VirtuPack

Ready to use virtual machine images. The goal is to provide a fully automated process to build a base image from an official ISO, apply essential configurations, and produce an importable appliance.

Directory Structure

Each distro has its own directory to keep its configuration isolated and organized.

├── [distro]
│   ├── image.pkr.hcl           # Packer's main definition
│   └── local.auto.pkrvars.hcl  # Local variables
└── [another distro]

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure the following software is installed on your machine:

1. Packer
2. QEMU or VirtualBox or authenticate to AWS or authenticate to GCP or more
3. Client SSH. Usually pre-installed on Linux, macOS, and Windows (via WSL or Git Bash)

Configuration

Inside the directory of the distro you want to build, create a file named local.auto.pkrvars.hcl. Packer will load this file automatically.

cpus      = 2
memory    = 2048
disk_size = 20480
hostname  = "rocky9"
timezone  = "Asia/Jakarta"
headless  = false

username            = "remote"
password            = "remotepasswd"
ssh_public_key_path = "/home/your-username/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub"

Usage

1. Navigate to a distro directory
2. Create the local.auto.pkrvars.hcl file as described in the Configuration section above. If you skip this, the default values from the template will be used
3. Initialize Packer and run the build

packer init .
packer fmt .
packer validate .
packer build -force -color=false .

Note

The build process takes about 10 to 15 minutes. If the ISO file hasn't been downloaded yet, this process will take longer. So, just wait!