---

title: AutoQEMU - automate installation and SSH setup of ISO OS images

date: 2021-02-07

updated_at: 2022-03-06

layout: post

lang: en

ref: autoqemu-automate-installation-and-ssh-setup-of-iso-os-images

video: true

---

After reading begriffs "[Tips for stable and portable software]", the
"Begriffs Buildfarm?" section caught my attention, as this is something I would
be interested in.

After emailing the author, a [public thread] began on the subject.

As we discussed how it could be done, I decided to experiment with the idea of
automating the setup of virtual environments with QEMU.

This screencast is a simple demo of automating the installation of
Alpine Linux 3.12.3 standard x86_64 with AutoQEMU[^AutoQEMU], which is nothing
more than POSIX sh, [expect] scripts and Makefiles glued together.

[^AutoQEMU]: The solution was a little too brittle to scale, and some
distributions proved to be particularly problematic.  I've [archived] my
progress if you're interested in what I've done, and maybe wish to continue.

As of this writing, I just worked on it for 2~3 days, so everything is still
pretty ad-hoc.

The commands from the screencast were[^script-command]:

[^script-command]: Only now, writing again what I ran on the screencast I thought that I should have tried something like [script](https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/script.1.html). Maybe next time (thanks [klaatu](https://gnuworldorder.info/) for the tip!).

```shell
pushd `mktemp -d`
git clone https://euandre.org/git/autoqemu .
make
make install PREFIX=$HOME/.local
autoqemu ssh alpine
```

It assumes that `$HOME/.local/bin` is in `$PATH`.

[Tips for stable and portable software]: https://begriffs.com/posts/2020-08-31-portable-stable-software.html
[public thread]: https://talk.begriffs.com/pipermail/friends/2021-February/001263.html
[archived]: https://euandre.org/static/attachments/autoqemu.tar.gz
[expect]: https://core.tcl-lang.org/expect/index