builders

Packer templates for building golden VM images with the tooling already installed.

Build a native Proxmox template ready to clone, or a portable qcow2/raw image for bare metal or another hypervisor. It's the same build either way, you pick the output format at build time. The images ship generic, with no baked-in hostname, IP, or SSH keys, so cloud-init handles per-machine setup on first boot wherever they run.

Provisioning is backed by PDS (Portable Deploy Suite), a single apt package of install and config functions, instead of copy-pasted scripts in every repo. Templates select and apply the pieces they want, so images stay consistent and easy to maintain.

Highlights

• Batteries included: tooling installed via the PDS package (zsh + Powerlevel10k, kubectl, SSH hardening, a custom MOTD, and more), instead of per-repo script sprawl.
• One template, multiple outputs: a native Proxmox template or a portable qcow2/raw for bare metal and other hypervisors, chosen at invocation.
• Generic golden images: identity (hostname, IP, SSH keys) is applied on first boot via cloud-init, never baked in.
• Clean for cloning: machine-id and cloud-init state are reset, so every machine boots fresh and unique.
• Easy to extend: add a new distro or role without reinventing the provisioning.

Templates

Path	What it builds
packer/ubuntu/	Ubuntu cloud image + PDS tooling, output as a Proxmox template or qcow2/raw.
armbian-build-framework/	ARM SBC images (Rock 5A, Raspberry Pi 4B).

Quick start

Prerequisites: Packer, plus either a Proxmox host (for the native template) or QEMU (for a local image).

cd packer/ubuntu
packer init .

# Build a clone-ready Proxmox template (cloud-init drive attached)
packer build -only='proxmox-clone.ubuntu' -var-file=variables.pkrvars.hcl .

# ...or build a portable qcow2/raw image
packer build -only='qemu.ubuntu' -var-file=variables.pkrvars.hcl .

For the Proxmox output, set your connection + storage variables first (see packer/ubuntu/readme.md). Never commit your Proxmox API token, pass it via an environment variable or an untracked vars file.

How it fits together

From a build to a running machine:

1. Packer builds a generic golden image with all your tooling already installed.
2. Deploy it: clone the Proxmox template, or write the qcow2/raw image to a disk or another hypervisor.
3. cloud-init applies per-machine identity on first boot (hostname, IP, SSH keys).
4. (optional) Terraform (bpg/proxmox) automates the Proxmox clone path when you want it.

Status

Ubuntu now, more distros to follow.

License

GPLv3, see LICENSE. Fork it, make it yours.

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_{Design notes and rationale for contributors live in docs/.}