armbian-common: rework to add more dependencies/recommends from armbian/build's CLI config

[tabrisnet]

This is a cherry-pick, with a few teaks, from #25

• apt-utils is needed, albeit it will be installed by mmdebstrap [we have to explicitly do so], as is locales
• console-setup is from config/cli/common/debootstrap/packages
  • so is ca-certificates
• e2fs-progs oddly isn't, but it is needed to do the FS resize that happens on first boot.
  • should this dependency be handled differently for different rootfs [btrfs, ext4, xfs, etc]?
• initramfs-utils is needed for any kernel that I'm aware of. arguably armbian-bsp or linux-image should depend on this, but as its always needed, it should go into the rootfs cache.
• gnupg2 is a virtual package that pulls in other GNU PG machinery, which afaik is needed for APT.
  • apt suggests it.
  • it's in config/cli/common/debootstrap/packages which suggests it's mandatory
• iproute2 seems obvious? maybe this could be demoted to Recommends
• I'm not aware of any system able to avoid tzdata

the Recommends are just pulled from config/cli/common/main/packages

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

The PR updates debian/control for the armbian-common package, adding multiple new package names to Depends (apt-utils, ca-certificates, console-setup, e2fsprogs, initramfs-tools, iproute2, logrotate, linux-base, locales, gnupg2, tzdata) and many packages to Recommends (including bash-completion, curl, jq, rsync, wpasupplicant, wireguard-tools, u-boot-tools, etc.). No packages were removed; the change is additive and includes a minor formatting adjustment for sudo.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

• Verify package names against Debian package registry for typos and correct package names.
• Check for unintended duplicates between Depends and Recommends.
• Confirm that packages with system-level impact (initramfs-tools, linux-base, locales, tzdata) are appropriate as Depends versus Recommends.
• Review formatting of debian/control for proper punctuation and line-wrapping.

Possibly related PRs

• control armbian-common: move armbian-bsp to Suggests #29 — Modifies armbian-common debian/control dependency declarations; both PRs change dependency lists and may overlap in intent or conflicts.

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately summarizes the main change: adding dependencies and recommends to armbian-common based on armbian/build's CLI config.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description provides relevant context about which packages are being added, their purpose, and their source from armbian/build configuration.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

✨ Finishing touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment

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[leggewie]

looking good, thank you

I haven't reviewed every single package that you added but it's easy enough to adjust if ever that became necessary. thank you for sure for adding your reasons of making some of the additions in the comment section of this PR.

I very much trust your skill and judgment. Approved. Again, thank you for your contribution. Much appreciated.

[leggewie]

need to resolve a conflict now after #29 landed, will merge after that

[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 0

🧹 Nitpick comments (2)

debian/control (2)

18-35: Depends additions look sane for a CLI rootfs; only minor classification trade‑offs to confirm

The new Depends entries (apt-utils, ca-certificates, console-setup, e2fsprogs, initramfs-tools, iproute2, logrotate, linux-base, locales, gnupg2, tzdata) match the PR’s intent of making the cached rootfs self-contained and aligned with armbian/build’s CLI config.

A few points you may want to double‑check before merging:

• iproute2 in Depends: this pushes it into the minimal “must-have” set for every armbian-common consumer. If there are environments that truly only need SSH + basic networking (and not full ip tooling), you might consider making iproute2 a Recommends instead, as mentioned in the PR text.
• e2fsprogs in Depends: this is a reasonable default for ext* rootfs resize-on-first-boot. If you later promote btrfs/xfs rootfs variants, you’ll probably also want their tooling (btrfs-progs, xfsprogs, etc.) treated consistently (either all Depends or all Recommends) to avoid asymmetric behavior on first boot.
• Several of these (apt-utils, locales, tzdata, console-setup) can be quite chatty in debconf if DEBIAN_FRONTEND is not set; ensure armbian/build still forces noninteractive or seeds them appropriately so image builds remain deterministic.

Functionally this all looks fine; these are mostly codifying what’s already implicitly present via debootstrap. The above are just classification/UX considerations to confirm against your supported use-cases (CLI images vs custom derivatives, containers, etc.).

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39-78: Recommends expansion aligns with armbian/build CLI packages but significantly enlarges the default base; consider whether any of these should be Suggests or in a separate meta

The enlarged Recommends set (bash-completion, bc, btrfs-progs, cron, curl, dbus-user-session, dosfstools, dialog, debconf-utils, debsums, fake-hwclock, fdisk, figlet, htop, init, iw, jq, less, lsof, man-db, mmc-utils, ncurses-term, parted, psmisc, rsync, rsyslog, systemd-resolved, toilet, u-boot-tools, usbutils, wget, wireguard-tools, wireless-regdb, wpasupplicant, etc.) looks like a direct transcription of the CLI config, which is good for keeping the rootfs cache and “armbian CLI” behavior in sync.

A couple of potential follow‑ups to think about (not blockers):

• Some of these are clearly “core admin tools” (curl, rsync, fdisk, parted, man-db, rsyslog, u-boot-tools) and seem uncontroversial as Recommends. Others are more cosmetic or niche (figlet/toilet, maybe wireguard-tools on boards that won’t use it) and might be better suited to either Suggests or a separate “extras” metapackage if image size or boot time becomes a concern.
• init and systemd-resolved as Recommends encode a fairly opinionated init/resolver stack. That’s probably fine for Armbian images, but if armbian-common is ever reused in container or alternate-init contexts, having these only as Suggests (or behind a more specific meta) could provide more flexibility.

If the explicit goal is “armbian-common == CLI image base profile”, then this is consistent; otherwise, you may want to split “minimal base” vs “nice-to-have tooling” into separate metas down the road.

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 3c6ca64 and 4787857.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• debian/control (1 hunks)

🧰 Additional context used

🧠 Learnings (2)

📓 Common learnings

Learnt from: tabrisnet
Repo: armbian/apa PR: 25
File: debian/control:23-23
Timestamp: 2025-12-06T21:01:15.488Z
Learning: In the armbian/apa repository's debian/control, iputils-ping is temporarily added to armbian-common's Depends as a workaround for a capability issue where /bin/ping cannot create raw sockets. The proper solution involves: (1) PR #27, (2) removing the chmod u+s workaround code from armbian/build (armbian/build#9033), and (3) adding libcap2-bin to armbian/build's debootstrap package list so that iputils-ping's postinst script can use setcap to properly configure /bin/ping. Once these pieces are complete and merged, iputils-ping should be removed from armbian-common's Depends as it will no longer be needed.

📚 Learning: 2025-12-06T21:01:15.488Z

Learnt from: tabrisnet
Repo: armbian/apa PR: 25
File: debian/control:23-23
Timestamp: 2025-12-06T21:01:15.488Z
Learning: In the armbian/apa repository's debian/control, iputils-ping is temporarily added to armbian-common's Depends as a workaround for a capability issue where /bin/ping cannot create raw sockets. The proper solution involves: (1) PR #27, (2) removing the chmod u+s workaround code from armbian/build (armbian/build#9033), and (3) adding libcap2-bin to armbian/build's debootstrap package list so that iputils-ping's postinst script can use setcap to properly configure /bin/ping. Once these pieces are complete and merged, iputils-ping should be removed from armbian-common's Depends as it will no longer be needed.

Applied to files:

• debian/control

[leggewie]

this was merged via the CLI, not github tooling

closing

[leggewie]

I suggest to consider moving some Depends to Recommends status to allow for deinstallation at runtime if so desired.

I agree that e2fs-progs should be installed in all images including -minimal as long as they are ext2-based, but I believe it might be better handled as an explicit addition to the bootstrapped packages at compile time. -minimal should be possible to be really the absolute minimum (boots and can be accessed via ssh). There can of course be exceptions for practical purposes, hence "consider" above.

[tabrisnet]

I think to do this, we'd have to have another extension that knows which rootfs. I don't know if we have a variable for that yet or not. grep ROOTFS -r lib/ is a bit noisy as you can imagine.