Option to use arbitrary VM images, such as, e.g., "official" openSUSE images

[smithfarm]

At present, kanku by default (kanku lsi) offers to use images from a special repository, devel:kanku:images.

While these images might be fine for some purposes, there are times when one needs to test an official image, such as JeOS or whatever.

In this ticket, I would like to attempt to document what exactly is needed in an image for kanku up ; kanku ssh -u root to succeed. Then we could explore how this could be provided without resorting to a special image build.

[M0ses]

Could you provide an example of an "official" openSUSE image ? A url would be perfect. I would use it for an example and explain it in a HOWTO blog post.

kanku is a very mighty tool once it gets access to a serial console. grub, kernel, login and also ncurses interfaces can be controlled (uses perl-Expect) under the hood. Examples might get very complex once we tackle with ncurses interfaces (e.g. firstboot scripts from kiwi - selecting HDD etc.), but once we have a simple example explained in a HOWTO we could proceed with more complex stuff.

[smithfarm]

Could you provide an example of an "official" openSUSE image ?

Sure. Here's the current Leap 15.5 KVM/Xen minimal image.

https://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.5/appliances/openSUSE-Leap-15.5-Minimal-VM.x86_64-15.5.0-kvm-and-xen-Build13.167.qcow2

I got to it by:

https://www.opensuse.org -> Leap -> Install -> Download -> Alternative Downloads -> x86_64 KVM/Xen image -> Pick mirror

[M0ses]

These images are hard to handle. They require a lot of interactive interaction.

Its possible, but would end in a very complex kanku file.

Having a kanku-flavor would be nice (In the end a d:k:i image):

• optimized for serial console
  • grub2
  • kernelcmdline
• No interactive interaction required
• Preset root pwd
• optional: openssh preinstalled

But I think this would be a political discussion