Install Mikrotik CHR on a Digital Ocean droplet (Ubuntu 20.04 tested working 29/03/2022)

make-chr.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Digital Ocean Ubuntu 18.04 x64 Droplet with "Regular Intel" CPU.
# Running:
# git clone https://gist.github.com/54fc09734a3911e91eeeb43434f117df.git
# cd 54fc09734a3911e91eeeb43434f117df/
# chmod +x make-chr.sh
# ./make-chr.sh
#
# Once the reboot is done, login with root/CHANGEME and change the password!
# You might get a "Segmentation fault" on line 56 while the image is being written.
# Most of the time this is absolutely fine. Reboot the droplet and attempt to login using Winbox.
# If it didn't work, just trash the droplet and try it again.
#
wget http://download2.mikrotik.com/routeros/6.37/chr-6.37.img.zip -O chr.img.zip  && \
gunzip -c chr.img.zip > chr.img  && \
apt-get update && \
apt install -y qemu-utils pv && \
qemu-img convert chr.img -O qcow2 chr.qcow2 && \
qemu-img resize chr.qcow2 1073741824 && \
modprobe nbd && \
qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd0 chr.qcow2 && \
echo "Give some time for qemu-nbd to be ready" && \
sleep 2 && \
partprobe /dev/nbd0 && \
sleep 5 && \
mount /dev/nbd0p2 /mnt && \
ADDRESS=`ip addr show eth0 | grep global | cut -d' ' -f 6 | head -n 1` && \
GATEWAY=`ip route list | grep default | cut -d' ' -f 3` && \
PASSWORD="CHANGEME" && \
echo "/ip address add address=$ADDRESS interface=[/interface ethernet find where name=ether1]
/ip route add gateway=$GATEWAY
/ip service disable telnet
/user set 0 name=root password=$PASSWORD
/ip dns set servers=1.1.1.1,1.0.0.1
/system package update install
 " > /mnt/rw/autorun.scr && \
umount /mnt && \
echo "Magic constant is 65537 (second partition address). You can check it with fdisk before appliyng this" && \
echo "This scary sequence removes seconds partition on nbd0 and creates new, but bigger one" && \
echo -e 'd\n2\nn\np\n2\n65537\n\nw\n' | fdisk /dev/nbd0 && \
e2fsck -f -y /dev/nbd0p2 || true && \
resize2fs /dev/nbd0p2 && \
sleep 1 && \
echo "Compressing to gzip, this can take several minutes" && \
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt && \
pv /dev/nbd0 | gzip > /mnt/chr-extended.gz && \
sleep 1 && \
killall qemu-nbd && \
sleep 1 && \
echo u > /proc/sysrq-trigger && \
echo "Warming up sleep" && \
sleep 1 && \
echo "Writing raw image, this will take time" && \
zcat /mnt/chr-extended.gz | pv > /dev/vda && \
echo "Don't forget your password: $PASSWORD" && \
echo "Sleep 5 seconds (if lucky)" && \
sleep 5 || true && \
echo "sync disk" && \
echo s > /proc/sysrq-trigger && \
echo "Ok, reboot" && \
echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger

No workaround for that @devstudios. For AWS instances, use the marketplace CHR instead as MikroTik has specifically provided a method of provisioning CHR's on newer software, which they will not provide to consumers.

Response from MikroTik support on the matter:

For security reasons this method of file modification was disabled.

Please see our wiki article about CHR Provisioning depending on Your Hypervisor:
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:CHR#Provisioning

well understood, until it becomes much of a big deal. I will stick with your gist. it's working perfectly for now.

…

On Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 4:06 PM Denys Stroebel ***@***.***> wrote: ***@***.**** commented on this gist. ------------------------------ No workaround for that @devstudios <https://github.com/devstudios>. For AWS instances, use the marketplace CHR instead as MikroTik has specifically provided a method of provisioning CHR's on newer software, which they will not provide to consumers. Response from MikroTik support on the matter: For security reasons this method of file modification was disabled. Please see our wiki article about CHR Provisioning depending on Your Hypervisor:https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:CHR#Provisioning — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/54fc09734a3911e91eeeb43434f117df#gistcomment-3339533>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFPR6NCEFD25MKOOPRFTXGTRWIR7FANCNFSM4HIM5XRA> .

-- PPIS Technology solutions https://ppis. <https://ppis.co.ke>ml

Is this working for anyone else? I can't get this to work anymore. It used to work maybe one month ago but now I can't make it work at all.

I'll take a look at it @saied45

@saied45 Just tried this myself on an Ubuntu 18.04 box in London and it worked fine. It got a Segmentation Fault while writing the image but ROS is only a few MB so the OS is copied to the disk just fine.

I'm trying to install chr-7.1beta3.img.zip:
wget https://download.mikrotik.com/routeros/7.1beta3/chr-7.1beta3.img.zip -O chr.img.zip — the one one change in this code

But something does wrong:
mount: /mnt: special device /dev/nbd0p2 does not exist.

Could you please help to understand what's wrong? 👇) Why /dev/nbd0p2 does not exist?

@ivazin Unfortunately this method does NOT work for any CHR newer than 6.37. The reason for this is because MikroTik has removed the second partition and now disallows customisation of raw images that this gist makes use of. In this script there is an auto-upgrade to the latest CHR on startup but that will only get you to the latest v6 image.
See my comment here: https://gist.github.com/stroebs/54fc09734a3911e91eeeb43434f117df#gistcomment-3339533

Once v7 is released, I'm sure you'll be able to use this gist to upgrade from v6 to v7.

Thanks a lot for the explanation! 🙏 we'll wait for the final v7 then)

Hi, i have a problem with the script. Can somebody help me? From already thank you very much
modprobe: FATAL: Module nbd not found in directory /lib/modules/4.15.0
resize2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
open: No such file or directory while opening /dev/nbd0p2
sync disk

@AlbertoCabral32 which base OS are you using? This works fine with Ubuntu 16.04

@stroebs Ubuntu 18.04

So for version 18 it no longer works?

@AlbertoCabral32 I just tested this with a "Regular Intel" droplet using Ubuntu 18.04 in London and the steps in my code comments worked perfectly, without the error you're describing.

I understand, in the case I will be verifying what happened.
Thank you

ciao, l'installazione è andata correttamente ma successivamente non riesco ad accedere con winbox al chr, devo fare qualcosa in particolare?

devo fare qualcosa in particolare

Il nome utente predefinito è root e la password predefinita è CHANGEME

The Script work perfectly in a clean Installation of Ubuntu Server 20 VPS on UpCloud. The Only note to consider is the CHR initialized without password instead of the CHANGEME.

What is the problem @eklascode? Does it work or not?

EDIT: Just tested this yet again on a Digital Ocean Ubuntu 20.04 x64 Droplet with "Regular Intel" CPU and it worked absolutely fine.

Digital Ocean supports custom images: https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/images/custom-images/ which should be used instead of this script where possible. MikroTik CHR disk images have been tested to work with this method. The script will remain here as historical reference.

These are my customizations and I have successfully installed them on Ubuntu 20.04
Good luck
#!/bin/bash
wget https://download.mikrotik.com/routeros/7.14.1/chr-7.14.1.img.zip -O chr.img.zip &&
gunzip -c chr.img.zip > chr.img &&
apt-get update &&
apt install -y qemu-utils pv &&
qemu-img convert chr.img -O qcow2 chr.qcow2 &&
qemu-img resize chr.qcow2 1073741824 &&
modprobe nbd &&
qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd0 chr.qcow2 &&
echo "Give some time for qemu-nbd to be ready" &&
sleep 2 &&
partprobe /dev/nbd0 &&
sleep 5 &&
mount /dev/nbd0p2 /mnt &&
ADDRESS=ip addr show eth0 | grep global | cut -d' ' -f 6 | head -n 1 &&
GATEWAY=ip route list | grep default | cut -d' ' -f 3 &&
echo "/ip address add address=$ADDRESS interface=[/interface ethernet find where name=ether1]
/ip route add gateway=$GATEWAY
/ip service disable telnet
/ip dns set servers=1.1.1.1,1.0.0.1
" > /mnt/rw/autorun.scr &&
umount /mnt &&
echo "Magic constant is 65537 (second partition address). You can check it with fdisk before appliyng this" &&
echo "This scary sequence removes seconds partition on nbd0 and creates new, but bigger one" &&
echo -e 'd\n2\nn\np\n2\n65537\n\nw\n' | fdisk /dev/nbd0 &&
e2fsck -f -y /dev/nbd0p2 || true &&
resize2fs /dev/nbd0p2 &&
sleep 1 &&
echo "Compressing to gzip, this can take several minutes" &&
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt &&
pv /dev/nbd0 | gzip > /mnt/chr-extended.gz &&
sleep 1 &&
killall qemu-nbd &&
sleep 1 &&
echo u > /proc/sysrq-trigger &&
echo "Warming up sleep" &&
sleep 1 &&
echo "Writing raw image, this will take time" &&
zcat /mnt/chr-extended.gz | pv > /dev/vda &&
echo "Don't forget your password: $PASSWORD" &&
echo "Sleep 5 seconds (if lucky)" &&
sleep 5 || true &&
echo "sync disk" &&
echo s > /proc/sysrq-trigger &&
echo "Ok, reboot" &&
echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger

@nhan6310 excuse me, i want to ask, i have followed your guide, but in the last part, at the "zcat /mnt/chr-extended.gz | pv > /dev/vda &&",
i got an error "pv: write failed: No space left on device"
how can i solve this?

god dammit it works flawlessly on ubuntu 24.04. i was using docker compose to run L2TP, but somehow it doesn't work as a vpn server. with your solution it's working. thank you!

Extra notes: you need to login as admin@<IP_ADDRESS> to access with empty password.