mender-convert/docker

Docker environment for mender-convert

In order to correctly set up partitions and bootloaders, mender-convert has many dependencies, and their version and name vary between Linux distributions.

To make using mender-convert easier, a reference setup using a Ubuntu 18.04 Docker container is provided.

You need to install Docker Engine CE to use this environment.

Build the mender-convert container image

To build a container based on Ubuntu 18.04 with all required dependencies for mender-convert, copy this directory to your workstation and change the current directory to it.

Then run

./build.sh

This will create a container image you can use to run mender-convert.

Use the mender-convert container image

Create a directory input under the directory where you copied these files (build.sh, run.sh, etc.):

mkdir input

Put your raw disk image into input, e.g. input/2018-10-09-raspbian-stretch.img. Then put a Mender client binary compiled for your device into input/mender-1.6.0-arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc. See the Mender documentation on how to cross-compile the Mender client for your device.

After you have built or pulled the mender-convert container image, you can run it with

./run.sh

This will drop you into a shell environment (interactive mode). Change to the mender-convert directory:

cd /mender-convert

You can now run mender-convert with your desired options, e.g.

DEVICE_TYPE="raspberrypi3"
RAW_DISK_IMAGE="input/2018-10-09-raspbian-stretch.img"
MENDER_CLIENT="input/mender-1.6.0-arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc"

ARTIFACT_NAME="2018-10-09-raspbian-stretch"
MENDER_DISK_IMAGE="2018-10-09-raspbian-stretch.sdimg"
TENANT_TOKEN="<INSERT-TOKEN-FROM Hosted Mender>"

./mender-convert from-raw-disk-image                        \
            --raw-disk-image $RAW_DISK_IMAGE                \
            --mender-disk-image $MENDER_DISK_IMAGE          \
            --device-type $DEVICE_TYPE                      \
            --mender-client $MENDER_CLIENT                  \
            --artifact-name $ARTIFACT_NAME                  \
            --bootloader-toolchain arm-linux-gnueabihf      \
            --server-url "https://hosted.mender.io"         \
            --tenant-token $TENANT_TOKEN

Conversion will take 10-15 minutes, depending on your storage and resources available. You can watch output/build.log for progress and diagnostics information.

After it finishes, you can find your images in the output directory on your host machine!

Known issues

• BeagleBone images might not convert properly using this docker envirnoment due to permission issues: mount: /mender-convert/output/embedded/rootfs: WARNING: device write-protected, mounted read-only.