Can't create VM image with packer in Proxmox

[UmanGarbag]

Hello i'm want to create some ISO image with packer on my pve (pve-manager/6.3-6/2184247e), so i use your example for debian distro, but i have a problem when the installer want to download debconf file.

The VM can have a ip address via DHCP, but block in the debconfig task, and crash because of timeout ssh.

Have you ever had the same issue ?

Thanks.

[blz-ea]

Hey @UmanGarbag,
I haven't had issue like that.
What do you see in the VM's console in Proxmox during image creation process ?
Is it able to pick up the answer's file ?

[UmanGarbag]

Hi, where i launch my packer command the create process works, in the web interface i can see packer create and start the VM. In cluster log and task i don't have any error.

The installer block after network configuration :

The proxmox console :

I show you my configuration file :

Json file for template :

{ "builders": [ { "type": "proxmox", "proxmox_url": "{{user proxmox_hostname}}", "username": "{{user username}}", "password": "{{user password}}", "insecure_skip_tls_verify": true, "node": "pve", "vm_id": "{{ user vmid}}", "vm_name": "{{ username}}", "os": "l26", "cores": "{{user cpus}}", "sockets": "{{user sockets}}", "memory": "{{user memory}}", "communicator":"ssh", "network_adapters": [ { "model": "{{user net_model}}", "bridge": "{{user net_bridge`}}"
}
],

  "disks": [
    {
      "type": "{{ user `disk_type`}}",
      "disk_size": "{{user `disk_size`}}",
      "storage_pool": "{{user `disk_storage_pool`}}",
      "storage_pool_type": "{{ user `disk_storage_pool_type`}}",
      "format": "raw"
      }
  ],
  "http_directory": "../http",
  "boot_wait":"2s",
  "boot_command": [
    "<esc><wait>",
    "install <wait>",
    " preseed/url=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/preseed_test.cfg <wait>",
    "debian-installer=fr_FR.UTF-8  <wait>",
    "auto  <wait>",
    "locale=fr_FR.UTF-8  <wait>",
    "kbd-chooser/method=fr  <wait>",
    "keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap=fr  <wait>",
    "netcfg/get_hostname=debian10 <wait> ",
    " netcfg/get_domain=localhost.local <wait>",
    " fb=false <wait>",
    " debconf/frontend=noninteractive <wait>",
    " console-setup/ask_detect=false <wait>",
    " console-keymaps-at/keymap=fr <wait>",
    " grub-installer/bootdev=/dev/vda <wait>",
    " netcfg/dhcp_timeout=120 <wait>",
    " username=root <wait>",
    " user_password=root <wait>",
    " time_zone=UTC <wait>",
    " passwd/username=root <wait>",
    " passwd/root-password=root <wait>",
    " passwd/root-password-again=root <wait>",
    " passwd/user-fullname=ansible <wait>",
    " passwd/user-password=ansible <wait>",
    " passwd/user-password-again=ansible <wait>",
    
    "<enter><wait>"
   ],

  "qemu_agent":"true",
  "scsi_controller":"virtio-scsi-pci",
  "iso_file": "{{ user `iso_name`}}",
  "iso_checksum": "{{ user `iso_checksum`}}",
  "unmount_iso": true,
  "template_name": "{{ user `template`}}",
  "template_description": "Debian10 template with low hardware caracteristic",
  "ssh_timeout": "20m",
  "ssh_username": "root",
  "ssh_password": "root",
  "ssh_port": 22
}

],
"description": "Small template for a little debian10 machine"
}`

And preceed.cfg :

Preseeding only locale sets language, country and locale.

d-i debian-installer/locale string fr_FR

The values can also be preseeded individually for greater flexibility.

d-i debian-installer/language string fr
d-i debian-installer/country string FR
d-i debian-installer/locale string fr_fr.UTF-8

Optionally specify additional locales to be generated.

d-i localechooser/supported-locales multiselect en_US.UTF-8, nl_NL.UTF-8

Keyboard selection.

d-i keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap select fr

d-i keyboard-configuration/toggle select No toggling

Select network interface auto

d-i netcfg/choose_interface select auto

If you select ftp, the mirror/country string does not need to be set.

#d-i mirror/protocol string ftp
d-i mirror/country string manual
d-i mirror/http/hostname string ftp.fr.debian.org
d-i mirror/http/directory string /debian
d-i mirror/http/proxy string

#Root Account
d-i passwd/root-login boolean true
d-i passwd/root-password password root
d-i passwd/root-password-again password root

To create a normal user account.

d-i passwd/user-fullname string ansible
d-i passwd/username string ansible

Normal user's password, either in clear text

d-i passwd/user-password password ansible
d-i passwd/user-password-again password ansible
#UID for the user
d-i passwd/user-uid string 1000

#Add the user account to initial groups
d-i passwd/user-default-groups string audio cdrom video

Controls whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC.

d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true

You may set this to any valid setting for $TZ; see the contents of

/usr/share/zoneinfo/ for valid values.

d-i time/zone string Europe/Paris

Controls whether to use NTP to set the clock during the install

d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean true

NTP server to use

d-i clock-setup/ntp-server string 0.europe.pool.ntp.org

Partitioning

#Lvm auto

d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string max
d-i partman-auto/choose_recipe select multi

If one of the disks that are going to be automatically partitioned

contains an old LVM configuration, the user will normally receive a

warning. This can be preseeded away...

d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true

The same applies to pre-existing software RAID array:

d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true

And the same goes for the confirmation to write the lvm partitions.

d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true
d-i partman-lvm/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true

d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
d-i partman/choose_partition select finish
d-i partman/confirm boolean true
d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
d-i partman/mount_style select uuid

Apt setup

d-i apt-setup/use_mirror boolean true
d-i apt-setup/non-free boolean true
d-i apt-setup/contrib boolean true

Select which update services to use; define the mirrors to be used.

d-i apt-setup/services-select multiselect security, updates, backports
d-i apt-setup/security_host string security.debian.org

Package selection

tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard, ssh-server

d-i pkgsel/include string qemu-guest-agent bash-completion curl figlet wget git openssh-server build-essential vim
d-i pkgsel/install-language-support boolean false
d-i pkgsel/upgrade select safe-upgrade

Popularity Contest

popularity-contest popularity-contest/participate boolean false

Boot loader installation

This is fairly safe to set, it makes grub install automatically to the MBR

if no other operating system is detected on the machine.

d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean true

This one makes grub-installer install to the MBR if it also finds some other

OS, which is less safe as it might not be able to boot that other OS.

d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true

Due notably to potential USB sticks, the location of the MBR can not be

determined safely in general, so this needs to be specified:

d-i grub-installer/bootdev string /dev/sda

Avoid that last message about the install being complete.

d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note

d-i preseed/late_command string
in-target sed -e 's/#PermitRootLogin prohibit-password/PermitRootLogin yes/' -i /etc/ssh/sshd_config

[blz-ea]

I'm not sure what is wrong with your preseed.cfgand your json config, but I can suggest you to try using debian template from this repo with included preseed.cfg and sources.pkr.hcl (<- instead of json), test it and modify later for your needs.

[UmanGarbag]

Ok thanks , i gonna try this :)

[UmanGarbag]

I try but i have the same error, i don't know why