Please find the original README from the upstream here. I am using Ubuntu Server in this guide, feel free to use your favourite distro.

1. Build the project.

   • make

2. Download the image, initrd (initial ramdisk) and kernel from this site into the build folder. For example,

   • # image
     jammy-server-cloudimg-arm64.tar.gz
     tar xvfz jammy-server-cloudimg-arm64.tar.gz
     # initrd
     ubuntu-22.04-server-cloudimg-arm64-initrd-generic
     # kernel
     ubuntu-22.04-server-cloudimg-arm64-vmlinuz-generic

3. Unzip the kernel.

   • mv /path/to/kernel /path/to/kernel.gz
     gunzip /path/to/kernel.gz

1. First, start the virtual machine without specifying a root. This allows us to run some basic setup such as creating a root mount point, disabling cloud init, setting a root password and a static IP.

   • ./vftool \
       -k /path/to/kernel \
       -i /path/to/initrd \
       -d /path/to/image.img \
       -m 8192 \
       -a "console=hvc0" 

2. Look for the indicated terminal input device (e.g. Waiting for connection to: /dev/ttys001), and connect to it from another terminal session.

   • screen /dev/ttys001

3. Wait for the virtual machine to finish booting up with initramfs prompt.

   • ...
     ...
     ...
     (initramfs)

4. Create a root mount point.

   • mkdir /mnt
     mount /dev/vda /mnt
     chroot /mnt

5. Disable cloud init.

   • touch /etc/cloud/cloud-init.disabled

6. Set the root password to root.

   • echo 'root:root' | chpasswd

7. Set a static IP.

   • cat <<EOF> /etc/netplan/01-dhcp.yaml
     network:
       ethernets:
         enp0s1:
           dhcp4: true
           addresses: [192.168.64.18/20]
       version: 2
     EOF

8. Exit and unmount.

   • exit
     umount /dev/vda

9. Manually kill the virtual machine with Ctrl+C from the original terminal session.

1. Allocate storage space to the virtual machine by resizing the image. In this example, I am allocating 32GB to the virtual machine.

   • dd if=/dev/zero bs=1m count=32000 >> /path/to/image

2. Start the virtual machine with a root specified this time.

   • ./vftool \
       -k /path/to/kernel \
       -i /path/to/initrd \
       -d /path/to/image.img \
       -p 4 \
       -m 8192 \
       -a "root=/dev/vda rw console=hvc0" 

3. Repeat Step 2 in Setup the Virtual Machine and login as root.

4. Check if the image resizing worked.

   • df -h | grep vda

5. If the size is not what specified in Step 1, check if the dd command worked.

   • parted
     (parted) print devices
     (parted) quit

6. If /dev/vda/ shows the correct size allocated in Step 1, resize the partition to the max.

   • resize2fs /dev/vda

7. Repeat Step 4, and you should now see the correct allocated size for /dev/vda.

1. Before we continue any further, instead of using root to access the virtual machine, let's create a new user and set a password.

   • adduser <YOUR_USERNAME>

2. Add this user to the sudo group.

   • usermod -aG sudo <YOUR_USERNAME>

3. Login as the new user.

   • su - <YOUR_USERNAME>

My intention here is to use the remote development feature from the IDE.

1. Re-install openssh-server.

   • sudo apt update
     sudo apt --reinstall install openssh-server

2. Disable the ssh.socket.

   • sudo systemctl disable ssh.socket --now

3. Enable the ssh.service.

   • sudo systemctl enable ssh.service --now

4. Assert that the ssh.service is enabled and running.

   • sudo systemctl status sshd

5. On your local machine, generate a SSH key and add the public key to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file in the virtual machine.

6. Now you should be able to SSH into the virtual machine using the static IP specified in Step 7 of Setup the Virtual Machine.

   • ssh -i /path/to/private-key <YOUR_USERNAME>@192.168.64.18

1. Install a few prerequisite packages.

   • sudo apt update
     sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common

2. Add Docker repository to APT sources:

   • curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg
     echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

3. Install docker-ce.

   • sudo apt update
     apt-cache policy docker-ce
     sudo apt install docker-ce

4. Assert that docker is enabled and running.

   • sudo systemctl status docker

5. Add the current user to the docker group, so that Docker can be managed by a non-root user.

   • sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
     newgrp docker

6. Assert that images can be downloaded from the Docker hub.

   • docker run --rm hello-world

1. A static IP was set in Step 7 of Setup the Virtual Machine.

2. On your local machine, point this IP to your favourite hostname in the /etc/hosts file. For example:

   • 192.168.64.18  your.favourite.hostname
     

3. Now you can access the virtual machine using this hostname.

1. Occasionally, you might run into a situation where /dev/vda is re-mounted as read-only due to filesystem errors.

2. In this case, use fsck to fix the filesystem errors.

   • sudo fsck -y /dev/vda

3. Shut down the virtual machine properly and restart it.

   • sudo shutdown now

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