All the files and scripts in this repository produce one simple outcome, a customized FreeBSD Desktop OS in an image.
Building the image is split into two main sections, the base and the top.
For more information see the following two websites: www.imgbsd.org wiki.imgbsd.org
===> Base The base is mainly just the compiled FreeBSD source and kernel, built with the predefined configurations held in base.conf.default (chosen specifically for imgBSD). The base was split from the rest of the process as it can take some time to compile and the configuration will rarely change over time. This also allows different projects with different goals to share the same base, or core, and the specialization to be made in the top. The base archive will also contain the build logs of the base compilation process. At the end of the base build process you should have a tar.xz archive ready to start building tops.
===> Top The top is comprised of a specified base archive, any installed ports (provided as txz packages), custom scripts, modifications to the base and also port configuration changes. The top (or topping) is where is where a completely different and customized image can be produced within minutes, which size could be anywhere from 100MB to several gigabytes. At the end of the process you should end up with an img binary ending in img.xz.
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Checkout sources First you must checkout the imgBSD sources: cd ~/ git clone https://github.com/imgBSD/imgBSD
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Base You have two choices for obtaining the required base archive, either build it yourself or download a pre-built release version. Compiling yourself will allow for customization (adding/removing FreeBSD features or a custom kernel configuration). The drawback is that it can take some time to compile (30min on an intel i5 with 16GB ram and on a ramdisk), can be tricky to get the correct compile options (due to dependencies) and finally means you will have to checkout the FreeBSD sources with SVN. However, the pre-built binary is around a 60MB file to download and will generally be compatible with the scripts for building the top.
===> Compiling yourself Depending on your location you can get the source with one of the following commands. svn checkout https://svn0.eu.FreeBSD.org/base/release/9.1.0 FreeBSD_src-9.1 svn checkout https://svn0.us-west.FreeBSD.org/release/9.1.0 FreeBSD_src-9.1
cd ~/imgBSD cp imgBSD/conf/base.conf.default imgBSD/conf/base.conf
Now edit imgBSD/conf/base.conf file to setup your environment and compile options. The imgBSD/conf/kernel_* is the default kernel conf used in the build process.
./create-base.sh -c imgBSD/conf/base.conf
Alternative: ===> Downloading the base The latest base can be downloaded from here: http://www.imgbsd.org/latest_base.xz
You might want to check the following page to make sure you end up with a base that matches the top you wish to build. http://www.imgbsd.org/releases.htm
- Top cd ~/imgBSD cp imgBSD/conf/top.conf.default imgBSD/conf/top.conf Edit imgBSD/conf/top.conf file to setup your environment.
===> Compile the ports You will need to build the collection of packages matching the list in imgBSD/conf/ports (this list does not contain dependencies, only ports to be required to be installed). If using poudriere (which is recommended) there is a make configuration file which has customized dependency options helping to reduce the size of the image. Alternatively you can download the all the packages used to create the the current image from the following page: http://www.imgbsd.org/releases.htm
===> Creating an img binary
cd ~/imgBSD ./create-top.sh -c imgBSD/conf/top.conf
Your image will be created after 10-20 minutes (with SSD's/ramdisks making the process significantly faster) and will be placed in the direcotry that you set "IMG_STORE_DIR" to in the top conf file.