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Armbian Build Framework Quick Start Guide

Requirements

  • x86_64 / aarch64 / riscv64 machine
  • at least 8GB (less for non-BTF builds) of memory and ~50GB of disk space for VM, container, or bare-metal installation
  • Armbian / Ubuntu Jammy 22.04.x for native building or any Docker capable Linux for containerised
  • Windows 10/11 with WSL2 subsystem running Armbian / Ubuntu Jammy 22.04.x
  • Superuser rights (configured sudo or root access).
  • Make sure your system is up-to-date! Outdated Docker binaries, for example, can cause trouble

Clone repository

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git clone https://github.com/armbian/build
cd build

Note

  • Make sure that full path to the build script does not contain spaces
  • For stable branch use last point release --branch=v24.11

Interactive

Run framework:

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./compile.sh
Video

CLI

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./compile.sh [command] [switch...] [config...]

Only one command can be specified.

Switches are parameter settings that are used by the build framework itself (e.g. DEBUG=yes) or the specific command.

Config files are bash shell scripts that are sourced in the order specified. They are primarily used to set switches but might also set hook functions. They must be located in the userpatches directory and must be named config-${arg}.conf or config-${arg}.conf.sh (where ${arg} is the argument from the command line): one or the other, but not both.

Switches set on the commandline override settings from the config files, regardless of the order they appear on the comandline.

Comprehensive list of build Commands and Switches

Example:

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./compile.sh build \
BOARD=uefi-x86 \
BRANCH=current \
BUILD_DESKTOP=yes \
BUILD_MINIMAL=no \
DESKTOP_APPGROUPS_SELECTED='browsers chat desktop_tools' \
DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT=gnome \
DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG_NAME=config_base \
KERNEL_CONFIGURE=no \
RELEASE=noble

Or, using config file userpatches/config-myboard.conf that sets all these switches:

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./compile.sh build \
myboard

Interpretation?

This command will generate Ubuntu 24.04 Noble based Gnome desktop environment image for Intel based hardware (uefi-x86). Besides bare desktop, it will contain packages from browsers and desktop_tool sections and it will use unchanged kernel from current kernel branch.

Logging

Logs are written to output/logs. Old logs (all but the current build) are compressed and moved to output/logs/archive.

Log formats are:

  • ANSI - text with ANSI escapes for color coding - *.log.ans
  • ASCII (if ansi2txt is available) - text without color coding escapes - *.log
  • Markdown summary - *.md
  • Raw (if RAW_LOG=yes) - tar file containg all the raw logs - *.raw.tar

For much more verbose logs set switch ‘DEBUG=yes’.

GitHub Actions

If you do not have the proper equipment to build images on your own, you can use our GitHub Action.