Alpine armhf VM's?

Incus
1

It looks like there are no Alpine Linux VM images for armhf? Is there any tutorials how to build one?

2

Replying to myself: it seems that only VM’s of the same architecture are currently possible. I am on x86_64 host.

3

But is that really the case?

$ incus image list images:alpine armhf -c ldat
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
|           ALIAS            |            DESCRIPTION             | ARCHITECTURE |   TYPE    |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.17/armhf (1 more) | Alpine 3.17 armhf (20241104_13:01) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.17/cloud/armhf    | Alpine 3.17 armhf (20241104_13:00) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.18/armhf (1 more) | Alpine 3.18 armhf (20241104_13:00) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.18/cloud/armhf    | Alpine 3.18 armhf (20241104_13:00) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.19/armhf (1 more) | Alpine 3.19 armhf (20241104_13:02) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.19/cloud/armhf    | Alpine 3.19 armhf (20241104_13:00) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.20/armhf (1 more) | Alpine 3.20 armhf (20241104_13:00) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.20/cloud/armhf    | Alpine 3.20 armhf (20241104_13:02) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/edge/armhf (1 more) | Alpine edge armhf (20241104_13:02) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/edge/cloud/armhf    | Alpine edge armhf (20241104_13:01) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+----------------------------+------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
$

Yes, it is.

But are there any armhf VMs?

$ incus image list images:armhf -c ldat
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
|               ALIAS               |              DESCRIPTION               | ARCHITECTURE |   TYPE    |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.17/armhf (1 more)        | Alpine 3.17 armhf (20241104_13:01)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.17/cloud/armhf           | Alpine 3.17 armhf (20241104_13:00)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.18/armhf (1 more)        | Alpine 3.18 armhf (20241104_13:00)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.18/cloud/armhf           | Alpine 3.18 armhf (20241104_13:00)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.19/armhf (1 more)        | Alpine 3.19 armhf (20241104_13:02)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.19/cloud/armhf           | Alpine 3.19 armhf (20241104_13:00)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.20/armhf (1 more)        | Alpine 3.20 armhf (20241104_13:00)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/3.20/cloud/armhf           | Alpine 3.20 armhf (20241104_13:02)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/edge/armhf (1 more)        | Alpine edge armhf (20241104_13:02)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| alpine/edge/cloud/armhf           | Alpine edge armhf (20241104_13:01)     | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| debian/10/armhf (3 more)          | Debian buster armhf (20241104_05:24)   | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| debian/10/cloud/armhf (1 more)    | Debian buster armhf (20241104_05:24)   | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| debian/11/armhf (3 more)          | Debian bullseye armhf (20241104_05:24) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| debian/11/cloud/armhf (1 more)    | Debian bullseye armhf (20241104_05:36) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| debian/12/armhf (3 more)          | Debian bookworm armhf (20241104_05:35) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| debian/12/cloud/armhf (1 more)    | Debian bookworm armhf (20241104_05:24) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| ubuntu/focal/armhf (3 more)       | Ubuntu focal armhf (20241104_08:01)    | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| ubuntu/focal/cloud/armhf (1 more) | Ubuntu focal armhf (20241104_08:05)    | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| ubuntu/jammy/armhf (3 more)       | Ubuntu jammy armhf (20241104_07:42)    | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| ubuntu/jammy/cloud/armhf (1 more) | Ubuntu jammy armhf (20241104_07:42)    | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| ubuntu/noble/armhf (3 more)       | Ubuntu noble armhf (20241104_07:42)    | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| ubuntu/noble/cloud/armhf (1 more) | Ubuntu noble armhf (20241104_08:03)    | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| ubuntu/oracular/armhf (1 more)    | Ubuntu oracular armhf (20241104_07:42) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
| ubuntu/oracular/cloud/armhf       | Ubuntu oracular armhf (20241104_08:08) | armv7l       | CONTAINER |
+-----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+-----------+
$

No, there are no such VM images. But can we build one, using distrobuilder, the alpine configuration, and the distrobuilder appropriate command line parameters found somewhere here?

Sure we can. But,

$ sudo distrobuilder --cache-dir=mycachedir build-dir alpine.yaml rootfs -o image.architecture=armhf -o image.release=edge -o image.variant=cloud -o source.same_as=3.20
INFO   [2024-11-04T22:49:50+02:00] Downloading source                           
/tmp/distrobuilder/alpinelinux-edge-armv7/alpine-minirootfs-3.20.3-armv7.tar.gz: 100% (1.74MB/s))
INFO   [2024-11-04T22:49:53+02:00] Unpacking image                               file=/tmp/distrobuilder/alpinelinux-edge-armv7/alpine-minirootfs-3.20.3-armv7.tar.gz
Error: Error while downloading source: Failed to edit apk repositories: fork/exec /bin/sed: exec format error
ERROR  [2024-11-04T22:49:53+02:00] Failed running distrobuilder                  err="Error while downloading source: Failed to edit apk repositories: fork/exec /bin/sed: exec format error"
INFO   [2024-11-04T22:49:53+02:00] Removing cache directory       
$

It says exec format error. We need an armhf VM in order to generate an Incus armhf VM image for armhf.

4

Incus does not support running 32bit VM images.
We only build and support 64bit images.