# Unable to create artefacts from Ubuntu 18.04 x64 image using mender-convert-next **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220 "2019-11-06T15:44:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@TLS](https://hub.mender.io/u/TLS)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/1 "2019-11-06T15:44:13Z")
Hello! For the past few days i’ve been trying to use mender-convert-next on a Ubuntu 18.04 image. Initially I made contact with mender at [contact@mender.io](mailto:contact@mender.io) where i got the following instructions: 1. Install: [https://github.com/mendersoftware/mender-convert/tree/next](https://github.com/mendersoftware/mender-convert/tree/next) 2. Make an image. (They even gave me access to an image from their own s3 account, named: Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img.gz. This image was subsequently extracted and put in an input directory.) 3. To generate the mender artefacts, the following should be run: Quote mender support: "This should create two output Artifacts of interest: - An “.sdimg” file which you will use to provision a device - An “.mender” file that you will e.g upload to the Mender server to deploy OTA updates." The process starts. but does not create any output. Here is my entire output from the terminal: # Terminal Output ```auto fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git Running mender-convert-extract: --disk-image input/Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img --overlay rootfs_overlay_demo --config configs/qemux86-64_config 2019-11-06 15:06:03 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] Using configuration file: configs/mender_convert_config 2019-11-06 15:06:03 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] Using configuration file: configs/qemux86-64_config 2019-11-06 15:06:03 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] Validating disk image 2019-11-06 15:06:03 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] Disk parsed succesfully 2019-11-06 15:06:03 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] NUMBER OF PARTS: 2 TYPE: gpt 2019-11-06 15:06:03 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] PART 1: SIZE: 256M TYPE: c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b 2019-11-06 15:06:03 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] PART 1: extracting to work/part-1.fs 2019-11-06 15:06:03 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] PART 2: SIZE: 1,9G TYPE: 4f68bce3-e8cd-4db1-96e7-fbcaf984b709 2019-11-06 15:06:03 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] PART 2: extracting to work/part-2.fs Running mender-convert-modify: --disk-image input/Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img --overlay rootfs_overlay_demo --config configs/qemux86-64_config 2019-11-06 15:06:07 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] Using configuration file: configs/mender_convert_config 2019-11-06 15:06:07 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] Using configuration file: configs/qemux86-64_config 2019-11-06 15:06:08 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] Installing Mender client and related files 2019-11-06 15:06:09 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] Found Linux kernel image: work/rootfs/boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-20-generic 2019-11-06 15:06:09 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] Found initramfs image: work/rootfs/boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-20-generic 2019-11-06 15:06:09 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] Installing GRUB 2019-11-06 15:06:09 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] GRUB EFI: bootx64.efi 2019-11-06 15:06:10 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] Installing a custom /etc/fstab (see work/convert.log for more info) 2019-11-06 15:06:10 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] Performing platform specific modifications (if any) 2019-11-06 15:06:10 [INFO] [mender-convert-modify] Applying rootfs overlay: rootfs_overlay_demo mender-convert-modify has finished. Cleaning... Running mender-convert-package: --disk-image input/Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img --overlay rootfs_overlay_demo --config configs/qemux86-64_config 2019-11-06 15:06:10 [INFO] [mender-convert-package] Using configuration file: configs/mender_convert_config 2019-11-06 15:06:10 [INFO] [mender-convert-package] Using configuration file: configs/qemux86-64_config 2019-11-06 15:06:10 [WARN] [mender-convert-package] The allocated boot part size 40 MiB is too small. 2019-11-06 15:06:10 [WARN] [mender-convert-package] The actual boot part size is 256 MiB 2019-11-06 15:06:10 [WARN] [mender-convert-package] Will adjust MENDER_BOOT_PART_SIZE_MB automatically 2019-11-06 15:06:10 [WARN] [mender-convert-package] Considered adjusting the configuration file to avoid this message 2019-11-06 15:06:11 [INFO] [mender-convert-package] Creating a file-system image from: work/rootfs/data/ 2019-11-06 15:06:11 [INFO] [mender-convert-package] Creating a file-system image from: work/rootfs/ 2019-11-06 15:06:19 [INFO] [mender-convert-package] Copying root filesystem image to deploy directory 2019-11-06 15:06:20 [INFO] [mender-convert-package] Writing Mender artifact to: deploy/qemux86_64-release-1.mender 2019-11-06 15:06:20 [INFO] [mender-convert-package] This can take up to 20 minutes depending on which compression method is used modules/run.sh: line 26: mender-artifact: command not found mender-convert-package has finished. Cleaning.. ``` Firstly, i noticed the “fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git”, which i could not make sense of. I also see that: mender-artifact: command not found. I tried git cloning the repo mender-artifact to see if i could spot any missing dependencies without any luck. Therefore, in the lack of a solution, I was hoping someone could help me work through this issue? And in general, explain how to configure mender to make a “.mender” and “.sdimg” from a Ubuntu 18.04 x64 image. Best regards, TL Edit: @mirzak: formatting. ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 5:43pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/2 "2019-11-06T17:43:16Z")
> [@TLS](#): > > modules/run.sh: line 26: mender-artifact: command not found Indeed, this is the root cause of it failing. You need to have the `mender-artifact` binary installed on your PC and it needs to available in `PATH`. You can download a pre-built binary of `mender-artifact` here: [https://docs.mender.io/2.2/downloads](https://docs.mender.io/2.2/downloads) One alternative, to avoid installing this is to utilize the “Dockerized” version of the `mender-convert` tool, which will run the `mender-convert` tool inside a Docker container which has all the dependencies installed already. Instructions can be found here, [https://github.com/mendersoftware/mender-convert/tree/next#docker-environment-for-mender-convert](https://github.com/mendersoftware/mender-convert/tree/next#docker-environment-for-mender-convert) So in you case, once you have built the docker image you would run, ```auto MENDER_ARTIFACT_NAME=release-1 ./docker-mender-convert \ --disk-image input/Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img \ --overlay rootfs_overlay_demo \ --config configs/qemux86-64_config ``` The only difference from you original command is, `mender-convert` → `docker-mender-convert` ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/3 "2019-11-06T17:47:52Z")
And this error, > [@TLS](#): > > fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git is because we try to parse the git revision of of the `mender-convert` repository which is output when using `mender-convert --version`. I suspect that you have downloaded the `mender-convert`repository as a tar archive, instead of running e.g: ```auto git clone -b next https://github.com/mendersoftware/mender-convert.git ``` Though this is something that we should fix, avoiding to print this confusing message. ---
**Author:** ![TLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@TLS](https://hub.mender.io/u/TLS)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/4 "2019-11-07T13:23:25Z")
You were absolutely right, running it from within docker solved it. And yes, i did download the .zip file, which explains the: “fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git”. I now have a “.sdimg” and “.mender”-file from my Ubuntu image. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Rohita83](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/rohita83/32/436_2.png) [@Rohita83](https://hub.mender.io/u/Rohita83)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/5 "2019-11-26T12:24:02Z")
Hello, I’ve been trying to use mender-convert-next on a Ubuntu 18.04 image. I have downloaded Ubuntu 18.04 image from [https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop](https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop) I have converted ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso into ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img using below command: dd if=ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso of=ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img **#Steps followed using mender-convert-next git repo on a Ubuntu 18.04 image** git clone -b next [https://github.com/mendersoftware/mender-convert.git](https://github.com/mendersoftware/mender-convert.git) cd mender-convert mkdir -p input #Copy the ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img file under input folder ./scripts/bootstrap-rootfs-overlay-demo-server.sh --output-dir ${PWD}/rootfs\_overlay\_demo --server-ip 10.77.164.6 sudo su ./docker-build MENDER\_ARTIFACT\_NAME=release-1 ./docker-mender-convert --disk-image input/ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img --overlay rootfs\_overlay\_demo --config configs/qemux86-64\_config user@user-Veriton-Series:$ lsb\_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: **Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS** Release: 18.04 Codename: bionic I have tried conversion both with docker & without docker as well but getting same error as below. **## Terminal Output & ERROR ##** user@user-Veriton-Series:~/Rohit/mender/mender-convert$ _MENDER\_ARTIFACT\_NAME=release-1 ./mender-convert --disk-image input/Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img --overlay rootfs\_overlay\_demo --config configs/qemux86-64\_config_ _Running mender-convert-extract: --disk-image input/Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img --overlay rootfs\_overlay\_demo --config configs/qemux86-64\_config_ _2019-11-26 15:12:41 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] Using configuration file: configs/mender\_convert\_config_ _2019-11-26 15:12:41 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] Using configuration file: configs/qemux86-64\_config_ _2019-11-26 15:12:41 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] Validating disk image_ _2019-11-26 15:12:41 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] Disk parsed succesfully_ _2019-11-26 15:12:41 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] NUMBER OF PARTS: 2 TYPE: dos_ _2019-11-26 15:12:41 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] PART 1: SIZE: 2G TYPE: 0x0_ _2019-11-26 15:12:41 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] PART 1: extracting to work/part-1.fs_ _2019-11-26 15:13:31 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] PART 2: SIZE: 2.4M TYPE: 0xef_ _2019-11-26 15:13:31 [INFO] [mender-convert-extract] PART 2: extracting to work/part-2.fs_ _ **dd: invalid number: ‘-1’** _ Could you please assist me to resolve this above dd error. ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 12:27pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/6 "2019-11-26T12:27:02Z")
> [@Rohita83](#): > > dd if=ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso of=ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img Can you run `fdisk -l ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img` and share the output here. ---
**Author:** ![Rohita83](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/rohita83/32/436_2.png) [@Rohita83](https://hub.mender.io/u/Rohita83)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 12:28pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/7 "2019-11-26T12:28:17Z")
user@user-Veriton-Series:~/Rohit/mender/Backup\_image$ fdisk -l ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img Disk ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img: 2 GiB, 2082816000 bytes, 4068000 sectors Units: sectors of 1 \* 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: dos Disk identifier: 0x5092863d Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img1 \* 0 4067999 4068000 2G 0 Empty ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img2 3989132 3994059 4928 2.4M ef EFI (FAT ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 12:41pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/8 "2019-11-26T12:41:00Z")
Yeah, this does not make any sense. The command you ran: > dd if=ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso of=ubuntu-18.04.3-desktop-amd64.img Will not convert the `.iso` image to an disk image, and this simply makes a copy/rename of the `iso’ image. `mender-convert` will not work with iso images and this is probably not something that you would like to use with Mender. Images downloaded from [https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop](https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop) are installer images. You can take a look at the recommended workflow for `mender-convert` here, [https://docs.mender.io/2.2/artifacts/debian-family#recommended-workflow](https://docs.mender.io/2.2/artifacts/debian-family#recommended-workflow) ---
**Author:** ![Rohita83](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/rohita83/32/436_2.png) [@Rohita83](https://hub.mender.io/u/Rohita83)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/9 "2019-11-26T13:36:48Z")
@mirzak, Thanks for quick response. Could you please share any source (S3 account or URL) for getting Ubuntu 18.04 x86 desktop for **.img** image i.e. Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img.gz. ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/10 "2019-11-26T13:42:27Z")
Note that this is simply a test image that we use while running tests on the mender-convert tool, [https://d1b0l86ne08fsf.cloudfront.net/mender-convert/images/Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img.gz](https://d1b0l86ne08fsf.cloudfront.net/mender-convert/images/Ubuntu-Bionic-x86-64.img.gz) Generated using: ```auto mkosi -d ubuntu -r bionic -t gpt_ext4 -b --checksum --password password -o image.raw ``` ---
**Author:** ![Rohita83](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/rohita83/32/436_2.png) [@Rohita83](https://hub.mender.io/u/Rohita83)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 6:11am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/11 "2019-11-28T06:11:02Z")
@mirzak, I now have a “.sdimg” and “.mender” files from the provided test Ubuntu image. **Note:** Without sd-card boot, By using qemu with below command, I am able to login successful without any error. _sudo qemu-system-x86\_64 -enable-kvm -m 512 -smp 2 -bios /usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.fd -drive format=raw,file=qemux86\_64-release-1.sdimg_ When I booted above provided ubuntu test image into sd-card (16gb) & connect with X86 64bit m/c and also was able to login successfully after entering hostname/password into terminal (without GUI) But when I booted same with mender converted .sdimg file into sd-card & connect with X86 64bit m/c and I am getting error on terminal as **“[FAILED] Failed to start Switch Root.”.** Is there any idea about this error? ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 9:24am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/12 "2019-11-29T09:24:03Z")
> [@Rohita83](#): > > “[FAILED] Failed to start Switch Root.”. Where exactly are you getting this error? Can you share a more complete log? ---
**Author:** ![Rohita83](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/rohita83/32/436_2.png) [@Rohita83](https://hub.mender.io/u/Rohita83)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/unable-to-create-artefacts-from-ubuntu-18-04-x64-image-using-mender-convert-next/1220/13 "2019-12-02T05:35:08Z")
@mirzak, Attached error screenshot after boot .sdimg (on 16GB sdcard) on X86 m/c for reference. ![IMG-20191202-WA0001](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/mender/original/1X/37657833bac85bf8a0039b5cee81b82464094ee4.jpeg)