Feature Request: Add Rocky Linux box

[decoyjoe]

It would be nice to have a box available from the Red Hat family of Linux distributions (Ubuntu is already provided from the Debian family).

Rocky Linux seems the obvious choice as the industry default for a free RHEL-compatible Linux distribution.

[gusztavvargadr]

@decoyjoe thanks for reaching out, much appreciated.

I really like new feature requests, as it shows that people see value in the work I do, and I am glad to contribute back to the community that I've learned so much from earlier.

However, since this is "only" a pet project that I do besides regular work, I have somewhat limited time to implement these. Also, providing the regular updates cost significant time and money, especially if the number of boxes to maintain increases. As such, I usually cannot promise any timelines, and new boxes or providers sometimes can take several months to implement.

On the other hand, I am considering moving parts of this project or added services on top of it to a more professional setup. Besides opening up donations, I consider providing private images for paying customers with regular and reliable updates and support.

If you are interested in such an approach and have e.g. an employer who is willing to support such an increased value service I would be very grateful and open to discuss options. I would be very glad to support more options if it would be a bit safer to me as well to finance them. Please reach out at my business address if interested.

[decoyjoe]

Totally understandable, we all only have so many hours in a day.

I'd be willing to help by contributing this box myself if you can give me some general guidance on the process.

[gusztavvargadr]

@decoyjoe thanks very much. I am in the process of upgrading the repo to Packer's HCL2 format, I suggest new contributions after that, as the process of adding new boxes will be very different and a lot simpler than it is now. I will keep you posted.

Just curious, any reason why the official images are not suitable for your purpose? Just curious about your use case.

[decoyjoe]

The main driver for the request was that your boxes are the only ones that are both regularly updated and provide a Hyper-V image.

[jonathanspw]

It will make sense to add both Rocky and Alma.

[gusztavvargadr]

@jonathanspw thanks for the suggestion. I will try my best to extend the available images in this repo as soon as possible. Please allow me to recommend my professional services as well here if timing is important or if additional services are needed:

Tip

Are you interested in more images and providers or deployments of custom environments based on them?

The following services are also available on-demand in a professional setting:

• Custom images with additional virtualization and cloud providers
• Custom build schedules with new versions published as soon as the official updates are available
• Custom environments like build agent pools, test matrices and deployment targets based on the images

Please reach out at [email protected] for more details.