====== InstantVM based on Devuan Excalibur ======

NOTE: WORK IN PROGRESS - I am writing these as I go through the process, therefore until this notice is removed, they are incomplete / untested.

These notes are for creating a virtual server installed and running [[..debianpreferences|the way I like it]], in under 2 minutes (time is dependent on the hosting hardware, Internet connection speed, and how many packages have been updated since you created the template).

It's based on the previous notes I wrote when doing this for [[..InstantVM|Chimaera]] and [[..InstantVM:Daedalus]].

  - Create a 3Gbyte partition Excalibur VM and go through the standard Devuan installation process, but do not re-start the server at the end
    * Use DHCP networking on eth0
    * Set the hostname to (literally) MyHostNameGoesHere
    * Leave the domain name blank
    * The root password, the first user and its password, will be replicated on every VM created from this image
    * Select Manual partitioning
      * Create vda1 of as large a size as possible, but leave around 1-2Mbyte free (yes, megabytes) for vda2 - try 3218850Kb as the size for vda1
        * Make vda1 an ext4 partition for /
        * Set vda2 to "do not use" (this should end up in the summary as 1Mbyte)
      * Create vdb1 as swap
    * For a 3 Gbyte root FS, the package selector won't offer a graphical desktop environment, but "SSH server" should be selected by default - this is exactly what you want for a server
    * When the installer wants to restart the machine, pause the Grub menu and then just power off the VM
  - Use ddrescue or similar to take a copy of the resultant disk image, just in case something goes horribly wrong with the next few steps and you need to start again - this saves you going through the entire Devuan installation process again
  - Use kpartx to mount the (as yet never-booted-up) root partition and preserve the pristine /var/log directory, copy some files to be unpacked later, and then adjust some configuration files:<code>kpartx -av /dev/VG/VMname
mount /dev/mapper/VG-VMname1 /mnt
rsync -Pav fs.Excalibur.tgz /mnt
cd /mnt
rsync -Pav var/log/ var/log.pristine
rm -f etc/apt/sources.list etc/apt/sources.list~
sed -i "s/export PATH/export PATH\nexport HISTSIZE=10000\nexport HISTFILESIZE=10000\nexport HISTCONTROL=none\nexport HISTTIMEFORMAT=\"%F %T \"\nexport QUOTING_STYLE=literal/" etc/profile
sed -i "s/sulogin/sulogin -t 30/" etc/init.d/checkfs.sh
sed -i "s/:root:/:MyHostNameGoesHere:/" etc/passwd
cd ~
umount /mnt
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/VG-VMname2
kpartx -dv /dev/VG/VMname</code>
    * Note: The {{fs.Excalibur.tgz|fs.Excalibur.tgz}} file contains:<code>etc/apt/apt.conf.d/42norecommendationsplease
etc/apt/apt.conf.d/42nosuggestionsplease
etc/apt/sources.list.d/Excalibur.list
etc/boot.d/firstboot
etc/cron.midnight/
etc/cron.midnight/.placeholder
etc/cron.minutely/
etc/cron.minutely/.placeholder
etc/cron.yearly/
etc/cron.yearly/.placeholder
etc/cron.daily/backup
etc/crontab
etc/fstab
etc/network/interfaces
etc/ssh/ssh_config.d/nohash.conf
etc/ssh/ssh_config.d/dsa.conf
etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/root.conf
etc/timezone
etc/rsyslog.d/default.conf
etc/rsyslog.d/central.conf
home/youruser/.ssh/authorized_keys
root/.ssh/authorized_keys
root/.ssh/backup.id_rsa
root/.ssh/backup.id_rsa.pub
root/.ssh/known_hosts
</code>These will be unpacked onto the new system in the next step.
  - Start the VM, log in as root, and run the following commands on it (adjust as appropriate for your time zone etc.):<code>tune2fs -L rootfs /dev/vda1
ln -fs /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime
cd /
tar -xvf fs.Excalibur.tgz
rm -f fs.Excalibur.tgz
apt-get install -y aptitude
aptitude install -y less openntpd rsync vim
aptitude purge -y nano vim-tiny
echo 'syntax off' >>~/.vimrc
[ -e /etc/default/su ] || echo ALWAYS_SET_PATH=yes >/etc/default/su
cat /etc/default/su | grep -q ALWAYS_SET_PATH || echo ALWAYS_SET_PATH=yes >>/etc/default/su
aptitude install -y parted acpi{d,-support-base} sendmail s-nail dnsutils
echo 'RESUME=LABEL=swap' >/etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
update-initramfs -k all -u
</code>
  - Shut down the server

You now have a VM server image which can be ddrescue'd over the top of a blank VM partition (3 Gbytes or bigger), and when booted, will be a usable VM in under 2 minutes using the {{NewInstantVM|NewInstantVM}} script..

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