diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 577b9919..1e279dfc 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -37,7 +37,9 @@ Design
 Images are built using a chroot and bind mounted /proc /sys and /dev. The goal
 of the image building process is to produce blank slate machines that have all
 the necessary bits to fulfill a specific purpose in the running of an Openstack
-cloud: e.g. a nova-compute node.
+cloud: e.g. a nova-compute node. Images produce either a filesystem image with
+a label of cloudimg-rootfs, or can be customised to produce disk images (but
+will still contain a filesystem labelled cloudimg-rootfs).
 
 An element is a particular set of code that alters how the image is built, or
 runs within the chroot to prepare the image. E.g. the local-config element
diff --git a/bin/disk-image-create b/bin/disk-image-create
index dbafb151..9e76a36c 100755
--- a/bin/disk-image-create
+++ b/bin/disk-image-create
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ while true ; do
     esac
 done
 
-if [ "$CLEAR_ENV" == "1" -a "$HOME" != "" ]; then
+if [ "$CLEAR_ENV" = "1" -a "$HOME" != "" ]; then
   echo "Re-execing to clear environment."
   echo "(note this will prevent much of the local_config element from working)"
   exec -c $0 "$@"
diff --git a/elements/fedora/README.md b/elements/fedora/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4953b447
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/fedora/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Use Fedora cloud images as the baseline for built disk images.
diff --git a/elements/fedora/bin/install-packages b/elements/fedora/bin/install-packages
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..49d0b364
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/fedora/bin/install-packages
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+set -e
+
+yum -y install $(map-packages "$@")
+
diff --git a/elements/fedora/bin/map-packages b/elements/fedora/bin/map-packages
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..c08d56cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/fedora/bin/map-packages
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#!/bin/env python
+
+# Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
+# All Rights Reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+import sys
+
+# Manually maintained for brevity; consider making this compiled from
+# distromatch or other rich data sources.
+# Debian name on the left, Fedora on the right.
+package_map = {
+    'linux-image-generic': 'kernel',
+    'open-iscsi': 'iscsi-initiator-utils',
+    'vlan': 'vconfig',
+    }
+
+for arg in sys.argv[1:]:
+    print(package_map.get(arg, arg))
+sys.exit(0)
diff --git a/elements/fedora/pre-install.d/01-install-bin b/elements/fedora/pre-install.d/01-install-bin
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..555bc782
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/fedora/pre-install.d/01-install-bin
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+install -m 0755 -o root -g root $(dirname $0)/../bin/* /usr/local/bin
diff --git a/elements/fedora/pre-install.d/01-override-yum-arch b/elements/fedora/pre-install.d/01-override-yum-arch
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..bf0c6ed8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/fedora/pre-install.d/01-override-yum-arch
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+if [ "i386" = "$ARCH" ]; then
+  basearch=i386
+  arch=i686
+elif [ "amd64" = "$ARCH" ]; then
+  basearch=x86_64
+  arch=x86_64
+else
+  echo "********************"
+  echo "Unknown arch '$ARCH'"
+  echo "********************"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo $basearch > /etc/yum/vars/basearch
+echo $arch > /etc/yum/vars/arch
diff --git a/elements/fedora/root.d/10-fedora-cloud-image b/elements/fedora/root.d/10-fedora-cloud-image
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..cdfcb17a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/fedora/root.d/10-fedora-cloud-image
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+
+[ -n "$ARCH" ]
+[ -n "$TARGET_ROOT" ]
+
+if [ 'amd64' = "$ARCH" ] ; then
+  ARCH="x86_64"
+fi
+
+IMG_PATH=~/.cache/image-create
+CLOUD_IMAGES=${CLOUD_IMAGES:-http://mattdm.fedorapeople.org/cloud-images/}
+RELEASE=${RELEASE:-Fedora18}
+BASE_IMAGE_FILE=${BASE_IMAGE_FILE:-$RELEASE-Cloud-$ARCH-latest.raw.tar.xz}
+BASE_IMAGE_TAR=$RELEASE-Cloud-$ARCH-latest.tgz
+
+mkdir -p $IMG_PATH
+# TODO: don't cache forever.
+if [ ! -f $IMG_PATH/$BASE_IMAGE_FILE ] ; then
+   echo "Fetching Base Image"
+   wget $CLOUD_IMAGES/$BASE_IMAGE_FILE -O $IMG_PATH/$BASE_IMAGE_FILE.tmp
+   mv $IMG_PATH/$BASE_IMAGE_FILE.tmp $IMG_PATH/$BASE_IMAGE_FILE
+fi
+if [ ! -f $IMG_PATH/$BASE_IMAGE_TAR ] ; then
+    echo "Repacking base image as tarball."
+    WORKING=$(mktemp -d)
+    EACTION="rm -r $WORKING"
+    trap "$EACTION" EXIT
+    echo "Working in $WORKING"
+    tar -xJC $WORKING -f $IMG_PATH/$BASE_IMAGE_FILE
+    LOOPDEV=$(sudo losetup --show -r -f $WORKING/*.raw)
+    EACTION="sudo losetup -d $LOOPDEV;$EACTION"
+    trap "$EACTION" EXIT
+    sudo partprobe $LOOPDEV
+    mkdir $WORKING/mnt
+    sudo mount ${LOOPDEV}p2 $WORKING/mnt
+    EACTION="sudo umount -f $WORKING/mnt;$EACTION"
+    trap "$EACTION" EXIT
+    # Chroot in so that we get the correct uid/gid
+    sudo chroot $WORKING/mnt bin/tar -cz . > $WORKING/tmp.tar
+    mv $WORKING/tmp.tar $IMG_PATH/$BASE_IMAGE_TAR
+fi
+# Extract the base image
+sudo tar -C $TARGET_ROOT -xzf $IMG_PATH/$BASE_IMAGE_TAR
diff --git a/elements/vm/README.md b/elements/vm/README.md
index ecc8eaf6..5be135b5 100644
--- a/elements/vm/README.md
+++ b/elements/vm/README.md
@@ -1,2 +1,5 @@
 Sets up a partitioned disk (rather than building just one filesystem with no
 partition table).
+
+The disk will have grub[2]-install run on it, and that assumes a functional
+grub[2] setup.
diff --git a/elements/vm/install.d/51-grub b/elements/vm/install.d/51-grub
index e8d68728..636246e0 100755
--- a/elements/vm/install.d/51-grub
+++ b/elements/vm/install.d/51-grub
@@ -1,11 +1,32 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-# Configure grub
 
+# Configure grub. Note that the various conditionals here are to handle
+# different distributions gracefully.
 
 set -e
 
 # XXX: grub-probe on the nbd0 device returns nothing - workaround, manually
 # specify modules. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1073731
-grub-install --modules="biosdisk part_msdos" /dev/nbd0
-# XXX: Undiagnosed, but the LABEL=cloudimg-rootfs isn't being picked up: workaround it.
-sed -i 's%/dev/nbd0p1%LABEL=cloudimg-rootfs%' /boot/grub/grub.cfg
+GRUBNAME=`which grub-install` || echo "trying grub2-install"
+if [ -z "$GRUBNAME" ]; then
+    GRUBNAME=`which grub2-install`
+fi
+if [ -z "$GRUBNAME" ]; then
+    echo "NO grub-install or grub2-install found"
+    exit 1
+fi
+BOOT_DEV=/dev/nbd0
+PART_DEV=/dev/nbd0p1
+$GRUBNAME --modules="biosdisk part_msdos" $BOOT_DEV
+# This might be better factored out into a per-distro 'install-bootblock'
+# helper.
+if [ -f "/boot/grub/grub.cfg" ] ; then
+  GRUB_CFG=/boot/grub/grub.cfg
+elif [ -f "/boot/grub2/grub.cfg" ] ; then
+  GRUB_CFG=/boot/grub2/grub.cfg
+fi
+# grub-mkconfig generates a config with the device in it,
+# force use of a LABEL:
+# NOTE: Updating the grub config by hand once deployed should work, its just
+# prepping it in a different environment that needs fiddling.
+sed -i "s%$PART_DEV%LABEL=cloudimg-rootfs%" $GRUB_CFG
diff --git a/sudoers.d/img-build-sudoers b/sudoers.d/img-build-sudoers
index a2739c38..bd65d45e 100644
--- a/sudoers.d/img-build-sudoers
+++ b/sudoers.d/img-build-sudoers
@@ -43,3 +43,7 @@ ALL ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/unlink /tmp/*/mnt/*
 ALL ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /bin/cp -t /tmp/*/mnt/etc/ -a /tmp/*/hooks/first-boot.d
 ALL ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/install -m 0755 -o root -g root -D */dib-run-parts /tmp/*/mnt/usr/local/bin/dib-run-parts
 ALL ALL=(root) SETENV: NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/chroot /tmp/*/mnt *
+ALL ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /sbin/losetup --show -r -f /tmp/*/*.raw
+ALL ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /sbin/losetup -d /dev/loop*
+ALL ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /sbin/losetup -d /dev/loop*
+ALL ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /sbin/partprobe /dev/loop*