packer

Build custom Debian cloud images with pre-installed packages for faster VM boot times.

Part of the homestak-dev organization.

Quick Start

./build.sh              # Interactive build menu
./build.sh debian-12    # Build specific template
./publish.sh            # Copy images to Proxmox storage

Features

• Pre-installed qemu-guest-agent - ~16s boot vs ~35s with cloud-init install
• Blacklisted modules - No unnecessary drivers (wireless, floppy, joystick, etc.)
• Smart caching - Skips rebuild when template and source image are unchanged
• Smart publish - Checksum-based copy skips unchanged images
• lae.proxmox compatible - grub-pc pre-configured for non-interactive kernel removal

Available Templates

Template	Image Size (compressed)	Boot Time	Build Time	Purpose
debian-12	~780 MB	~16s	~2 min	Base Debian 12 with qemu-guest-agent
debian-13	~590 MB	~16s	~1.5 min	Base Debian 13 with qemu-guest-agent
pve-9	~3.4 GB	~16s	~15-20 min	PVE-ready with pre-installed packages

Project Structure

packer/
├── build.sh              # Interactive build script (caching, checksums)
├── publish.sh            # Checksum-based copy to Proxmox storage
├── checksums.sh          # Generate/verify SHA256 checksums
├── templates/            # Per-template directories
│   ├── debian-12/
│   │   ├── template.pkr.hcl
│   │   └── cleanup.sh
│   ├── debian-13/
│   │   ├── template.pkr.hcl
│   │   └── cleanup.sh
│   └── pve-9/
│       ├── template.pkr.hcl
│       └── cleanup.sh
├── shared/               # Shared resources across templates
│   ├── cloud-init/       # Build-time cloud-init config
│   └── scripts/          # Shared cleanup and detection scripts
├── images/               # Built .qcow2 images (git-ignored)
├── cache/                # Downloaded base images (git-ignored)
└── logs/                 # Build logs with timestamps

Workflow

templates/{name}/template.pkr.hcl
    ↓ ./build.sh
images/{name}/{name}.qcow2
    ↓ ./publish.sh (qemu-img convert)
/var/lib/vz/template/iso/{name}.img
    ↓ iac-driver provisions VMs
VMs boot in ~16s (vs ~35s with generic cloud images)

Module Blacklist

Images exclude unnecessary kernel modules for headless VMs:

• cfg80211 - Wireless networking
• floppy - Floppy disk driver
• joydev - Joystick device
• psmouse - PS/2 mouse
• pcspkr - PC speaker

Prerequisites

• Packer 1.7+ from HashiCorp (Debian's 1.6.x doesn't support HCL2 required_plugins)
• KVM/QEMU with nested virtualization
• User in kvm group (sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER)

SSH keys are generated automatically per-build. To use an existing key: SSH_KEY_FILE=~/.ssh/id_rsa ./build.sh

Releases

Pre-built images are available on the latest GitHub Release.

Download via homestak CLI:

homestak images download all --publish   # Download and install all images

Or manually:

gh release download latest --repo homestak-dev/packer --pattern '*.qcow2'

Third-Party Acknowledgments

Dependency	Purpose	License
hashicorp/qemu	QEMU builder plugin for Packer	MPL-2.0

Related Repos

Repo	Purpose
bootstrap	Entry point - curl|bash setup
site-config	Site-specific secrets and configuration
ansible	Proxmox host configuration
iac-driver	Orchestration engine (builds images, provisions VMs)

License

Apache 2.0 - see LICENSE