packer-edboxes

packer-edboxes is a flexible tool that creates virtual machine images. It's based on Packer and extendable with addons (Ansible roles).

Prerequisites

Basically packer-edboxes should run on any current Linux distro. The following tools are required:

openssl
packer
ansible
qemu-desktop
virt-viewer
spice-gtk
spice
libguestfs

Additional for EFI builds :

edk2-ovmf

Note that this list of package names applies to Archlinux. Naming might be different on your distro.

Additional for packer 1.10.0 and later

packer plugins install github.com/hashicorp/qemu
packer plugins install github.com/hashicorp/ansible

Usage

Preparing the packer environment

Find a suitable example box configuration file in the configs/ folder, copy it to a new file and adjust it to your needs. E.g.:

cp configs/base_debian.yml yourbox.yml

Not all parameters you initially find in the example files need to be present. If something's missing, a default value is taken from ansible/boxconfig.yml

Run the builder.yml playbook to create the packer environment.

ansible-playbook ansible/builder.yml --extra-vars @yourbox.yml

Running the packer build

The box_packer_run flag is set to "no" in all example box configuration files, which means the packer environment is created but Ansible doesn't start the actual packer build automatically.

Use the output from TASK [print build command] to start the packer build process.

Once you are happy with your build set box_packer_run: yes to automate this step. No packer output will be printed during TASK [running packer] then.

The box configuration file

The example configuration looks like this:

box_distribution: archlinux
box_name: base
box_addon: []
box_boottype: mbr
box_encrypt: none
box_password: changeme1234
box_desktop_user: yourusername
box_ansible_run: yes
box_packer_run: no
box_packer_headless: "false"
box_disk_size: 16384M
box_locale: "en_US.UTF-8"
box_keymap: "de-latin1-nodeadkeys"
box_xorg_keymap: "de"
box_xorg_keymap_model: "pc105"
box_xorg_keymap_vatiant: "nodeadkeys"

The following configuration parameters are understood:

Parameter	Value	Description
box_boottype	mbr\|efi	mbr or efi boot for the box
box_encrypt	none\|luks	Encrypt box using luks
box_distribution	archlinux\|debian\|ununtu\|fedora\|rocky8\|rhel7\|rhel8	Box linux distribution
box_password	changeme1234	Password for encryption and created users
box_addon	[]	List of enabled box addons
	[]	Basic system
	['desktop']	Destop system
	['desktop', 'youraddon']	Destop system with your addon
box_desktop_user	yourusername	Username for desktop box
box_ansible_run	yes\|no	Run Ansible inside the freshly built box
box_packer_run	yes\|no	Run packer to build the box
box_packer_headless	"true"\|"false"	Headless works only for non encrypted boxes
box_disk_size	16384M	Box disk Size
box_locale:	en_US.UTF-8	Box locale setting
box_timezone	Europe/Vienna	Box timezone
box_keymap	de-latin1-nodeadkeys	Box keymnap
box_xorg_keymap	de	Box xorg keymap
box_xorg_keymap_model	pc105	Box xorg keyboard model
box_xorg_keymap_vatiant	nodeadkeys	Box xorg keyboard variant
box_qemu_binary		Qemu Binary to use. Mostly relevant for RedHat
box_qemu_cpu		Qemu CPU model

Running the box

ansible-playbook --ask-become-pass ansible/startvm.yml --extra-vars @yourbox.yml

Where to find the created image file

The created box image is stored in build/images/[box_distribution]

Example build output

In this case for archlinux mbr none encrypted :

build
|-- builder-archlinux-archlinux-mbr-none.json
|-- http
|   `-- archbootstrap.sh-mbr-none
|-- images
|   `-- archlinux
|       `-- archlinux-archlinux-mbr-none.qcow2

Suported distributions

Debian 11
Fedora 34
Archlinux
RedHat 8.4
RedHat 7.9
Rocky 8.4
AlmaLinux 8.4
Ubuntu 20.04

For RedHat create the directory iso inside packer-edboxes and put the Binary DVD for the desired RedHat version there.

Inluded addons

The addons are ansible roles stored in ansible/roles/

Addon : desktop

This addon provides a simple basic mate desktop system. It only works for the box distributions fedora,debian,ubuntu,archlinux

Sealing VM

sudo virt-sysprep -a build/images/[distribution]/[yourbox]

Author

Edgar Vichor

huceke / packer-edboxes