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README.md

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+Packer Arch
+===========
+
+Packer Arch is a bare bones [Packer](http://www.packer.io/) template and
+installation script that can be used to generate a [Vagrant](http://www.vagrantup.com/)
+base box for [Arch Linux](https://www.archlinux.org/). The template was
+designed specifically for use with the [VMware provider](http://www.vagrantup.com/vmware),
+although it shouldn't need too much tweaking to generate a VirtualBox VM.
+
+Overview
+--------
+
+My goal was to roughly duplicate the attributes from a
+[DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/) Arch Linux droplet:
+
+* 64-bit
+* 20 GB Disk
+* 512 MB Memory
+* Only a single /root partition
+* No swap
+* Includes the `base` and `base-devel` package groups
+* OpenSSH is also installed and enabled on boot
+
+The installation script follows the
+[official installation guide](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide)
+pretty closely, with a few tweaks to ensure functionality within a VM. Beyond
+that, the only customizations to the machine are related to the vagrant user
+and the steps recommended for any base box.
+
+Usage
+-----
+
+Assuming that you already have Packer, Vmware Fusion (or VMware Workstation),
+and Vagrant with the VMware provider installed, you should be good to clone
+this repo and go:
+
+    $ git clone https://github.com/elasticdog/packer-arch.git
+    $ cd packer-arch/
+    $ packer build arch-template.json
+
+Then you can import the generated box into Vagrant:
+
+    $ vagrant box add arch packer_vmware_vmware.box
+
+Known Issues
+------------
+
+The official VMware Tools do not currently support Arch Linux, and the
+[Open Virtual Machine Tools](http://open-vm-tools.sourceforge.net/)
+(open-vm-tools) require extensive patching in order to compile correctly
+with a Linux 3.10 series kernel. Thus, for the time being, I have not
+included support for the tools, which means that the shared folder feature
+will not work.
+
+When you run `vagrant up` to launch a VM based on this box, you will see the
+following error message (which is safe to ignore):
+
+> The HGFS kernel module was not found on the running virtual machine.
+> This must be installed for shared folders to work properly. Please
+> install the VMware tools within the guest and try again. Note that
+> the VMware tools installation will succeed even if HGFS fails
+> to properly install. Carefully read the output of the VMware tools
+> installation to verify the HGFS kernel modules were installed properly.
+
+License
+-------
+
+Packer Arch is provided under the terms of the
+[ISC License](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISC_license).
+
+Copyright © 2013, [Aaron Bull Schaefer](mailto:aaron@elasticdog.com).