Build and pave quickstart

This document shows you how to build and deploy Fuchsia on a target device with fx development commands. Most of these commands have additional commands, see fx help <command> for details.

Determine USB drive device path

Before you attempt to build and pave Fuchsia on a target device, you need to know the path of your USB drive.

fx

To determine the correct path to your USB drive:

fx mkzedboot

Linux

To determine the correct path to your USB drive:

sudo fdisk -l

Drives are usually in the form /dev/sd[x] such as /dev/sdc.

Make sure that you select the drive rather than a specific partition. For example, a specific partition has a number at the end of the path such as /dev/sdc1.

macOS

To determine the correct path to your USB drive:

diskutil list | grep external

Drives are usually in the form /dev/disk[n] such as /dev/disk2.

hdiutil unmount /dev/disk[n]

If this does not fix the error, try reformatting the drive:

diskutil eraseDisk JHFSX <name_of_the_usb_stick> /dev/disk[n]

Build and deploy Fuchsia

To perform an initial build and deploy of Fuchsia with fx, do the following:

  1. Set your build type:

    fx set core.x64
    
  2. Build a Fuchsia image:

    fx build
    

    This command builds Zircon and then the rest of Fuchsia.

  3. Build the Zedboot media and install to a USB device target:

    fx mkzedboot <usb_drive_device_path>
    
  4. Attach Zedboot USB drive to your target device and reboot that device.

  5. On your target device, run:

    lsblk
    
  6. Take note of the HDD or SSD's device path from the output of lsblk. An example path looks like /dev/sys/platform/pci/00:17.0/ahci/sata0/block.

  7. On your target device, run:

    install-disk-image init-partition-tables --block-device <BLOCK_DEVICE_PATH>
    
  8. To start the bootserver, from your host, run:

    fx pave
    

Rebuild and redeploy Fuchsia

To rebuild and redeploy with fx:

  1. Ensure that HEAD is in a good state to pull at the build dashboard.
  2. Fetch the latest code:

    jiri update
    
  3. Build a Fuchsia image:

    fx build
    

    This command builds Zircon and then the rest of Fuchsia.

  4. (Only for macOS users) Set up firewall rules:

    fx setup-macos
    
  5. From your host, start a development package server:

    fx serve
    
  6. Boot your target device without the Zedboot USB attached.

  7. From your host, push updated Fuchsia packages to the target device:

    fx ota
    

    In some cases, if fx ota does not complete successfully, consider repaving with fx pave.

Troubleshooting

  • If fx build fails, make sure that your PATH environment variable is set correctly.

    To check the value of your PATH variable:

    echo $PATH
    

    Make that sure that the output of your PATH variable is a list of directories separated by colons. Make sure that none of the directories are separated by ..