Can't grasp the doc concept of "burning an image for redistribution"

[fedd]

I want people to make kiosks with Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, but as it is a very weak computer with little memory, I decided that if the Pi has only X on it, it could serve as a "window" to a normal remote server that will run the full fledged Firefox and "X11-forward" it's interface to the Pi. I couldn't find such an image and thinking to create and share one myself, but I stumble on the first page of the docs, namely, this passage: "You can also burn a customized SD Card Image to distribute via a mechanism other than an actual SD Card, such as the Internet". Does it mean I am saving the image to a file? If so, actually I don't want this image to force any of my localization settings to the user, does it mean I gave to study rpi-image-gen or sdm is still a right tool for the purpose?

[gitbls]

The "personalization" aspects of a customized IMG include the hostname and localization settings, which you noted, and these can all be added when the user burns the IMG you provide them to an SD card.

The one question with this method is how complex the delayed configuration is. That is, is there anything beyond simple localization settings that needs to be done?

If the ultimate end user customization you want to provide is simple, they could use rpi-imager to do the burn and configure the customization settings. This would need testing to verify that everything works as expected.

The complete scenario would be:

• You use sdm to customize an IMG with your stuff but no localization settings
• Distribute the IMG to users via some mechanism
• End user would get the IMG from you and use rpi-imager to burn it, setting localization settings as part of the burn.

There may be a rough edge or two, since I've not tested this for quite some time, but happy to collaborate with you to get it working.

You could use rpi-image-gen for this as well, but it seems like overkill to me for what you're trying to do (unless you're already an rpi-image-gen user).

[fedd]

Thank you, I will study what can I do and ask specific questions if I face any.