Build RPi4 Image

Build a Modified Raspberry Pi 4 Image with it

Although designed for creating Meshed Banana images, the Armbian Build system can also be used to create images for a lot of other SBCs with reticulum pre installed. Simply change the BOARD environment variable to a different value, and the image will created for this board.

Please note that this has not been tested yet, and you will get the default reticulum configuration file installed, which might require additional configuration step, depending on how you plan to use reticulum

The following guide is an example on how to create images for the Raspberry Pi 4. Be aware that for Raspberry Pi 4 Armbian, only Ubuntu Releases are currently supported.

Pre built images can be downloaded here

Install the Armbian Build System

Based on the instructions on how to build Armbian images:

• Download a Ubuntu Jammy image for the hypervisor of your choice (in my case kvm)

  wget https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/22.04/release/ubuntu-22.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk-kvm.img

• See Armbian Build System Tipps for info on e.g. resizing the image and enabling network

• Boot the image in your hypervisor Minimum system requirements:

  • Disk size: 60GB
  • Ram: 8GB

• Login to the booted system and install the Armbian build system

  cd ~
  apt-get -y install git
  git clone https://github.com/armbian/build
  cd build

• Run a test build without any modifications to make sure all works and to get the userpatches directory created

  ./compile.sh  \
      BOARD=rpi4b \
      BRANCH=current \
      RELEASE=jammy \
      BUILD_MINIMAL=yes \
      BUILD_DESKTOP=no \
      KERNEL_ONLY=no \
      KERNEL_CONFIGURE=no \
      COMPRESS_OUTPUTIMAGE=sha,gpg,img

Add the Meshed Banana Customisation

• Install the overlay files from this repo inside the build directory

  cd ~
  git clone https://github.com/Vault2501/Meshed-Banana-image.git
  cp -r Meshed-Banana-image/userpatches build
  cd build

• Add run_scripts.sh to userpatches/customize-image.sh

  You need to add it to the section of the selected RELEASE you want to build. Please see userpatches/customize-image.sh_example on how to add it e.g. to buster and bullseye builds

• Build again with the overlay added.

  Notes:

  • you can change BUILD_MINIMAL, BUILD_DESKTOP to get e.g. a UI installed.
  • for the Raspberry Pi 4 only Ubuntu releases are supported atm
  • if you change RELEASE, make sure you have run_scripts.sh added accordingly
  • changing BRANCH might make reticuum not work due to different device names

  ./compile.sh  \
      BOARD=rpi4b \
      BRANCH=current \
      RELEASE=jammy \
      BUILD_MINIMAL=yes \
      BUILD_DESKTOP=no \
      KERNEL_ONLY=no \
      KERNEL_CONFIGURE=no \
      COMPRESS_OUTPUTIMAGE=sha,gpg,img

Boot

The image will be available at build/output/images.
Please follow the Admin guide for boot and setup instructions.