How to create a custom Raspbian image with Pi-Gen?

How to create a custom Raspbian image with Pi-Gen?

It’s an ideal starting point for projects that are highly specialized, require only a few packages, and do not require a GUI. pi-gen creates Raspbian images in sequential steps called stages. At the time of this writing, there were five stages, with stages 2, 4, and 5 producing images of the operating system.

Which is the best Raspbian image to use?

Raspbian Lite is a minimal Raspbian imagewithout the X windows server and speciality modules that would otherwise make Raspbian more user friendly. It’s an ideal starting point for projects that are highly specialized, require only a few packages, and do not require a GUI.

Is the elementary OS compatible with the Raspberry Pi?

In a major update, the Elementary OS team released a Raspberry Pi-compatible image of Elementary OS. It runs on everything from the Raspberry Pi 400 and Pi 4 to the Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W, Pi 2, and Pi 3/3 B+. However, Elementary OS on the Pi is an experimental build.

Which is the official operating system for the Raspberry Pi?

Formerly called Raspbian, Raspberry Pi OS is the official Raspberry Pi Foundation Linux distro for the Pi. After years of using source code from the Raspbian Project, Raspberry Pi OS split into two flavors: a 32-bit OS that still uses Raspbian source code, and a Debian ARM64-based 64-bit version.

How to disable the build of a Raspbian image?

To disable the build for a particular a stage, we add an empty file called SKIPinside the corresponding stage folder of the pi-gen root directory, just as we did above when skipping previously built stages. We also disable the explicit creation of images by adding an empty file called SKIP_IMAGESto stages 4 and 5.

How long does it take to build a custom Raspbian image?

It’s also worth noting that building a custom image can take 20+ minutes or much longer depending on the host, build steps, and the stages being run. As such, it might be worth starting with a simple bash script against a default image and then transitioning to pi-gen when things are more solidified.

How to run custom Raspbian OS in Ubuntu?

Okay, assuming you are logged into ubuntu and have inserted the SD card containing the custom Raspbian OS which was used to run your pi, you can open up the terminal and list the disks as follows. Note: If you are using a virtualBox, Please mount the memory card inside so that you can access it from the terminal.

How to speed up the build process in Raspbian?

We can speed up the build process and save harddrive space by disabling all the later stages. To disable the build for a particular a stage, we add an empty file called SKIPinside the corresponding stage folder of the pi-gen root directory, just as we did above when skipping previously built stages.