Branding¶

Rebrand the built image’s identity — the OS name, URLs, logo, MOTD colour and package maintainer. Set these to ship your own white-labelled images instead of stock Armbian. They are normally set together in a build configuration file.

These switches populate the image’s identity files: /etc/os-release, /etc/issue and /etc/issue.net, /etc/armbian-release, /etc/armbian-image-release, the login MOTD, and the Maintainer field of the generated .deb packages.

Defaults are deliberate placeholders

Left unset, the framework fills these with placeholder fallbacks (shown as the defaults below), so an un-branded build identifies itself as Armbian-unofficial rather than masquerading as an official release. A branded build overrides the whole group — see the example at the end.

VENDOR¶

string · default: Armbian-unofficial

The vendor / OS name. Written to /etc/os-release PRETTY_NAME (as <VENDOR> <version> <release>), /etc/issue, /etc/issue.net and /etc/armbian-release. When unset it becomes Armbian-unofficial, marking the image as not an official build.

VENDORPRETTYNAME¶

string · optional

A friendly vendor name recorded in /etc/armbian-image-release (VENDORPRETTYNAME=). Defaults to VENDOR in the image when left unset.

VENDORCOLOR¶

string (ANSI 256 / R;G;B) · default: 247;16;0

Colour used for the vendor logo in the login MOTD. Written to /etc/armbian-release.

VENDORURL¶

string (URL) · default: https://duckduckgo.com/

Home page for the OS — os-release HOME_URL.

VENDORDOCS¶

string (URL) · default: https://docs.armbian.com/

Documentation URL, recorded in /etc/armbian-release.

VENDORSUPPORT¶

string (URL) · default: https://community.armbian.com/

Support URL — os-release SUPPORT_URL.

VENDORPRIVACY¶

string (URL) · default: https://duckduckgo.com/

Privacy-policy URL — os-release PRIVACY_POLICY_URL.

VENDORBUGS¶

string (URL) · default: https://armbian.atlassian.net/

Bug-report URL — os-release BUG_REPORT_URL.

VENDORLOGO¶

string · default: armbian-logo

Freedesktop icon name written to os-release LOGO= — the icon that tools like the desktop About dialog or fastfetch resolve from the icon theme. The framework only ships the armbian-logo assets (e.g. /usr/share/pixmaps/armbian-logo.svg), so a custom value (say acme-logo) resolves to nothing unless you also install a matching icon of that name. It is not the boot splash; to change the Plymouth boot logo see Boot splash (Plymouth) below.

MAINTAINER¶

string · default: John Doe

Maintainer name written to the Maintainer: field of the generated .deb packages (DEBIAN/control and the changelog trailer) and recorded in /etc/armbian-release. It does not cryptographically sign the packages.

MAINTAINERMAIL¶

string · default: john.doe@somewhere.on.planet

Maintainer e-mail written alongside MAINTAINER into the .deb Maintainer: field.

PLYMOUTH¶

string · default: yes

Builds and installs the Plymouth graphical boot splash (the armbian-plymouth-theme package). Set no to skip it for a text-only boot or a smaller image. It is forced no when the board has no video output (HAS_VIDEO_OUTPUT=no). See Boot splash (Plymouth) for customising the logo.

A full rebrand¶

Branded builds set the whole group together in a build config. For example, the values official Armbian images use:

Bash
declare -g VENDOR="Armbian"
declare -g VENDORCOLOR="247;16;0"
declare -g VENDORURL="https://www.armbian.com"
declare -g VENDORDOCS="https://docs.armbian.com"
declare -g VENDORSUPPORT="https://forum.armbian.com"
declare -g VENDORPRIVACY="https://www.armbian.com"
declare -g VENDORBUGS="https://www.armbian.com/bugs"
declare -g VENDORLOGO="armbian-logo"
declare -g MAINTAINER="Armbian Linux"
declare -g MAINTAINERMAIL="info@armbian.com"

Official builds

When VENDOR=Armbian, the framework also refuses vendor branding on community / unsupported combinations (it resets several of these fields), so only genuinely official images carry the full Armbian identity.

Boot splash (Plymouth)¶

The graphical boot splash is a separate asset from the branding switches above — it is not controlled by VENDORLOGO. It ships in the armbian-plymouth-theme package.

To use your own boot logo, replace the source image in the build framework:

File: packages/plymouth-theme-armbian/armbian-logo.png
Size: a square PNG, resized to 256×256 at build time — supply 256×256 (or a larger square; it is downscaled), on a transparent background (the splash background is black).

The build installs it as /usr/share/plymouth/themes/armbian/bgrt-fallback.png. The bgrt-fallback name means it is the logo used when the firmware provides no BGRT boot logo — the case on virtually all SBCs, so this is the logo you actually see.

Companion assets in the same folder: watermark.png (333×50, a wordmark shown centred) and spinner.gif (resized to a 52×52 throbber).

Without editing the framework tree

From userpatches/customize-image.sh you can overwrite /usr/share/plymouth/themes/armbian/bgrt-fallback.png (256×256) in the rootfs. Plymouth’s early-boot copy lives in the initramfs, which the build regenerates after customize-image.sh, so dropping the file there is enough.