This is a automated packer build for Ubuntu. It can create a Vagrant box or just a virtual machine in Parallels Desktop.
There are several parameters that can be set in the variables.pkrvars.hcl
file. these will be explained in the next section.
To use these Packer scripts, you'll need to have the following software installed on your machine:
- Packer
- Parallels Desktop
- Vagrant (optional)
To use a Packer script, first we need to set the variables in the variables.pkrvars.hcl
file. You can either use the variables_TEMPLATE.pkrvars.hcl
file as a template or copy it to variables.pkrvars.hcl
and edit it.
This is the list of variables that can be set:
user = {
username = "parallels"
encrypted_password = "$6$parallels$tb6hm4RSqzwG3j51DSzdFD7Zw3Fxy/x5aen.Yvud7IfLqarIxMEuuM8efQy0gO.pHhT.lIz9tNYoppTGBGCsB/"
password = "parallels",
force_password_change = false,
}
version="22.04.3"
machine_name="ubuntu_22.04_LTS"
hostname="ubuntu-22.04"
machine_specs = {
cpus = 2,
memory = 2048,
disk_size = "65536",
}
addons=[
"desktop"
]
create_vagrant_box = false
version
- The version of Ubuntu to build. This can be any version that is available for ARM in the Ubuntu release page.machine_name
- The name of the virtual machine in Parallels Desktop.hostname
- The hostname of the virtual machine.machine_specs
- The specs of the virtual machine. This is a map with the following keys:cpus
- The number of CPUs to assign to the virtual machine.memory
- The amount of memory to assign to the virtual machine.disk_size
- The size of the virtual disk in MB.
addons
- A list of addons to install. The following addons are available:desktop
- Installs the Ubuntu desktop.vscode
- Installs Visual Studio code.
create_vagrant_box
- If set totrue
a Vagrant box will be created. If set tofalse
only a virtual machine will be created. If set totrue
,force_password_change
will automatically be set tofalse
since it would interfere with vagrant's initial setup.
To initialize the Packer plugins, navigate to the directory containing the script and run the following command:
packer init .
To validate the build configuration, navigate to the directory containing the script and run the following command:
packer validate -var-file variables.pkrvars.hcl .
You should see the following output:
The configuration is valid.
To build the virtual machine, navigate to the directory containing the script and run the following command:
packer build -var-file variables.pkrvars.hcl .
This will create a new virtual machine based on the configuration in the Packer script in the out folder. if you set the create_vagrant_box
variable to true
a Vagrant box will be created in the out
folder.
Note: The build process can take a while depending on the speed of your machine and your internet connection.
The machine will not be automatically attached to Parallels Desktop. You will need to do this manually.