stx-tools

StarlingX Build Tools

The StarlingX build process is tightly tied to CentOS in a number of ways, doing the build inside a Docker container makes this much easier on other flavors of Linux.

Container Build Preparation

We will use a copy of your existing .gitconfig in the container to pick up existing configuration. The StarlingX build system also has some specific requirements that do not need to be in your personal .gitconfig. Copy it into toCOPY to be picked up in the container build.

cp ~/.gitconfig toCOPY

Configuration

tbuilder uses a two-step configuration process that provides access to certain configuration values both inside and outside the container. This is extremely useful for path variables such as MY_REPO with have different values inside and outside but can be set to point to the same place.

The buildrc file is a shell script that is used to set the default configuration values. It is contained in the tbuilder repo and should not need to be modified by users as it reads a localrc file that will not be overwritten by tbuilder updates. This is where users should alter the default settings.

Sample localrc

# tbuilder localrc

MYUNAME=stx-builder
PROJECT=stx-work
HOST_PREFIX=$HOME/work

Makefile

tbuilder contains a Makefile that can be used to automate the build lifecycle of a container. The commands below are handled by the Makefile and will read the contents of the buildrc file.

The targets commonly used are:

• build - build the Docker images as required (This includes dev-centos, to build just the base dev image use target base-build.)
• clean - remove the stx-builder image (The dev-centos image is not removed, use base-clean to do that)

Base Container Build

The container build has been split into two parts to simplify iterating on build development. The basic CentOS image and the nearly 500 required development packages are pre-installed into a base image (local/dev-centos:7.3) that is then used for the StarlingX builder-specific bits.

make base-build

will run essentially the following manual build command:

docker build \
    --ulimit core=0 \
    -t local/dev-centos:7.3 \
    -f Dockerfile.centos73 \
    .

STX Builder Container Build

StarlingX Builder container images are tied to your UID so image names should include your username.

make build

NOTE:

• Do NOT change the UID to be different from the one you have on your host or things will go poorly. i.e. do not change --build-arg MYUID=$(id -u)

• The Dockerfile needs MYUID and MYUNAME defined, the rest of the configuration is copied in via buildrc/localrc.

Use the Builder Container

The tb.sh script is used to manage the run/stop lifecycle of working containers. Copy it to somewhere on your PATH, say $HOME/bin if you have one, or maybe /usr/local/bin.

The basic workflow is to create a working directory for a particular build, say a specific branch or whatever. Copy the buildrc file from the tbuilder repo to your work directory and create a localrc if you need one. The current working directory is assumed to be this work directory for all tb.sh commands. You switch projects by switching directories.

By default LOCALDISK will be placed under the directory pointed to by HOST_PREFIX, which defaults to $HOME/starlingx.

The tb.sh script uses sub-commands to select the operation:

• run - Runs the container in a shell. This does not return to a shell prompt while the container is running, you will need another shell window to work inside the container. This allows systemd and thus mock, to work from within the container. It will also create LOCALDISK if it does not exist.
• stop - Kills the running shell.
• exec - Starts a shell inside the container.

You should name your running container with your username. tbuilder does this automatically using the USER environment variable.

tb.sh run will create LOCALDISK if it does not already exist before starting the container.

Set the mirror directory to the shared mirror pointed to by HOST_MIRROR_DIR. The mirror is LARGE, if you are on a shared machine use the shared mirror. For example you could set the default value for HOST_MIRROR_DIR to /home/starlingx/mirror and share it.

Running the Container

Start the builder container:

tb.sh run

or by hand:

docker run -it --rm \
    --name ${TC_CONTAINER_NAME} \
    -v ${LOCALDISK}:${GUEST_LOCALDISK} \
    -v ${HOST_MIRROR_DIR}:/import/mirrors:ro \
    -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:ro \
    -v ~/.ssh:/mySSH:ro \
    -e "container=docker" \
    --security-opt seccomp=unconfined \
    ${TC_CONTAINER_TAG}

Running a Shell Inside the Container

Since running the container does not return to a shell prompt the exec into the container must be done from a different shell:

tb.sh exec

or by hand:

docker exec -it --user=${MYUNAME} ${USER}-centos-builder bash

Notes:

• The above will reusult in a running container in systemd mode. It will have NO login.
• I tend to use tmux to keep a group of shells related to the build container
• --user=${USER} is the default username, set MYUNAME in buildrc to change it.

Stop the Container

tb.sh stop

or by hand:

docker kill ${USER}-centos-builder

What to do to build from WITHIN the container

To make git cloning less painful

$ eval $(ssh-agent)
$ ssh-add

To start a fresh source tree

Instructions

Initialize the source tree.

cd $MY_REPO_ROOT_DIR
repo init -u git@git.openstack.org:openstack/stx-manifest.git -m stx-manifest.xml
repo sync

To build all packages:

$ cd $MY_REPO
$ build-pkgs or build-pkgs --clean <pkglist>; build-pkgs <pkglist>

To make an iso:

$ build-iso

First time build

The entire project builds as a bootable image which means that the resulting ISO needs the boot files (initrd, vmlinuz, etc) that are also built by this build system. The symptom of this issue is that even if the build is successful, the ISO will be unable to boot.

For more specific instructions on how to solve this issue, please the README on installer folder in stx-beas repository.

WARNING HACK WARNING

• Due to a lack of full udev support in the current build container, you need to do the following:

$ cd $MY_REPO
$ rm build-tools/update-efiboot-image
$ ln -s /usr/local/bin/update-efiboot-image $MY_REPO/build-tools/update-efiboot-image

• if you see complaints about udisksctl not being able to setup the loop device or not being able to mount it, you need to make sure the build-tools/update-efiboot-image is linked to the one in /usr/local/bin

Troubleshooting

• if you see:

Unit tmp.mount is bound to inactive unit dev-sdi2.device. Stopping, too.

• it's a docker bug. just kill the container and restart the it using a different name.
  • I usually switch between -centos-builder and -centos-builder2. It's some kind of timeout (bind?) issue.