Using vmbuilder to build an 11.10 vm from 10.04?

Question

I am running lucid and want to build an oneiric vm using vmbuilder.

I run this command:

sudo vmbuilder kvm ubuntu --suite oneiric --flavour virtual \
    --arch i386 -o --libvirt qemu:///system --user user --name user \
    --pass user --addpkg imagemagick --mirror http://localhost:9999/ubuntu \
    --addpkg acpid

and get this error message:

VMBuilder.exception.VMBuilderUserError: Invalid suite: "oneiric". Valid suites are: dapper gutsy hardy intrepid jaunty karmic lucid

How can I add the ability to create VMs for newer releases?

Answer 1

I tried adding the vmbuilder team's PPA and pulling their "daily" build for lucid, but the build in the PPA appears to be several revisions behind bzr and only has support up to maverick.

Instead, I built the package directly from bzr. Living on the bleeding edge is not ideal for various reasons, but here's what I did:

bzr branch lp:ubuntu/vm-builder ubzr-vm-builder
cd ubzr-vm-builder
fakeroot debian/rules binary
sudo dpkg -i ../*vm-builder*.deb

When I run the command in the question, I no longer get the error message about an invalid suite.

Answer 2

You must add the module for the Ubuntu version you want to build, editing:

/usr/share/pyshared/VMBuilder/plugins/ubuntu/distro.py and 
/usr/share/pyshared/VMBuilder/plugins/ubuntu/oneiric.py 

Will do it for you, however since last versions are made for the previous ones, you'll need to define natty and maverick before. You can learn more of the structure checking file:///usr/share/doc/python-vm-builder/html/VMBuilder.plugins.ubuntu-module.html out.

The easiest way to accomplish this is by copying the ubuntu plugins from the last version:

$ bzr branch lp:ubuntu/vm-builder ubzr-vm-builder
$ sudo cp ubzr-vm-builder/VMBuilder/plugins/ubuntu/* /usr/share/pyshared/VMBuilder/plugins/ubuntu/

Make sure to update the soft links living in:

/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/VMBuilder/plugins/ubuntu/