ci(lima): automated nested-virt QEMU installation and boot verification

[mrbobbytables]

Resolves #115
Supersedes #113 (and resolves #111, #101)

Summary

Migrates the lima-e2e CI workflow from macos-latest to ubuntu-24.04 with nested virtualization and QEMU/KVM acceleration to resolve the VZ hostagent exit failure on Apple Silicon GitHub runners:

1. Configures the Lima template (.github/scripts/bluefin-lima-template.yaml) with vmType: qemu, arch: x86_64, and nestedVirtualization: true.
2. Updates .github/workflows/lima-e2e.yml to run on ubuntu-24.04 with KVM permissions (/dev/kvm), installs QEMU (qemu-system-x86, qemu-utils, ovmf) and Lima 2.2.0.
3. Provisions guest permissions for repository copying and automated unattended installation and target boot verification.
4. Updates unit test coverage in tests/unit/test_lima_template.py to validate vmType and arch schema definitions alongside limactl validate.

— hive: backend=copilot model=gemini-3.8-flash

🐝 Hive Agent: contributor | SHA: 0fa460f

[hanthor]

The move from macos-latest to ubuntu-24.04 with host KVM is the right call, and the --tty=false / limactl delete --force / cp -r fixes are all real. Four things before merge.

1. chmod -R 777 /home/ubuntu will likely break limactl shell

.github/scripts/bluefin-lima-template.yaml, mode: system provision:

mkdir -p /home/ubuntu/repo
chmod -R 777 /home/ubuntu 2>/dev/null || true

That recurses into /home/ubuntu/.ssh. With StrictModes yes (the sshd default), a world-writable home directory or authorized_keys makes sshd refuse public-key auth — and every limactl shell / limactl cp after this provision runs goes over ssh. The narrow form is what's actually needed:

install -d -o ubuntu -g ubuntu -m 0755 /home/ubuntu/repo

2. The KVM setup cannot fail

sudo modprobe kvm || true
sudo chown $(whoami) /dev/kvm 2>/dev/null || true
sudo chmod 666 /dev/kvm 2>/dev/null || true

All three swallow failure, so a runner without /dev/kvm proceeds and QEMU silently falls back to TCG. Against a 240-minute timeout and a double boot, that's a four-hour job that eventually fails for an unrelated-looking reason. Please assert instead:

test -e /dev/kvm || { echo "::error::/dev/kvm unavailable on this runner"; exit 1; }

and prefer sudo usermod -aG kvm "$USER" over chmod 666 on a device node.

3. Lima is downloaded unpinned while every action here is SHA-pinned

LIMA_VERSION="2.2.0"
curl -fsSL ".../lima-${LIMA_VERSION}-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz" | sudo tar -xz -C /usr/local

actions/checkout and taiki-e/install-action in this same file are pinned by commit SHA. Piping an unverified tarball straight into sudo tar -xz -C /usr/local is a weaker link than either. Please add a sha256sum -c against the published checksum.

4. The paths: filter misses the changes this job exists to catch

elements/installer/**
elements/oci/bluefin-server-installer.bst
elements/oci/bluefin-server-ddi.bst
files/installer/**

elements/bluefin-server/** and elements/flatcar/** are not listed, so this workflow will not run on #132 (rewrites os-stack.bst), #140 (adds flatcar-usr.bst) or #141 (adds three sysext elements) — the three open PRs most likely to change whether the image boots. A blanket elements/** plus project.conf would close that.

Worth doing here rather than later, because this PR is the one introducing the boot gate, and the Flatcar migration set is landing right behind it.

Sequencing

#113 is a strict subset of this PR — it carries the same two commits (7da3439, 9b192fd) and nothing else. Merging both into main conflicts on all four files. Suggest closing #113 in favour of this one; I've left a note there.

Verified locally on this branch: pytest tests/unit 214 passed / 1 xfailed, bats tests/unit 62 ok, docs-checks.py passed. I did not run the workflow itself — no KVM available here.

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