Linux virtual machine setup

Create a linux VM on windows 10 using hyper-v

view on github

Hyper-V configuration

  1. Create vhdx file :
    • 1MB BlockSizeBytes (from the default 32MB)
    • ext4 is more space efficient than ext3 when used with dynamic VHDX files
    • when creating the filesystem specify the number of groups to be 4096, for example : mkfs.ext4 -G 4096 /dev/sdX1 
New-VHD -Path C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual hard disks\localDebian.vhdx" -SizeBytes 127GB -Dynamic -BlockSizeBytes 1MB
  1. Set virtual machine options :
    • name : local-debian
    • generation 2
    • ram : 4096 Mo static
    • networking : use localSwitch
    • hard disk : C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual hard disks\local-debian.vhdx, 127GB
    • options :
      • disable secure boot
      • disable checkpoints
      • set 1 virtual processor
      • do nothing at host startup
      • save VM state at host shutdown

Debian VM configuration

  1. ISO install : debian-10.4.0-amd64-netinst.iso

  2. Machine settings :

    • language : english
    • location : france
    • locales : en_US.UTF-8
    • keymap : french
    • hostname : local-debian
    • domain name : n/a
    • root password : n/a
    • default user full name : Local Debian Admin
    • default user username : administrator
    • default user password : password
    • guided partitioning, use entire disk, all files in one partition :
    • Write partition tables for the following devices :
        SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) - 136.4 GB Msft Virtual Disk
    • Format following partitions :
        PARTITION    SIZE                TYPE            MOUNT POINT
    
                    1.0 MB             FREE SPACE
    1             536.9 MB    B  f   ESP             /boot/efi
    2             131.5 GB       f   ext4            /
    3             4.3 GB         f   swap            swap (not mounted)
                    1.0 MB             FREE SPACE
    • apt config : france, deb.debian.org, no proxy, dpkg-reconfigure popularity-contest : yes
    • additional software : SSH server, standard system utilities

  3. Common packages :

curl nmap net-tools tmux vim vim-common vim-runtime tree bash-completion man-db jq lsb-release sysstat iftop iotop procps unzip gnupg2 psmisc cowsay cowsay-off display-dhammapada time gmemusageapt-rdepends
  1. Optional packages :
shellcheck ffmpeg apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg-agent software-properties-common busybox salt-minion python3-setuptools

Default user

  • user full name : Fredy FUMIER
  • user username : fredyfumier
  • user username : password

SSH commands

# copy SSH public key to remote SSH server :
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub fredyfumier@192.168.1.18    

# copy file to remote SSH server :
scp ~/test.txt fredyfumier@192.168.1.18:/home/fredyfumier/test.txt.copied

Devices and partitioning

  1. Setup a new device :

    New-VHD -Path "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual hard disks\external.vhdx" -SizeBytes 5GB -Dynamic -BlockSizeBytes 1MB
    • the new device will be recognized as /dev/sdb at startup : sudo less /var/log/kern.log

  2. Partition a new device :

    • sudo fdisk /dev/sdb : F (list unpartitioned space)
    Unpartitioned space /dev/sdb: 5 GiB, 5367660544 bytes, 10483712 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
Start      End  Sectors Size
2048 10485759 10483712   5G
    • sudo fdisk /dev/sdb : g (create a new empty GPT partition table)
    • sudo fdisk /dev/sdb : n (add a new partition)
    • sudo fdisk /dev/sdb : n (add a new partition)
      • label: gpt
      • label-id: B381E8D3-E992-7640-BC15-73FDBE2FC82C
      • device: /dev/sdb
      • unit: sectors
      • first-lba: 2048
      • last-lba: 10485726
    PARTITION    FIRST SECTOR        SIZE               TYPE UUID (Linux filesystem)                      UUID

/dev/sdb1 : start=        2048, size=     5240816, type=0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4, uuid=72B193C1-07F7-BC47-9F47-BB2D900825DE
/dev/sdb2 : start=     5242880, size=     5242847, type=0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4, uuid=F888B7B6-8588-1E4D-A0EA-36E466BF2D48

  3. Create ext4 file systems for the new partitions :

    • sudo mkfs.ext4 -cv -E root_owner=0:0 -U random /dev/sdb1
    • sudo mkfs.ext4 -cv -E root_owner=0:0 -U random /dev/sdb2
    • root owns the new file systems root directories

  4. Mount new filesystems at specific mount points in host file hierarchy (!!! USE LOWER CASE FILESYSTEM UUIDS !!!) :

    • sudo mount -vt ext4 -U 3b042371-27f8-4b08-96cd-ec2995df0cf6 /external/disk1
    • sudo mount -vt ext4 -U 5f7ee3e9-0d03-4fd4-93fb-8646c873a007 /external/disk2
    • USE LOWER CASE FILESYSTEM UUIDS !

  5. Unmount file systems :

    • sudo umount /external/disk1
    • sudo umount /external/disk2