Feedback requested: making Debian system update generation easier

General Discussions
1

Hi everyone,

We’re looking at some ideas for making system update (i.e. rootfs) generation easier for Debian family distributions (where Mender uses mender-convert).

Right now the golden image workflow is being used, however it has quite a bit of steps for moving storage (e.g. SD cards) around, dumping images, etc.

If you’re interested in giving your feedback on a call to help improve Mender in this area, please let me know (DM me or email contact@mender.io). We offer a $50 Amazon gift card as a small token of appreciation for your time.

2

If you’d rather provide comments here, I have attached some ideas. Let me know what you think!

System%20update%20generation%20workflow%201%20-%20snapshot
System%20update%20generation%20workflow%201%20-%20snapshot960×540 46.3 KB
System%20update%20generation%20workflow%202%20-%20rsync-snapshot
System%20update%20generation%20workflow%202%20-%20rsync-snapshot960×540 43.5 KB
System%20update%20generation%20workflow%203%20-%20image%20modificatin
System%20update%20generation%20workflow%203%20-%20image%20modificatin960×540 46.4 KB
System%20update%20generation%20workflow%20-%20current
System%20update%20generation%20workflow%20-%20current960×540 46.8 KB

3

Hi,
To spare the SD card, you may try to mount additional storage and dd the image to it, then scp the file to your further handling.
Another alternative, is to use compatible device with stronger CPU, RAM, etc. and do all the work on it.

4

Hi @shainert.israel,

Thanks for the feedback!

For the first one, do you mean to mount additional storage on the device itself? Such as an USB dongle or network storage?

5

Yes. The type that will provide the best performance with dd.