# Using Yocto with Self-hosted Mender server, manual instructions appear to be incomplete **URL:** \ **Category:** Yocto Project\ **Created:** [August 3, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/using-yocto-with-self-hosted-mender-server-manual-instructions-appear-to-be-incomplete/5171 "2022-08-03T21:55:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kris](https://hub.mender.io/u/Kris)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/using-yocto-with-self-hosted-mender-server-manual-instructions-appear-to-be-incomplete/5171/1 "2022-08-03T21:55:19Z")
We’re trying to spin up a Yocto Kirkstone build with Mender for a customer. Currently using `master-next` of `meta-mender` In trying to follow along with the instructions, they seem to be incomplete or incorrect and I would love some direction here. I’m not sure if the disconnect is due to changes between latest `meta-mender` stable (which I think is Dunfell) vs `master-next` and the instructions havn’t yet caught up. However, I don’t see any significant differences between key files that would cause these to just not work. We’ve done an integration like this before with Buildroot, where a lot of the configuration and files were manually controlled. The documentation for Mender seems to hint that Yocto should automatically take care of a lot of things but does not appear to. EDIT: Most of what is below is invalid, see my next post for the current sticking point. The documentation does not take in to account changes in `master-next` so I’m off in the weeds. e.g. `server.crt` As outlined in the instructions here: [Building for production | Mender documentation](https://docs.mender.io/3.3/system-updates-yocto-project/build-for-production#using-a-layer) `cat recipes-mender/mender-client/mender-client_%.bbappend` ```auto MENDER_SERVER_URL = "https://..." FILESEXTRAPATHS:prepend := "${THISDIR}/files:" SRC_URI:append = " file://server.crt" ``` The file `server.crt` ends up not existing anywhere in the output rootfs. Based on a few things I’ve found while searching around the internet, it may be necessary to manually install files. And, in digging through the `meta-mender` layers, nothing seems to actually set `ServerCertificate` automatically in the final `mender.conf` Okay, maybe I need to manually install the `server.crt` As seen in: [Customize Mender | Mender documentation](https://docs.mender.io/system-updates-yocto-project/customize-mender#configuration-file) " It is possible to put your own `mender.conf` configuration file in the image. The file will be merged with settings from Yocto variables." So I’ve changed the .bbappend file accordingly to try and get `ServerCertificate` in the final image: `cat recipes-mender/mender-client/mender-client_%.bbappend` ```auto MENDER_SERVER_URL = "https://..." FILESEXTRAPATHS:prepend := "${THISDIR}/files:" SRC_URI:append = "file://server.crt \ file://mender.conf" ``` `cat recipes-mender/mender-client/files/mender.conf ` ```auto { "ServerCertificate": "/etc/mender/server.crt" } ``` The installed `mender.conf` files on the target are unchanged. Am I missing something in the `.bbappend` file? If the `server.crt` file gets installed to the filesystem, does that automatically update `ServerCertificate`? Is the manual incorrect? Is this an issue trying to work with `master-next` for Kirkstone support? ---
**Author:** ![Kris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kris](https://hub.mender.io/u/Kris)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2022, 9:34pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/using-yocto-with-self-hosted-mender-server-manual-instructions-appear-to-be-incomplete/5171/2 "2022-08-04T21:34:16Z")
I’ve been focusing on just `server.crt` to try and make this as simple as possible. I’ve made some forward progress, but, am stuck again. I found that at some point between `Dunfell` and `master-next` there was a change to how `server.crt` is handled. Thus, making the documentation incorrect for `master-next` (but is probably still valid for `Dunfell`). Which is fine as it’s unreleased. Looking at some commits and the mender-demo tree, I’ve found that this appears to be the right thing to do in our layer: `cat recipes-mender/mender-client/mender-client_%.bbappend` ```auto # Depend on mender-server-certificate DEPENDS:append = " mender-server-certificate" RDEPENDS_${PN}:append = " mender-server-certificate" MENDER_SERVER_URL = "https://..." ``` And: `cat recipes-mender/mender-server-certificate/mender-server-certificate.bbappend` ```auto FILESEXTRAPATHS:prepend := "${THISDIR}/files:" SRC_URI:append = " file://server.crt" ``` I can follow the build logs and see that `mender-server-certificate` is getting picked up and installed to `~/bsp/build/tmp/work/all-poky-linux/mender-server-certificate/0.1-r0/image/usr/local/share/ca-certificates/mender/server.crt` But that file/path is not making it to the rootfs and I have no idea what I’m missing at this point. ---
**Author:** ![kacf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/kacf/32/146_2.png) [@kacf](https://hub.mender.io/u/kacf)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 11:30am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/using-yocto-with-self-hosted-mender-server-manual-instructions-appear-to-be-incomplete/5171/3 "2022-08-10T11:30:32Z")
You’re right that this is “the new way” in master-next (kirkstone) and later. I can’t really see why it wouldn’t be installed though. And this is tested pretty heavily in our CI, so I’m fairly certain this must be something specific on your end. Does it make any difference if you use this in `local.conf`? ```auto IMAGE_INSTALL:append = " mender-server-certificate" ``` ---
**Author:** ![Kris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kris](https://hub.mender.io/u/Kris)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/using-yocto-with-self-hosted-mender-server-manual-instructions-appear-to-be-incomplete/5171/4 "2022-08-24T16:38:40Z")
That was it I guess. I had tried that much previously, putting `mender-client` and `mender-server-certificate` in our image.bb file. I didn’t have success previously, but I figured I would try it again in case I may have had a typo, and it looks like it worked this time around ```auto @@ -52,6 +52,8 @@ IMAGE_INSTALL:append = " \ matchbox-keyboard \ matchbox-terminal \ matchbox-wm \ + mender-client \ + mender-server-certificate \ mesa-demos \ modemmanager \ nano \ ``` I’m still fairly green when it comes to Yocto, but I am quite surprised that having set up `mender-client_%.bbappend` to `DEPENDS` on `mender-server-certificate` that it would only end up building and not installing `mender-server-certificate`. Especially when putting `mender-client` in our `IMAGE_INSTALL` variable isn’t actually necessary for the Mender client to end up installed in the final image. Thanks for the sanity check. ---
**Author:** ![kacf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/kacf/32/146_2.png) [@kacf](https://hub.mender.io/u/kacf)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 6:22am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/using-yocto-with-self-hosted-mender-server-manual-instructions-appear-to-be-incomplete/5171/5 "2022-08-25T06:22:39Z")
> [@Kris](#): > > I’m still fairly green when it comes to Yocto, but I am quite surprised that having set up `mender-client_%.bbappend` to `DEPENDS` on `mender-server-certificate` that it would only end up building and not installing `mender-server-certificate`. Well, technically it’s `RDEPENDS` which is supposed to install it in the image, but it looks like you already have that based on your earlier replies.