RAUC - Robust Auto-Update Controller

RAUC controls the update process on embedded linux systems. It is both a target application that runs as an update client and a host/target tool that allows you to create, inspect and modify installation artifacts.

Source Code: https://github.com/rauc/rauc

Documentation: https://rauc.readthedocs.org/

Features

• Fail-Safe & Atomic:
  • An update may be interrupted at any point without breaking the running system.
  • Update compatibility check
• Cryptographic signing and verification of updates using OpenSSL (signatures based on x.509 certificates)
• Flexible and customizable redundancy/storage setup
  • Symmetric setup (Root-FS A & B)
  • Asymmetric setup (recovery & normal)
  • Application partition, Data Partitions, ...
  • Allows grouping of multiple slots (rootfs, appfs) as update targets
• Two update modes:
  • Bundle: single file containing the whole update
  • Network: separate manifest and component files
• Bootloader support:
  • grub
  • barebox
  • u-boot
• Storage support:
  • ext2/3/4 filesystem
  • UBI volumes
  • UBIFS
  • raw NAND (using nandwrite)
  • squashfs
• Independent from updates source
  • USB Stick
  • Software provisioning server (e.g. Hawkbit)
• Controllable via D-Bus interface
• Supports Data migration
• Network protocol support using libcurl (https, http, ftp, ssh, ...)
• Several layers of update customization
  • Update-specific extensions (hooks)
  • System-specific extensions (handlers)
  • fully custom update script

Host Features

• Create update bundles
• Sign/resign bundles
• Inspect bundle files

Target Features

• Run as a system service (d-bus interface)
• Install bundles
• View system status information
• Change status of symmetric/asymmetric/custom slots

Target Requirements

• Boot state storage
  • GRUB: environment file on SD/eMMC/SSD/disk
  • Barebox: State partition on EEPROM/FRAM/MRAM or NAND flash
  • U-Boot: environment variable
• Boot target selection support in the bootloader
• Enough mass storage for two symmetric/asymmetric/custom slots
• For bundle mode:
  • Enough storage for the compressed bundle file (in memory, in a temporary partition or on an external storage device)
• For network mode:
  • No additional storage needed
  • Network interface
• Hardware watchdog (optional, but recommended)
• RTC (optional, but recommended)

Usage

Please see the documentation for details.

Prerequisites

Host (Build) Prerequisites

• automake

• libtool

• libglib2.0-dev

• libcurl3-dev

• libssl-dev

  sudo apt-get install automake libtool libglib2.0-dev libcurl3-dev libssl-dev

If you intend to use json-support you also need

sudo apt-get install libjson-glib-dev

Target Prerequisites

Required kernel options:

• CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=y
• CONFIG_SQUASHFS=y

For using tar archive in RAUC bundles with Busybox tar, you have to enable the following Busybox feature:

• CONFIG_FEATURE_TAR_AUTODETECT=y

Building from Sources

git clone https://github.com/rauc/rauc
cd rauc
./autogen.sh
./configure
make

Testing

sudo apt-get install user-mode-linux slirp
make check
./uml-test

Creating a Bundle

mkdir content-dir/
cp $SOURCE/rootfs.ext4.img content-dir/
cat >> content-dir/manifest << EOF
[update]
compatible=FooCorp Super BarBazzer
version=2015.04-1
[image.rootfs]
sha256=de2f256064a0af797747c2b97505dc0b9f3df0de4f489eac731c23ae9ca9cc31
size=24117248
filename=rootfs.ext4.img
EOF
rauc --cert autobuilder.cert.pem --key autobuilder.key.pem bundle content-dir/ update-2015.04-1.raucb

Installing a Bundle

rauc install update-2015.04-1.raucb

Contributing

Fork the repository and send us a pull request.

Please read the Documentation's Contributing section for more details.