" -var "wifi_pass=${MY_PASS}" -var "husarnet_hostname=${MY_HOSTNAME}" -var "husarnet_joincode=${MY_JOINCODE}" .

[ Remotely ] GitHub Actions and Build Artifacts

Define the following secrets in your copy of this template (repo Settings -> Secrets tab):

HUSARNET_HOSTNAME
HUSARNET_JOINCODE
WIFI_PASS
WIFI_SSID

After triggering the workflow (eg. on git push) you should see rpi-ubuntu-20.04-server-<timestamp>.img.tar.gz in your workflow artifacts ( repo -> Actions -> (choosen workflow) -> Artifacts ).

[ Remotely ] GitHub Actions and S3 Server

Define the following secrets in your copy of this template (repo Settings -> Secrets tab):

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
AWS_S3_BUCKET
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
HUSARNET_HOSTNAME
HUSARNET_JOINCODE
WIFI_PASS
WIFI_SSID

After triggering the workflow (eg. on git push) you should see:

• rpi-ubuntu-20.04-server-<timestamp>.img
• rpi-ubuntu-20.04-server-<timestamp>.img.tar.gz
• rpi-ubuntu-20.04-server-<timestamp>-sha256.checksum files in your S3 bucket.

Flashing on SD card

1. download file from Amazon S3 (or build locally)

2. format SD card (Ext4)

3. extract *.img.tar.gz to *.img, eg.:

   sudo tar -xf rpi-ubuntu-20.04-server-<timestamp>.img.tar.gz

4. Now burn that rpi-ubuntu-20.04-server-<timestamp>.img image file on SD card using tools like Etcher or Raspberry Pi Imager (rpi-imager).

Booting & Accessing your Raspberry Pi

Place SD card in the SD slot of your Pi and power it up. After a while you should see your Raspberry Pi available in your Husarnet VPN network at https://app.husarnet.com.

You can now access your Raspberry Pi over the internet from a level of any device that is in the same Husarnet network by using:

ssh ubuntu@my-remote-rpi