// project

Digitalocean Builder

v1.0 tool

A single script that builds a custom Arch Linux image for DigitalOcean.

Overview

Digitalocean_builder is a single script that builds a bootable Arch Linux disk image, ready to upload straight into DigitalOcean’s custom image import — no intermediate droplet, no conversion step.

The image ships lean — sshd, haveged, base-devel, git, and the packages needed for disk resizing, DNS pointed at 8.8.8.8, and DigitalOcean’s own sync tooling installed so networking configures itself. On first boot it resizes to fill the disk, then regenerates fresh SSH host keys and a unique machine ID rather than cloning whatever was baked into the image.

Run the script as root with an output filename and it produces both a raw image and a gzip-compressed copy, ready to upload to DigitalOcean directly. Access afterward is SSH-key-only — there’s no password login on first boot.

  • Custom image — Builds a bootable Arch Linux disk image sized for DigitalOcean's custom image import.
  • First-boot setup — Resizes to the full disk, then regenerates SSH host keys and the machine ID.
  • DO networking — Ships with DigitalOcean's own sync tooling pre-installed, so networking just works.
  • SSH-key only — No password login.

Why

The existing workaround for Arch on DigitalOcean was converting a Debian droplet after the fact. DigitalOcean’s custom image import made it possible to skip that entirely and just build the image directly — faster, and a lot less fragile.

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