From: Daan De Meyer <daan.j.demeyer@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2023 14:31:10 +0000 (+0100)
Subject: docs: Add doc on generating system extensions with mkosi
X-Git-Tag: v20~113^2
X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=refs%2Fpull%2F2122%2Fhead;p=thirdparty%2Fmkosi.git

docs: Add doc on generating system extensions with mkosi
---

diff --git a/docs/sysext.md b/docs/sysext.md
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+# Building system extensions with mkosi
+
+[System extension](https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/extension_image/)
+images may – dynamically at runtime — extend the base system with an
+overlay containing additional files.
+
+To build system extensions with mkosi, we first have to create a base
+image on top of which we can build our extension.
+
+To keep things manageable, we'll use mkosi's support for building
+multiple images so that we can build our base image and system extension
+in one go.
+
+Let's start by defining a base configuration file `mkosi.conf` with some
+shared settings:
+
+```conf
+[Output]
+OutputDirectory=mkosi.output
+CacheDirectory=mkosi.cache
+```
+
+Now let's continue with the base image definition by writing the
+following to `mkosi.images/base/mkosi.conf`:
+
+```conf
+[Output]
+Format=directory
+
+[Content]
+CleanPackageMetadata=no
+Packages=systemd
+         udev
+```
+
+We use the `directory` output format here instead of the `disk` output
+so that we can build our extension without needing root privileges.
+
+Now that we have our base image, we can define a sysext that builds on
+top of it by writing the following to `mkosi.images/btrfs/mkosi.conf`:
+
+```conf
+[Config]
+Dependencies=base
+
+[Output]
+Format=disk
+Overlay=yes
+
+[Content]
+BaseTrees=%O/base
+Packages=btrfs-progs
+```
+
+`BaseTrees=` point to our base image and `Overlay=yes` instructs mkosi
+to only package the files added on top of the base tree.
+
+We'll also want to mark our extension as a system extension. We'll
+assume that our extension is intended for an initramfs, so we'll need to
+configure it as such with `SYSEXT_SCOPE=`. To do that, write the
+following to
+`mkosi.images/btrfs/mkosi.extra/usr/lib/extension-release.d/extension-release.btrfs`:
+
+```conf
+ID=<distribution>
+VERSION_ID=<distribution-version>
+ARCHITECTURE=<architecture>
+SYSEXT_SCOPE=initrd
+```
+
+We'll want to package this up as a signed extension, so let's define the
+necessary systemd-repart files to make that possible:
+
+`mkosi.images/btrfs/mkosi.repart/10-root.conf`:
+
+```conf
+[Partition]
+Type=root
+Format=squashfs
+CopyFiles=/usr/
+Verity=data
+VerityMatchKey=root
+Minimize=best
+```
+
+`mkosi.images/btrfs/mkosi.repart/20-root-verity.conf`:
+
+```conf
+[Partition]
+Type=root-verity
+Verity=hash
+VerityMatchKey=root
+Minimize=best
+```
+
+`mkosi.images/btrfs/mkosi.repart/30-root-verity-sig.conf`:
+
+```conf
+[Partition]
+Type=root-verity-sig
+Verity=signature
+VerityMatchKey=root
+```
+
+Of course we can't sign anything without a key, so let's generate one
+with `mkosi genkey`. Note that this key will need to be loaded into your
+kernel keyring either at build time or via MOK for systemd to accept the
+system extension at runtime as trusted.
+
+Finally, you build the base image and the extensions by running
+`mkosi -f`. You'll find `btrfs.raw` in `mkosi.output` which is the
+extension image.
+
+If you want to package up the base image into another format, for
+example an initrd, we can do that by adding the following to
+`mkosi.images/initrd/mkosi.conf`:
+
+```conf
+[Config]
+Dependencies=base
+
+[Output]
+Format=cpio
+
+[Content]
+MakeInitrd=yes
+BaseTrees=%O/base
+```
+
+If we now run `mkosi -f` again, we'll find `initrd.cpio.zst` in
+`mkosi.output` with its accompanying extension still in `btrfs.raw`.