Error with btrfs build option

[LorandMarton]

Description

Attempting to build an image with image_rootfs_type=btrfs results in a genimage error stating:
/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts/genimage.cfg:37: no such option 'btrfs'

Steps to Reproduce

Use the setoptions example as the base configuration.

Add the following option: image_rootfs_type=btrfs

Build process error

Full error log::

Click to expand full error log

[12:29:12] /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/device/pi5[post-build.sh] /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/rootfs
[12:29:12] /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/image/mbr/simple_dual[pre-image.sh] /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/rootfs /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts
[12:29:13] /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/sbom[gen.sh] /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/rootfs /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts
[info] checking github for the current release tag
[info] fetching release script for tag='v1.20.0'
[info] checking github for the current release tag
[info] using release tag='v1.20.0' version='1.20.0' os='linux' arch='arm64'
[info] installed /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/host/bin/syft
[12:29:22] SBOM: syft 1.20.0 scanning /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/rootfs
✔ Indexed file system /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/rootfs
✔ Cataloged contents 4919a2773a2bfbc55586b2cfd021b8d3f3cfedf473a4f11df1ada2f8261fecfa ├── ✔ Packages [215 packages]
├── ✔ File digests [9,840 files]
├── ✔ File metadata [9,840 locations]
└── ✔ Executables [1,219 executables]
/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts/genimage.cfg:37: no such option 'btrfs'
[12:29:50] Error: [podman unshare env IGconf_device_class=pi5 IGconf_device_hostname=pigen IGconf_device_keyboard_keymap=gb IGconf_device_keyboard_layout=English (UK) IGconf_device_locale1=en_GB.UTF-8 IGconf_device_options=defaults IGconf_device_profile=bookworm/apt-min64 IGconf_device_ssh_user1=n IGconf_device_timezone=Europe/London IGconf_device_timezone_area=Europe IGconf_device_timezone_city=London IGconf_device_user1=pi IGconf_device_user1pass=pi IGconf_device_variant=none IGconf_image_boot_part_size=200% IGconf_image_compression=none IGconf_image_layout=mbr/simple_dual IGconf_image_name=testimage IGconf_image_options=defaults IGconf_image_root_part_size=300% IGconf_image_rootfs_type=btrfs IGconf_image_suffix=img IGconf_image_version=2025-03-07 IGconf_sbom_output_format=spdx-json IGconf_ssh_user1=y IGconf_sys_deploydir=/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/deploy IGconf_sys_outputdir=/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts IGconf_sys_workdir=/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage IGDEVICE=/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/device/pi5 IGIMAGE=/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/image/mbr/simple_dual IGPROFILE=/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/profile/bookworm/apt-min64 PATH=/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/bin:/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/host/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games genimage --rootpath /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/rootfs --tmppath /tmp/tmp.iju52ZbU4Q --inputpath /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts --outputpath /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts --loglevel=1 --config /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts/genimage.cfg] (1)
Generating image...0:00:00
[12:29:50] genimage error

Additional Information

The genimage.cfg file:

Click to expand full error log

/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts/genimage.cfg:

image /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts/testimage.img.sparse {
android-sparse {
image = /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts/testimage.img
}
}

image /home/pi/rpi-image-gen/work/testimage/artefacts/testimage.img {
hdimage {
partition-table-type = "mbr"
}

partition boot {
in-partition-table = true
partition-type = 0xC
image = boot.vfat
bootable = true
}

partition root {
in-partition-table = true
partition-type = 0x83
image = root.btrfs
}
}

image boot.vfat {
vfat {
label = "BOOT"
extraargs = "-s 4 -S 512 -i 8acc9b45"
}
size = 200%
mountpoint = "/boot/firmware"
exec-pre = "'/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/image/mbr/simple_dual/setup.sh' BOOT 8acc9b45 12ada3d4-bbb9-4148-8391-c316333d2213"
}

image root.btrfs {
btrfs {
label = "ROOT"
extraargs = "-U 12ada3d4-bbb9-4148-8391-c316333d2213"
}
size = 300%
mountpoint = "/"
exec-pre = "'/home/pi/rpi-image-gen/image/mbr/simple_dual/setup.sh' ROOT 8acc9b45 12ada3d4-bbb9-4148-8391-c316333d2213"
}

Question

Is additional configuration required for btrfs build, or should the setup be adjusted in a different way?

[learmj]

Hi. Thanks for the report. Template fields are much appreciated. You need an up to date version of genimage in order to support btrfs. Further info in d4d5dfe

[LorandMarton]

Thanks for your hint - an up-to-date version of genimage works well.

I’m trying to create a Raspberry Pi OS Lite Btrfs image using rpi-image-gen for a Raspberry Pi 4B. My assumption is that adding the same packages with a YAML layer as pi-gen’s stage2 should get me close, but I suspect it’s not that simple.

My end goal is to get the Lite version running on Btrfs.

Would you have any hints on how to properly set this up? Once I get it working, I could contribute this as an example.

[learmj]

Cool. Glad it works for you.
Re: lite/stage2 - I think it probably is that simple as far as the packages go, and you could also use scripts in the YAML (or add custom bdebstrap hooks) to fixup the remaining bits and pieces like file tweaks, etc. Long term for rpi-image-gen, it might be useful if it could generate a lite image. It's something I may add in the future but it's primary use at the moment is to create custom images rather than having absolute parity with a system that pi-gen creates, although I'm sympathetic with your quest to have a lite image with btrfs :-)
Maybe looking at it another way, if you know what packages you need in your custom lite image (a lite image is pretty huge) and want to leverage the in-tree mbr/simple_dual layout with brtfs, I would suggest:

• Create a top level external <dir> with sub-directories for profile, config and meta.
• Create <dir>/config/myconfig.cfg so it has:

[image]
layout=mbr/simple_dual
boot_part_size=whatever
root_part_size=whatever
name=yourimagename

[device]
class=pi5
profile=yourprofile

There is no pi4 device directory yet but I intend to add one soon, along with others.

• Create <dir>/meta/yourlayer.yaml to describe the packages etc that you want, script ops, etc (can have as many layers you like). You can create /meta/yourlayer.defaults as a shell fragment if you want the layer to reference any variables or to have them set to defaults (variables will be auto prefixed with IGconf_meta). Directories are supported for layers and defaults.
• Create <dir>/profile/yourprofile and in it reference the layers you want from the in-tree meta and your dir, eg yourlayer etc. One layer per line.

If you find you can't do what you need to in the YAML, create <dir>/bdebstrap/customize-01 etc which will get called at chroot creation time at the customise stage (which happens after essential). The bdebstrap hooks are all run after those in the YAML (see https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-image-gen/blob/master/bin/runner for the order and how these are run). For example, anything you do in YAML under customize-hooks is guaranteed to have been executed before the bdebstrap hooks customize* are run.

Build with:
./build.sh -D <dir> -c myconfig.cfg

You can also hook up any options via <dir>/options and include it above using -o. Options can override any setting.
You can also pass variables in the env to build.sh, eg if you wanted to override meta variable myvar used in your cusom YAML you could do:

IGconf_meta_myvar=foo ./build.sh -D <dir> -c myconfig.cfg

Hope that helps. You may find that you don't need everything that a lite image has.

Lastly, unlike pi-gen, rpi-image-gen doesn't support any scripts to perform on-device resize. You can find some discussion about that in #5. We're targeting using sparse images now for device provisioning. You can use the https://github.com/raspberrypi/pi-gen-micro fastboot gadget with rpiboot (https://github.com/raspberrypi/usbboot) to write a sparse image with large apparent on-disk size to the device using fastboot. Some rudimentary size vs time info here.
Cheers,
-- Matt