packer-qemu-ubuntu-tutorial

• Ubuntu 24.04 Live Server and Desktop Install

• UEFI with OVMF

• Reference tutorial for building Ubuntu images using KVM/QEMU and Packer

• Can build in parallel all three images in about 6 minutes (if Packer cached / downloaded the ISOs)

Prerequisites

sudo apt update -y
sudo apt install -y qemu-system libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils virtinst virt-manager
sudo apt install -y ovmf cpu-checker cloud-init
sudo apt install -y git make curl wget unzip
sudo apt install cpu-checker -y

Packer Binary - Debian/Ubuntu

# Install binary manually for deb/ubuntu
# # https://releases.hashicorp.com/packer
# didnt work on 24.04 - just download and add to path
temp_dir=$(mktemp -d)
echo $temp_dir

wget --continue https://releases.hashicorp.com/packer/1.10.3/packer_1.10.3_linux_amd64.zip -P $temp_dir
# unzip packer_1.10.3_linux_amd64.zip
sudo unzip $temp_dir/packer_1.10.3_linux_amd64.zip -d $temp_dir/packer
sudo mv $temp_dir/packer/packer /usr/local/bin/
rm -rf $temp_dir
packer --version # validate

# /usr/local/bin/packer/packer --version
sudo mv /usr/local/bin/packer /usr/local/bin/packer1.10.3
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/packer1.10.3/packer /usr/local/bin/packer
/usr/local/bin/packer/packer --version

# Check for KVM acceleration
kvm-ok

Build All

• Install / Check dependencies

# git clone git@github.com:hychan48/packer-qemu-ubuntu-tutorial.git
git clone https://github.com/hychan48/packer-qemu-ubuntu-tutorial.git
# builds the cloud-init meta-data and user-data
cd packer-qemu-ubuntu-tutorial/ubuntu
# modifies cloud-init files like username and password
make configure
make build

VNC Connection

# ub24-server
vncviewer localhost:5905
# ub24-desktop
vncviewer localhost:5906
# ub22-server
vncviewer localhost:5907

ssh Connection

# ub24-server
ssh -p 3455 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null root@localhost
ssh -p 3455 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null ubuntu@localhost

# ub24-desktop
ssh -p 3456 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null root@localhost

# ub22-server
ssh -p 3457 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null root@localhost

Output

Developer Notes

• ISO Variables

Single Builds

make build-ub24-server
make build-ub24-desktop
make build-ub22-server

build with local iso

packer init .
packer inspect -only "ub24.qemu.ub2*"  \
  -var uri_ub24_server="file:///var/lib/qemu/images/ubuntu-24.04-live-server-amd64.iso" \
  -var uri_ub22_server="file:///var/lib/qemu/images/ubuntu-22.04-live-server-amd64.iso" \
  -var uri_ub24_desktop="file:///var/lib/qemu/images/ubuntu-24.04-live-desktop-amd64.iso" \
  .

Cloud-init files

ls -l assets/cloud-init/

assets
├── meta-data
├── user-data_desktop_live
└── user-data_server_live

Project Files

• ub-cloudinit_config.pkr.hcl
  • builds the cloud-init config
• ub24-nocloud.pkr.hcl
  • builds with autoinstaller
    1. ub24-server
    2. ub24-desktop
    3. ub22-server
• variables-iso.pkr.hcl
  • ubuntu iso information
• variables.pkr.hcl
  • qemu/host variables
    • username
    • username_password
    • best practice is to use *.pkrvars.hcl

.
├── assets
│   ├── meta-data
│   ├── user-data_desktop_live
│   └── user-data_server_live
├── debug.pkr.hcl
├── http
├── Makefile
├── README.md
├── ub24-nocloud.pkr.hcl
├── ub-cloudinit_config.pkr.hcl
├── variables-iso.pkr.hcl
└── variables.pkr.hcl

Developer's Notes

• readme_debug_notes.md

Environment

• XUbuntu 24.04

cloud-init --version
qemu-system-x86_64 --version

/usr/bin/cloud-init 24.1.3-0ubuntu3

qemu-system-x86_64 --version
QEMU emulator version 8.2.2 (Debian 1:8.2.2+ds-0ubuntu1)

Known Issues

• meta-data keys

• Cloud-init yaml is not the best

• Better cloud-init editing, yq or others tools

  • clouding package
  • datasource none or nocloud?

• auto.pkrvars.hcl

  • make a script to write it

• qemu.sh

  • parser

• general validations

• Packer installer improvements/refactor

• packer-maas

  • borrow from there
  • http proxy
  • apt proxy