[PATCH 1/2] Create Nix derivation for building verity images

Demi Marie Obenour
2025-11-05T22:34:36Z

This gets rid of a lot of duplicated code and allows building the verity
roothash and superblock only when needed. It also removes a hack used
to work around make limitations. Furthermore,
'veritysetup --root-hash-file' is used to avoid an awk script.

Signed-off-by: Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com>
---
nix-shell --pure --run 'make run' in host/initramfs fails. This is a
preexisting bug and I will send a separate patch for it.
---
host/initramfs/Makefile | 25 +++++--------------------
host/initramfs/shell.nix | 4 +++-
host/rootfs/Makefile | 24 +++++-------------------
host/rootfs/shell.nix | 3 +++
host/verity.nix | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
lib/common.mk | 1 -
pkgs/default.nix | 1 +
release/live/Makefile | 26 +++++---------------------
release/live/default.nix | 4 +++-
9 files changed, 44 insertions(+), 63 deletions(-)

diff --git a/host/initramfs/Makefile b/host/initramfs/Makefile
index cb13fbb35f065b67d291d4a35591d6f12720060c..5c8c0eb2e50efcef33d78f91b562d8e79a76a900 100644
--- a/host/initramfs/Makefile
+++ b/host/initramfs/Makefile
@@ -35,26 +35,11 @@ build/mountpoints:
cd build/mountpoints && mkdir -p $(MOUNTPOINTS)
find build/mountpoints -mindepth 1 -exec touch -d @0 {} ';'

-# veritysetup format produces two files, but Make only (portably)
-# supports one output per rule, so we combine the two outputs then
-# define two more rules to separate them again.
-build/rootfs.verity: $(ROOT_FS)
- mkdir -p build
- $(VERITYSETUP) format $(ROOT_FS) build/rootfs.verity.superblock.tmp \
- | awk -F ':[[:blank:]]*' '$$1 == "Root hash" {print $$2; exit}' \
- > build/rootfs.verity.roothash.tmp
- cat build/rootfs.verity.roothash.tmp build/rootfs.verity.superblock.tmp \
- > $@
- rm build/rootfs.verity.roothash.tmp build/rootfs.verity.superblock.tmp
-build/rootfs.verity.roothash: build/rootfs.verity
- head -n 1 build/rootfs.verity > $@
-build/rootfs.verity.superblock: build/rootfs.verity
- tail -n +2 build/rootfs.verity > $@

-build/live.img: ../../scripts/format-uuid.sh ../../scripts/make-gpt.sh ../../scripts/sfdisk-field.awk build/rootfs.verity.superblock build/rootfs.verity.roothash $(ROOT_FS)
+build/live.img: ../../scripts/format-uuid.sh ../../scripts/make-gpt.sh ../../scripts/sfdisk-field.awk $(ROOT_FS_VERITY) $(ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH) $(ROOT_FS)
../../scripts/make-gpt.sh $@.tmp \
- build/rootfs.verity.superblock:verity:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(dd if=build/rootfs.verity.roothash bs=32 skip=1 count=1 status=none)") \
- $(ROOT_FS):root:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(head -c 32 build/rootfs.verity.roothash)")
+ "$$ROOT_FS_VERITY:verity:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(dd "if=$$ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH" bs=32 skip=1 count=1 status=none)")" \
+ $(dest):root:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(head -c 32 "$$ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH")")
mv $@.tmp $@

build/loop.tar: build/live.img
@@ -69,12 +54,12 @@ clean:
rm -rf build
.PHONY: clean

-run: $(dest) build/rootfs.verity.roothash $(RUN_IMAGE)
+run: $(dest) $(RUN_IMAGE) $(ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH)
@../../scripts/run-qemu.sh -m 4G \
-machine virtualization=on \
-kernel $(KERNEL) \
-initrd $(dest) \
- -append "ro earlycon console=hvc0 intel_iommu=on roothash=$$(< build/rootfs.verity.roothash) nokaslr" \
+ -append "ro earlycon console=hvc0 intel_iommu=on roothash=$$(< "$$ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH") nokaslr" \
-cpu max \
-gdb unix:build/gdb.sock,server,nowait \
-parallel none \
diff --git a/host/initramfs/shell.nix b/host/initramfs/shell.nix
index eeba865e3ac793f67ae1808a92cf5eb1b37d57af..3e2abd17d2a989aa056d6f20633c624717e6b775 100644
--- a/host/initramfs/shell.nix
+++ b/host/initramfs/shell.nix
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@

import ../../lib/call-package.nix (
{ callSpectrumPackage, rootfs, pkgsStatic, stdenv
-, cryptsetup, qemu_kvm, tar2ext4, util-linux
+, cryptsetup, qemu_kvm, tar2ext4, util-linux, verity
}:

let
@@ -18,5 +18,7 @@ initramfs.overrideAttrs ({ nativeBuildInputs ? [], env ? {}, ... }: {
env = env // {
KERNEL = "${rootfs.kernel}/${stdenv.hostPlatform.linux-kernel.target}";
ROOT_FS = rootfs;
+ ROOT_FS_VERITY = "${verity}/rootfs.verity.superblock";
+ ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH = "${verity}/rootfs.verity.roothash";
};
})) (_: {})
diff --git a/host/rootfs/Makefile b/host/rootfs/Makefile
index 00d125774bb7b98736d0928c69cb307740cee034..bb602e2745fb5873204f453b35fc529c5c96f64a 100644
--- a/host/rootfs/Makefile
+++ b/host/rootfs/Makefile
@@ -82,25 +82,11 @@ clean:
rm -rf build
.PHONY: clean

-# veritysetup format produces two files, but Make only (portably)
-# supports one output per rule, so we combine the two outputs then
-# define two more rules to separate them again.
-build/rootfs.verity: $(dest)
- $(VERITYSETUP) format $(dest) build/rootfs.verity.superblock.tmp \
- | awk -F ':[[:blank:]]*' '$$1 == "Root hash" {print $$2; exit}' \
- > build/rootfs.verity.roothash.tmp
- cat build/rootfs.verity.roothash.tmp build/rootfs.verity.superblock.tmp \
- > $@
- rm build/rootfs.verity.roothash.tmp build/rootfs.verity.superblock.tmp
-build/rootfs.verity.roothash: build/rootfs.verity
- head -n 1 build/rootfs.verity > $@
-build/rootfs.verity.superblock: build/rootfs.verity
- tail -n +2 build/rootfs.verity > $@

-build/live.img: ../../scripts/format-uuid.sh ../../scripts/make-gpt.sh ../../scripts/sfdisk-field.awk build/rootfs.verity.superblock build/rootfs.verity.roothash $(dest)
+build/live.img: ../../scripts/format-uuid.sh ../../scripts/make-gpt.sh ../../scripts/sfdisk-field.awk $(ROOT_FS_VERITY) $(ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH) $(dest)
../../scripts/make-gpt.sh $@.tmp \
- build/rootfs.verity.superblock:verity:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(dd if=build/rootfs.verity.roothash bs=32 skip=1 count=1 status=none)") \
- $(dest):root:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(head -c 32 build/rootfs.verity.roothash)")
+ "$$ROOT_FS_VERITY:verity:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(dd "if=$$ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH" bs=32 skip=1 count=1 status=none)")" \
+ $(dest):root:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(head -c 32 "$$ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH")")
mv $@.tmp $@

debug:
@@ -110,7 +96,7 @@ debug:
$(VMLINUX)
.PHONY: debug

-run: build/live.img $(EXT_FS) build/rootfs.verity.roothash
+run: build/live.img $(EXT_FS) $(ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH)
@set -x && \
ext="$$(mktemp build/spectrum-rootfs-extfs.XXXXXXXXXX.img)" && \
truncate -s 10G "$$ext" && \
@@ -131,7 +117,7 @@ run: build/live.img $(EXT_FS) build/rootfs.verity.roothash
-device virtconsole,chardev=virtiocon0 \
-drive file=build/live.img,if=virtio,format=raw,readonly=on \
-drive file=/proc/self/fd/3,if=virtio,format=raw \
- -append "earlycon console=hvc0 roothash=$$(< build/rootfs.verity.roothash) intel_iommu=on nokaslr" \
+ -append "earlycon console=hvc0 roothash=$$(< "$$ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH") intel_iommu=on nokaslr" \
-device virtio-keyboard \
-device virtio-mouse \
-device virtio-gpu \
diff --git a/host/rootfs/shell.nix b/host/rootfs/shell.nix
index 1bf61bebf418333624e799cc8ca231f5783206f4..f16e4905adfbc8faebde19d0a1364ad9df90219b 100644
--- a/host/rootfs/shell.nix
+++ b/host/rootfs/shell.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
import ../../lib/call-package.nix (
{ callSpectrumPackage, rootfs, pkgsStatic, srcOnly, stdenv
, btrfs-progs, cryptsetup, jq, netcat, qemu_kvm, reuse, util-linux
+, verity
}:

rootfs.overrideAttrs (
@@ -20,5 +21,7 @@ rootfs.overrideAttrs (
KERNEL = "${passthru.kernel}/${stdenv.hostPlatform.linux-kernel.target}";
LINUX_SRC = srcOnly passthru.kernel.configfile;
VMLINUX = "${passthru.kernel.dev}/vmlinux";
+ ROOT_FS_VERITY = "${verity}/rootfs.verity.superblock";
+ ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH = "${verity}/rootfs.verity.roothash";
};
})) (_: {})
diff --git a/host/verity.nix b/host/verity.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b144c4e270e8aa874b38c0aec69b6d99393a14b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/host/verity.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: EUPL-1.2+
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021-2024 Alyssa Ross <hi@alyssa.is>
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2025 Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com>
+
+import ../lib/call-package.nix ({ cryptsetup, runCommand, rootfs }:
+runCommand "spectrum-verity" {
+ nativeBuildInputs = [ cryptsetup ];
+ __structuredAttrs = true;
+ unsafeDiscardReferences = { out = true; };
+ dontFixup = true;
+ env = { ROOTFS = rootfs; };
+} ''
+ mkdir -- "$out"
+ veritysetup format "--root-hash-file=$out/rootfs.verity.roothash" \
+ -- "$ROOTFS" "$out/rootfs.verity.superblock"
+ # veritysetup doesn't append a newline, so the shell read command fails
+ echo >> "$out/rootfs.verity.roothash"
+ ''
+) (_: {})
diff --git a/lib/common.mk b/lib/common.mk
index 277c3544036d9a9057f8ba4ad37fe2207548cc59..f4aa15ef8fc053ae61a8d875eac4fc6a094411c6 100644
--- a/lib/common.mk
+++ b/lib/common.mk
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ S6_IPCSERVER_SOCKETBINDER = s6-ipcserver-socketbinder
TAR = tar
TRUNCATE = truncate
UKIFY = ukify
-VERITYSETUP = veritysetup
VIRTIOFSD = virtiofsd

PACKAGES_FILE != \
diff --git a/pkgs/default.nix b/pkgs/default.nix
index cc60228a10cddcb70e5ab9faa1bab7d74f3ebb35..bc02f6b2f532f3ee1a2ea3aa45de3c9561bbb6ab 100644
--- a/pkgs/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/default.nix
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ let
path: (import path { inherit (self) callPackage; }).override;

rootfs = self.callSpectrumPackage ../host/rootfs {};
+ verity = self.callSpectrumPackage ../host/verity.nix {};
spectrum-build-tools = self.callSpectrumPackage ../tools {
appSupport = false;
buildSupport = true;
diff --git a/release/live/Makefile b/release/live/Makefile
index 6dcbdeedda5d6ccf293f60dc62043f46c81ecf83..191b44944af0adf965e1d5f2785719b236bfd99c 100644
--- a/release/live/Makefile
+++ b/release/live/Makefile
@@ -9,17 +9,17 @@ DTBS ?= build/empty

dest = build/live.img

-$(dest): ../../scripts/format-uuid.sh ../../scripts/make-gpt.sh ../../scripts/sfdisk-field.awk build/boot.fat build/rootfs.verity.superblock build/rootfs.verity.roothash $(ROOT_FS)
+$(dest): ../../scripts/format-uuid.sh ../../scripts/make-gpt.sh ../../scripts/sfdisk-field.awk build/boot.fat $(ROOT_FS_VERITY) $(ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH) $(ROOT_FS)
../../scripts/make-gpt.sh $@.tmp \
build/boot.fat:c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b \
- build/rootfs.verity.superblock:verity:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(dd if=build/rootfs.verity.roothash bs=32 skip=1 count=1 status=none)") \
- $(ROOT_FS):root:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(head -c 32 build/rootfs.verity.roothash)")
+ "$$ROOT_FS_VERITY":verity:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(dd if="$$ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH" bs=32 skip=1 count=1 status=none)") \
+ $(ROOT_FS):root:$$(../../scripts/format-uuid.sh "$$(head -c 32 "$$ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH")")
mv $@.tmp $@

build/empty:
mkdir -p $@

-build/spectrum.efi: build/rootfs.verity.roothash $(DTBS) $(KERNEL) $(INITRAMFS)
+build/spectrum.efi: $(DTBS) $(KERNEL) $(INITRAMFS) $(ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH)
{ \
printf "[UKI]\nDeviceTreeAuto=" && \
find $(DTBS) -name '*.dtb' -print0 | tr '\0' ' ' ;\
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ build/spectrum.efi: build/rootfs.verity.roothash $(DTBS) $(KERNEL) $(INITRAMFS)
--linux $(KERNEL) \
--initrd $(INITRAMFS) \
--os-release $$'NAME="Spectrum"\n' \
- --cmdline "ro intel_iommu=on roothash=$$(cat build/rootfs.verity.roothash)"
+ --cmdline "ro intel_iommu=on roothash=$$(cat "$$ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH")"

build/boot.fat: $(SYSTEMD_BOOT_EFI) build/spectrum.efi
$(TRUNCATE) -s 440401920 $@
@@ -38,22 +38,6 @@ build/boot.fat: $(SYSTEMD_BOOT_EFI) build/spectrum.efi
$(MCOPY) -i $@ build/spectrum.efi ::/EFI/Linux
$(MCOPY) -i $@ $(SYSTEMD_BOOT_EFI) ::/EFI/BOOT/$(EFINAME)

-# veritysetup format produces two files, but Make only (portably)
-# supports one output per rule, so we combine the two outputs then
-# define two more rules to separate them again.
-build/rootfs.verity: $(ROOT_FS)
- mkdir -p build
- $(VERITYSETUP) format $(ROOT_FS) build/rootfs.verity.superblock.tmp \
- | awk -F ':[[:blank:]]*' '$$1 == "Root hash" {print $$2; exit}' \
- > build/rootfs.verity.roothash.tmp
- cat build/rootfs.verity.roothash.tmp build/rootfs.verity.superblock.tmp \
- > $@
- rm build/rootfs.verity.roothash.tmp build/rootfs.verity.superblock.tmp
-build/rootfs.verity.roothash: build/rootfs.verity
- head -n 1 build/rootfs.verity > $@
-build/rootfs.verity.superblock: build/rootfs.verity
- tail -n +2 build/rootfs.verity > $@
-
clean:
rm -rf build
.PHONY: clean
diff --git a/release/live/default.nix b/release/live/default.nix
index 2a1dc3e1dd939f21edac582bf39737eb4d46eb0c..32901f00a270f6dae005563b2e4082ad225c61e1 100644
--- a/release/live/default.nix
+++ b/release/live/default.nix
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import ../../lib/call-package.nix (
{ callSpectrumPackage, spectrum-build-tools, rootfs, src
, lib, pkgsStatic, stdenvNoCC
, cryptsetup, dosfstools, jq, mtools, util-linux
-, systemdUkify
+, systemdUkify, verity
}:

let
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
INITRAMFS = initramfs;
KERNEL = "${rootfs.kernel}/${stdenv.hostPlatform.linux-kernel.target}";
ROOT_FS = rootfs;
+ ROOT_FS_VERITY = "${verity}/rootfs.verity.superblock";
+ ROOT_FS_VERITY_ROOTHASH = "${verity}/rootfs.verity.roothash";
SYSTEMD_BOOT_EFI = "${systemd}/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-boot${efiArch}.efi";
EFINAME = "BOOT${toUpper efiArch}.EFI";
} // lib.optionalAttrs stdenv.hostPlatform.linux-kernel.DTB or false {

--
2.51.2