Allow RHEL-like distros below version 8

[alisson276]

This MR allows you create VMs using CentOS 7

My centos7.yaml file:

images:
- location: "https://cloud.centos.org/altarch/7/images/CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud-2009.qcow2"
  arch: "x86_64"
  digest: "sha256:e38bab0475cc6d004d2e17015969c659e5a308111851b0e2715e84646035bdd3"
- location: "https://cloud.centos.org/altarch/7/images/CentOS-7-aarch64-GenericCloud-2009.qcow2"
  arch: "aarch64"
  digest: "sha256:51c0222aa4bc7d966fc044eb6ce9182993a1dc398eaa595e58abd0d361439baf"
containerd:
  system: false
  user: false
mounts:
- location: "~"
- location: "/tmp/lima"
  writable: true
firmware:
  legacyBIOS: true
cpuType:
  # Workaround for "vmx_write_mem: mmu_gva_to_gpa XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX failed" on Intel Mac
  # https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1838390
  x86_64: "Haswell-v4

[afbjorklund]

This was rejected before, I think (support for CentOS 7)

• Use alternative sshfs install locations on centos #344

[alisson276]

Yeah, you're right (unfortunately). I'm closing this one. I will just fork lima and use on my own repo since the maintainer doesn't want keep support for CentOS 7 and older Fedora that don't have dnf yet. I don't see any motivation to do not support CentOS below 8, since any, Ubuntu, basically is supported (including older and outdated/EOL Ubuntu) just because they use apt-get and apt-get is supported. Anyway.

[afbjorklund]

I don't think using "yum" was the main issue, but yeah.

The main reason was that CentOS 7 is like Ubuntu 14.04 and it was too old... There was support for CentOS 8 and akin to Ubuntu 18.04, until it was discontinued (replaced in Lima with the RHEL clones Rocky/Alma)

I do have some Stream 8 and Stream 9 examples posted.

They just weren't that useful upstream, the Fedora 28 branch was better handled by the stable OS and the Fedora 34 branch was outdated for no good reason. Might as well look forward to Fedora 36, and also Ubuntu 22.04 ?

[afbjorklund]

@alisson276 if you really want CentOS 7 to be supported, I think opening a new issue and describing why would be helpful

[alisson276]

Never mind. I solved my problem doing this:

provision:
  - mode: system
    script: |
      #!/bin/bash
      set -eux -o pipefail
      pkgs=""
      yum_install_flags="-y"
      if ! rpm -ql epel-release > /dev/null 2>&1; then
          yum install ${yum_install_flags} epel-release
      fi
      if ! command -v dnf >/dev/null 2>&1; then
          pkgs="${pkgs} dnf"
      fi
      if ! command -v sshfs >/dev/null 2>&1; then
          pkgs="${pkgs} fuse-sshfs"
      fi
      if ! command -v mount.fuse3 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
          pkgs="${pkgs} fuse3"
      fi
      if [ -n "${pkgs}" ]; then
          yum install ${yum_install_flags} ${pkgs}
      fi

My use case is very particular, we still use CentOS7 in our company (we have a lot of work to migrate everything to AlmaLinux yet) and some people started to use Macs with Apple M1 chip, so we don't have vagrant and virtualbox available. Then we use lima to create test virtual machines, actually.

[jandubois]

Never mind. I solved my problem doing this:

Note that this might break when #287 is implemented (run provisioning scripts after mounts have been set up).

[alisson276]

Thank you for the warning @jandubois , actually I have a:

      until ls /srv/lima/provision &> /dev/null; do
          echo "Waiting for the filesystem to be mounted..."
          sleep 3
      done

in my provision code exactly to wait for this... It will break my machines 😭

[alisson276]

I'm reopening my PR with the hope of I will be listened and this can be implemented in the boot scripts🙏

[jandubois]

I've added a comment to #287 that we should support both kinds of provisioning scripts: the ones we have right now, that run as part of cloud-init, and the new kind that would be triggered by the hostagent once the mounts are setup.

[afbjorklund]

Side note: EPEL needs to be enabled also for EL9, since it doesn't have "fuse-sshfs" in the regular repositories

dnf install epel-release epel-next-release

Separate issue, though.

Not convinced that modifying the standard config is a good thing, but...

---

Maybe config can be set up, to only install sshfs ? (from EPEL)

Or disable EPEL after install, but that will also block updates to sshfs

[AkihiroSuda]

Side note: EPEL needs to be enabled also for EL9, since it doesn't have "fuse-sshfs" in the regular repositories

dnf install epel-release epel-next-release

Separate issue, though.

Not convinced that modifying the standard config is a good thing, but...

Maybe config can be set up, to only install sshfs ? (from EPEL)

Or disable EPEL after install, but that will also block updates to sshfs

Please open a separate issue/PR

[AkihiroSuda]

Looks good but please squash commits (https://www.git-tower.com/learn/git/faq/git-squash)

[afbjorklund]

Please open a separate issue/PR

I thought the plan was to ignore CentOS Stream and use Rocky etc instead ?

Just wondered if it was OK to add third-party repos like this, to the config ?

Even if EPEL is a "special" PPA

[AkihiroSuda]

I thought the plan was to ignore CentOS Stream and use Rocky etc instead ?

We can unofficially support Stream (in another PR)

[AkihiroSuda]

Thanks

[alisson276]

Should I add the centos7.yaml?

[AkihiroSuda]

Should I add the centos7.yaml?

The file name should be like deprecated-centos-7.yaml or deprecated/centos-7.yaml

[AkihiroSuda]

Thanks

[afbjorklund]

@alisson276 do you think EPEL should be left enabled ? Or should the VM only have the OS repos ?

[alisson276]

@alisson276 do you think EPEL should be left enabled ? Or should the VM only have the OS repos ?

I don't see as a problem let it enabled. Most of the "good" packages come from there since EL, in general, has a more conservative approach, but I can set it to disable if you prefer. I can add a yum-config-manager --disable epel after installing fuse-sshfs

[afbjorklund]

I wasn't sure, that is why I asked. I recall having two different templates, one "centos" and one "epel"...

So was more wondering what VM users would expect ?

If it was up to me, I would probably have installed but disabled. And use it with --enablerepo

But I haven't used CentOS actively in years, either 🙂

[alisson276]

I wasn't sure, that is why I asked.

Just to be more conservative I've set to disabled epel right after installing fuse-sshfs. It can be enabled by the user anytime.

[AkihiroSuda]

New changes since you last viewed
Merge branch 'lima-vm:master' into master

Still LGTM but please remove this

[alisson276]

Still LGTM but please remove this

I think it's ok now.

[jandubois]

I think it's ok now.

No, it is not; it has other commits merged in, and then squashed, e.g. 45c98e7.

See also the merge conflicts in go.{mod,sum}.

I would recommend to rebase the PR on latest master

[alisson276]

No, it is not; it has other commits merged in, and then squashed, e.g. 45c98e7.

See also the merge conflicts in go.{mod,sum}.

I would recommend to rebase the PR on latest master

Sorry, I didn't check the "Files changed". I just rebased based on the upstream. Is this right now?

[AkihiroSuda]

Thanks