rpi-image-tool

A tool for:

• Creating new and empty .img files with two partitions.
• Mounting created or existing .img files.
• Un-mounting the same.

All .img files are created with two partitions of the types required for a Raspberry Pi:

1. A FAT32 bootable partition, partition number 1.
2. An ext4 root filesystem partition, partition number 2.

The Usage

Here is the usage message from the script:

Usage: rpi-image-tool {options ...}

Options:

 -C <work_dir>

 Clean-up a previous run, unmounting partitions, removing
 working files (not the image file or the working directory.

 -D <device>

 Mount the partitions on the SD card or other device.

 -M <image_file>

 Mount the partitions of an existing image file.

 -N <image_file>

 Create, partition and mount a new (empty) image file.

 Only one of the above uppercase options is permitted in any single run.

 -h

 Display this help text and exit.

 -c <integer_block_count>

 The number of blocks to write to a new image file. See -z below.
 Only relevant when using the -N option to generate a new image.

 -s <integer_split>

 The size of the FAT16) boot partition in blocks. See -z below for block size.
 Only relevant when using the -N option to create a new image.
 Default = 64

 -w <working_directory>

 The working directory which will contain the mount-point and other working files
 (not including the .img file unless the working directory is prefixed in the -N option.

 -z <block_size>

 The block size.
 Only relevant when using the -N option to create a new image.
 Permitted values are '1M' or '1MB'
 Default = 1M

Notes:

The script assumes that:

 1. The first partition is the boot partition.
 2. The second partition is the root partition.

If the supplied working directory is 'work', the mounts will be as follows:

 work/root         (where the root partition is mounted)
 work/root/boot    (where the boot partition is mounted)

IMPORTANT

There is NO paranoia checking to check the 2 partition rule is obeyed in any image file or device being created or mounted.

Be very careful when specifying the device name to a -N run of this script. It uses 'dd' to generate the .img file and 'dd' is silent and deadly if you pick the wrong device, for example your main hard-disk.

You have been warned!