How To Create A Very Small Linux System Using Buildroot - Agent OSS

How to create a very small Linux system using Buildroot | Agent OSS
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How to create a very small Linux system

usingBuildroot
Posted on 27/02/2011 by AgentOss
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Have you ever tried to install a

modern Linux distro onto a
small capacity (usually 32
megs or even less) usb drive
or compact flash card?
Even with a minimal install, such a distribution will not fit! Major Linux distros like
Debian/Slackware/Arch/etc need a bare minimum of 300-400 megs of disk space.
The only minimal system I have been able to install so far on a 128Meg disk is NetBSD (
http://www.netbsd.org ).
But there is a way to achieve such a thing : we will be using Buildroot in order to generate a
http://agentoss.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/how-to-create-a-very-small-linux-system-using-buildroot/[23/7/2013 14:30:39]
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very small (embedded) Linux system (targeted at a standard intel x86 computer)
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In this tutorial I have used a Ubuntu 10.04 system as my build machine.
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http://buildroot.uclibc.org/
Documentation :
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http://buildroot.uclibc.org/buildroot.html
Prior to using it, youll have to install a development environment on your system (GCC
compiler, Linux kernel headers, make tools etc). On Debian/Ubuntu, this is done by
installing packages such as :
build-essentials
First of all, we need to download and setup Buildroot on our build machine.
As a standard user (not root) :
# cd
# wget http://buildroot.uclibc.org/downloads/buildroot-snapshot.tar.bz2
# tar xvjf buildroot*
# cd buildroot
Buildroot Configuration
# make menuconfig
Now you have to select some options :

My target architecture is an x86 system, optimized for Pentium (i686). But your mileage may
vary
Target Architecture : i386
Target Architecture Variant : i686

Toolchain >
[X] Enable large file
System Configuration >
System hostname : choose your system name
System banner : anything you want
[X] Generic serial port config (can be useful)
Update 01-07-2012 :
Now you need to set
Port to run a getty (login prompt) on to tty1 instead of ttyS0, in order to get a login prompt
when booting your generated system!
Package Selection for the target

We select here the software packages we want to be in our embedded system
[X] Show packages that are also provided by busybox
[X] Customize
In this example I chose the following :
- support for foreign keyboard layouts
Hardware handling >
[X] kbd
- optional, but can be useful
[X] makedevs
- some lightweight networking apps : dropbear (SSH server) , thttpd (ultra small http server)
Networking applications >
[X] dropbear
[X] thttpd
- I like the nano text editor too
Text editors and viewers >
[X] nano
Target filesystem options >
[X] initramfs for initial ramdisk of linux kernel
Uncheck the other options.
This way, our system files (rootfs) will be contained within the kernel file, and loaded into
RAM by the kernel.
(note : cramfs does the same, but is older and limited to a 16Meg rootfs max.)
Bootloaders >
Uncheck everything here. We will test our image using qemu so we dont need a bootloader
yet. If you want to put your embedded system on a bootable USB drive, you can use
SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX to make it bootable (see here!).
Kernel >
[X] Linux Kernel
Important :
in Defconfig name, enter the value : i386
it corresponds to the linux-2.6.37/arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig file
(otherwise the build system will complain that it couldnt find a kernel configuration file).
Now select Exit to end the Buildroot configuration, save the changes of course (These
settings are stored in the .config file in the Buildroot directory).
Its time to start compiling!
# make
The first compilation will take some time, as software packages for the toolchain and other
components are downloaded, extracted and compiled on your build machine!
TIP :
If you need to configure the linux kernel for your special needs (youll likely have to) :
# make linux-menuconfig
Important especially : remember to include support for the EXT2 filesystem in your kernel, if
you want to be able to mount EXT2 formatted devices (usb flash drive for example) from
your embedded system!
If everything went well, the compilation is finished and your final system files (kernel and
optional boot and rootfs files) will be found in the output/images sub-directory of your
Buildroot.
In our example, we can see that the obtained kernel file : bzImage, is very small (above 5
megs, with and LZMA compressed initramfs filesystem)!
TIP
To force the complete rebuild of your embedded system :
# rm -rf output/build
# make
Testing our embedded system

We can use the QEMU emulator on our build host to do so.
# apt-get install qemu
# qemu -kernel output/images/bzImage

The default root login (as generated by Buildroot) has no password. There also exists a
standard user named default (no password too).
login: root
password: (none)
Now you can play with your lightweight (yet somewhat limited) sytem :
in order to start the network interface :
# ifconfig eth0
# udhcpc eth0
look at the busybox available commands :
# busybox
TIP
load a keymap :
# loadkeys fr
Ok, we have a new system, but some things have to be improved in order to make it more
usable. We are going to apply changes to the root filesystem (rootfs) before its included in
the kernel by Buildroots make process.
Wed like, amongst other things :
- that our preferred keymap be automatically loaded,
- the network to be automatically up and running,
etc
To do that, changes will be applied in the rootfs files contained in Buildroots output/target
subdir.
For the keymap :
# cd output/target
# nano etc/init.d/S99keymap
- file S99keymap
#!/bin/sh
loadkeys fr
- file S99keymap
# chmod 755 etc/init.d/S99keymap
AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO DO THIS WITH BUSYBOX! :

BusyBox has internal keymap manipulation commands
# dumpkmap >etc/french.kmap
# loadkmap </etc/french.kmap
See more at : http://www.unixgarden.com/index.php/embarque/linux-embarque%C2%A0busybox-%C2%AB%C2%A0in-a-nutshell%C2%A0%C2%BB

You can generate the .kmap file on your build host machine, then copy it to the rootfs
# apt-get install busybox
# sudo busybox dumpkmap >fr.kmap
# cp fr.kmap output/target/etc/
and then the S99keymap file contains the following line instead :
loadkmap </etc/fr.kmap
For the network configuration, we modify the etc/network/interfaces file :
# nano etc/network/interfaces
# Configure Loopback
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# automatically start eth0, with dhcp
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
While we are at it, we can modify the etc/TZ file, in order to have the correct timezone in our
embedded system.
Hare the TZ value below corresponds to Europe/Paris, see here for your preferred value :
http://www.sonoracomm.com/support/20-voice-support/107-uclibc-tz
# echo "CET-1CEST-2,M3.5.0/02:00:00,M10.5.0/03:00:00" >etc/TZ
SECURITY enhancements :
- Change the root password :
There maybe other ways to do the trick, but I found this one to be working :
# apt-get install mkpasswd
# echo 'mynewpassword' | mkpasswd -s -m md5
then paste the obtained string : $1$2VnNG40d$3SSSNXs.FfPnzlx9CMHZE/ (you will

obtain another value, this is just an example)
in the output/target/etc/shadow file, like this :
-etc/shadow root:$1$2VnNG40d$3SSSNXs.FfPnzlx9CMHZE/:10933:0:99999:7:::
Lets de-activate the default user login too :
modify the line :
default::10933:0:99999:7:::
into :
default:LK:10933:0:99999:7:::
(LK is for locked)
Other modifications (may be useful, some more testing needed!) :
To improve device hotplug support, add the two following lines
null::sysinit:/bin/echo /sbin/mdev >/proc/sys/kernel/hotplug
null::sysinit:/sbin/mdev -s
in the output/target/etc/inittab file. So that it looks :
etc/inittab
# Startup the system

null::sysinit:/bin/mount -t proc proc /proc
null::sysinit:/bin/mount -o remount,rw /
null::sysinit:/bin/mkdir -p /dev/pts
null::sysinit:/bin/echo /sbin/mdev >/proc/sys/kernel/hotplug
null::sysinit:/sbin/mdev -s
null::sysinit:/bin/mount -a
null::sysinit:/bin/hostname -F /etc/hostname
etc/inittab
Final generation of our embedded Linux system :
go back to the Buildroot directory, then
# make
TIP :
If you delete the whole output subir, your changes in the output/target rootfs will be lost
(obviously!) so it may be more convenient to make your changes in the fs/skeleton subdir,
so that they will be used when generating the target subdir.
There is still plenty of work to do in our embedded system, but youve got the process
uncovered.
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This entry was posted in Howto, Linux and tagged buildroot, embedded, lightweight, linux, smallest, system, tiny.
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How to create a bootable Linux USB drive

usingEXTLINUX
26 thoughts on How to create a very small Linux system

usingBuildroot
venkat says:
18/08/2011 at 00:45
hi,
I followed your procedure, but i am getting kernel panic when I emulate using qemu.
please help me. what is your build environment?
Cheers,
Venkat
Reply
AgentOss says:
18/08/2011 at 10:49
Hi
Im using a Debian 6.0 virtual machine (VirtualBox) for my buildroot environment.
Try starting qemu with -m 256 (to emulate 256Megs of RAM). By default qemu
uses 128Megs, which might not be nough for bigger kernels.
If that doesnt still work, please show a screen capture and your qemu line
Reply
venkat says:
18/08/2011 at 11:43
Thank you so much for the response. I shall try that and I get back to you .
Cheers,
Venkat
Reply
David J says:
07/01/2012 at 07:08
Hi,
I followed your steps, but in the end the qemu hangs on starting tftpd.. After googling,
it seems it didnt start console on serial port, but I cant figure out what is the next. The
inittab looks have the right ttyS0:
# Put a getty on the serial port
ttyS0::respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 38400 vt100 # GENERIC_SERIAL
Can you help?
Reply
AgentOss says:
07/01/2012 at 13:31
Hi,
Looks like that we need to use tty1 instead of ttyS0 !
Then youll have a login prompt in your buildroot system.
Im updating this howto
Thanks & have fun!
Reply
David J says:
07/01/2012 at 17:41
Its working perfectly. This will be my starting point and look forward to reducing the
memory consumption. Do you have any suggestion or link?
Thanks and have a great day!

DJ
Reply
AgentOss says:
07/01/2012 at 22:17
Good!
What are your memory requirements?
You could configure the kernel to remove unneeded drivers and features, but this
wont give a big gain in memory consumption.
I found that a minimal buildroot generated system (no X) with initramfs embedded
within the kernel needs at least 27M of RAM to boot, not less.
If you have less RAM, you might try to generate a kernel with no embedded
initramfs, but then you need to create a virtual hard disk with the root filesystem on
it (when using qemu).
Reply
David J says:
08/01/2012 at 07:07
Thanks for reply.

I try to get down to 10M. Generating a kernel without initramfs seems a good
option. How to create virtual disk with qemu? Thanks again.
AgentOss says:
08/01/2012 at 21:00
In Buildroot > Filesystem Images menu :

- uncheck initramfs
- check ext2 root filesystem
Then boot the system with :
qemu -kernel bzImage -append root=/dev/sda -hda rootfs.ext2
And remember to include support for ext2 fs in the kernel (not as module), otherwise
the kernel wont be able to mount the rootfs.
Still cant boot with less than 24Mb of RAM!
This is because the kernel needs this to decompress itself. We could try with an
uncompressed kernel (but so far I dont know how to obtain it)
Or you may try with an older 2.6.27.58 kernel, with it I could boot on a 16Mb system!
Reply
stewe says:
05/02/2012 at 21:12
hi
how it is possible that you have eth0 device present in the system? I do it by virtualbox
and there is only lo device and sit0, i do the same with qemu but theres no eth0 at all
what should i do in order to setup networking? thx
Reply
AgentOss says:
05/02/2012 at 21:29
Hi,
Have you configured your kernel with the ethernet drivers? (include them all in
doubt)
Also, paste your dmesg to pastebin and give us the link here so we can see whats
happening
Reply
stewe says:
05/02/2012 at 23:44
ive got it, i had to compile some additional network driver to the kernel
(Intel(R) 82575/82576 PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet support + Intel(R) 82576
Virtual Function Ethernet support) and switch network adapter in vmware
setting like Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM) under network adapter 1
advanced settings
Peter says:
18/01/2013 at 16:05
I tried to preapre my own linux by buildroot but after changed of ttyS0 to ttyS1 I still
cannot see login promt, it hangs after dropbear dsa key generated. I didnt add thttpd. I
have tried to change baudrate and ttyS to higher but after two days of compiling my
kernel still hangs after dropbear
Reply
AgentOss says:
18/01/2013 at 18:08
It should be tty1, not ttyS1 (S is for serial port)

Reply
Peter says:
18/01/2013 at 18:33
OMG, you are a GOD, what a stupid mistake.

Thank You!
Reply
Antoine says:
12/02/2013 at 15:38
Hi, I tried your tutorial, but buildroot fails at building host-m4 :

make[1]: Entering directory `/home/antoine/buildroot-2012.11.1/output/build/host-m41.4.16
make[1]: warning: -jN forced in submake: disabling jobserver mode.
make[1]: *** INTERNAL: readdir: Not a directory
. Stop.
make[1]: maint.mk: Field stem not cached: maint.mk
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/antoine/buildroot-2012.11.1/output/build/host-m41.4.16
I tried to use google, but I could not figure out what was wrong
Reply
AgentOss says:
12/02/2013 at 18:03
Hi, sorry I dont know about that.

The best thing to do would be to ask in the official Buildroot mailing lists!
Reply
xsmos says:
18/02/2013 at 18:47
I said I followed your tutorial to the letter but the launch of the initramfs image with the
launch qemu hangs a thttpd server initialization
my config is as follows
Lubuntu 12.04 X64
Intel core I3
6 giga ram
please help me thank you
Reply
AgentOss says:
18/02/2013 at 19:01
maybe a problem with tty1 not enabled (see the other comments above)
Reply
Peter says:
03/03/2013 at 12:31
Hi,
How can I build a system with buildroot which will be remember changes which I made
on harddrive? So it will remember changes which I made in rootfs.cpio filesystem, or it
will remember that Ive added some new software.
Regards,
Piotr
Reply
AgentOss says:
03/03/2013 at 14:31
Hi, I havent experimented that kind of things yet But look at Slitaz, or even Slax.
They have different mechanisms to do what you are looking for
Reply
Albert says:
06/04/2013 at 09:17
after the configuration and when i excute the make command i get this error message
:
2013-04-06 08:12:51 http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gmp/gmp-5.0.2.tar.bz2
Connecting to 192.168.110.80:8080 failed: Connection timed out.
Retrying.
2013-04-06 08:13:13 (try: 2) http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gmp/gmp-5.0.2.tar.bz2
Retrying.
2013-04-06 08:13:36 (try: 3) http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/gmp/gmp-5.0.2.tar.bz2
Giving up.
2013-04-06 08:13:57 http://sources.buildroot.net//gmp-5.0.2.tar.bz2

Retrying.
2013-04-06 08:14:19 (try: 2) http://sources.buildroot.net//gmp-5.0.2.tar.bz2
Retrying.
2013-04-06 08:14:42 (try: 3) http://sources.buildroot.net//gmp-5.0.2.tar.bz2
Giving up.
Reply
AgentOss says:
06/04/2013 at 12:21
It looks like you are behind a proxy that prevents you from downloading
Check your network / ask your sysadmin!
Reply
Albert says:
06/04/2013 at 22:21
when i excute:
# qemu -kernel output/images/bzImage
i get this message :
pci_add_option_rom: failed to find romfile pxe-rtl8139.bin
Reply
Alfred says:
10/04/2013 at 09:26
when i excute ifconfig eth0

ifconfig eth0 error fetching interface information device not found
Reply
AgentOss says:
10/04/2013 at 18:23
Maybe your ethernet driver (module) is missing. Verify that you have it in your
kernel config.
Reply
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How to create a very small Linux system using Buildroot | Agent OSS

Open Source Software tutorials and reviews

How to create a very small Linux system

Have you ever tried to install a

Follow Agent OSS

Enter your email address

Now you have to select some options :

Target Architecture Variant : i686

Package Selection for the target

Testing our embedded system

# apt-get install qemu

# qemu -kernel output/images/bzImage

AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO DO THIS WITH BUSYBOX! :

See more at : http://www.unixgarden.com/index.php/embarque/linux-embarque%C2%A0busybox-%C2%AB%C2%A0in-a-nutshell%C2%A0%C2%BB

iface lo inet loopback

then paste the obtained string : $1$2VnNG40d$3SSSNXs.FfPnzlx9CMHZE/ (you will

# Startup the system

Is This The Easiest Golf

Titans fan who went viral

Actress loses lawsuit

How to create a bootable Linux USB drive

26 thoughts on How to create a very small Linux system

Thanks and have a great day!

Thanks for reply.

In Buildroot > Filesystem Images menu :

It should be tty1, not ttyS1 (S is for serial port)

OMG, you are a GOD, what a stupid mistake.

Hi, I tried your tutorial, but buildroot fails at building host-m4 :

Hi, sorry I dont know about that.

2013-04-06 08:13:57 http://sources.buildroot.net//gmp-5.0.2.tar.bz2

when i excute ifconfig eth0

debian desktop distro DM1 drive e-350 embedded

install KDE kernel laptop

Follow Blog via Email

Join 15 other followers

Blog at WordPress.com. | The Able Theme.

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