debian-debootstrap-vm

Recipe card from the charly-vm plugin (Kinds — schema authoring).

debian (VM)

source.kind: bootstrap VM that builds a Debian rootfs from scratch via debootstrap (using /charly-distros:debian-debootstrap-builder), then boots it under libvirt/QEMU.

The debian-debootstrap VM entity and its check-debian-debootstrap-vm disposable test bed live in the opencharly/distro-debian repo (git submodule at box/debian), all in that repo’s unified charly.yml. The bed is a disposable: true deploy (a check bed is just a deploy carrying disposable: true — there is no separate bed kind), driven by charly check run check-debian-debootstrap-vm. Drive the VM lifecycle from the submodule: charly -C box/debian vm build debian-debootstrap + charly -C box/debian vm create debian-debootstrap (or charly --repo opencharly/distro-debian …).

VM Configuration (from box/debian/charly.yml)

Setting	Value
Source	kind: bootstrap, builder: debootstrap, builder_image: debian-debootstrap-builder
Distro	debian
rootfs	ext4
Disk / RAM / CPU	20G / 4G / 2
Machine / firmware	q35 / uefi-insecure
Network	user mode
SSH	user debian, port 12227, key_source generate

The debian distro config (debootstrap suite/mirror, base packages, bootloader template) comes from the embedded distro: build vocabulary baked into the charly binary, which the unified loader makes available to the submodule’s charly.yml automatically — no explicit import needed.

Check bed

check-debian-debootstrap-vm is a disposable: true deploy (vm: {from: debian-debootstrap, disposable: true}), so charly -C box/debian check run check-debian-debootstrap-vm runs the full R10 sequence unattended (the equivalent charly update check-debian-debootstrap-vm rebuild also works, since the bundle is folded into the Bundle map).

debootstrap path

charly vm build debian-debootstrap runs debootstrap inside the privileged debian-debootstrap-builder to build the rootfs, then writes a bootable disk + cloud-init seed ISO. The bootstrap path is privileged + network-heavy (debootstrap downloads the base packages from the Debian mirror). The Docker-Hub /charly-distros:debian container base remains the faster path when you don’t need a VM disk.

Cross-References

• /charly-distros:debian-debootstrap-builder — the builder image this VM uses
• /charly-distros:debian-debootstrap — the container equivalent of this bootstrap path
• /charly-vm:ubuntu-debootstrap-vm — the Ubuntu sibling bootstrap VM
• /charly-vm:arch-cloud-vm — the canonical cloud_image VM (BIOS/virtio-gpu/sizing rationale)
• /charly-vm:vm — VM lifecycle commands + BIOS/UEFI matrix
• /charly-vm:vms-catalog — VmSpec authoring reference

When to Use This Skill

MUST be invoked when editing debian-debootstrap or its check bed, or authoring a Debian VM. Invoke BEFORE reading source code or launching Explore agents.