Contents

Control what lands inside the rootfs — firmware and kernel packages, the networking stack, extra drivers, extensions and first-run behaviour.

INSTALL_ARMBIAN_FIRMWARE

string · default: yes

Installs the armbian-firmware package, a curated collection of binary firmware blobs (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPU and other peripherals) that many boards need to bring their hardware up. Left on by default; set no only for images where you supply firmware yourself or want the smallest possible rootfs.

BOARD_FIRMWARE_INSTALL

string · default: empty

Selects which firmware variant is installed. Empty installs the standard armbian-firmware; set to -full to install armbian-firmware-full, the much larger package covering a far wider range of devices — useful when one image has to support many different peripherals, at the cost of extra size.

INSTALL_HEADERS

string

• yes: pre-install kernel headers
• no (default)

Pre-installs the matching kernel headers into the image so that DKMS and other out-of-tree kernel modules can be compiled directly on the running board. Off by default because the headers add noticeable size; enable it when the board’s users will build kernel modules themselves.

EXTRAWIFI

yes (default) | no

Builds and includes a set of out-of-tree Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapter drivers that are not in the mainline kernel, covering many popular USB and SDIO chipsets. On by default; set no to build with in-kernel drivers only — for a leaner image, or when a mainline driver already covers your adapter. See the driver list.

BSPFREEZE

string

• yes: hold the Armbian board-support packages so they are not upgraded
• no (default)

Marks the Armbian board-support packages (U-Boot, kernel, DTB and the BSP metapackage) as held, so apt upgrade on the running system will not replace them. Use it to pin a known-good board-support stack — handy for reproducible or long-lived deployments where an unattended kernel or U-Boot bump would be disruptive.

SKIP_ARMBIAN_REPO

string

• yes
• no (default)

Builds the image without adding Armbian’s apt repository, so the system sees only the base Debian/Ubuntu repositories. Suitable when developing a new release before its repository exists, or for custom images that must not pull packages from Armbian.

ARMBIAN_ZSH_SOURCE

string · default: https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh

Git repository that the armbian-zsh package fetches oh-my-zsh from. Override it to build against a fork or a local mirror — for example when building behind a firewall, or to pin a specific oh-my-zsh revision.

EXTRA_ROOTFS_NAME

string · default: empty

Appends a suffix to the cached root filesystem’s name so a customised build gets its own cache entry instead of reusing — or overwriting — the standard one. Set it when your userpatches change the rootfs in a way the cache key would not otherwise capture, to avoid stale-cache surprises.

INCLUDE_HOME_DIR

string

• yes
• no (default)

Includes files placed under /home in the build tree in the final image, letting you bake user data or dotfiles into the rootfs. Off by default so that /home starts empty on a fresh image.

NETWORKING_STACK

string

• network-manager
• systemd-networkd
• none (to not-add any networking extensions)

Installs the desired networking stack. If the parameter is undefined, it sets systemd-networkd for minimal images (BUILD_MINIMAL=yes) and network-manager for the rest. Time synchronization is also changed accordingly: chrony is installed with network-manager, while systemd-timesyncd is used with systemd-networkd. In both cases, network settings are controlled through Netplan.

./compile.sh NETWORKING_STACK="network-manager"

NTP_SERVER

string · default: pool.ntp.org

NTP server used to synchronise the clock on the build host during preparation (via ntpdate); it does not change the time source in the finished image. Point it at an internal server when the default pool.ntp.org is unreachable on your network.

CONSOLE_AUTOLOGIN

string

• yes (default)
• no

Automatically logs in as root on the local serial/HDMI console at first boot, so a freshly flashed board is immediately usable without a keyboard-and-password step. Set no if your security threat model requires a login prompt on the physical console.

OPENSSHD_REGENERATE_HOST_KEYS

boolean

• true (default): armbian-firstrun deletes the shipped OpenSSH host keys and regenerates them
• false: keep the shipped keys untouched

Controls whether armbian-firstrun deletes the image’s shipped OpenSSH host keys and regenerates fresh ones on first boot, so every device ends up with unique keys. Set false to keep the keys as-is — for example when cloud-init or another provisioning tool is responsible for setting them.

./compile.sh OPENSSHD_REGENERATE_HOST_KEYS=false

KEEP_ORIGINAL_OS_RELEASE

string · default: no

Keeps the base distribution’s /etc/os-release instead of replacing it with Armbian’s. By default Armbian overwrites the file so the system identifies itself as Armbian; set yes when software or tooling keys off the upstream Debian/Ubuntu identity.

ENABLE_EXTENSIONS

comma-separated list

Extensions add optional functionality to a build without bloating the core — extra image formats, drivers, tooling and more. Pass a comma-separated list of extension names (the filenames under extensions/) to enable them for this build.

./compile.sh \
build \
BOARD=uefi-x86 \
BRANCH=current \
BUILD_DESKTOP=no \
BUILD_MINIMAL=no \
KERNEL_CONFIGURE=no \
RELEASE=noble \
ENABLE_EXTENSIONS=mesa-vpu,nvidia \