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Debian Liveboot Disk Image generator:
live-disk-image

Important

This builder requires an input from the Debian family.

It should work for Debian derivatives (Ubuntu, etc), as long as the prerequisite packages are installed.

Mount nameTypeUsage
cacheSimpleContains cache of previously built .squashfs files.
(to avoid expensive rebuilds)
inputLayersThe Raptor build target(s) that will be put on the generated image
outputFilePoints to the resulting output file.

Compatibility

TargetCompatible?
Container: systemd-nspawn
Container: docker
Container: podman
Virtual Machine (UEFI)✅ (raw, qcow2)
Virtual Machine (BIOS)
Physical Machine (UEFI)✅ (raw)
Physical Machine (BIOS)

This builder also generates Debian Liveboot image, but instead of generating a .iso file, it generates a disk image, including a partition table, and separate partitions for /, /boot and /boot/efi.

The result is a disk image that allows a physical or virtual machine to boot normally, but with the root file system mounted as overlayfs backed by the squashfs files for each layer.

It uses the Discoverable Partitions Specification1 to make the images compatible with both physical hardware, virtual machines, and systemd-nspawn.

Example

Prerequisites:

  • raptor-builders is cloned to raptor-builders
  • An input target called test.rapt

Raptor.toml

[raptor.link]
rbuild = "raptor-builders"

# Live disk image (raw)
[run.live1]
target = "$rbuild.live-disk-image" # <-- builder is specified here
cache = "cache2"
input = ["test"]
output = "live.img"
## implied default:
## env.GRUB_TIMEOUT = "5"
## env.OUTPUT_FORMAT = "raw"

# Live disk image (qcow2, no boot delay)
[run.live2]
target = "$rbuild.live-disk-image" # <-- builder is specified here
cache = "cache2"
input = ["test"]
output = "live.qcow2"
env.GRUB_TIMEOUT = "0"
env.OUTPUT_FORMAT = "qcow2"

After this Raptor.toml is in place, call raptor make to build:

sudo raptor make live1 live2

When the process is complete, live.img and live.qcow2 will be ready for use.


  1. Discoverable Partitions Specification