pikvm/docs/building_os.md

Building the OS

!!! warning "ZeroW reached EOL and is no longer supported, the last image it can be found here”

The PiKVM OS is based on Arch Linux ARM and contains all the required packages and configs for it to work. To build the OS you will need x86_64 Linux machine with:

• kernel >= 5.8
• glibc >= 2.33
• docker >= 19.03.13

Docker must be enabled in privileged mode.

1. When starting with a clean OS you need to install and configure docker (after adding your user to the docker group you must log out and log back in), as well as git and make. An example for Ubuntu:

   [user@localhost ~]$ sudo apt-get install git make curl binutils -y
   [user@localhost ~]$ curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
   [user@localhost ~]$ sudo sh get-docker.sh
   [user@localhost ~]$ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
   

   Re-login to apply the changes.

2. Git checkout the build toolchain:

   [user@localhost ~]$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/pikvm/os
   [user@localhost ~]$ cd os
   

3. Determine the target hardware configuration (platform):

   • Choose the board: BOARD=rpi4 for Raspberry Pi 4 or BOARD=zerow, BOARD=rpi2, BOARD=rpi3 for other options.
   • Choose the platform:
     • PLATFORM=v3-hdmi for RPi4 and PiKVM v3 HAT.
     • PLATFORM=v2-hdmi for RPi3a+/RPi4 or Zero2W with HDMI-CSI bridge.
     • PLATFORM=v2-hdmiusb for RPi4 with HDMI-USB dongle.
     • PLATFORM=v0-hdmi for RPi2 or 3b+ with HDMI-CSI bridge and Arduino HID.
     • PLATFORM=v0-hdmiusb for RPi2 or 3b+ with HDMI-USB dongle and Arduino HID.
     • Other options are for legacy or specialized PiKVM boards (WIP).

4. Create the config file config.mk for the target system. You must specify the path to the SD card on your local computer (this will be used to format and install the system) and the version of your Raspberry Pi and platform. You can change other parameters as you wish. Please note: if your password contains the # character, you must escape it using a backslash like ROOT_PASSWD = pass\#word.

   [user@localhost os]$ cat config.mk
   # rpi3 for Raspberry Pi 3; rpi2 for the version 2, zero2w for Zero2W
   BOARD = rpi4
   
   # Hardware configuration
   PLATFORM = v2-hdmi
   
   # Target hostname
   HOSTNAME = pikvm
   
   # ru_RU, etc. UTF-8 only
   LOCALE = en_US
   
   # See /usr/share/zoneinfo
   TIMEZONE = Europe/Moscow
   
   # For SSH root user
   ROOT_PASSWD = root
   
   # Web UI credentials: user=admin, password=<this>
   WEBUI_ADMIN_PASSWD = admin
   
   # IPMI credentials: user=admin, password=<this>
   IPMI_ADMIN_PASSWD = admin
   
   # SD card device
   CARD = /dev/mmcblk0
   

5. Build the OS. It may take about one hour depending on your Internet connection:

   [user@localhost os]$ make os
   

!!! warning "If you get an error about failing to retriving a file, please edit the Makefile and remove "de3." from the repo path"

5. One of two actions:

   • Put SD card into card reader and install OS (you should disable automounting beforehand: systemctl stop udisk2 or something like that):

     [user@localhost os]$ make install
     

   • Make the image to copy elsewhere and burn on to SD card:

     [user@localhost os]$ make image
     

     Image is then available as a bziped file in images/.