Laerdal SimServer Imager

A tool for writing system images to SD cards and USB memory sticks for Laerdal SimPad devices and SimMan3G simulators.

Based on Raspberry Pi Imager.

Supported Image Types

Type	Extension	Description
WIC	.wic, .wic.xz, .wic.gz, .wic.bz2, .wic.zst	Standard disk image - complete flash of storage device
VSI	.vsi	Versioned Sparse Image - efficient delta updates
SPU	.spu	Software Package Update - firmware files copied to mounted device

Documentation

• User Guide - How to use the application
• Schema Notes - JSON manifest format and validation

Downloads

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page:

• Linux: AppImage (x86_64, aarch64) or Debian package
• Windows: ZIP archive or installer
• macOS: DMG (x86_64, arm64)

Building from Source

Linux

Prerequisites

Install the build dependencies (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends build-essential cmake ninja-build git libgnutls28-dev

Get the source

git clone https://github.com/laerdal/simserver-imager
cd simserver-imager

Build with Qt from aqtinstall (recommended)

Install Qt using aqtinstall:

pip install aqtinstall
aqt install-qt linux desktop 6.8.2 -O ~/Qt

Build the application:

cmake -B build -S src \
    -G Ninja \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DQt6_ROOT=~/Qt/6.8.2/gcc_64

cmake --build build --parallel

Build the AppImage

./create-appimage.sh --qt-root=~/Qt/6.8.2/gcc_64

Windows

Prerequisites

• Install Qt 6.8 with MSVC 2022 64-bit toolchain
• Install Visual Studio 2022 with C++ workload
• For the installer, install Inno Setup

Building

Using CMake:

cmake -B build -S src `
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release `
    -DQt6_ROOT="C:\Qt\6.8.2\msvc2022_64"

cmake --build build --config Release --parallel

Deploy Qt dependencies:

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path dist
Copy-Item build\Release\laerdal-simserver-imager.exe dist\
& "C:\Qt\6.8.2\msvc2022_64\bin\windeployqt.exe" --qmldir src --release dist\laerdal-simserver-imager.exe

macOS

Prerequisites

• Install Qt 6.8 or build from source using ./qt/build-qt-macos.sh
• Xcode Command Line Tools

Building

cmake -B build -S src \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DQt6_ROOT=/opt/Qt/6.8.2/macos

cmake --build build --parallel

Create DMG:

cd build
macdeployqt laerdal-simserver-imager.app -qmldir=../src
hdiutil create -volname "Laerdal SimServer Imager" \
    -srcfolder laerdal-simserver-imager.app \
    -ov -format UDZO \
    laerdal-simserver-imager.dmg

CLI-only Build

For headless/server environments, build without GUI:

cmake -B build -S src \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DBUILD_CLI_ONLY=ON \
    -DQt6_ROOT=~/Qt/6.8.2/gcc_64

cmake --build build --parallel

Tooling

CDN Upload Script

The scripts/upload-wic-to-cdn.sh script uploads images to Azure Blob Storage and generates the JSON manifest used by the application.

Features:

• Upload WIC, VSI, and SPU files to Azure CDN
• Generate RPI Imager-compatible JSON manifest
• Support for local folders, SSH remote sources, and JSON URLs
• Pattern matching for files and directories
• Append mode to merge with existing CDN manifest
• Skip existing blobs to avoid re-uploading

Prerequisites:

• Azure CLI (az) with storage extension
• jq for JSON processing
• SSH access for remote sources

Basic usage:

# Upload from local folder
./scripts/upload-wic-to-cdn.sh /path/to/images

# Upload from remote build server
./scripts/upload-wic-to-cdn.sh user@buildserver:/opt/yocto/deploy/images

# Upload only SPU files, append to existing manifest
./scripts/upload-wic-to-cdn.sh --spu-only --append /path/to/updates

# Dry run to preview changes
./scripts/upload-wic-to-cdn.sh --dry-run /path/to/images

Environment variables:

export AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT="your-account"
export AZURE_STORAGE_KEY="your-key"
export AZURE_STORAGE_CONTAINER="software"
export CDN_BASE_URL="https://your-cdn.blob.core.windows.net"

See ./scripts/upload-wic-to-cdn.sh --help for all options.

Icon Regeneration

The app icon is stored as SVG at src/linux/icon/laerdal-simserver-imager.svg.

To regenerate platform-specific icons:

• Windows (.ico): ./src/windows/regenerate_icons_from_svg.sh (requires ImageMagick)
• macOS (.icns): ./src/mac/regenerate_icons_from_svg.sh (requires ImageMagick, must run on macOS)

License

SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

Copyright (C) 2025 Laerdal Medical

Based on Raspberry Pi Imager, Copyright (C) 2020-2024 Raspberry Pi Ltd