Issues creating an image-file from a SD-card

General Discussion
1

Hello.

I have succesfully converted Buster-based ARMbian-Images to DietPi using the very nice “Other device”-instruction:
An Orange Pi Zero and an Banana Pi M2+ are running nearly fine now.

But I have discovered two problems:

  • Before starting the converted DiePi I made an Image-file with Win32DiskImager. As I only have 32GB SD-cards the
    .IMG-file went 32GB big, but after zipping it the file size was below 2GB. Is there a way/tool to create an .IMG-file
    which only uses the space really used on the SD-card (pure .IMG-file, no extra zipping)?

  • When i wrote this .IMG-file to another SD-card with a capacity of also 32GB using W32DiskImager and balena Etcher
    both programs stated that I would need a little more space on the target SD-card. How is that possible?

So: How do I create an .IMG-file with minimum-size and compatible to other SD-card capacities?


Cheers,
Lelo

2

For the image creation DietPi use following script.

bash -c "$(curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MichaIng/DietPi/dev/.meta/dietpi-imager)"



  1. install Debian base image
  2. run the PREP script
  3. shutdown that device
  4. take out SD Card
  5. mount SD Card on a different DietPi device or DietPi VM
  6. run dietpi-imager script
  7. Select Drive as source
  8. select dd as cloning tool, DO NOT select Clonezilla installer, since this only works for x86_64 target systems
  9. select external usb drive
  10. select rootFS
  11. specify file name
  12. be patient, creation of the image will take some time
3

Thanks for your response, but I don´t succeed with this:
I have a Windows-laptop with an “Linux Mint XFCE” installed in VirtaulBox. It looks like a USB3-Port is not supported in VB,
but connecting the carderader to a USB2 port shows me the SD-card mounted in Thunar-filemanager.

I opened a terminal, entered the command you stated (with & without sudo) and got this reponse ("–>" = translation):

sudo bash -c "$(curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MichaIng/DietPi/dev/.meta/dietpi-imager)"
[sudo] Passwort:     
bash: Zeile 19: /boot/dietpi/func/dietpi-globals: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden ---> File or directory not found
bash: Zeile 21: G_CHECK_ROOT_USER: Befehl nicht gefunden ---> command not found
bash: Zeile 22: G_CHECK_ROOTFS_RW: Befehl nicht gefunden ---> command not found
bash: Zeile 24: G_INIT: Befehl nicht gefunden ---> command not found
environment: Zeile 59: G_WHIP_MENU: Befehl nicht gefunden ---> command not found

Where did I go wrong?

4

You would need to have a virtual machine running DietPi :wink:
Should not be a problem on Virtual Box :sunglasses:

5

Ah, OK, I thought “some DD-scripting” would do well with any linux.
Worked with VBox and the Dietpi-PC-Image fine then. Thanx for your support. :slight_smile:

6

yes, dietpi-imager is expecting a couple of DietPi functions (G_) as you can see on your error message

7

Hello, I am a fresh fan of dietpi. I liked dietpi for its minimization while having intuitive and automatic configuration tools.
I would like to make a clean system image using dietpi-imager for OdroidU3 and I am following the instructions exactly. I encountered this error:

DietPi-Imager: mount /dev/sdb2 /tmp/DietPi-imager_mnt
enviroment: line 433: 1968177152 bytes (1.83GiB) + 4*1024 : syntax error in expression (error token is "bytes (1.83GiB) + 4*1024**2 ")
8

Welcome to our community.

Can you be a little bit more specific at which step you are facing the issue

9

I have a issue at the step 12.

10

Does anyone have any ideas what is going on?

I also have a question. Does DietPi-imager create an image of the system with all user data and loaded applications, or in a raw installer clean system?

11

It creates an image from everything on the drive, everything you installed and created.
If you want a clean fresh system, then download the image from the website :wink:

12

Yes, it is a full image of the existing system.

13

I know but the problem is I have DietPi from Other System dietpi-installer from custom Debian Bullseye XFCE for Odroid U3 and I made some changed to good working on OdroidU3 and I would like to make clean fresh system for the others for this board. :wink: I made uncompressed image installer version on with dd on the console and now with instruction I would like to use dietpi-imager just fot the others. :wink:

14

The imager script will not create a clean image. It will take the system as is. basically do the same as using dd command. What we do in addition is to shrink and compress the IMG file.