I need a new Debian-based image to create new virtual machines since the old one is now two major versions out of date. I previously created the base images using a script that creates a disk image, mounts it as a block device and installs Debian with debootstrap. This process is somewhat tricky because it requires privileges and kernel modules to access system network block devices. It also takes several minutes to install the system, for creating a new virtual machine it's much quicker and simpler to copy a base image. Rather than get the script working, this time I'm just going to create a new virtual machine and use the graphical Debian installer to manually build a new image.

The installation media is downloaded on the host system.

tarn@hypervisor:~/# curl -o /var/kvm/installers/debian-12.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-12.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso

A qcow2 disk image is created on the server.

tarn@hypervisor:~/# qemu-img create -f qcow2 /var/kvm/images/debian-12-base.qcow2 20G

As I've prevously configured remote libvirt connections with TLS I can connect to a remote host with virt-install, virt-viewer and virsh by exporting an environment variable.

tarn@thinkpad:~/# export LIBVIRT_DEFAULT_URI=qemu+tls://hypervisor.tarnbarford.net:16514/system

I use virt-install to create a new virtual machine.

tarn@thinkpad:~/# virt-install \
    --name debian-12-base \
    --connect qemu+tls://hypervisor.tarnbarford.net:16514/system \
    --network bridge=virbr0 \
    --disk /var/kvm/images/debian-12-base.qcow2 \
    --vcpu 4 \
    --memory 4096 \
    --os-variant debian11 \
    --graphics vnc \
    --console pty,target_type=virtio \
    --serial pty \
    --cdrom /var/kvm/installers/debian-12.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso
Starting install...
Creating domain...
Running graphical console command: virt-viewer --connect qemu+tls://hypervisor.tarnbarford.net:16514/system --wait debian-12-base

The virtual machine will use a network bridge on the host machine called virbr0 the DHCP service will allocate an IP address on an internal network and the bridge provides a route to the Internet. Both the installation media and the disk image are specified. I'll need graphics for the installation, I'll use VNC which I've previously configured to run remote over a secure TLS connection. The --console and --serial options will allow me to make a serial console connection once it's enabled on the virtual machine.

This brings up a virt-viewer window on which I can run through the standard Debian graphic install process. I've taken some screenshot of the process. After completing the installation the system will reboot and the virt-viewer window will close.

  • 1.png
  • 2.png
  • 3.png
  • 4.png
  • 5.png
  • 6.png
  • 7.png
  • 8.png
  • 9.png
  • 10.png
  • 11.png
  • 12.png
  • 13.png
  • 14.png
  • 15.png
  • 16.png
  • 17.png
  • 18.png
  • 19.png
  • 20.png
  • 21.png
  • 22.png
  • 23.png
  • 24.png
  • 25.png
  • 26.png
  • 27.png
  • 28.png

For the rest of the setup I prefer to use a serial console rather than VNC, mostly because copy and paste works and I don't have to deal with a window the hijacks my mouse cursor, but this won't work just yet.

First, I need a new VNC connection. I can either use virt-manager or virt-viewer.

tarn@thinkpad:~/# virt-viewer debain-12-base

In the VNC window I just want to configure the system so it supports a serial console. Enabling the serial-getty@ttyS0 serice should be enough, but for some reason this didn't work after I cloned the base image.

root@debian-12-base:~/# systemctl enable serial-getty@ttyS0.service

It's also possible to configure this in grub which worked reliably for me. First edit /etc/default/grub and ensure the following to values are set.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8"
GRUB_TERMINAL=console

Once that's done, grub needs to be updated.

root@debian-12-base:~/# update-grub

Now it should be possible to get a serial console with libvirt.

tarn@thinkpad:~/# virsh console debian-12-base
Connected to domain 'debian-12-base'
Escape character is ^] (Ctrl + ])

debian-12-base login: root
Password:
Linux debian-12-base 6.1.0-13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.55-1 (2023-09-29) x86_64
root@debian-12-base:~#

From this console we do the remaining configuration. Firstly install a couple of packages:

root@debian-12-base:~# apt install sudo vim curl

Add the reguarly user tarn created during the install process to the sudo group.

root@debian-12-base:~# usermod -a -G sudo tarn

Add my SSH key so I can SSH into the server as the tarn user.

root@debian-12-base:~# mkdir -p /home/tarn/.ssh
root@debian-12-base:~# curl -o /home/tarn/.ssh/authorized_keys https://github.com/tarnacious.keys
root@debian-12-base:~# chown -r tarn:tarn /home/tarn/.ssh
root@debian-12-base:~# chmod 600 /home/tarn/.ssh/authorized_keys

Clear the history

root@debian-12-base:~# history -c && history -w

The close the bash shell with ctrl d and then the serial console with ctrl ]. The base image is now configured so we can shut down the VM and delete it's libvirt configuration, the disk is the only thing we care about.

tarn@thinkpad:~/# virsh destroy debian-12-base
tarn@thinkpad:~/# virsh undefined debian-12-base

The file /var/kvm/images/debian-12-base.qcow2 on the host is now a bootable Debian image that I can copy and create new virtual machines from.