using generic image as podman "machine"

[mvcorrea-ufc]

Hi there,
I know its a redhat project! but the image is getting big and I am working in a limited env.
so I tried :)

podman machine init --image-path https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/trixie/daily/20250305-2042/debian-13-genericcloud-amd64-daily-20250305-2042.qcow2 debian-machine

later when

podman machine start debian-machine --log-level=debug

got stucked on a login shell. then tried...

podman machine init --image-path=https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/trixie/daily/20250305-2042/debian-13-genericcloud-amd64-daily-20250305-2042.qcow2 --cpus=2 --memory=2048 --disk-size=20 --ignition-path=cloud-init.yaml debian-machine

using cloud-init.yaml

#cloud-config
users:
  - name: core
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-rsa PLACEHOLDER_KEY  # This will be replaced by Podman

hostname: debian-machine

then

Error: dial unix /var/folders/k5/nkc5mpcn7936lzyngljrhhnr0000gn/T/podman/qmp_debian-machine.sock: connect: no such file or directory

then stopped :(
Any documentation on building a proper qcow2 to work with podman?
Any List of images (exept fedora-coreos) to use with it?

[baude]

Hello,

It's not that we run Red Hat stuff so much as it is customized specifically for running a podman machine; afterall, we do not want to be yet another libvirt. A couple of things that could be helpful in moving you along.

1. Check out https://github.com/containers/podman-machine-os and specifically https://github.com/containers/podman-machine-os/blob/main/podman-image/Containerfile .. This is the repo where the images are generated and that Container file hints at some of the things you will need to customize.
2. Ignition is distinctly different than cloud-init, though they do serve the same purposes. The approach ignition takes is very specific and opinionated so it is not compatible with cloud-init approaches.

I guess you could continue to customize a cloud-base image of debian, firstly working outside of podman until you are able to get things working. You will then also need to set up all the volumes and pipes required to take advantage of the machine itself. That is probably outside the scope of a simple github discussion.

Regarding the space issue, I would really appreciate it if you would file an issue stating that the image is too large for your purposes. Please give details as it makes things more realistic. The image is not 2GB; it is actually half of that but due to a limitation in rpm-ostree (iirc, i might be wrong), the size is drastically bloated by the removal and subsequent additions of a packages.

Good luck on your adventure and thanks in advance if you do file an issue.

[afbjorklund]

You can use Lima, if you want to use another OS, like Debian.

Note however, the podman packages in there are a bit older.

That is why the default template for Podman uses Fedora...

https://podman-desktop.io/docs/lima/creating-a-lima-instance

---

limactl start --containerd=none template://debian

$ limactl shell debian 
anders@lima-debian:/home/anders$ sudo apt install podman
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  aardvark-dns buildah catatonit conmon containernetworking-plugins crun dbus-user-session dirmngr fuse-overlayfs gnupg gnupg-l10n gnupg-utils golang-github-containers-common
  golang-github-containers-image gpg gpg-agent gpg-wks-client gpg-wks-server gpgconf gpgsm libassuan0 libgpgme11 libksba8 libnpth0 libslirp0 libsubid4 libyajl2 netavark pinentry-curses slirp4netns
  uidmap
Suggested packages:
  containers-storage pinentry-gnome3 tor parcimonie xloadimage scdaemon pinentry-doc docker-compose
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  aardvark-dns buildah catatonit conmon containernetworking-plugins crun dbus-user-session dirmngr fuse-overlayfs gnupg gnupg-l10n gnupg-utils golang-github-containers-common
  golang-github-containers-image gpg gpg-agent gpg-wks-client gpg-wks-server gpgconf gpgsm libassuan0 libgpgme11 libksba8 libnpth0 libslirp0 libsubid4 libyajl2 netavark pinentry-curses podman
  slirp4netns uidmap
0 upgraded, 32 newly installed, 0 to remove and 42 not upgraded.
Need to get 34.9 MB of archives.
After this operation, 131 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

This issue about customizing was previously reported as:

• Examples: Be able to use CentOS / RHEL / other operating systems for podman machine init / start podman-desktop/podman-desktop#1638