FOG Operating System (FOS)

This is the operating system environment used for imaging with FOG. This is a linux based operating system with all the scripts and programs required for perform imaging tasks.

What does this repository do?

Builds FOS inits as well as kernels used by FOG.

What do we need?

1. You'll need a Debian or Red Hat based operating system.
2. You'll need to install git on your system.
3. You'll need to clone the fos repository.

How do I get the fos repository?

Pull the fos repository with:

git clone https://github.com/fogproject/fos

How to build?

To build the FOS inits and/or kernels we use the build.sh script.

Build script options:

The build.sh script has usage flags that are used to build the inits/kernels. You can run build.sh -h or build.sh --help to see all the flags.

NOTES:

1. This repository does not contain FOS or the kernels, it contains all the files needed to build the inits and kernels.
2. /path/to/fos/repo is not the real path, this is the path to the cloned repository on the machine you plan to run this on. Typically this would be something like ~/fos. This path will need to be changed to build.

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Build Everything

/path/to/fos/repo/build.sh -n

Build all inits only

/path/to/fos/repo/build.sh -nf

Build 64 bit (x64) init

/path/to/fos/repo/build.sh -nfa x64

Build 32 bit (x86) init

/path/to/fos/repo/build.sh -nfa x86

Build ARM 64 bit init

/path/to/fos/repo/build.sh -nfa arm64

Build all kernels only

/path/to/fos/repo/build.sh -nk

Build 64 bit (x64) kernel

/path/to/fos/repo/build.sh -nka x64

Build 32 bit (x86) kernel

/path/to/fos/repo/build.sh -nka x86

Build ARM 64 bit kernel

/path/to/fos/repo/build.sh -nka arm64

USB Boot Image

Some machines can't PXE boot reliably. create-usb-image.sh builds a bootable USB image (fos-usb.img) that boots straight into the same FOG menu (deploy/capture, registration, memtest, debug kernel) without needing PXE at all.

Every release published on GitHub automatically gets a fos-usb.img attached via the make_usb.yml workflow — you normally don't need to build it yourself.

Writing the image to a USB stick

dd if=fos-usb.img of=/dev/sdX bs=1M

Replace /dev/sdX with your USB stick's device name. Double-check this — writing to the wrong device destroys its data.

Pointing it at your FOG server

The image defaults to http://fog as the FOG server address. Edit boot/grub/grub.cfg on the USB stick's FAT32 partition (any OS, any text editor) and change:

set myfogip=http://fog

to your FOG server's actual IP or hostname. This can be done any time after writing the image — no need to rebuild it.

Building it manually

./create-usb-image.sh <base URL for downloading bzImage and init.xz>

Requires grub-efi-amd64, parted, and kpartx. Produces /tmp/fos-usb.img.