I'm building an application to automate installation and configuration of my Clearfog (eMMC board) and I've got stuck copying the files to the device. I'm trying to use TFTP for file transfer because I'd like to avoid needing a USB stick. The image file for Armbian is ~1.2GB which I think has a lot of padded space? (I've build a bare bones image). If so I have two possible options in mind to fix my problems.

 

1) Cut down on the padding so the image can be loaded (not sure where the configuration setting for this is yet).

2) Possibly compress the image and install it?

 

Not sure if 2 is possible but have to ask.

 

If there's another option I'd also like to hear it. I'm trying to make it so the installation requires a power connection, serial connection and Ethernet connection.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

There is some free space in the resulting image, but it shouldn't be more than 30%.

I feel like the best option for you may be building a custom image with much smaller list of preinstalled packages.

Alternatively you may load minimal system from TFTP (running entirely in RAM), and from this system download compressed image, decompress it and write to block device on the fly.

Thanks for the reply. You're right that I don't need most of what's installed removing packages sounds like a better solution.

 

Looking through: https://docs.armbian.com/it doesn't clearly show how to manage which packages are installed. Is it an easy thing to do e.g. edit a config file with a list of packages?

Looking through: https://docs.armbian.com/it doesn't clearly show how to manage which packages are installed. Is it an easy thing to do e.g. edit a config file with a list of packages?

Yes, it's easy, but, unfortunately it's not that obvious. Packages list is defined in configuration.sh, but it's intended that you can change it in userpatches/lib.config (you need to create that file manually)

You can use bash syntax in lib.config to change variables PACKAGE_LIST, PACKAGE_LIST_ADDITIONAL and PACKAGE_LIST_RELEASE, but I would recommend not touching things that are marked "essential" in configuration.sh

Sounds simple enough. Give it a shot tomorrow.

 

Thanks for your help.