Our Ubuntu images have full apt support for installing packages. The packages are mirrored locally on our package mirror scratch.
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Full package mirror on scratch.
Currently, we do not have an elegant method to automatically update client scripts on custom Ubutnu images. This issue is important enough that you will want to update any Ubuntu images created before March 2, 2012. Two files need to be updated, dhclient-exit-hooks and findcnet. You should be able to copy and paste the commands below to easily update your image running on a testbed node. After that simply take a snapshot to update your image.
sudo curl --output /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-exit-hooks boss.isi.deterlab.net/downloads/client-update/Ubuntu1004-dhclient-exit-hooks sudo curl --output /usr/local/etc/emulab/findcnet boss.isi.deterlab.net/downloads/client-update/Ubuntu1004-findcnet sudo chmod a+rx /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-exit-hooks /usr/local/etc/emulab/findcnet sudo chown root:root /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-exit-hooks /usr/local/etc/emulab/findcnet
For example, I have my custom image loaded on pc031.
[jhickey@users ~]$ ssh pc031
Linux centos.jjh-centos.detertest.isi.deterlab.net 2.6.32-38-generic #83-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 4 11:13:04 UTC 2012 i686 GNU/Linux
Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS
Welcome to Ubuntu!
* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/
System information as of Mon Mar 12 16:00:28 PDT 2012
System load: 0.12 Processes: 135
Usage of /: 7.7% of 14.67GB Users logged in: 0
Memory usage: 1% IP address for eth1: 192.168.1.31
Swap usage: 0%
Graph this data and manage this system at https://landscape.canonical.com/
Last login: Mon Mar 12 16:00:03 2012 from users.isi.deterlab.net
ookskey@centos:~$ sudo curl --output /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-exit-hooks boss.isi.deterlab.net/downloads/client-update/Ubuntu1004-dhclient-exit-hooks
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
101 2943 101 2943 0 0 1573k 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 2874k
jhickey@centos:~$ sudo curl --output /usr/local/etc/emulab/findcnet boss.isi.deterlab.net/downloads/client-update/Ubuntu1004-findcnet
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
101 2331 101 2331 0 0 1300k 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 2276k
jhickey@centos:~$ sudo chmod a+rx /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-exit-hooks /usr/local/etc/emulab/findcnet
jhickey@centos:~$ sudo chown root:root /etc/dhcp3/dhclient-exit-hooks /usr/local/etc/emulab/findcnet
jhickey@centos:~$
Now the scripts are updated and I can take a snapshot.
Ubuntu 8.04. We will continue to upate this image as long as it is supported by Ubuntu.