The typical deployment root file system sample for RelayLab.
First, create a virtual machine with 20 GB of virtual hard disk first.
Then, install Xubuntu 24.04 Minimal for making lightweight root file system, this example uses xubuntu-24.04.3-minimal-amd64.iso.
Here are some configuration this example used:
- Partition Table
- ESP, /boot/efi, 104 MB (will be 100 MiB)
- EXT4, /, remaining space
- Login Details
- Name: Relay Lab
- Computer Name: RelayLab
- Username: relaylab
- Password: rl
Press "Ctrl+Alt+T" or find "Terminal Emulator" in the launcher will open the local terminal in the target virtual machine.
Change the APT source will helpful to install and update packages.
- Remove default APT source configuration backup to make sure modification
properly.
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources.curtin.orig
- Edit APT source with GNU nano.
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources
- Refresh the APT source.
sudo apt update
Enable SSH server will helpful for the following configurations.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests openssh-server
sudo systemctl enable ssh
sudo systemctl start ssh
Before switch to the SSH connection, exit the local terminal.
exit
Open Windows Terminal in the host OS, then connect the target virtual machine with SSH. Here is the example.
ssh relaylab@RelayLab
For making a lightweight Ubuntu series image, it's necessary to remove snap. Fortunately, Xubuntu 24.04 Minimal won't install any snap package, we only need to remove snapd.
sudo apt purge snapd
sudo apt autopurge
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref
# To prevent repository packages from triggering the installation of Snap,
# this file forbids snapd from being installed by APT.
# For more information: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html
Package: snapd
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10
EOF
It's necessary to have a web browser. We need to install Firefox from Mozilla APT source because Ubuntu series only provide snap version of Firefox.
Here are some references for using the Mozilla APT source.
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux#w_install-firefox-deb-package-for-debian-based-distributions
- https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/help/mozilla
sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -q https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc > /dev/null
gpg -n -q --import --import-options import-show /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc | awk '/pub/{getline; gsub(/^ +| +$/,""); if($0 == "35BAA0B33E9EB396F59CA838C0BA5CE6DC6315A3") print "\nThe key fingerprint matches ("$0").\n"; else print "\nVerification failed: the fingerprint ("$0") does not match the expected one.\n"}'
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/mozilla/apt mozilla main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list > /dev/null
echo '
Package: *
Pin: release a=mozilla
Pin-Priority: 1000
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests firefox
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests htop git neofetch build-essential bleachbit curl gnupg2
sudo init 3
Important
Use the following command will override the /etc/X11/xorg.conf, it's OK for this document because original Xubuntu 24.04 Minimal doesn't have this file existed. If you want to use this trick into other distros, you may need to add configuration to /etc/X11/xorg.conf by manually edited.
echo '
Section "Device"
Identifier "Display 0"
Driver "fbdev"
EndSection
' | sudo tee /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo apt purge xserver-xorg-video-all
sudo apt autopurge
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
sudo init 5
sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] https://mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/ros2/ubuntu noble main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests ros-dev-tools ros-jazzy-desktop
sudo curl -sSL https://cyberbotics.com/Cyberbotics.asc -o /etc/apt/keyrings/Cyberbotics.asc
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/Cyberbotics.asc] https://cyberbotics.com/debian binary-amd64/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/Cyberbotics.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests webots ros-jazzy-webots-ros2
sudo apt upgrade
For smaller image size, we need to install and switch to the Ubuntu Azure Kernel before removing the generic kernel.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests linux-azure
sudo apt purge linux-firmware linux-*-generic
sudo apt autopurge
Use BleachBit as root and standard user to do that in your virtual machine window. After that, switch to your SSH window.
It's necessary for shrink the virtual hard disk.
dd if=/dev/zero of=zeroedspace bs=1M
sync
rm zeroedspace
sudo poweroff
You can use NanaBox or PowerShell to achieve this goal.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests gnupg2 build-essential flex bison dwarves libssl-dev libelf-dev cpio ncurses-dev
wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.12.41.tar.xz
unxz -v linux-6.12.41.tar.xz
wget https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.12.41.tar.sign
gpg2 --locate-keys torvalds@kernel.org gregkh@kernel.org
gpg2 --verify linux-6.12.41.tar.sign
tar xvf linux-6.12.41.tar
rm linux-6.12.41.tar
rm linux-6.12.41.tar.sign
mkdir linux-stable-output
cd linux-6.12.41
make KCONFIG_CONFIG=/home/relaylab/RelayLab/RelayLab.Kernel.Configurations/config-x64-RelayLab.NanaBox O=/home/relaylab/linux-stable-output -j4
sudo make KCONFIG_CONFIG=/home/relaylab/RelayLab/RelayLab.Kernel.Configurations/config-x64-RelayLab.NanaBox O=/home/relaylab/linux-stable-output INSTALL_MOD_STRIP=1 modules_install
sudo make KCONFIG_CONFIG=/home/relaylab/RelayLab/RelayLab.Kernel.Configurations/config-x64-RelayLab.NanaBox O=/home/relaylab/linux-stable-output install
sudo /home/relaylab/RelayLab/RelayLab.Kernel.Configurations/build-headers.sh --source "/home/relaylab/linux-6.12.41" --config "/home/relaylab/RelayLab/RelayLab.Kernel.Configurations/config-x64-RelayLab.NanaBox" --arch x86 --build-output "/home/relaylab/linux-stable-output" --output "/usr/src/linux-6.12.41-RelayLab.Kernel.NanaBox"
sudo chgrp -R root /usr/src/linux-6.12.41-RelayLab.Kernel.NanaBox
sudo chown -R root /usr/src/linux-6.12.41-RelayLab.Kernel.NanaBox
sudo rm /usr/lib/modules/6.12.41-RelayLab.Kernel.NanaBox/build
sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-6.12.41-RelayLab.Kernel.NanaBox /usr/lib/modules/6.12.41-RelayLab.Kernel.
NanaBox/build
cd ~
rm -rf linux-stable-output
rm -rf linux-6.12.41
sudo apt purge linux-*azure*
sudo apt autopurge
For smaller image size, we need to disable swap temporarily.
- Disable swap.img
sudo swapoff /swap.img
- Edit fstab to comment out swap.img
sudo nano /etc/fstab
- Remove swap.img
sudo rm /swap.img
This section is not verified currently
git clone -b 24.3 --depth 1 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa.git
sudo apt update
sudo apt install meson glslang-tools libclc-19-dev pkgconf python3-mako libdrm-dev llvm llvm-spirv-18 libllvmspirvlib-18-dev libclang-dev libwayland-dev libwayland-egl-backend-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxext-dev libxfixes-dev libxcb-glx0-dev libxcb-shm0-dev libxcb-dri3-dev libxcb-present-dev libxshmfence-dev libxxf86vm-dev libxrandr-dev libglvnd-dev bison flex
cd mesa
meson setup --strip -D gallium-drivers=swrast,d3d12 -D vulkan-drivers=swrast,microsoft-experimental -D microsoft-clc=enabled -D video-codecs=all -D osmesa=true -D glvnd=enabled build/
ninja -C build/
sudo ninja -C build/ install
sudo ldconfig
sudo apt install mesa-utils
rm -rf mesa