diff --git a/.github/workflows/nix-build.yml b/.github/workflows/nix-build.yml
index 08c316bce..6674bad28 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/nix-build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/nix-build.yml
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ on:
     branches:
       - develop
       - release/*
+      - da/qemu*
   pull_request:
   workflow_dispatch:
 
diff --git a/Dockerfile-kubevirt b/Dockerfile-kubevirt
index c6b00b667..7cb749aed 100644
--- a/Dockerfile-kubevirt
+++ b/Dockerfile-kubevirt
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 FROM scratch
-ADD --chown=107:107 disk/focal.img /disk/focal.qcow2
+ADD --chown=107:107 output-cloudimg/packer-cloudimg /disk/focal.qcow2
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2f2db8785..411e94451 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-# TODO (darora): we can get rid of this once we're actually building nix things on this
-UPSTREAM_NIX_GIT_SHA := $(shell git rev-parse origin/release/15.6)
+UPSTREAM_NIX_GIT_SHA := $(shell git rev-parse HEAD)
 GIT_SHA := $(shell git describe --tags --always --dirty)
 
 init: qemu-arm64-nix.pkr.hcl
@@ -12,10 +11,7 @@ disk/focal-raw.img: output-cloudimg/packer-cloudimg
 	mkdir -p disk
 	sudo qemu-img convert -O raw output-cloudimg/packer-cloudimg disk/focal-raw.img
 
-disk/focal.img: output-cloudimg/packer-cloudimg
-	sudo qemu-img convert -O qcow2 output-cloudimg/packer-cloudimg disk/focal.img
-
-container-disk-image: disk/focal.img
+container-disk-image: output-cloudimg/packer-cloudimg
 	docker build . -t supabase-postgres-test:$(GIT_SHA) -f ./Dockerfile-kubevirt
 
 host-disk: disk/focal-raw.img
diff --git a/qemu-arm64-nix.pkr.hcl b/qemu-arm64-nix.pkr.hcl
index 6ba1120e4..01a0d164c 100644
--- a/qemu-arm64-nix.pkr.hcl
+++ b/qemu-arm64-nix.pkr.hcl
@@ -1,38 +1,8 @@
-variable "ami" {
-  type    = string
-  default = "ubuntu/images/hvm-ssd/ubuntu-focal-20.04-arm64-server-*"
-}
-
-variable "profile" {
-  type    = string
-  default = "${env("AWS_PROFILE")}"
-}
-
-variable "ami_name" {
-  type    = string
-  default = "supabase-postgres"
-}
-
-variable "ami_regions" {
-  type    = list(string)
-  default = ["ap-southeast-2"]
-}
-
 variable "ansible_arguments" {
   type    = string
   default = "--skip-tags install-postgrest,install-pgbouncer,install-supabase-internal"
 }
 
-variable "aws_access_key" {
-  type    = string
-  default = ""
-}
-
-variable "aws_secret_key" {
-  type    = string
-  default = ""
-}
-
 variable "environment" {
   type    = string
   default = "prod"
@@ -42,36 +12,6 @@ variable "git_sha" {
   type    = string
 }
 
-# variable "region" {
-#   type    = string
-# }
-
-variable "build-vol" {
-  type    = string
-  default = "xvdc"
-}
-
-# ccache docker image details
-variable "docker_user" {
-  type    = string
-  default = ""
-}
-
-variable "docker_passwd" {
-  type    = string
-  default = ""
-}
-
-variable "docker_image" {
-  type    = string
-  default = ""
-}
-
-variable "docker_image_tag" {
-  type    = string
-  default = "latest"
-}
-
 locals {
   creator = "packer"
 }
@@ -91,11 +31,6 @@ variable "packer-execution-id" {
   default = "unknown"
 }
 
-variable "force-deregister" {
-  type    = bool
-  default = false
-}
-
 packer {
   required_plugins {
     amazon = {
@@ -132,16 +67,12 @@ source "qemu" "cloudimg" {
   disk_image     = true
   disk_size      = "15G"
   format         = "qcow2"
-  # TODO (darora): disable backing image for qcow2
   headless       = true
   http_directory = "http"
   iso_checksum   = "file:https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/SHA256SUMS"
   iso_url        = "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/focal-server-cloudimg-arm64.img"
   memory         = 20000
   qemu_binary    = "qemu-system-aarch64"
-  qemu_img_args {
-    create = ["-F", "qcow2"]
-  }
   qemuargs = [
     ["-machine", "virt"],
     ["-cpu", "host"],
@@ -158,8 +89,8 @@ source "qemu" "cloudimg" {
   ssh_timeout            = "1h"
   ssh_username           = "ubuntu"
   ssh_wait_timeout       = "1h"
-  use_backing_file       = true
-  accelerator = "kvm"
+  use_backing_file       = false
+  accelerator            = "kvm"
 }
 
 build {