Mkosi

Basic Config [Distribution] Distribution=ubuntu [Output] Format=disk [Content] Packages= apt cloud-init dbus grub-efi-amd64-signed iproute2 linux-virtual netplan.io openssh-server openssl shim-signed ssh-import-id sudo systemd systemd-resolved udev vim Bootloader=grub ShimBootloader=signed BiosBootloader=none Bootable=true RootPassword=ubuntu KernelCommandLine=console=ttyS0 Hostname=ubuntu Then simply run mkosi. Boot the image Use this script (use –no-snapshot to make the changes persist): ./start-vm.sh ./image.raw To go further At the moment, mkosi only supports producing raw disk images. To convert the image to qcow2: qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 /tmp/image.raw /tmp/ubuntu.img And to make it (virtually) bigger: ...