Advanced users • Re: Configuring Pi before first Boot

Grumble.... Neither a fan of sdm or nm, ...

I suspect you won't find the same basic config ability with sdm, and unless you can run nmcli before first-boot, that limits an easy way to preconfigure it.

It sounds like you dislike sdm without having had much, if any, direct experience with it.

With respect to networking specifically, here's a sample of what you can do with sdm.

• Rich configuration of a network interface using NetworkManager, including: static vs dynamic configuration, WiFi configuration, and zeroconf
• Complete nm-based hotspot configuration including roll-your-own DHCP server or using the nm-integrated one
• If you don't like NetworkManager, sdm makes it super-easy to disable NetworkManager and enable dhcpcd, or...simply copy your already-prepared systemd-networkd or ifup/down config files to /etc/network/... This is Linux, have it your way.

sdm's configuration is done primarily during a customization phase, but some configuration is deferred until the first system boot when it's running on real hardware. However, the network configuration is done during customization by using nmcli's --offline switch. Pre-bookworm nmcli lacks that switch, so in that case it's configured at first system boot.

sdm isn't perfect, but it is a tool that makes it easy to configure an IMG or burned disk to a high level of customization that is pretty much only constrained by your willingness to invest a small bit of effort up front. The documentation is complete, perhaps albeit terse and non-tutorial, but there are many examples to help jump-start your sdm use.

Once you've made the investment and are able to burn a new disk with your system fully configured and ready to go, you can spend a LOT more time doing the things you want to do with your Pi, rather than finding your notes or trying to remember how you configured that one thing a few months ago.

sdm users don't have to deal with "I installed the xyz package and it toasted my system, now what?", since they can simply crank out a fresh fully customized disk to boot and test that package before installing it on an important system.

This fall, sdm users will absolutely enjoy the fact that customizations they've done for Bookworm will, for the most part, be fully applicable to Trixie as well, so it's just another turn of the sdm crank starting with a Trixie IMG to get a fully-customized Trixie IMG when RasPiOS Trixie is released. No need to do an upgrade from Bookworm to Trixie and spend way too much time cleaning up the unanticipated problems.

And, if you're an early adopter and want to get some experience with Trixie ahead of the release, there's a plugin to update a Bookworm IMG with Trixie binaries today.

Sorry for the long spew, as you can see, I still get excited about the capabilities of sdm

Statistics: Posted by bls — Sat Aug 16, 2025 2:19 pm

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