Build KaarPux on Amazon EC2

You can build KaarPux on Amazon EC2 by following the steps below.

Warning

Using Amazon EC2 will incur costs. Please note that the instructions here are given without any guarantees. See License.

Create an account on Amazon

If you do not already have an AWS account, you should start by creating one as described in: Setting Up with Amazon EC2

You do not need to Create Key Pair.

Configure your Amazon AWS account

Security Group

Create a Custom Security Group (see Amazon EC2 Security Groups for Linux Instances) which allows incoming SSH.

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Create a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) (see Create a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC))

Network Interface

Create an Elastic Network Interface (see Creating an Elastic Network Interface).

Either name the Elastic Network Interface KaarPux1, or put the name you choose in the EC2_NETWORK_INTERFACE_NAME configuration setting (see below).

Create boto3 configuration files

The KaarPux build system uses boto3 to access Amazon EC2 services.

You must create two files in your local home file system:

~/.aws/credentials:

[default]
# The access key for your AWS account
aws_access_key_id=<YOUR ACCESS KEY ID>

# The secret key for your AWS account
aws_secret_access_key=<YOUR SECRET KEY>

~/.aws/config:

[default]
# The default region when making requests
region=<REGION NAME>

Warning

Make sure you protect unwanted access to those files. They will allow unlimited access to your AWS account

Configure KaarPux for EC2

Generic information about configuration can be found in Configure KaarPux.

Run the configuration program:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_configure ${configuration_file_name} menuconfig

Under Build type select EC2.

In general, the defaults can be used, except as mentioned in Configure KaarPux.

Create file system images

Create file ssystem images for swap and downloads, as well as for the final KaarPux image:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} create_swap_img
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} create_downloads_img
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} create_target_img

The names and sizes of the images are defined in the configuration settings under Virtual host definitions.

SSH keys

To avoid using passwords, we connect with SSH using keys.

So, generate a SSH keypair:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} generate_ssh_key

The filenames used to store the SSH keypair are defined in configuration settings under Virtual host definitions. The default is ~/.ssh/id_kaarpux

You may also re-use an existing key or generate a new key with:

ssh-keygen <options>

Just make sure to specify the filename for the public key in Virtual host definitions.

Create a host disk image

The first (bootstrap) part of KaarPux is build using an existing GNU/Linux distribution as host.

To create a suitable host disk image:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} create_host_img

By default, this will use a Fedora cloud image to create an AMI (Amazon Machine Image) called host_<nn>

The defaults can be changed in the configuration under Virtual host definitions.

If, for some reason, you want to launch this host disk image in EC2, you can:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} launch_host

Download tarballs

Start the host created above and let it download all the source tarballs needed for building KaarPux:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} launch_download

This will start a download of source tarballs using the host created above.

Bootstrap KaarPux

Now you are ready bootstrap KaarPux:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} launch_build_bootstrap

This will use the host created above to create a minimal bootable version of KaarPux.

The AMI (Amazon Machine Image) created will by default have the name kx_<nn>, although this default can be changed in the configuration under Virtual host definitions.

If, for some reason, you want to launch this minimal version of KaarPux under KVM, you can:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} launch_kaarpux

Build the rest of KaarPux

The rest of KaarPux can now be build inside the bootstrapped KaarPux created above:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} launch_build_final

That’s it - you have now build KaarPux!!!

Next steps

Your can now launch the KaarPux disk image:

configuration_file_name=<configuration_file_name>
master/bin/kx_virtual ${configuration_file_name} launch_kaarpux

And connect to it using e.g.:

ssh <ip>