gavberlin / debian-custom-image-creator

Debian hybrid ISO creator/repackager. Easily create custom images with your desired payload and/or firmware images.

Debian custom hybrid image creator

Rebuild a Debian ISO with firware from the non-free repository and custom changes using your own payload.

Downloads the Debian ISO, firmware, and/or checksum files if not already present, and will redownload the ISO and/or firmware if their respective checksums do not match their checksum file.

Firmwares are appended to the unpacked image's initrd.gz file, and the contents of the 'payload' folder is copied into the unpacked image's root folder. The unpacked image is then repackaged and placed into the 'out' folder.

Usage

Usage: reimager.sh [options]

    -a STR    Architecture. <arm64|amd64> Default: amd64
    -h        Print this help message.
    -l STR    ISO volume label.
    -n STR    Append string to ISO name (before .iso).
    -p STR    Payload directory name to add to the image.
    -r STR    Choose release. <stable|testing> Default: stable
    -v        Show version and exit.

Creating a bootable USB

To create a bootable USB drive from the resulting image do the following:

1. Create your image:

   ./reimager.sh -l NameToBeSeenOnDrive -n mycoolimagename -p mycustompayload -a amd64 -r testing

2. Insert USB drive

3. Find the assigned device name, e.g. using "dmesg" or "lsblk" (sdc in this example):

   pajken@pjk:~/devstuff/debian-custom-image-creator$ sudo dmesg
   [33120.410997] usb 1-3: new high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
   [33120.586113] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=090c, idProduct=1000, bcdDevice=11.00
   [33120.586116] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
   [33120.586117] usb 1-3: Product: USB DISK
   [33120.586118] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: SMI Corporation
   [33120.599159] usb-storage 1-3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
   [33120.599232] usb-storage 1-3:1.0: Quirks match for vid 090c pid 1000: 400
   [33120.599251] scsi host6: usb-storage 1-3:1.0
   [33121.820110] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SMI      USB DISK         1100 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
   [33121.820349] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
   [33121.820521] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 15730688 512-byte logical blocks: (8.05 GB/7.50 GiB)
   [33121.820876] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
   [33121.820877] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
   [33121.821233] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
   [33121.821237] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
   [33121.984803] usb 1-3: reset high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
   [33122.504810] usb 1-3: reset high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
   [33123.016812] usb 1-3: reset high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
   [33123.532819] usb 1-3: reset high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
   [33124.056817] usb 1-3: reset high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
   [33124.576814] usb 1-3: reset high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
   [33124.940571]  sdc: sdc1
   [33125.076819] usb 1-3: reset high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
   [33125.592815] usb 1-3: reset high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd

   pajken@pjk:~/devstuff/debian-custom-image-creator$ lsblk
   NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
   loop0         7:0    0    47M  1 loop /snap/snapd/16292
   loop1         7:1    0 386.4M  1 loop /snap/anbox/213
   loop2         7:5    0 310.8M  1 loop 
   sda           8:0    0   1.8T  0 disk 
   ├─sda1        8:1    0    16M  0 part 
   └─sda2        8:2    0   1.8T  0 part 
   sdb           8:16   0 931.5G  0 disk 
   └─sdb1        8:17   0 931.5G  0 part 
   sdc           8:32   1   7.5G  0 disk 
   └─sdc1        8:33   1   613M  0 part /media/pajken/PajkOS
   nvme0n1     259:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
   ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   100M  0 part /boot/efi
   ├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0    16M  0 part 
   ├─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0 155.6G  0 part 
   ├─nvme0n1p4 259:4    0   499M  0 part 
   ├─nvme0n1p5 259:5    0   498G  0 part 
   ├─nvme0n1p6 259:6    0 276.3G  0 part /
   └─nvme0n1p7 259:7    0   977M  0 part [SWAP]

4. Copy your new image to the device where sdx is replaced by your device name:

   sudo dd bs=4M if=out/debian-iso-filename.iso of=/dev/sdx status=progress oflag=sync

More info

The script will create following directories locally:

• cache - Cache of Debian images and checksum files
• out - The directory where your resulting image will reside
• parts - Temporary directory used by the script to assemble the image
• payload - Where your custom payloads should reside in a sub directory

Payloads can consist of anything you wish to include in the image, e.g. preseed files, custom firmwares, grub configs etc. etc.

Debian images and firmwares are cached locally. To force the script to fetch new images, remove the cache directory (or image/checksums therein).