GenBerry

Purpose

GenBerry is a shell script which provide a minimal gentoo image for Raspberry Pi 0, 0W 1B, 2B, 3B, 3B+ and 4B in 32 or 64 bit version. You can see it as a bootable and usable stage4 image. The other boards have not been tested. By default, you will have the latest kernel, stage3 and portage tree. You can install the system on a sdcard if you provide one or you can build an image to put on the card. You can customize it with hostname, keyboard layout, timezone, kernel config, config.txt and filesystem type. You can also enable the serial console communications.

What the script actually do ?

If you don't provide any workplace (-m option), the script will create a new one in /tmp. By default, it will ask you an sdcard plugged. It will retrieve the latests kernel sources, stage3, portage tree and firmwares from their respectives repository. It will configure and build the kernel, modules and device tree. Then it will prepare the card (partitions, format) and expand the various archives on it. When all the files are where they belong, the script will tune a little the system for you.

How to use it

Configuration

You can use the to configure the script or directly with CLI options. Help is available via:

GenBerry -h

Options list

Option	Argument	Description
-h		Display this help message
-s		Copy the kernel sources on the card, Beware that this will run make distclean on the actual sources.
-p		Copy the portage tree.
-i		Build an image instead of writing directly on the media
-u		Enable serial communications. Might disable bluetooth on some card
-b	type	Type of the board: `0` (Pi0), `0W` (Pi0W), `1` (Pi1), `2` (Pi2), `3` (Pi3), `3P` (Pi3B+), `4` (4B) Default value: `4`
-m	dir	Set the mount point for the disk. Default value is a temporary directory
-B	branch	Install a specific kernel branch (from rPi kernel github repository)
-d	device	Device to use for install. Default value is `/dev/mmcblk0`
-k	lang	Lang for the keymaps. Default value is `fr`
-c	file	Use your own kernel config file. You need to use the absolute path
-H	hostname	Fix the hostname. Default value is `gibolin`
-t	timezone	Fix the timezone. Default value is `Europe/Paris`
-f	filesystem	Filesystem for the root partition: `f2fs`, `ext4`. Default value is `ext4`
-a	actions	Actions to perform Actually, for testing purpose. You can pick the actions in the following list: (`all`, `retrieve_files`, `prepare_card`, `build_kernel`, `populate`, `tune`). Default value `all`
-C	file	Use your own config.txt file. (You need to use the absolute path)
-M	size	Mode: `32` or `64` bits. This apply only on rPi 3, 3P and 4. Default value: `64`

Requirements

For some operations, you need to have admin rights
A minimal working sdcard
An internet connection
A crossdev environment to compile the kernel:
- aarch64-linux-gnu (rpi 3, 3+, 4)
- armv7a-linux-gnueabihf (rPi 2, 3, 3+, 4)
- armv6j-linux-gnueabihf (rpi 0, 0W, 1)

Examples

Create a simple sdcard for rpi4 on /dev/mmcblk0 with portage tree installed:

sudo ./GenBerry -p

Create an image for rPi 3B+ in 32 bit mode with f2fs portage and the kernel sources:

sudo ./GenBerry -p -i -M 32 -f f2fs -b 3P -s

This will generate a GenBerry_3P.img file in the work dir.

-M 32 means select 32 bit mode
-i means generate an image instead of using a rela sdcard
-f f2fs means use f2fs as filesystem for the root partitions (instead of ext4)
-b 3P means build for raspberry Pi 3B+
-s means copy the kernel source (it wille be a clean sources afetr a make mrproper)

You can use this image after, this way:

sudo dd if=GenBerry_3P.img of=/dev/yoursdcard status=progress

What to do after ?

Once your card is ready, plug it in you Pi and boot. If you don't have a screen available you can use the -u option to connect to your pi via the uart serial interface. After the first boot, your pi will execute a firstRun.start script located in /etc/local.d/ The content of this scrit is available in the FIRSTRUN variable in the GenBerry.cfg file. Basically, it will ru udhcpc on eth0, sync the time, emerge dhcpcd, delete itself and reboot. After this reboot, your pi will be available thrue eth0. Once you're logged in, just execute this few commands.

emerge --sync
emerge -auD --newuse @world
emerge -av --depclean
# If you want to use Wifi
emerge -av wpa_supplicant
rc-update add wpa_supplicant default
# reboot
shutdown -r now

Then, you just will have to customize your new system :)

Sources

Todo

Change partitions scheme
(dis|en)able some actions
Silent mode
Update kernel helper
Create tarball to expand on a sdcard instead of writing directly onto
For rPi4 activate USB attached SCSI
sshd ativated and root allowed to login
Choose the password
Check the available space for building the image

eprparadocs/GenBerry