Objective

The objective is to create vagrant base boxes from Scratch

Operating System and Software Version

  • Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
  • Software: Vagrant 2.0.3 and VirtualBox 5.2.10

Install Vagrant and VirtualBox

For vagrant, download Deb packege from Vagrant For Linux

For virtualbox, download Deb packege from VirtualBox for Linux

Create Vagrant Boxes from Scratch

Install Linux in the VirtualBox

Follow the instructions in the PDF File to install Ubuntu 16.04 LTS in the VirtualBox. Note that the user and password should be vagrant

Configure Linux

  • Add the vagrant user to sudoers file

Append one line in the /etc/sudoers

vagrant ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
  • Install Vagrant Public Keys
mkdir -p /home/vagrant/.ssh
chmod 0700 /home/vagrant/.ssh
wget --no-check-certificate \
    https://raw.github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/master/keys/vagrant.pub \
    -O /home/vagrant/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 0600 /home/vagrant/.ssh/authorized_keys
chown -R vagrant /home/vagrant/.ssh
  • Update Linux System
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
  • Install OpenSSH Server
sudo apt install openssh

  • Install the “Guest Additions”

  • Clean up (useless packages, package cache, and so on)

sudo apt remove XXX
sudo apt clean
  • “Zero out” the drive
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/EMPTY bs=1M
sudo rm -f /EMPTY

Package new box

$ vagrant package --base trusty64_default_1529872704422_34658

Then you will see one file - package.box in the working directory.

Note, you can use following instruction to obtain the name of a VM in VirtualBox.

$ VBoxManage list vms
"bionic64_default_1527182703834_99771" {daba6cbc-6031-4526-975f-3d5d952d6e89}
"trusty64_default_1529872704422_34658" {f7d11d1b-d88e-4241-a36e-78d434e0fa51}

References

[1] https://www.sitepoint.com/create-share-vagrant-base-box/

[2] https://www.skoblenick.com/vagrant/creating-a-custom-box-from-scratch/

[3] https://www.engineyard.com/blog/building-a-vagrant-box-from-start-to-finish

[4] http://aruizca.com/steps-to-create-a-vagrant-base-box-with-ubuntu-14-04-desktop-gui-and-virtualbox/

[5] https://github.com/ckan/ckan/wiki/How-to-Create-a-CentOS-Vagrant-Base-Box